Tower Insurance is making changes to its systems after customers were left up to five months without a claims update following a series of natural disasters earlier this year.
Fair Go spoke to two Tower customers - in Auckland and the Coromandel - who had sent multiple emails and phone messages to Tower and received automated responses or no reply at all.
One was so frustrated he turned up at Tower's head office demanding action.
Rebecca Rowe went five months without an update on her claim. She says initially Tower were ‘great’ but then her claim was passed on to a third-party contractor and Tower’s builders got involved and communication became difficult.
“I was starting to get really confused about who I was supposed to be dealing with here. So, I started copying everyone into the emails.”
What made matters worse, was her home was damp and she believed the mould was causing her family illness.
"Waking up every day with headaches still. There’s three species of mould living in the house."
After repeated attempts to contact insurance about her claim, her partner Dylan Bruce took matters into his own hands and went to Tower's head office with his partner's insurance paperwork.
Whitianga's Jillian Hines has also been in limbo. She’s been waiting since early March when Cyclone Gabrielle caused $30,000 worth of damage to her home.
"That’s the hardest thing to bear to just be treated like nothing," she told Fair Go.
“I think I’ve rung eight or nine times. Left messages ‘please ring, please ring’ and [sent] emails, gosh probably 20 or 30.”
Tower's head of claims Steve Wilson said Tower received five years' worth of large loss claims in the two weeks New Zealand was rocked by the Auckland floods and Cyclone Gabrielle.
"Due to the enormity of the event, our responsiveness as an industry or even as Tower hasn’t been where we would want it to be and where it would normally be.
"It’s simply the volume, to see the volume from those weekends it’s unprecedented, and even though we do have plans and we do have resources, this is really putting pressure on us as an industry."
Wilson said they have now changed their systems so every Tower Customer will be personally contacted over the next two weeks and assigned a personal claims officer.
"Immediately we're already reinstating that we're going to have our claims handlers, manage those customers directly," Wilson told Fair Go.
This is not only a Tower problem. Insurance Ombudsman Karen Stevens said complaints have doubled over the past two months.
"The majority are all about the length of time it's taking for insurers to get back to them or that they can't get through."
Since Fair Go contacted Tower they have paid out Hines while Bruce left Tower's head office with a promise of progress.
Tower has now settled his partner's claim, including a temporary accommodation payment so they can move out of their damp house.
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