Woolworths Home and Contents Insurance

We had some water damage a few weeks back to our ceiling and pool table. Rang woolworths insurance, had trades people out within a few days. Cracked roof tiles caused leak, so now everything fixed. Pool table was a write off. I was a bit worried about woolworths insurance after reading reviews, but seriously cannot fault them. Highly recommend them.

I received an e mail about the renewal premium for my home and content Insurance. I noticed this was an increase of 23% from last Year. After many attempts and wasted time managed to speak to them and they agreed to adjust the premium and I agreed. Normally they debit my credit card for the premium, now I got a new card and I registered to alter my details. While doing so I made a mistake in my name. To correct this I have been trying to contact them for more than a week. Finally last Thursday I sent the following E mail.
"For the last 4days I have been trying to contact you by Mail, Text and phones. During this period I have called 6times and every time I held on the phone for a minimum of 20 minutes without any answer from your Unfriendly customer service. I have never encountered any other service in Australia like this!! As a last resort I went on a chat with one of your team and she couldn’t help me either!!

My problem is very simple, I want to pay my renewal insurance. I am unable to update my new credit card online. I want to talk to someone to pay the premium and update my credit card. This shouldn’t take more than 3 minutes on the phone.
If I don’t get a call from someone URGENTLY I will go on the public and other media to explain about WOOLWORTHS"

Siva Balendra

I have been with Comm bank for Home and contents Insurance for 4 years with Zero claims but still they increased my premium to $1400 from $1027. I searched for a cheaper option online and found that Woolworths are offering Home and Contents insurance at much much cheaper than CBA. I ended up paying $836 for the same policy and saved close to $560

I called them to do changes to my contents policy, was on hold for over 35 minutes and the phone got disconnected. All you hear when on hold is thanks for being patient, we will attend to you shortly. There is no mention about estimated hold time or what number you are in the queue. Most of the businesses do let the customer know the estimated wait time and provide option to receive a call back without losing your number in the queue. With such ridiculous amount of waiting time they should be offering a call back service. Even the small businesses have this in place, I wonder why a giant company like Woolworths won't put this in place. Do they think in this busy lives we have time to waste on the phone calls.
I just don't understand executives working with woolworths, getting fat salaries can't think of handling this issue by implementing a simple technology where people can leave their name and number to receive a call back instead of making them wait for hours.
They basically don't value customer's time at all and make them wait for hours. I went online as well, there is no options to do amendments to the policy, so basically you have to speak to a human being to do discuss the changes which means waste your valuable time waiting for someone to answer the call.
Looking for other options now to switch my insurance policy, I would rather give business to someone who cares for the customers.

I rang them to discuss payment of my policy and was on hold for 53 minutes before they answered. A ridiculous amount of time, no matter how busy they say they are.

After more than 16 months of having cover with Woolworths insurance they declined my first flood claim even without listening to me I'd cancelled my policy after few times calling them and waiting 1 hour to be answered very rude customer service!!!

Horrible to try and speak to by phone, even worse by " live chat". Simply waiting far too long to be acceptable. Due to trying to " speak " to a human being on my one day off, I was left so entirely frustrated 4 times, that I shopped around. I got much better seniors policy rate and after several years I wish I had done so much earlier. Dreadful customer relations if you are expected to wait for long periods of time every time you phone. Save yourself the hassle go to well known Senior Insurance providers if over 50, you will be.much better of. "The fresh food people" .....not by a long shot, by the time you get through, their generic music and so called soothing prompt are nothing but STALE AND UNFRESH....

please dont use woolworths home insurance I had a timber panel and tiles which had was water damaged they brought a assessor to my home and didnt advise me the scope of works to be completed

I have called multiple times to cancel my policy through 1300 numbers.
Whenever I call all their agents are busy at the moment. Bloody 30 minutes of waiting is nothing. This is ridiculous. Not once but many times. How can I rely on this kind of service as my insurance??????? Woolworths should be offering something better than this??

Had 2 home claims due to the Dec 2018 storms in NSW. On one house the antennae was knocked over and went through the roof causing leaks. The assessor managed to come out and COMPLETELY MISS the 4cm by 4cm hole punched through the roof by the antennae and tried to blame the leaks on an ageing roof. The other I have had 2 dodgy looking builders come out (no internet sites or contact details on the web) so am trying to settle but every time I call Woolworths they tell me a lessor figure than the last phone call. Have gone absolutely out of their way to reject my claim. Insurance Ombudsman here I come!

Had a hail storm in March. 5-6 inspections on the damage and only fly screens fixed. Sigh... I don’t see it ever been fixed. Some what disappointing. Probably will have to get it fixed myself and write it off.

Almost 7 months later and still have not finished basic repair work.... my word against a lying Builder John Lyng Group... Dodgey Lying Deceitful Stay away from both ... you have been

August 4th 2019 Update: Worst insurance company in the wold

After 8 months of dealing with idiots and the worst bunch of thieves at John Lyng group my repairs still aren’t looking like being done.... Woolworths insurance listens to what their lying builder tell them not what the customer says..... WARNING stay away from Woolworth Insurance at all costs.......they don’t know the first thing about customer support,, they should stick to groceries....after 47 phone calls to them I’m done....

1hr and 10 Minutes waiting on the phone, and still counting, I'm sure the CEO of Woolworths would find this an unaccepatable wait if went into any buisness!!!!!!
Why should your customers have to wait this long. Do Something About This!
What a waste of my time !!!

Just completed a major claim worth $120,000 when a flex hose flooded our house while we were on holiday. From the start to the end Woolworths were brilliant, they put us up in great accommodation and provide premium builders, we couldn’t recommend them more highly 11/10 Woolworths!

Claim made 4 January for a flood cased by hot water system. Claim approved. Assessor came out immediately. Paper work from Claims central received 5 March. Builder came out about 2 April and said he would be intouch 6 April but NEVER came back. I spoke to him on 19/4 and Gihad said he was really busy and I argued why accept the job then. It's 23 April, NO work has begun. Again, I ring Claim Central who have kept passing file around the office and NOTHING done who now transfer me to Hollard Insurance and I wait for hours trying to get through. Meanwhile, my 83 year old dad with Alzheimer's is sleeping in a room which has smelly damp carpet and his clothes in the closet are also going mouldy. Drycleaners collected all the clothes in the wardrobe and cleaned them. Some were not able to be cleaned as well as handbags. Jumpers had shrunk and now awaiting what they will do about these. It's now 29 June 2019, NO one returns my calls or emails and this claim is still not finalise. The carpet underlay still not changed and carpets not cleaned. DON'T go to Woolworths, not worth the stress if you have to make a claim. 6 months and still ongoing.

Woolworth's home and contents insurance was the cheapest of 5 quotes. I got a quote using Woolworth's website but two days later the website wouldn't let me open my quote. So I telephoned and asked for an email of my quote which I received. All of my questions asked on the telephone were answered clearly and politely. To compensate for my inconvenience caused by the Woolworth's website issue I was offered a $50 discount voucher. I have read a lot of adverse reviews here but I will proceed with Woolworth's home and contents insurance because I am confident that, should I make a claim and should a problem occur, I can handle any problems.

The first call gave me picture of woolworths insurances home and content is unreliable, I asked for a quote it was verbal and failed to send me an email quote of PDS which was promised ; if the insurance is cheaper by $50 per month from the current provider do not even think of taking insurance from woolworth bunch.

Woolworths insurance will not cover claims that most other insurance companies will cover. They send contractors out specifically to back out of claims. My elderly mother and father had a fair claim. Never made a home insurance claim in 45+ years. Woolworths knocked a claim back that other insurance companies would honour. I know this for fact as we found other people that had the same issue covered by another insurance company. Absolute thieves, very rude and will keep you waiting as long as they can on the phone. You may save a few dollars going with Woolworths insurance but if you need to ever make a claim good luck chances are they won’t honour it.

I have a water leak under the bathroom floor. I’ve called customer service over the weekend, they have told me to go ahead and get it fixed and put in the claim once I have paid the repair bills. They told me I could arrange my own suppliers as they have no preference on suppliers. However they won’t tell me what I’m covered for on my policy. This is really poor. I’m terrified of having a large repair bill that I can’t afford to meet - that’s why I have insurance. Yet you can’t tell me what I’m covered for. This is not a positive or reassuring experience. After reading the other reviews I’m not hopeful that this experience will be quick or easy to resolve (and I mean the insurance claim), getting the leak fixed and floor tiles taken up and replaced is beginning to look easier than dealing with the insurance company. Seriously considering switching once this is over. The whole ‘value for money’ experience is heavily dependent on the claims experience. Watch this space - if it’s a fair customer experience then I’ll be happy to come back and say so.

I was robbed beside my garage and the Insurance classified this event as out of home robbery which resulted in paying $800 of the claim that was about $4,000.

Anyhow, that was not so terrible as it was the claim process. I called the Insurance 3 to 4 times over a period of 2 months and had to wait between 30min and 45min each time I called. To check the progress of the claim, i would send an e-mail with reference nimber and all relevant details to them, however, the emails were never responded to.
I would never recommend Woolworths Insurance to anyone, even though their price was very competitive.