Jeff, a resident of Virginia Beach, decided to share with us his experience with Access America. Access America is now operating as Allianz Global Assistance. Allianz Global Assistance is a travel insurance provider. A quick 10 minutes of research turned up some scary reviews
. It’s a damn shame when you pay for something, then when you need to collect on it, you’re treated like shit.
We would never recommend Access America as a company to do business with for anything. They supposedly provide travel insurance, but if you make a claim, they act like you are a criminal, and do nothing but through obstacles into the process to make it almost impossible to collect.
They will tell you on the phone everything is OK, but you won’t hear from them for months, and still won’t have your travel/ticket refund.
It took us over 6 months, 20 hours on the phone and literally dozens of emails, forms and attachments to finally obtain the refund, and then they shorted us $300. The agents were incompetent and incapable of providing the customer experience anyone would expect. It was immediately apparent that they had no ethics or accountability for their company.
We provided all requested information numerous times, only to discover upon further inquiry after waiting 2 months with no reply, that they apparently had not requested the required information. This happened multiple times with multiple agents.
Our friends, who had similar insurance from another company, and could not travel for the same reasons as us, received their refunds within weeks.
The repeated behavior by the team at Access America mirrors that of scam artists that take your money, with no intention to ever live up to their obligations.
Only with repeated requests, calls, emails and threats were we able to get the refunds promised in the initial contract language. We will never purchase coverage from this company again.
One interesting story about Access America was someone who’s father was diagnosed with cancer a day before his flight. He made the claim with Access America and included a letter from the doctor, documenting the date of the diagnosis. Ever person who has read Access America’s claims, guarantees and fine print would assume this would be covered. Nope.
If you’ve had experience with travel insurance providers, leave a comment and share what happened.
Access America is a SCAM!,
Where do I start? This afternoon, I received a message from Legal services in Toronto, telling me that I ow $399.00. Apparently, Global assist doesn’t take no for an answer. They continued to phone me, offering a new bank account (at the Bank of Montreal here in Canada. They started out with emails. Obsessive emails. Then came all the phone calls. I got to the point where I was yelling at them. I closed my BoM account (which Global assist had set up without my permission. Then I got a BoM credit card, after I told them over and over I didn’t want. I had given someone at Global assist my name, address and phone number, thinking they were legit. Boy was I wrong.
This legal person bullied me to the point where I just gave her what she wanted. If I didn’t come up with $399.00 and put it on my own credit card, I would have to go in front of a judge, to help me with my money problem. Then she threatened me with contacting a bill collector. I am on a fixed income. I have received a disability pension for many years now and suffer from a serious mental illness. I think they should be aware of this. I got so upset talking to that legal person that I started hyperventilating and I could hardly speak.
I have gotten the police involved and they are looking into this Global crap. My next move is getting them in small claims court, Global employees. The man I talked to Global assist was extremely rude and told me I didn’t have a brain. That right there is telling: I don’t know of any company that would allow its employees to be rude and tell me I am stupid because I’m trying to fix this.
Bottom line: I cannot begin to tell you how many phone calls I started getting. They always left a message and so I went in person to that Bank of Montreal in my area and closed the account. (The one I didn’t open myself) and received an unwanted credit card. The bank informed me that they would cancel the card.
If that rude man is on the level and I owe $399.00 and if I don’t pay it, they threatened me. I repeat: I did NOT buy anything from Global assist. Nothing. I told them over and over to go away and leave me alone. This legal woman was told of my money troubles but would not let this pass.
I’m not a fan of small claims court, but I am fed up with Global assist and their constant harassment. They wouldn’t stop. This was about 6 months ago and finally I managed to escape them until today. I am tired of being scammed by companies that use scare tactics and this is the last straw. Put the money back into my account to avoid a time-consuming trial.
There. That’s the entire problem. Like I said, if Global assist fails to give me my money, small claims court is in their near future. I will not back down. I do NOT owe Global any money because I made sure of it. Why would I give anything to a company who made my life a living hell six months ago?
The employees treat you like you matter but they don’t really care. Their employees are only trained to have a excuse for anything you say. They don’t send you the pdf that includes there rules and regulations until after you purchase their so called insurance from the airlines. Then they delayed and did not respond to my claim for 4 months. When I brought it to their attention they said sorry it was overlooked and they will send me a check within a week. A week later I received a letter and a e-mail stating that I was denied. The airlines are more accommodating then Allianz. Honestly save yourself the money and deal with the airlines directly if you have any issues. First they used my doctors note at an excuse. When that didn’t work then they used the hotel that I had booked myself as an excuse not to give my money back. They said everything had to be included with their company even if I didn’t buy it from Alaska Air in order for my insurance to be valid. SCAM ARTIST. I am having my lawyers investigate them for a possible class action lawsuit.
Hello –
Jackie from the Help Team here. We appreciate your sharing Jeff’s story and posting on his behalf, and apologize for any inconvenience and frustration he experienced. Further, we’re sorry to hear that he felt as though the claims process was extensive, however, we do need the specified documentation in order to properly investigate our customers’ claims. By paying only legitimate claims, we are able to keep prices low for all of our customers.
Please note that despite Jeff’s comment, our customers actually rate their satisfaction with us at better than 95 percent. We strive to deliver the best in customer service, and treat each claim on a case by case basis to ensure our customers receive fair, personalized treatment.
Should Jeff have further questions on the outcome of his claim, we encourage him to email our HelpTeam directly at Help.Team@allianzassistance.com; if you have a free moment, we’d be happy to walk you through the benefits of travel insurance as well.
Regards,
Jackie, Help Team
Allianz disaster team is on full alert. Awesome.