Europa Bike insurance.

[jaca2865]

You cannot officially start with the Insurance Ombudsman until you have exhausted the insurer’s (or in this case their agent’s) own complaints procedures. I am not sure that being unable to contact Europa qualifies as exhaustion, but you never know. Anyway, you’ve lodged the complaint, so let’s see what happens next.

The complaints procedure should be in the blurb you receicived. Failing that, here it is from Europa’s website:

Europa Bike Insurance

www.europabike.co.uk

View attachment 313269

View attachment 313270


Have you tried:

1. Going through the ‘Customer Portal’?

2. Emailing them, at the address given?

The failure to get through on the phone is very strange, not least as every indication (at least on the internet) is that they are still live and trading.

Just as one idea, try calling their new business telephone number. Who knows, they may connect you with the existing business department. At least that way you’ll be in.

The chap in the FCA shared that with me but given the lack of contact from Europa despite all my efforts, he took my case which they will use to make the complaint to Europa on my behalf - very decent of them! I've sent over all my docs already!!

The Customer Portal is the one that says "Oops somethings gone wrong" when I tried to make the change and emails are bouncing back as undeliverable to all their addresses tried. I've even used a compliance team address.

Onwards and upwards

J

 

[jaca2865]

OK, so we now know that the broker (Europa) has not made the change or, at least has not updated the Motor Insurers’ database. One step forwards, half a step backwards.

Xacly

 

[Wapping]

The chap in the FCA shared that with me but given the lack of contact from Europa despite all my efforts, he took my case which they will use to make the complaint to Europa on my behalf - very decent of them! I've sent over all my docs already!!

The Customer Portal is the one that says "Oops somethings gone wrong" when I tried to make the change and emails are bouncing back as undeliverable to all their addresses tried. I've even used a compliance team address.

Onwards and upwards

J

OK, well that is one bit of good news.

The Insurance Ombudsman is ‘on-side’ with Joe Public, trust me. Likewise insurers and their agents do, more often than not, run scared of them. Let’s see what happens next.

 

[Neil W]

Had dealings with a couple of similar companies when in the job , every number including our direct Police contact numbers did not work or was not answered although oddly enough you could usually get them by ringing to get a quote for new business

 

[Wapping]

Let us know how it pans out, please.

 

[jaca2865]

Hey wapping

Success!!

I finally used the ‘want to leave company’ option on the telephone line and spoke to a human.

She gave me a fair hearing and made the change. Simples!! She also lodged an internal complaint.

Thank you and all on here for advice and steer. Much appreciated.

Jim

 

[Wapping]

Excellent.

Don’t forget to call the Ombudsman off.

Richard

 

[jaca2865]

Willdo although the general malaise by europa bike needs addressing

 

[Wapping]

Indeed. A point that you might like the Ombudsman to take onboard.

 

[mamela]

Just want to add to this that the exact same thing has happened to me after my policy was transferred from AA.

I just want to update my details as I passed my full license and want to get rid of my L plates and also want to apply for pillion insurance but I can't get in touch with the company at all. Super shocking that in this day and age we still have insurance companies like this that make it near impossible to get in touch with them. Surely it's illegal to operate an insurance company like this? The worst part is the website told me to contact the complaints department at [email protected] if I have a complaint and gmail returns a "email address does not exist" error. Shocking!

I've already left a scathing Tustpilot review but thanks for the info above I am going to see if I can get in touch with them the same way.

 

[mamela]

Also forgot to ask - what was the telephone number you called? I can't find a telephone number anywhere for them

 

[jaca2865]

The number is 0344 335 2931 and take the option: “I’m thinking of leaving” and you’ll get a human - or at least I did.

Good luck.

Jim

 

[mamela]

The number is 0344 335 2931 and take the option: “I’m thinking of leaving” and you’ll get a human - or at least I did.

Good luck.

Jim

Amazing thanks so much will give this a shot!

 

[jaca2865]

My pleasure. Let us know how it goes.

 

[mamela]

My pleasure. Let us know how it goes.

Been on hold for 20 minutes now but I've got it on speaker in the background while I work so hopefully I can get through before losing my mind from hearing cheap telemarketing versions of U2 - Beautiful day and Kylie Minogue - Can't get you out of my head on repeat for hours

 

[jaca2865]

Oh dear. Deja vue.

I called 1715hrs so might help!

 

[mamela]

Oh dear. Deja vue.

I called 1715hrs so might help!

Finally got through to them and it's ended up with me being even more frustrated now.

1. I asked to amend my policy to reflect I have a full license and also I would like to add Pillion insurance
2. She said that shouldn't be a problem
3. Was then told they don't offer Pillion insurance which is fine
4. Then they told me they can't amend my policy because it ends in 6 weeks
5. I then asked if I can remove my L plates from my bike would and would that void my insurance to which she asked me to go on hold again
6. I sat on hold for a further 15 minutes while she contacted the insurance underwriter
7. She then came back told me that the underwriter has said that they would have to cancel my insurance policy because my details have changed from original contract which has caused the contract to become invalid
8. I then asked her how it's possible that something as simple as passing my license has voided my entire insurance contract as surely it's as simple as amending details and paying extra?
9. To which she recited her call centre script in a very rude manner saying "when you enter a contract you have to ensure that all details submitted are correct blah blah blah"
10. She then told me having my insurance cancelled will also void my 1 year no claims because too!

So now I am in an even worse situation where I might have my insurance policy cancelled which apparently causes MAJOR issues when trying to get insured in the future as well as losing my 1 year no claims from having a flawless year of riding

Just one of those days I guess ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[jaca2865]

That cannot be right.

I raised a complaint with FCA and would suggest you do the same.

By their very nature, motor vehicle insurances are drawn up to reflect dependencies and interim changes, which they themselves refer to in offering the ‘change’ facility - and charge you for.

So, to take you off cover simply because of a change option, sounds wrong.

The very nature of this type of insurance means changes will happen, that’s why we use it.

Have you looked at a dummy quote for the renewal in 6 weeks. I did and have found Bennett’s will be substantially less.

Also, make sure you’ve clicked the option NOT TO AUTOMATICALLY RENEW YOUR POLICY.

Finally, have you tried the customer portal to make your changes, although I doubt you’ll get that now as I suspect they’ve put ‘flags’ on your profile/policy. As I said a few posts ago europa bike are a SHOWER OF ABSOLUTE BASTARDS!!

Jim

 

[mamela]

That cannot be right.

I raised a complaint with FCA and would suggest you do the same.

By their very nature, motor vehicle insurances are drawn up to reflect dependencies and interim changes, which they themselves refer to in offering the ‘change’ facility - and charge you for.

So, to take you off cover simply because of a change option, sounds wrong.

The very nature of this type of insurance means changes will happen, that’s why we use it.

Have you looked at a dummy quote for the renewal in 6 weeks. I did and have found Bennett’s will be substantially less.

Also, make sure you’ve clicked the option NOT TO AUTOMATICALLY RENEW YOUR POLICY.

Finally, have you tried the customer portal to make your changes, although I doubt you’ll get that now as I suspect they’ve put ‘flags’ on your profile/policy. As I said a few posts ago europa bike are a SHOWER OF ABSOLUTE BASTARDS!!

Jim

Thanks for the advice Jim!

I've already raised a complaint for them being uncontactable and the situation I was in earlier. I cancelled the auto-renew policy through their portal plus made sure the agent on the phone confirmed that the auto-renew was cancelled so I won't be giving them any more money (thank god). I might sell my bike within the 6 weeks though to buy myself a BMW F800 ST for a European tour I'm planning so I don't think I'll get the dummy quote just yet.

I'll wait for them to make the next move on this as they said they would contact me to confirm the cancellation so I think this might just be a case of the first-level customer support employee being clueless (both on Europa Bike and the under-writer side) so hopefully they get their act together and apologise instead of cancelling but we'll see.

I'll let you know what happens and thank god for this forum post otherwise I would have been truly stuck!

Edit: forgot to mention that I tried making the change in their portal but just get a generic error which seems to be their website's main response to any action

 

[Wapping]

Super shocking that in this day and age we still have insurance companies

Euro whatever they are called are NOT an insurance company. They are (at best) an insurance broker, but that is stretching it a bit. More accurately, they are an intermediary of sorts or, more accurately agsin, a bucket shop staffed by chimps.

Complain to the Ombudsman.