Tan Kin Lian's Blog: Poor service from agent

Saturday, July 03, 2010

Poor service from agent

Hi Mr Tan,
My sister-in-law recently wrote in to X to feedback and complain about one of their agents. However, the response from the company was not quite what we expected. Is there anything that you could advise us to do? Or would you be able to post our letter on your website?

COMPLAINT
1. It took X 2 weeks to give me a written reply
2. The reply has not sufficiently given us the assurance that the next agent will be any different from the one that gave us an appalling experience.
3. It still does not answer the questions posed with regard to how your agents are trained, and what kind of action you will be taking.
4. X did not take this feedback seriously and did not call to verify what happened
5. The agent did not bother to call the policyholder to apologize.
6. It seems that this sort of behaviour by the agent is encouraged by X.

14 comments:

Chee Ming said...: Does an insurance agent need to have a license in order to ply their trade in Singapore?

If no, I'm really curious to know why. If yes, there is sure to be a governing agency overseeing all these. Maybe the person who told you about his/her situation can refer to the agency for assistance?; July 03, 2010 4:13 PM
Anonymous said...: Lodge it with MAS and have the insurance agent's license revoked. He failed to meet the fit and proper requirement.This means he or she was dishonest and incompetent.
Another alternative is to write it to the ST Forum.; July 03, 2010 4:25 PM
Anonymous said...: As I have always said the insurance companies will close their eyes on the illegal, immoral, unethical practices of their agents so long they bring large sales in.
MAS is blind or it is also closing 2 eyes to the activities of these insurance companies.
MAS should realise this kind of practices are so rampant that even they cannot escape the notice of blind man and yet it escapes MAS. I am really puzzled. Something is amiss.
Talk to an insurance agent about their fellow agents they have lots of story to tell you.
Whistle blowing? MAS, you are wasting time. No one will blow the whistle and risk losing his job.
There is no confidentiality if it is reporting to an internal person or persons.It is a trap.
MAS should set up one for the public and insurance agents to report their rogue colleagues, anonymously.; July 03, 2010 5:56 PM
Anonymous said...: chee ming,

the regulator is on vacation..when they are not on vacation they bury their heads in the sand. If they are awake they are practising Taichi.If they are not practising Taichi they are playing blame game with the FIs.; July 03, 2010 10:04 PM
Anonymous said...: I ever went the whole hog to complain about the insurance company whose staff and manager told me that their management instructed them not to respond to my queries. The complaint to their CEO went unanswered and unacknowledged. Checked with Fidrec and found that they are paid by the insurance companies. Wrote to Straits Times but they did not publish my letter. Wrote to the minister who forwarded my complaint to the insurance company and a GM wrote to me after two weeks in a template like reply expressing their regret but did not leave any return email address for me to respond. Called up their call centre to ask for the email address of that GM but was told they could not tell me. The whole experience tells me that they do not care about the individual policyholder and hope that most will go away when they cannot find any answer to their queries. They also have very good relations with the press by advertising frequently with them so that the press will refrain from publishing embarrassing letters on them. Finally when pressed by ministers they then dish out a reply that is meant for the ministers eyes rather than addressing the situation. Finally the policyholder gives up and life goes on for them to repeat their successful strategies.; July 04, 2010 12:06 AM
Anonymous said...: Chee meng,

Insurance agents do not need a license. Thus there is no license to revoke.

An IFA requires a license which can revoked.; July 04, 2010 7:26 AM
Anonymous said...: double standard, right? MAS is.; July 04, 2010 9:51 AM
Anonymous said...: Hi Anonymous (July 04, 2010 7.26am),

All insurance agents required a license in Singapore. This includes IFAs, Tied-Agents (Like Prudential, AIA, NTUC, etc), banssuance agents (OCBC, UOB, Citibank, etc).; July 04, 2010 10:33 AM
Anonymous said...: Hi Anonymous (July 04, 2010 7.26am),

All insurance agents required a license in Singapore. This includes IFAs, Tied-Agents (Like Prudential, AIA, NTUC, etc), banssuance agents (OCBC, UOB, Citibank, etc).

July 04, 2010 10:33 AM
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What he meant is individual license.
Only the FAs have individual license and is unfair to them the other don't need.
However, soon all will be individually licensed , a first step to level the playing field.
$200 for the license and one time $100 for processing and set up fee. A public register will be created with ALL the names of the salesmen and women showing what they are licensed to 'advise' or sell and all the prohibitions and ALL the past complaints/misconducts that were lodged against them.
The public can access to this register to check on them .
After this many more to come, eg, removal of commission, removal of product advice option 3&4, no advice, etc etc. This will be the D-Day for the salesmen insurance agents as well as conmen and conwomen and those disguised as senior or executive financial consultants, RMs or private bankers, wealth managers and financial planners.No more fancifool titles to fool consumers but a generic title such as FA's representative. It will be accountability and liability, fine and jail; July 04, 2010 11:59 AM
Unknown said...: This insurance co. is based in M'sia and the insurance was bought in M'sia. Already have given feedback to the co. but their response was that of all companies..i.e, "we don't take your complaint seriously. Thx for wasting your effort!"; July 04, 2010 2:28 PM
Anonymous said...: What are the "services" that one should expect from an insurance agent?

For e.g, if someone bought the cheapest, no frills TV set from Samsung, what kind of service is expected?; July 05, 2010 1:20 PM
Anonymous said...: The last time I made a complaint, they only change the agent. After I met up with the new agent, I end up even with a worst impression of this insurance company.; July 05, 2010 1:23 PM
Anonymous said...: What are the "services" that one should expect from an insurance agent?

For e.g, if someone bought the cheapest, no frills TV set from Samsung, what kind of service is expected?
July 05, 2010 1:20 PM,
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no frill means no service but do you pay very high commission for the forms to be filled only?
TV breaks down , the most you lose the price but long term insurance means very much more and sometimes you don't even know.; July 05, 2010 3:04 PM
irene goh said...: Hi,

my property agent, Lincoln is not willing to follow up any coordination after our deal confirm. Their attitude is get the deal and you go and die.
We bought a condo at marymount, 1.63million. he earn quite a lot too. But service is not up to standard. call and call, finally got a chance to speak to him, but he never get back to us.
Very suck attitude. irresponsible.; July 27, 2011 12:48 PM