A complaint to the EQC

Posted by al on 6 September 2011 | 0 Comments

Tags: eqnz

Sorry, this isn't tech related. But I need it out there. I'm REALLY pissed off with the EQC at the moment. This is an organisation that up to last year we paid our levvies to, in the understanding they would be there for us when the worst happend. And then the worst happened.

At first they were fantastic. I had an inspection team out promptly surveying the damage, and critical repairs to my water supply were authorised. I received a settlement notice that looked fair and reasonable, and all was looking great.

But then the contactors who did the emergency repairs on our water complained they hadn't been paid. After a couple of months of being fobbed off by the EQC call centre they eventually got paid. 

But as for the rest of my settlement, well, here's the content of the complaint I have just submitted.

Dear Sir/Madam

I was contacted in early June by one of your team saying the cheque they sent out after my claim in November had not been cashed and was now "stale". It turned out it had been sent to the wrong address (100a instead of 109a).

I advised that I am now residing at [address removed]. He said he would get another cheque sent out, and it would take 6-8 weeks to process the cancellation and get the new cheque sent.

However, I rang on 11 July and the person I spoke to believed the cheque had not yet been sent out, but they could not provide details as I had rung after 4pm, and everyone that had a clue had gone home.

I rang back on 12 July before 4pm and spoke to [name removed] in Brisbane. She advised that Accounts are waiting on confirmation from the banks that the old cheque is cancelled.

She also advised me that the bank account the payment goes in to has to be in the name of the Trust, so I sent in a statement from that account.

On August 30 I still had not received payment, so rang up again. This time I spoke to [name removed], and she advised that the cheque had not been cancelled and would have to be processed again from the start. When I queried as to how it could take so long she could not give me an answer. When I queried how much longer this would take, again she could not give me an answer. I asked if the payment could just be made straight away as the cheque was stale and unusable, and told that it couldn't, because that "wasn't correct procedure".

It has been a year now since the damage was done to my home. The payout value is less than $6k - not very much compared to the "millions of dollars per day" your organisation proudly advertises as paying out. My bank has advised me that a cheque is confirmed cancelled instantly upon request (it is, after all, 2011!) - it does not take '6-8 weeks'. I am totally at a loss to understand why this can take so long.

I have 6 main reasons for my complaint:

   1) Your systems don't appear to do any error checking and manage to send letters to the wrong address (how many other letters from EQC am I missing?)

   2) The person who rang me in June failed to get the old cheque cancelled and new one issued, as he promised

   3) [name removed], who I spoke to in July, failed to get the old cheque cancelled and new one issued, as she promised

   4) The excuse given for the delays in processing the cancellation of the cheque (that EQC was awaiting confirmation from the bank for 6-8 weeks) is not justified, as cancellations can be processed instantly. At most I'd expect a few business days.

   5) Staff at the call center do not appear to have proper records of previous conversations I have had with them.

   6) The cheque is long stale and cannot be cashed. Therefore there should be nothing stopping an electronic payment being made or a replacement cheque sent out.

At the end of the day, it is the EQC's fault the cheque was sent to the wrong address. I believe EQC staff should have been more pro-active in rectifying this situation. It should have been resolved with the first phone call in June.

I await your comment and proposed resolution.

Regards, Al Twohill