So I'm shopping around for car insurance. I get some quotes via Comparis. One of them is from Axa.. it's not the best but it's not bad. Today I get a call from some bloke at Axa 'about my quote'. We struggle along with my German and he seems to be just checking details on the quote. Then he starts asking stuff like my home address and the licence plate number of my existing car.. and then I twig what he's up to....

Me... "Why have you called me ?"
Him..."So that I can send the cover note to the Strassenverkehrsamt"
Me.. "But I have 4 quotes and haven't decide which quote to accept"
Him..."Yes, but it's easier if we do this now, if we do it later it might be.. er.. too late"
Me.. "Goodbye"

... bottom line... don't use Axa

It was just a sales pitch from an awkward insurance man, it doesn't mean anything about the quality of the insurance or any other insurance for that matter.

Forget him and evaluate the insurance for what they really offer.

I've had AXA Winterthur for a long time, very happy with them, no hassle about anything, even after replacing 4-5 stone cracked windshields.

had the same with mobilair. the guy (agent ) knows not to call me before noon...he always calls me at 8.30 and I hang up on him....then he leaves me a message to call him before noon as he does not work the afternoon. well issue there i guess haha he still tries but little does he know an other agent took my request and got my business. (im sure he must know by now but he still keeps calling (before noon)

Sales people being sales people

STOP THE PRESS

We were with winterthur for all our insurance for 8 years. Never had a problem with them. On the contrary. We had a guy we really life in Geneva and stayed with him even when we moved to Vaud.

Thanks for the shrugtastic responses.

Well, I've vented now and calmed down... but still

... nobody else has tried it on
... what would have happened if he had sent the cover note to the registration office.. and then sent me a bill ?

I withdraw my "don't use Axa" and replace it with "don't be an ipoddling plonker and put your phone number into Comparis.ch"

I got my best quote and finally i choose AXA. I visited the Basel office and spoke with a nice Italian guy in perfect English. The quote was in German but he explained me everything and they even translated the final certificate in English for me.
If you are willing to give them a second chance PM me and i can try to dig out his details.

I don't think we were criticizing your rant.

It's just that the guy just was trying to close the deal. I think it's good he followed up. So many more rants on here about about how there is no customer service and no one follows up on anything. Anyway, I highly doubt he would have sent the paper to the registration office without your permission.

Did he speak to you in English?

I would just say if they gave you the best quote, I've had good experience with the company.

Exact same situation here.

However, only recently however did I discover the problems after he retired.

So, at least AXA Winterthur sent a letter informing of the retirement of Mr. X, and now Mr. Y will take over account. Ok good to this point. Have to change car, so call Mr. Y, telephone back and forth, quotes price, says will send by email, ok still good so far. After 20 minutes, no email but telephone from Mr. Y, well sorry to tell you I cannot send it to you. Why? Your car insurance is with Mr. Z at our other office, however, I still have your house insurence here at this office with me. WTF? That makes no sense at all--yes I know, but that is how it is grrrr. But you have to call Mr. Z to get your car insurance. grrrr after another 4 phone calls to Mr. Z, going through all the same details, get quote, but it is 100 chf cheaper, go figure. A 100chf for their bad setup or just clericial error, I don't know.

Good luck on finding insurance.

We are really happy with Helvetia insurance.

I have had three claims( two from vandalism ), and they have paid
without question.

Eeks. That's not good. Our guy was too young to retire and he did ALL of our insurances. We even passed him on to our tenants. He's fab. I miss him. (Ok, I'm just kidding about missing him, lol)

Although, I wonder if these are issues related to the merger with Axa?

Yes, I think so. Although the messy situation just surfaced, I think it does link with the AXA merger; recall receiving a lot of contraditory paperwork around the merger time, although little to do with them in the last few years until the car situation now, so it becomes apparent now.

I give very good praises to Winterthur, but since the AXA merger, one messy account set up after another. I tried to get a quote from the Nyon (VD) office when the Geneva office was closed over the Jeune Genevois holiday, and no go, as my account(s) is/are held at apparently two different Geneva offices, both closed, they were forbidden to help me, even due to closure of the other offices... grrrr...
who makes such bizarre policies.

Ah well, that's a shame. Let's just hope it only growing pains.

Anyway, I hope the OP finds a good insurance agent. It does make life so much easier.

Good luck!

I had a friend of mine who was off sick from work for about a year. His company fired him but the insurance should have paid 80% of his salary for up to 2 years, or however long he was signed off sick for up to that 2 year limit.

Dispite 3 doctors agreeing with him being ill, and dispite him being hospitalised (it was a stress related nervous disorder), Axa still refused to pay. He met a large amount of other people with the same issue and all the time it was AXA who were refusing to pay, even though contractually, they had to.

In the end he sued them and won.

Put me off using Axa.....

Glad he sued! They would have to pay if they have the company's policy, just a try on!

Not to speak poorly of the "competition", not that they are really, but in my opinion they do seem to be hiding quite a lot of information from plain sight recently and have some questionable ways of pricing some covers. i.e pricing products cheaply and glossing over the fact that the cover, especially on their online comparison services, isn't good and comparing apples for apples they aint!

Their hi-end services are good and I am friends with some of the guys but within the company there seems to be some disharmony and some odd corporate model at the mo.