September 25, 2000
Untitled
Today my wife realized — somewhat out of the blue — that we never received a renewal notice for our house and contents policy from our insurance company. Wondering whether or not we were still covered, she called them and discovered that they had no record of our file. Within an hour, she had arranged a new policy through the Alberta Motor Association, who even have a discount because we live less than two blocks from a fire station. Chalk it up to the mergers and acquisitions trend. Our brokered policies were actually with a company that was absorbed into another conglomerate. It’s no wonder that our records got lost in the mix. This excerpt from a form letter we received at the beginning of the year shows what was happening behind the scenes:
“On December 30, 1999, The GAN Insurance Company was amalgamated with Traders General Insurance Company, another subsidiary of CGU Group Canada Ltd. and has continued under the name Traders General Insurance Company. The amalgamated company, Traders General Insurance Company, has assumed all policies of GAN Canada Insurance Company and is liable for all of its obligations.”
Apparently their obligations didn’t include keeping customer records in the correct filing cabinet. We probably would have laughed off this whole situation if it hadn’t already happened a couple of months ago with our automotive insurance renewal and the same company. We’re moving that policy over to our new insurer tomorrow.
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