9 reviews about Avea Insurance

verified email - 02 Jul 2018

When I bought my VW in 2013 I took out an extended warranty to mean the car had a warranty for 6 years. There were two faults in this understanding. One was that the period commences on the car build date. I bought my car at the end of February 2013. The car's build date was December 20, 2012. The extended warranty therefore "protected" me for only 5.75 years. Worse are the terms of the policy. It is sold so as to make the insured person think that anything covered by the new car warranty that might need attention over the six years would be covered by the policy. NOT SO! The policy excludes cover for anything requiring (expensive) attention that it caused by "normal wear and tear". Eric adopts a broad interpretation of this clause so that, by year 5, almost anything that goes wrong is defined as caused by normal wear and tear. I have heard car experts on radio talking about these policies and advising against them as bad value for money. This is my experience with Eric and I will not be taking this option up when I buy my next car. The consumer programs on TV and CHOICE magazine also warn about extended warranty programs for all products, not just vehicles. My recent dealings with Eric were very unsatisfactory. They are not transparent, providing no reasoning for their adverse decisions and they rely on the vehicle owner's reluctance to appeal decisions because the owner is keen to get the repair work done to regain possession of the car. It is, is short, a rotten system.

verified email - 11 Oct 2016

Buyers beware!!! They are dodgy as!! I had to call them to take care of an extended warranty claim on my Jeep Grand Cherokee and after being put on hold for about 40 - 50 minutes finally had to speak to someone who in turn put me on hold to their warranty claims department for about 5 minutes. I spoke to a guy supposedly called [Retracted name] as he absolutely refused to give me his surname . I smelled a rat and when I presented my request or claim,his tone was condescending and outright demeaning. Please never.... ever ..... be roped in by anyone to get an extended car warranty policy by Avea. Oops !! I was informed that they are now called Eric insurance. And when I questioned when the name change was effected I was told that they use both names. This company is dodgy as!! Mate !! Run!! Run!!
What a joke!! And this is Melbourne Australia in 2016. Might as well trust a group of Nigerian scammers than this pack of wolves masquerading as sheep.

verified email - 30 Jun 2016

I would never recommend this business. Their customer service is appalling as is their response times to have vehicles repaired.

verified email - 23 Jun 2015

I recently was traveling with some friends on our annual road trip, and it was my year to drive. About half way there, I started experiencing issues with my car. I was able to call Avea and get set up with a certified garage and get my car fixed extremely fast. Allowed us to stay and hang out a couple of days and the service from Avea was the best. I definitely recommend them to anyone needing insurance on their car.

verified email - 18 Jun 2015

Recently switched to these guys and had a great experience. Everything has been very easy. Thanks for your help! I definitely recommend Avea for your car insurance needs.

verified email - 30 Sep 2013

DO NOT take out an insurance or warranty policy with this company.

Under no circumstances.

They seem to be a very dodgy bunch of people that were happy to take my $2000 for an extended warranty but when it came time to fix an issue they jumped through every possible hoop to not pay for the repairs.

DO NOT TAKE OUT ANY SORT OF POLICY WITH THIS COMPANY.

This does not seem to be a legitimate company like other well known ones.

I repeat. I recommend that you DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY for any "service" they claim they will provide. Because from my experience, when it comes time for them to do what you paid them for, They will dodge your phone calls and stretch out your claim. If you somehow manage to jump through all their hoops. They will simply just say no and leave you high and dry.

verified email - 08 Aug 2012

I've had two claims with Avea. The first was for a cracked windscreen. As another reviewer said, they offer a free windscreen replacement every year, so apparently this is a very standard procedure. They gave me the number of the local repairer that they contract with, I called and dealt directly with them and they were great. Their service was fast, friendly and professional. To be clear, this was not Avea Insurance, but their glass repair contractor. I imagine they work quickly and efficiently so that they can get paid by Avea straight away.

The second claim is a whole other ballgame. I put the claim in on June 7th of 2012, and I'm still waiting to hear back from them and it's August 8th. If you don't call between the hours of 9-10:30, then you'll be stuck on hold for at least 20 minutes. I've called them several times and have only ever spoken to the same 3 people, so that's probably an indication of how many customer service staff they have on board. Anyhow, each time you call, you have to give them either your claim number or your policy number, and each time they put you straight back on hold to "locate" your file. I think they must be physically getting up, going to a file cabinet and looking for a hard file, as opposed to something on a computer, because they take a while, and more often than not, they'll come back on the line and ask you for more information because they're having trouble finding the file, and they need more info to look in another location. If you give them your policy number, they'll come back on and ask for a claim number. If you give them a claim number, they'll ask you for a Rego number, and on and on. When I was asked for the Rego number, I responded with "You guys don't have that on file?" and the response was "I just need it to locate your file." Either they're not computerised, or they want a reason to put you back on hold.

In any case, once they locate the file, I'm usually told that the progress of the claim is moving along and that I should get approval in a day or two. The last time I got that information was two weeks ago, and my mechanic still hasn't received approval.

So I called today to inquire about the status of the claim (again). To my surprise, I kept receiving the message that their office hours were between 8:30 and 5pm, EST and to call back between those hours. This was at 9am, EST. I kept receiving this message from 9am to 10:30am. At this point I was wondering if they'd shut down and pulled a runner. But nothing online indicated that they were no longer operating. So I gave it another go in the afternoon, knowing that I'd be on hold for ages if they were actually operating. To my surprise I was only on hold for 11 minutes. An easy ten minutes less than I expected. Anyway, I got the same rep I spoke with the last time, and I explained to her that 2 weeks prior she told me that the mechanic would be receiving the approval to move forward with repairs and that he would get in touch with me the following day. She then put me back on hold and did the file search dance. When she came back, she said that the approval was in fact given, but when asked, she was unable to tell me the date that approval was given. She became evasive and said that the mechanic must have lost the approval. She then said that she just re-sent the approval and to try calling the mechanic in the morning. I will do just that and we'll see what Avea has actually done.

When I asked her what the deal was with the phones this morning she said there were technical difficulties and the phones were down. When I asked if there was another way to reach them, she said that was the only number. My question is, what if I had been in a truly terrible accident that morning? Where would my insurance company have left me then? I do believe I will be shopping for a new company.

Piper1 11 May 2013

I have been with Avea since march 2012. 2 x claims... issues with each... both claims were 'not at fault' but had to fight to get any positive response... Never recommend this company to anyone for a vehicle insurer ... EVER!!!

verified email - 13 Jun 2012

Avea insurance would have to be the sleaziest insurance company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with in the past 33 years of paying insurance. They try everything possible to get out of paying a legitimate claim. Whatever you do, under no circumstances use Avea Insurance, they are a total scam. Words cannot describe how bad they are. Call me 0397205436 Mark
Use AAMI or RACV or anyone else

stevenf2 09 Jul 2012

I agree. They take forever to agree to fix your car and you have to ring them, then be put on hold for ages, to chase up the status of your claim. Worth paying $100 a year more and going to another firm.

verified email - 24 May 2012

Had a stone chip on my windscreen and remembered that my policy included a replacement windscreen (if required) each year. Rang them at 11am and had a new screen by 2pm same day.

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