This has nothing to do with the Anglican Church but I thought it might be of some interest to anyone valiantly wrestling with an obdurate insurance company.

We have had house insurance with Northbridge insurance using the broker Hub International for around 25 years. Upon a recent renewal, I discovered my rates had increased by 25%. The following is an account of the Kafkaesque experience of trying to find out why – it is a note to my contact at Hub asking her to cancel my policy (I have to sign a piece of paper, it seems):

Thanks, I presume this means you want a physical piece of paper returned via the post office? Welcome back to the 20th Century.

When we spoke I was walking the dog. Here is a more complete version of why I am cancelling:

1. My premiums have increased by 25%. Last Monday I phoned to ask why. By some fluke I did eventually connect with a real person who transferred me to someone else (not sure who). That person didn’t have any convincing explanation but she said she would look into getting a better rate and call me back on Friday.

2. She didn’t. Today (Monday) I called your office again a number of times – the 905 582 5500 #. The first couple of times I was placed in a queue. Eventually your end disconnected me.

3. Naively, I thought I’d try again and leave a message. After pressing the necessary number I was – you guessed it – disconnected.

4. I called the claims number just to see if I could reach a real person. I did. She explained she could not deal with anything but claims. She gave me another number – 877 495 8777. I tried it twice. Each time there was a ring no answer followed by a disconnect.

5. I then phoned Northbridge. They told me I had to speak you. I explained your phone system is broken. She transferred me to a Hub manager. I spoke to her voice mail.

6. With dogged determination, I called the 905 number again in order to try a directory search for someone called Silvy Wright who claims to be the “President and CEO”. Naturally, that got me nowhere and after a few minutes of generating some seemingly random DTMF codes, I was magically connected to an operator. She wasn’t too happy that someone had penetrated your company’s impressive defenses but she did grudgingly connect me to the voicemail of the “person who looks after me”: you.

7. You called me back while I was walking the dog; in hindsight, I should have put you on hold for 30 minutes.

8. Later this evening someone from Hub (Justine) in BC called me. Since I was sitting down at home I regaled her with the whole bizarre experience. She told me someone would call back tomorrow (Tuesday).

All this and I still don’t know why my premium has increased by 25%. I trust this will help you understand why, after 25 years of giving you my money, I am rather disenchanted with Hub.

Please pass this on to your management and phone technicians.
For the edification of others, I will be posting this on your Facebook site, Twitter feed, any review sites I have access to and a blog I run.

Have a nice day.