Asta la vista Endsleigh!

After reading Olivia Buck’s blog entry about Endsleigh mis-selling her Payment Protection Insurance, and hearing that Churchill Insurance have had their knuckles rapped by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for misleading claims, I wonder how many other insurance companies are out to trick us into paying for services we don’t need, tempt us with enticing offers that don’t exist, or plain and simply, how many just don’t do what it says on their tins?

Churchill Insurance is the latest culprit to join a long list, with one of their ads actually being banned by the ASA after a customer complained that it was misleading.

The ad, which stars the infamous talking dog, asks game show contestants to challenge Churchill on his insurance claims, with one man asking “is it possible to make a claim without filling in any forms?”

“Ooooohhhhh yesssss,” came Churchill’s response. That notoriously annoying catchphrase mimicked by many a middle-aged man thinking he’s even slightly funny…

However, one viewer really did challenge Churchill, pointing out that the ad was misleading because a form was sent out after he’d made an insurance claim.

Defending itself, Churchill Insurance said it does try to sort claims over the telephone “wherever possible,” but added that a fifth of cases required a declaration form or statement to be completed by the claimant.

So, is it possible to make a claim without filling in any forms? “Ooooohhhhh nnoooooo” doesn’t quite have the same ring.

The company apologised and said the claim was used “in error” and that it wouldn’t be repeated in future TV ads.

This isn’t the first time Churchill’s dog has made headlines though. Earlier in the summer the company were criticised, when it was reported that their canine front-dog said a rather offensive swear word immediately after his catchphrase. Of course, a Churchill spokesman denied the swearing.

Churchill isn’t the only bad egg in a battery farm of insurance companies though. Staff at Carphone Warehouse were caught by undercover researchers from BBC One’s Watchdog last autumn, after misleading customers about insurance for the Apple iPhone. The BBC researchers found Carphone staff made false claims about what would happen if a phone was stolen and hadn’t been insured.  According to the BBC, these false claims were made in the hope that “customers would take out the store’s own insurance”.

And back in January last year, a number of firms were slammed by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for misleading customers, and told that they must stop using savings claims in their advertising that could be deemed misleading.

So are any other insurance companies misleading us? Is anyone safe? Have you fallen foul to a deceptive advertising claim or discovered that your insurance policy wasn’t all you thought it was? Have your say in our forum.

And the moral of the story: Don’t believe everything your told. Especially if it comes from the mouth of a talking dog…