“I discovered a lump on my nose and following an online consultation with a vitality GP I received a form for my GP to complete, confirming this wasn’t a pre-existing condition. My GP charges a £35 fee and has a 12 month backlog for completing these kind of forms. When I contacted Vitality this was dismissed as being in the, ‘terms and conditions’ I signed up to. Complete waste of money. I am having to go through NHS anyway. If my nose lump is assessed as benign I will definitely be changing insurer.
I should also add that Vitality could easily request my medical notes to confirm that this is not a pre-existing condition. When I spoke with their telephone operative she advised me they often get these forms back from GPs incomplete or even blank. This to me seems like a cynical tactic to prevent people making a claim.”
“If I could score them 0 I would. Absolute joke of a company, put in a claim with backing documents to still be emailed with the wrong details. Concerning when all they need has been sent to them in black and white. You spend hours on the phone to constantly be cut off for no reason, mis-information given back to you, the GP service is great but anything that has been referred is a joke! You pay in for years but God help you if you need to claim. Save your money and go elsewhere.”
“So complicated to get even small prescription claim. You have to spend days of your time for to clam even a £10. Support centre are not easy to get through either.”
“Been waiting for more than 2 hours (so far) to speak to someone in the call centre regarding my upcoming policy renewal, but VM says ' our staff are currently in a team meeting and our lines are therefore closed', then it just hangs up. What kind of customer care is that? How can the whole team be busy in the middle of a working day for more than 2 hours? And this is not the first time it's happened. Absolute waste of my time.”
“I was on sick leave last January and missed payments of three months and I beg them not to cancelled my two insurances but they don't care. They didn't refund the money as they said according to their policy. This is the second times I re join. I will say look for a better insurance company. I will not recommend this company.”
“Slow and difficult customer service. For all their boasts about being a top insurance company, they never admit fault when their systems don't work properly, are very difficult to get hold of to genuinely sort problems out, and their "rewards" system often breaks with customer service gaslighting you rather than helping as the different departments don't appear to talk to each other. We missed out on significant savings due to apple health not talking to the app properly and the response was "well you should have known" despite nothing being said about this apparently I own error. We have also paid for a reward that was meant to be dispatched in 7-14 days be we are still awaiting dispatch nearly a month later. Again, Vitality blamed us and denied the error that I highlighted in a system that they denied even existed until I showed them. As you can see in the response below, there is a complete disinterest in genuinely supporting their customers, with the response in question just dismissing any of the concerns listed.
"Good morning, Matt. Thank you very much for taking the time to leave us a review. I am disappointed to learn of your comments as this is most certainly not how we want any of our members to be left feeling, I can see from our records that we have investigated your issue following contact with ourselves and have issued a response with our findings. I hope this response offers some clarity for you, along with the relevant information you may need should you have any further queries. - Lisa"”
“I found them administratively incompetent. Their hub is useless. No consistency of personnel. They make mistakes all the time over career and treatment. They take no notice of feedback. Pitiful.”
“AWFUL.
How Neville Koopwitz can preside over a company that has a 1.3* rating is frankly a joke. Get some VOC data in your management meetings.
'Phone lines don't work for the travel team so I can't connect you' - any excuse whatsoever.”
“Dreadful company. No-one is accountable. They don’t put names on e-mails , there is no joined up service between departments. They’ve gone downhill quickly over the years I’ve used them. They try to bribe you into staying with a small discount and talk about cancer to scare you into staying.
Took ages to respond to a complaint and when they finally sent me the e mail with “complaint response attached” …. guess what ….. no attachment. So frustrating !!”
“Sorry to say this company is not good at customer service....
Takes them forever to answer the phone....when they do you are passed from department to department....I went through the security 3 times before I spoke to the correct person....
Even then its form after form.....I was paying nearly £400 per month......just cancelled !”
“I joined vitality healt a year ago and spent a very long time on the phone going through my health details and the conversation was recorded in which I made sure that prostate cancer was covered and the sales agent confirmed this at least 2 times. I then took out the policy based on the agents guarantee , 1 year on I developed the cancer and Vitality agree I was told I was covered but they now say it was a mistake. And I’m not covered the offered me £250 compensation but just my premiums were nearly £5000 I refused there offer and str now going to take legal proceedings against them. . Do not touch them. they are just another greedy insurance company”
“Dreadful. Couldn't instigate a claim due to the bank holiday. Wouldn't backdate claim when I eventually got speaking to them 4 days later. Completed claim online, rang them 4 times. A hour on hold. Sent an email. Totally useful. Rip off. I'll make sure you dissuade everyone I know from using them.”
“Bupa or Vitality? BUPA!
If anyone is considering medical insurance, I definitely recommend BUPA. (I used to have BUPA Insurance - now VITALITY)
Why no recommend Vitality:
- if you have a problem, e.g. anemia or chest pain, and you have a referral from your GP for a chest X-ray and blood test - they will not accept the referral from the GP and you have to go to a specialist? But the GP doesn't know which specialist to get a referral for a blood test? I have a problem that I have been coughing for 2 months, I have chest pain and Vitality tells me to go to the NHS GP and they do not want to accept the tests that the GP ordered for me during a face to face visit.
BUPA has no such problems. They refer you for tests if your general practitioner recommends tests.
- I had a referral from a Gynecologist for a breast examination. Unfortunately, a referral from a Gynecologist is not acceptable. It has to be a GP? Bupa does not have such problems. However, a Gynecologist is a specialist who also examines the breasts and may order an ultrasound or mammography?
- Very bad experience.”
“Poor healthcare provider and not worth the money. Numerous examples of poor service, plus they don’t want to pay for anything , which defeats the object of having healthcover.”
“I had a heart attack last quarter of last year. Been waiting for my claim for more than 4 months now. My GP and cardiologist sent all the necessary paperworks. Did a lot of phone calls, they keep promising that It wont be long last week. Then the last time i rang them again and verbalised my disappointment, they said they are asking again my GP for more additional information not even related o my heat attack . It seems like a delaying tactics.
Really disappointed with their services.
I will probably have another heart attack or DEAD by the time I will get my claim.
Until Now I'm still waiting.....!!!”
“I was convinced to shift from a more expensive insurance to Vitality. What a mistake! 1000 forms to fill for everything, multiple requests, time and resources waisted all to avoid taking care of me and of my claims. I was shocked. I cancelled my policy after less than a month.
When I provided a bad review on Trustpilot they immediately contacted me stating that if I had not provided extra details about my experience they would have challenged my bad review. This is what they are. Very quick to discipline their disappointed customers, extremely inefficient (on purpose) when it comes to providing services.
STAY AWAY”
“Awful to deal with. Took ages to resolve a straightforward claim and get treatment. Various delaying tactics used, including asking for forms I'd already sent so had to duplicate everything. Telephone calls often unanswered; when they were callbacks didn't materialise. Processing the claim saw continual delays due to incompetence and/or claim avoidance. At the time their website was a mess, more interested in flogging other stuff than creating a clear policyholder section. Oh, and like a lot of other companies (Virgin Money are you listening?) unless you download their app forget it! Vitality spends a fortune on advertising which would be better spent improving their service. But they won't because it's money they care about. Give them a miss.”
“Don’t think anything in the name relates to this company. They are just an insurance company that is trying to make as much money as they can.
I’ve been a member for three years and it’s never easy dealing with them. If only they could be like Petplan.”
