When I first arrived in Switzerland, 9 years ago, I needed various insurances, as you do, asked around for recommendation - and ended up with a Winterthur agent. He was great - helpful, not pushy. And just down the road from where I live.
Now Axa have closed that office, and my agent no longer works for them. I got a new car recently, and switching the insurance to the new car has been nothing but pain. Firstly the new office only arranged 3rd party. For a new car! They haven't responded to emails, and when we finally get through to someone, apparently all the difficulties are our fault. And we've still not got fully comp. - they say - even though we've a letter from them saying that if we want it, we can get it immediately.
I've many insurances for myself and my company through Axa/Winterthur. When the contracts come up for renewal, I think I'll be switching. If anyone can recommend a helpful, preferably English speaking insurance agent in the Basel area, I'd be grateful.
I can't recommend an English speaking agency in your neck of the funds but I had similar problems with AXA/Winterthur when it came to making changes to my policies. And when I asked for the dossier to be transferred from Zurich to my local agency in Vaud to make my life easier they put up all kinds of objections. I now use Zurich Assurances. Very helpful, very proactive. They only speak French but then again I don't live in a place like Montreux or Lausanne. In the end I think it comes down to the attitude of the staff in the individual offices You can have a bad experience with almost any insurance company if you're dealing with the wrong people.
Well, I just spoke directly to Zurich Connect who were very helpful and reasonably priced. They have a website available in English, the insurance documents are in English and they have English speaking staff so calling them is easy. (I made a mistake and asked for the wrong date of insurance. At the Strassenvekhersamt, I could not register my vehicle as I was trying to do this a day before the insurance started. I called Zurich Connect and they immediately started the policy so 5 mins later I was holding the new registration papers in my hand. Excellent service)
And to round it off nicely, my friend is with Zurich Connect and recommended me to them so he received a free gift and so did I. You have the option to donate it to charity so we sent our gifts to the Theodora Foundation (Children’s Hospital). (50 CHF each) So, you can also spread a little charity around at the same time!
My friend is working in Axa/winterthur, they seem to have good service. I'm sure you had misunderstood in some how. Anyway, my friend is speaking English fluently!
My husband's HR folks set up our policy with Winterthur when we first arrived as wet-behind-the-ears expats. The agent seemed nice enough... But once I had learned enough German to understand that the policy was inadequate for our needs we had nothing but problems. Changes were not possible, the agent 'disapeared', the new agent couldn't be bothered, blah blah blah.
After 10 years of aggravation (as that was the term of the policy, thanks to the HR genius who set it up 'because we always do that...'), we finally were able to cut loose.
Switched to Zurich Connect, and have been very happy with them so far. And, although I can now handle my insurance matters in German, there is no need to as Zürich Connect is happy to provide a policy in English if one wishes.
Not in Basel, so don't know anyone there - but you might want to see if what Zürich Connect offers meets your needs.
Changing car insurers is easy. The car is currently in my wife's name. We'd just transfer ownership to me. ( Which is what we did when we switched to Winterthur in the first place).
I'm having similar issues with Axa and my policies are a freakin mess.....some in Bern, some in Thun, one can't speak to the other....I have outstanding invoices which need to be cleared before I can think of changing.
Anybody have any good contacts in Axa with some "clout" who can help me sort this mess out?
I don't believe that your experience could be considered unique to a specific company. It's all about the individual person and if they care about you and of course, how much commission that they get from you. We've taken the company vehicle insurance from Zürich to AXA-Winti and are now with the Vaudoise. Whenever we have time, we invite all the agents in and have them give us their best shot and go from there.
I'd ask around your friends or work colleagues if they have a specific insurance dude to recommend and use that as the introduction. Stuff like that works best in Switzerland rather than pounding on the same insurer's door who doesn't seem to care about their clients.
Agreed, we have had a nightmare with a certain other insurance company and we got switched from one to another agent of the same company, then someone left, just when you thought you got that sorted out.
we have been using Axa/Winterthur for some time and we have had no problems with the service so far. we have filed a claim with them recently. the person who answered the phone didn't speak english but another person phoned me back. hope our claim goes smoothly.