I love working in the 4WD scene. Being part of something you love makes work pretty easy but I also love the camaraderie and the honesty. Being tucked up behind a desk a fair bit of the day (and unfortunately many nights these days) is tough – so it was a true pleasure last weekend to get out and enjoy theSydney 4WD and Adventure Show .
This year we had one of our customer’s camper trailers on display, as well as #MobileHQGU. But the biggest drawcard for us and the punters was having a campfire on the stand in the form of our Ozpig. Many delights were enjoyed off it during the weekend and the heat was welcome with Sydney’s unseasonable cold, wet weather.
I digress – earlier I mentioned I loved the camaraderie and honesty. This usually leads to people texting or messaging me various posts or comments from all over the internet world throughout the day. It’s impossible to stay on top of it all, despite our desire to try and help as much as possible and find a solution to customer or claimant issues. These interactions have been tremendously helpful in the past, and they still are.
One that I’ve been seeing a lot lately is around our Automatic Renewal function. Basically, unless you tell us to cancel, we will automatically renew your policy where we have your payment details. What is surprising is the way people attach negative connotations to this act such as “they tricked me into paying” or “they’ve done it again,” etc.
Believe me, there is nothing tricky or clandestine here! By law we need to notify you of your upcoming renewal 10 working days prior to the day it renews, often this will happen way before that time frame.
Now if you’re one of the 95% of policyholders who choose to receive official documents by email, (thank you for caring about the environment, by the way!) then you will find an attachment on that renewal notification. In this attachment is a detailed explanation of our auto-renewal process. Customers who choose the printed option, will receive the same notification, printed and mailed to their mailing address on record.
In the renewal notification document there is a paragraph which explains that the policy will renew automatically if there is nothing to change and if the terms are acceptable. It also asks for changes to be notified before acceptance of these terms. Furthermore, it calls out for you to contact us if you want to cancel. In addition, there is also a 14-day cooling off period post-renewal where you can cancel at no cost to yourself. Here’s one I prepared earlier:
* Please note COI is abbreviation for Certificate Of Insurance
Our thought is that you don’t want to be caught out without cover. We would rather make it easy for you to renew and ensure coverage than let your policy lapse and potentially leave you uninsured because you didn’t get around to giving us a call before your policy expired. Our 14 day cooling off period ensures you can get out within 14 days of the renewal if you didn’t get a chance to look through the policy in enough detail.
So to recap, we automatically renew your policy if we don’t hear from you in order to make sure that your cover doesn’t lapse, leaving you uninsured. You’ve also got 14 days from the renewal date to cancel if you didn’t get the chance to contact us prior to your renewal date.
Hopefully this helps to add some context to what you may be reading out here in “Internet Land!”
Happy Touring
Kal
