With impacts of the Auckland Anniversary floods and Cyclone Gabrielle still being felt, Fair Go has heard a number of complaints about the insurance process moving slowly.
The very first step in that process is getting through to the insurance company in order to make a claim.
To test how long that took, each Fair Go reporter called one insurance company and recorded how long it was before someone answered the phone. AA, Vero, Tower, AMI, and State were the companies tested.
The final results were:
- AA Insurance answered at 1 minute 16 seconds
- Vero answered at 1 minute 35 seconds
- Tower answered at 2 minute 52 seconds
- AMI answered at 3 minute 12 seconds
- State answered at 12 minute 22 seconds
These calls took place on a Monday afternoon, but a further round of calls on a Thursday afternoon yielded similar results, with all companies answering in less than 10 minutes.
Monday is the busiest day for calls, according to Tower, AA, AMI, and State. They suggest getting in touch from Tuesday to Friday, and Tower adds that afternoons are best.
Why the quick answers? Following this year's major weather events, all of the insurance companies Fair Go surveyed added additional staff to handle the increased volume.
AA, the first to answer Fair Go's call, says that it moved quickly to increase the number of available customer consultants. Current low wait times reflect call volumes settling five months after the cyclone.
Vero added around 350 additional staff to answer queries and help manage event-related claims, and established a dedicated disaster response team.
It claims that on average, calls to its dedicated events line in June were answered in 17 seconds, and 88% of all calls were answered within 30 seconds.
Tower has also set up an event response team and phoneline, plus added more customer care centre teams.
AMI and State, both under the IAG banner, say they have increased the number of staff answering calls and processing claims "considerably". They also established teams in communities affected by Cyclone Gabrielle, which are still open for customers to visit.
They point out that due to the vast number of people affected, and the complexity of flood claims, it is taking time to work through the tens of thousands of claims they have received.
Rather than taking your chances on the phone, the insurance companies suggest getting in touch with them online. They all have the capability for you to lodge a claim or make an enquiry via their websites.
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