Berevement Departments

[Dinglebert]

My mother passed away just over a week ago and as an executor of the will I have had to be dealing with a large number of different companies since then.

Its been interesting. Have had to contact insurance, pension, utilities, banks etc. All of them now have dedicated berevement departments or phone numbers with what can only be described as different levels of customer service.

Some were brilliant. Prudential were superb. SPPA excellent as were EDF. On the other hand some really need to learn from the others. RBS had me waiting for over 30 minutes twice on their dedicated telephone number, hearing the same music for that period but also worse the 3 times a minute voice saying sorry and they would be with me shortly.

The Government DWP were brusk and frankly more interested in knowing if they could claw back attendance allowance due to extended hospital stays. Three days is not extended.

TalkTalk were dreadful. The call was taken in the Indian sub-continent somewhere by someone who was unable to go off script and ended up causing my brother great distress in a follow up call due to their attitude.

The oddest one for me was Scottish Widows. I went to Edinburgh HQ with death certificate and will. While waiting in the foyer for the berevement team member to come down and take the documents to be photocopied I could see that Scottish Widows clearly did not have a dress code for staff. That of course is their decision to make. What surprised me was that there customer facing staff and in this case their berevement team customer facing staff equally had a dress exactly as you want to policy. I must be getting old as I found it to be disrespectful and not a good advert for their company to be dealt with by jeans and t-shirt.

[Omega1]

Having acted as executor to my, and my wife’s parents’ estates, I know exactly what you mean. Some organisations have it just right and instinctively know how to respond to grieving relatives - no fuss, know exactly what you want and the right degree of sympathy. Others seem to manage to make it as hard as possible with no compassion whatsoever.

[dubletrub]

My dad died in August and I used the tell us once service which covers DWP, tax, council tax etc. The utility companies that I have had to deal with have been fantastic apart from woolwich/Barclays home insurance which asked me to pay for full cover after 60 days as cover will be reduced. Hopefully probate will come through quickly as I have verbally sold the house already.

[bonnies mum]

Could it have been a dress down day?
I agree that jeans and t-shirt appears odd and I would say a bit disrespectful in such a sensitive role.

[loola30]

Originally Posted by Chair1519

My mother passed away just over a week ago and as an executor of the will I have had to be dealing with a large number of different companies since then.

Its been interesting. Have had to contact insurance, pension, utilities, banks etc. All of them now have dedicated berevement departments or phone numbers with what can only be described as different levels of customer service.

Some were brilliant. Prudential were superb. SPPA excellent as were EDF. On the other hand some really need to learn from the others. RBS had me waiting for over 30 minutes twice on their dedicated telephone number, hearing the same music for that period but also worse the 3 times a minute voice saying sorry and they would be with me shortly.

The Government DWP were brusk and frankly more interested in knowing if they could claw back attendance allowance due to extended hospital stays. Three days is not extended.

TalkTalk were dreadful. The call was taken in the Indian sub-continent somewhere by someone who was unable to go off script and ended up causing my brother great distress in a follow up call due to their attitude.

The oddest one for me was Scottish Widows. I went to Edinburgh HQ with death certificate and will. While waiting in the foyer for the berevement team member to come down and take the documents to be photocopied I could see that Scottish Widows clearly did not have a dress code for staff. That of course is their decision to make. What surprised me was that there customer facing staff and in this case their berevement team customer facing staff equally had a dress exactly as you want to policy. I must be getting old as I found it to be disrespectful and not a good advert for their company to be dealt with by jeans and t-shirt.

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Firstly, I'm very sorry for your loss - it's an awful process to be going through. Regarding Scottish Widows, was it last Friday by any chance? If so it was Jeans for Genes day (possibly week) - a charity event that many businesses participate in order to fundraise for genetic disorders by wearing jeans to work and donating to do so. However, we used to have a notice explaining why we were in dress down in our reception.

[rosiela]

I worked at SW a few years ago, if it was a Friday we could wear our own clothes, the rest of the time it was business dress.

I agree it is maybe less appropriate for customer facing staff though.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

My experience was that most of the companies and financial institutions were very good.
NatWest though was outstanding.

The worst was BT when I cancelled my late Mums phone line. The Guy I spoke to tried to get me to buy extra products on my contract until I ripped him a new ≈≈≈≈.

[shona]

Sorry for your loss. I lost my father last year and what I found interesting was the way different companies dealt with anything outstanding. Some wrote it off saying it was his debt, some waited for probate and others like BT expected me to pay there and then, luckily he was in credit but their service was really bad.

[Mickie]

I know exactly what you mean!
Sorry for what you are having to go through

[Colette-S]

It’s a difficult time enough without facing bureaucracy and time consuming tasks. There is a service called “Tell Us Once” which notifies the main official agencies on your behalf