Berevement Departments

[dubletrub]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

I agree with you ref a will. My Father in law died suddenly aged 44. No will, what a nightmare for me to deal with.

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Was he not with his wife, my husband and I didn't have a will when he passed but everything was very straight forward, dealt with everything on my own, all came to me, I had no problems with anything.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

Originally Posted by dubletrub

Was he not with his wife, my husband and I didn't have a will when he passed but everything was very straight forward, dealt with everything on my own, all came to me, I had no problems with anything.

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He was but they were business owners which made it difficult

[Dinglebert]

Originally Posted by Mr Tom Morrow

Disney332 gave me some advice a while ago. Make sure all utilities etc are all in joint names as it makes dealing with them so much easier. All done a long time ago l

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The utilities is a good point. They have been in the main very good but for the ones who still park their customer service in the Indian sub-continent they were dreadful. I do get that sounds racist. Its not meant to be its just that sometimes I need to speak with someone I can directly connect with and not someone who I have to repeat everything to as they don't get a Scottish accent.

[thefergies]

One of my ex-employers has been mentioned here in favourable terms and I am glad given I managed one of the Call Centre teams! Staff are trained on how to deal with calls of this type and indeed it's a key aspect for the Quality assessment that goes on that they show genuine empathy . I have to confess I would have been with Mr Morrow had someone seen such a call as a Sales opportunity!
As for the dress code, we had dress down Friday but only because we were not what the older generation will remember being termed as a Branch Office and therefore not customer-facing. We did not shoo people away if they preferred to bring items in but often we would go over a week without any visitors so I suspect that is the case with Scottish Widows.

[Blue nose]

I've had to deal with my dads passing back in May. All relatively easy as everything transferred to mum. Only gripes were people thanking me for calling and to have a nice day 😱

Aviva were amazing. Mum had a break-in to the garage after a couple of days and mum received a follow up phone call checking she was fine and some flowers about 3 weeks later when all repairs were done.

Worst were Nationwide who refused to accept a temporary death certificate until I ripped them a new *** I couldn't believe their bereavement specialists had so little training, compassion and general people skills.

Back to the OP, I agree re dress code when dealing with public face to face. Doesn't have to be shirt and tie but smart clothing to me shows respect to the situation.

[Ds4ljs]

Originally Posted by rosiela

That is unbelievable. Did you make a complaint?

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As yet no response- complained in February, April, and July.
In my opinion, if you are in a role dealing with the bereaved you should be dressed professionally. In a time where I was lost, I felt reassured by this. I don’t know why particularly just that I could gain support from someone who knew more about the situation I had to deal with when everyone I loved was falling apart.

[alp1972]

I have to agree with what you have said . We are at the end of what has been a very long year - my step daughters mum passed away just over a year ago now, unexpected and only 46yrs , no will and her daughter only 16 . Unfortunately due to circumstances we have had to administer the will on behalf of my step daughter . I can only describe the past year as one of the most stressful years ever . Aside from my husband having to pass on the news to all the family members including her mum who was on holiday at the time and her step mother who resides in Spain , then being advised it was down to us to deal with things , it has been a mixture of quite good companies and then some really bad ones . One of the worst was Toyota Finance who I am surprised are still in business they were absolutely useless and it took months to sort . CPS who we are still dealing with and seem to unable to understand why we dont want tens of thousands of pounds going into the account of a 16yr old ! Then we have the cat insurance people who insisted on speaking to the account holder which after 45 mins on the phone my husband who was by this point at the end of his tether said "well unless you have powers to speak to the dead that just isnt going to happen" I have to say one who were spot on were Apple they were very professional and had a specific team and you were allocated a specific person amazing not having to go through the whole story over and over again . I think ideally each company should have a bereavement team as it is such a stressful time for everyone . I think it was bad enough for us but had it been my step daughter having to deal with it all I dont think she would of managed .I know it sounds awful but I am so relieved we are nearing the end , constantly having to explain I am the current wife of the ex husband of the deceased is very draining and then other family accusing us of taking money and being dishonest is emotionally tiring even if you dont have any emotional connection to the deceased person .

[lov2dibb]

The law in Scotland can be odd when someone dies without a will. When my sister's husband died she was told that his parents and brother were all entitled to parts of his estate. Seems it doesn't all automatically go to the spouse.

Not sure what the case is in England as when I lost my husband he had a will so it was all pretty straightforward.

The one memorable chat I had after he died was with our car insurance people. I was trying to take his name off the policy and was told Oh that'll be an extra £50 now please. TBF the woman was embarrassed herself asking but it was 'company policy' .

I agree about the dress code too. If your staff are expected to deal face to face with people dealing with bereavement they really should have a respectful dress code.

[jdybnsn]

The worst for me has been Barclaycard...

My Dad was £1.83 in CREDIT when he passed away but they refused to refund the money when closing the account, without sending a death certificate
So even though my Mum was a joint card holder she won't have that money since it would cost more than that for her to reclaim it... clearly not a life changing sum... but the very stupidity of their inflexibility over such a petty amount is just plain irritating !

[Guest]

Originally Posted by vhm672

To add to experiences when we lost my gran then my dad within 6 months in 2017 we dealt with a lot of different companies. Many were fine, competent and efficient but banks stand out at both ends of the spectrum. Santander were excellent on my grans estate. Hsbc on the other hand were awful including losing the death certificate taken into branch then aggressively chasing my mum for it. Mum not being a pushover wiped the floor with them but she shouldn’t have have had to.

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HSBC also lost my mums death certificate twice. On my third visit to the bank where I was asked for evidence of my mums death I offered to take in her ashes if that would be accepted since the death certificate clearly wasn't working.