"Combined Insurance Company"? Pushy "hard sell" sales tactics?

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Re: Advice on "Combined Insurance Company"? Pushy "hard sell" sales tactics?

cindilu said:
Hello,

My husband is self-employed and is in his late 40's. We took out two policies with Combined Insurance which pays him if he has a long term illness or is in the hospital for a long time. We thought this was a good idea a few years ago but since then the reps come back every six months or so trying to sell us more insurance that we don't think we need and don't want. Sometimes it seems that they are using scare tactics to encourage us to sign up for more insurance.

Has anyone had any good/bad experiences with this company? Any advice or recommendations on other companies?

My biggest pet peeve with them so far is that they told us we could write the insurance off as a business expense so we bought the insurance then our accountant said we could not write it off.

I would love to get something comparable with another company if the price is right.
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The reps come back to review your coverage and, if it's not complete, to discuss the weak parts of your coverage. It's their responsibility. If they show you a section that you don't have, then you say "no," then it's not there fault that you aren't protected. If you're happy with the current coverage, and don't wish to have an agent address your needs in the future, call customer service, tell them you're very dissatisfied with the way they've handled yourself, and you're happy with your current coverage, and do not wish for agents to visit you in the future. Throw a few swears in there and say it in an angry manor, and they should place you on the "do not visit" list.

To find something dollar-for-dollar comparable with another company is quite difficult. I would recommend a company that's similar to us, except they visit there client very seldom, but they don't exist in Europe.
 
Re: Advice on "Combined Insurance Company"?

Brendan said:
I seem to remember some years ago that the Annual REport on insurance showed that their claims to premium ratio was ridiculously low, something like 20%.

Brendan
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Sounds like a load of <bad language removed by moderator>. But, I don't know, maybe it did used to be...doubt it, but maybe. Now it's way higher, better than most, I think
 
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Re: Advice on "Combined Insurance Company"? Pushy "hard sell" sales tactics?

... deleted ...

The main problem I see with his posts is that it is unlikely he has any first-hand information about the role of the Financial Regulator here, cooling off periods for direct sales, European / Irish consumer protection legislation, etc.
 
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Re: Advice on "Combined Insurance Company"? Pushy "hard sell" sales tactics?

A guy from this crowd knocked on my door at 8pm last night, looking to speak to the man that used to own my house (now deceased).

This chap basically barged his way in, which was actually a little scary as my husband was out and I have 2 small kids, one of which was beside me.

He gave me the spiel....talked fast and incessantly and throwing figures and numbers out. Eventually,when he did let me talk I explained that I work for a broker and knew all about this crowd and their claims.

He showed me the regulator report which showed they payout about 5 times what AIG etc pay out per year.

After I insisted that I didnt want any cover, nor did anyone I know he asked me would I tell him which houses on the road had young families or if I had any friends which he could have the addresses of. This guy was really pushing so I asked him to leave asap.

He ran out the door but I was left feeling that if I hadnt have known anything about insurance etc that he would have badgered me into signing up for one of these things.

Basically my advice too is to shut the door then minute they start speaking !
 
Re: Advice on "Combined Insurance Company"? Pushy "hard sell" sales tactics?

Hi Lulu,

If you are involved in or associated with the business you need to declare your interest.

aj
moderator
 
Re: Advice on "Combined Insurance Company"? Pushy "hard sell" sales tactics?

I am heading into their offices today to make a formal complaint.
One of their staff called me yesterday (SUNDAY!!) to inform me that he would be out my way this week doing customer care calls and which day would suit.

I believe there is some way you can have your stored details removed from a companies database. Anybody know how you do it?
 
You can have your name added to the National Directory Database Opt-Out Register - [broken link removed] on how to do it.
 
Re: Advice on "Combined Insurance Company"? Pushy "hard sell" sales tactics?

martinf said:
I believe there is some way you can have your stored details removed from a companies database. Anybody know how you do it?
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[broken link removed]
 
I have just had a visit from representatives from this company.
A man and woman rang the doorbell. They introduced themselves but when I asked their business the woman told me that if they could step inside they would tell me.

Foolishly I let them in (as they could have been anyone). They then gave me the spiel , showing me a list of names of other people in the locality who had signed up. They then showed me a form to fill in. I remained non commital and they eventually left. I found the whole process suspicious and looked them up on the internet and found this post.

Three questions:
1. Were they breaking rules by not identify their business before inviting themselves inside?
2. If so, to whom can I complain?
3. Are they likely to return at some other time when my wife might be on her own and imply that I had in some way made a commitment?
 
I'm not a local so I wouldn't know that many people. The names were like Seán McCarthy but there's a lot of them around here. I did not ask them for identification, as I should have, so it would be difficult to make a complaint without the individuals' names.
 
Re: Advice on "Combined Insurance Company"? Pushy "hard sell" sales tactics?

Lulu123 said:
A guy from this crowd knocked on my door at 8pm last night, looking to speak to the man that used to own my house (now deceased).

This chap basically barged his way in, which was actually a little scary as my husband was out and I have 2 small kids, one of which was beside me.

He gave me the spiel....talked fast and incessantly and throwing figures and numbers out. Eventually,when he did let me talk I explained that I work for a broker and knew all about this crowd and their claims.

He showed me the regulator report which showed they payout about 5 times what AIG etc pay out per year.

After I insisted that I didnt want any cover, nor did anyone I know he asked me would I tell him which houses on the road had young families or if I had any friends which he could have the addresses of. This guy was really pushing so I asked him to leave asap.

He ran out the door but I was left feeling that if I hadnt have known anything about insurance etc that he would have badgered me into signing up for one of these things.

Basically my advice too is to shut the door then minute they start speaking !
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+1

I was googling this company as I had a visit from a young female sales rep yesterday, which left me perplexed as to their incredibly pushy sales technique and more than a little annoyed at the hard sell.

Basically, this girl rang the door, said she worked for Combined and asked had I heard about them before. When I said no, she asked could she go through what they were with me. Next thing I knew she was in my hall, commenting on toys in the front room (asking about my daughter) and walking toward my kitchen. At NO STAGE did I invite her in. Foolishly I should have just kicked her out, but let her prattle on about Accident Insurance, talk about the neighbour's son who lsot the tip of a finger (how true this is I don't know) and then got rid of her. Not before she offered to come back that evening.

I've no gripe with people going door-to-door; I'm well capable of listening to a speel and getting shot of them, but to basically PUSH her way in.

Is there any recourse to complaint? Is it not trespass if she hasn't been invited in or asked my permission to enter my house?

I feel foolish even asking - I should have just turfed her out, I know!
 
Hi All! Just a quick note with some facts to clear things up about CICE (Combined Insurance) - coming from a former customer care agent:

- CICE is a Chicago based health BENEFIT insurance company (not traditional healthcare such as VHI etc.) that was recently spun-off from AON and currently belongs to ACE.
- Its policies largely represent the type of American insurance models that Obama is currently trying to change against the odds of huge resistance from these huge multinationals and their powerful lobbies
- CICE (formerly known as CICI) was set up in Ireland in 1976 and agents from 2 divisions - the health and the accident divisions, started selling policies door-to-door / cold calling
- the former sold so-called Full and HIP (hospital income) cover, each costing only a couple of quid and easy to sell
- the latter sold so called health care i.e. SIP (sickness income), SHIP (sickness hospitalization) and CRIP (critical "5") policies
- these latter policies are still sold today of which the Sickness Income policy is probably the only one that is any good at all, as it pays you money if you are sick at home in any way
- The accident policies today are called accident disability policy (ADP) and accident hospitalization (AHBP)
- premiums for both types are steadily on the rise and are also index-linked

Now to the organisation and their methods:

Basically the company founder, W. Clement Stone, believed in the pyramid and snowballing business model.

- CICE managers recruit unqualified people from the street through local ads and after a brief rudimentary training send them (completely reliant on their own means of transport) out to cold call door to door (often in accompaniment of an SAR) and so impersonate qualified multi-agency intermediaries, authorized advisors and ultimately insurance brokers.
- Each greenhorn and unqualified agent then is sent the same battery of bills and threats coming from the ICCL (investor compensation Ireland) that brokers have to pay in order to practice their fully qualified professions.

- The pyramid system works in the following way: the agents are so-called ARs or area representatives, that report to SARs or senior area reps, that report to DARs or district area reps, that in turn report to the RAR or main regional rep.
- the more premiums the smaller agents bring in, the more the higher level managers get paid boni by the company and so the knock on goes up the ladder...
- If an AR sells €5000 worth of premium in a given six monthly period, his SAR will receive a bonus of €15000. The AR him/herself receives nothing except approx. 100% commission i.e. €5000 in six months work.
- The ARs only receive commission and no basic salary, which explains the aggressive nature of their behavior to sell, by getting foot in the door of each house.
- An average AR clocks up approx. €200 of overheads and expenses per week through driving around designated areas trying to sell, and on average earns about €400 through comm. leaving approx. €200 to live on, of which he or she has to declare (-+ 20%) to the collector general at EOY
- CICE keep a so-called "retention account" for each AR where they "retain" some of AR's earnings just in case the AR runs off with customer premiums
- The promise of paying out what each AR is due from the retention account is rarely upheld as it is a so-called "legitimate" way for CICE to rope back in expenses incurred through reps wages.
- There is a high turn-over amongst reps as many leave as soon as they see through all the lies and promises of exorbitant earnings (coming from the managers desperate to recruit and so receive their boni).

So that's about the size of it with CICE.

Feel free to post me any questions if you are a customer and worried about your CICE policies.

I would be glad to be of assistance

Regards,

Gabbi

Oh, and I forgot to mention that CICE forbids the ARs (threatening them with "zero tolerance") to sell to members of other socio-ethnic or economic groups such as from the immigrant or Travelling community...

If you are being hounded by the reps you can call HQ in Merrion Road Dublin at 012696522 and demand that your address be taken from the call list.
 
Gabbi said:
Oh, and I forgot to mention that CICE forbids the ARs (threatening them with "zero tolerance") to sell to members of other socio-ethnic or economic groups such as from the immigrant or Travelling community...
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Do you have this in writing?
 
dabombxx said:
How did this go?????
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The uninterested young lady behind the counter claimed that the reps are self employed and she has no control over them.
I asked WHO had control and she said their District Rep does.
I requested the number of the district rep who was in charge of my area and she refused point blank.
Saying it was a personal number!!
If the person is in business, surely they should have a public line?

The service from that company is a joke.
 
A bloke came up to me last night outside my house and flashed ID from this crowd.
Said he was in talking to my neighbours and they told him to come down and have a quick chat (which is total "" because I asked them this morning and they never seen the guy before).
He started fishing for information in my driveway, checking out the van and giving it the aul "So are you still in the decorating business? How's things going?" ...etc

I told him I wasnt interested and he said it's free to look at it so I left him in the drive and brought my cup of coffee out (my tools were drying off out there anyway). He gave me the whole inside story in the most cheesy, game show host way you could imagine and I challenged him on everything he said.

Why are you going door to door? Why no adverts in the paper, tv, radio??

In the end he got a bit too big for his boots and literally called me a bad parent for not wanting to protect my daughter financially.
At that stage I told him there was two ways he could leave my property.

He didnt choose the slap of a hammer.

These guys are mickey mouse and I am going to avoid them.
 
I have worked for this company and my best advice is stay well clear and go elsewhere the more you buy the more sales people you will have at your door from combined. also the reason i left is i tried to claim myself and had numerous problems and never received payment they will do anything they can to get out of paying and will constantly hastle you at all hours. Go Elsewhere,.
 
I used to work for the company and left becuase of there bully boy tatics stay well clear they dont pay out
 
Hi I'm new here but I'll had my experience so far with Combined Insurance..

Some years ago I activated accident & health policies. I'm self employed so I figured it made sense to have some income in the event of an accident or severe illness.

Anyway, in June this year I suffered a quite severe neck injury & am unable to do my job as a result. So I filled in the claim form & sent it back to them at the beginning of last month. I made several telephone queries as to the progress of my claim & was told that it would be sorted out within 20 days of their receipt of the claim form.....

Today I received a letter from them which I assumed was a cheque. It was however, a letter telling me that my GP hadn't ticked one of the boxes on the original form I'd sent in & that this would need to be rectified before the claim could proceed. So I rang them & asked exactly where the mistake was & not wanting to assume anything I asked how long it would now take to rectify this very small error & proceed with the claim........ I was told another 20 working days.

I then explained that I felt this was very unreasonable but was told quite abruptly that this was the way these things were handled & that I'd just have to go to the back of the queue like everybody else. I explained that this was a ridiculous amount of time to sort something so simple & was told again very abrubtly that this was their system.

I went on to explain that when their sales rep took a cheque from me in my kitchen that one of the questions I'd asked him was the timescale in procesing claims & had been told 'immediately'. I was told that she couldn't account for the statements of their reps or words to that effect.

I explained that I found this to be a very quite frankly suspicious state of affairs. I also added that I was very unused to being spoken to as a long time customer in such an abrubt manner. I mentioned the Insurance Ombudsman & am considering going down that, or the legal route.. I'll keep you all informed as there seems to be some varying opinions on here about their form so you'll hear it from the horses mouth from here on in.
 
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