Bastard insurance company Part II

The saga continues regarding me being insured by two health insurance companies because my old one didn't get cancelled like it should have. When we last left off, I had only just found out that my old insurance wasn't cancelled and it was too late to do so by me, and I was ready to go yell at my new insurance company to make sure things happened. Two months later, things aren't quite resolved and it's just been a laughable mess since then.

So I talked to Zilveren Kruis, the new insurance company, a couple of times demanding that they sort out things since they screwed them up. At first their answer was "Well, this has happened to quite a few people and there are 'negotiations' to get things cancelled and it'll be another 3 weeks or so before we find out the results of that." And I was like, um, no. I'm paying two premiums right now, you guys fucked things up, sort it out. And twice they said something like "we'll send something to the old insurance to get it cancelled" or "we'll call them and fix it" but of course nothing happened.

Eventually I emailed a person in my company's HR to at least let them know I wasn't happy and to ask if they could help at all, since it is a collective agreement I went with, so my company has some part in this. After some not too welcome, but not untrue, advice that maybe I should have made sure things were cancelled a long time back, the HR woman told me that she'd called Zilveren Kruis and was rather confused because apparently the old insurance they had on record for me wasn't from Agis, but from IZR and they even had a polis number listed. IZR is O's old insurance company, and the polis number turned out to be his. So ZK was "in negotiations" to try and cancel with the wrong fucking company.

I was absolutely livid. I told the HR woman that I had no idea why on earth that company and number was tied to my name when it wasn't mine, and then O, already in a pissed-off mood, got on the phone with ZK and got things straight with them, though you never can trust they actually got things straight.

A couple of more weeks pass and I finally get a letter from ZK telling me they can't insure me, though the reasons have nothing to do with my actual situation. They say that can't even take me on as a customer because I didn't send in my application before the 1 March deadline, which is complete bullshit. And besides, they've already taken me on as a customer, sending me not just 1, but 2, polisbladen, and paying one of my bills already. We were just about to leave for Brussels though, so I was going to call them when we got back.

After we got back, I had another letter from ZK, this time tailored a bit more to what was actually going on. It had my customer number and all and said my insurance with them was being cancelled due to being insured with two companies. I love the part that says "Are you unsatisfied with our service or feel we've made a wrong decision?" and then an email and post address where you can file complaints. Yeah, those might come in handy. Also, they let me know that if I turn in the zorgpas that I'd not even received to one of their service points, it can be recycled in an environmentally friendly manner. Yippee. Nothing in the letter, however, about what I am slightly more concerned about: how and when am I going to get all the premium I've paid refunded? I love how the first thing I ever got from them, before I even got my information packet, was a letter saying they were taking 4 months worth of premium, and likely the last thing I'll ever get from them is a letter with them finally saying I'll be getting my money back.

A couple of days after the cancellation letter, I get yet another letter in the mail from ZK. My zorgpas. Before O even gets his. Yay, now I can go have it recycled. Or maybe I'll write what I think of ZK on the card and post it back to them.

So we pass into June and I still am having two insurance premiums taken out of my account each month, a total of almost 200 eur every month I'm paying right now, and I'm just waiting for the day when I'll finally get back the more than 500 eur or so owed me by either of the companies, but that day is not here yet. I let the woman in HR know my insurance with ZK was cancelled, because she said that I could possibly get a reimbursment from them for not being able to join the collective agreement this year and I wanted to know how I can get that, and she wrote back saying she had forwarded my emails to her contact at ZK and we'd see what happens. I'm not sure if she means they might be able to sort things out and get me insured (if so, why didn't she do this when I emailed about this weeks ago?) or if she'd see what they say about me getting the reimbursement. I'll have to ask her tomorrow. I just want this whole mess over with and my fucking money back, and then I can write a nice little letter to ZK, and also to whatever consumer organizations I can find, and let them know how happy I have been with them in the short time I've been (or was) a customer with them.