Retailers: Stop Price Matching!

I’ve had my motorbike for two years, so naturally the insurance has recently come up for renewal. The renewal notice arrived, and it seemed expensive to me, so I thought I’d do a quick check. Googling (in Spanish) “Motorcycle insurance Spain” gave me a huge choice of options, and I chose one.

Five minutes and a few online forms later, I had an online quote – fully €100 (almost a third) less than my current insurer’s quote. I decided I’d go with them, and printed the forms for completion and faxing later.

Within the hour, my existing insurer called me:

“Just checking that you received the renewal papers, and that you’d like to go ahead with us.”

“I did, but I’m not renewing, I’ve had a much cheaper quote thanks. In fact €100 cheaper.”

“May I talk with my supervisor and come back to you?”

“Sure.”

Five minutes later:

“Good news! We can match the price you gave us.”

At this point I was getting a little annoyed. I have two cars also insured with these guys. I haven’t checked a quote of theirs for a few years. If I hadn’t bothered to this time, I would have been throwing another €100 after how many previous hundreds they’d overcharged me? And if they could match the price now, why weren’t they doing it anyway?

“OK, if you can match it, then I’ll renew with you.”

Despite all the above, I also realized that renewing would be way less hassle – no forms to fill in and they would simply take the money from the bank.

“Excellent, you just need to get a copy of the quote in writing.”

“It was an online quote,just go to blahblahblahdotcom and input my information and you can get a quote.”

“I’m sorry, we need it in writing.”

“I’ll do the quote process again, and take a screenshot?”

“No, sorry, we need it in writing, or we can’t match it.”

Now I was really annoyed. In order to get the matched price, I had to contact a company I’d never used before, waste their time by insisting on a written quote when I had no intention of using them, then go to the trouble of sending it to my own insurers.

You might argue that it’s worth it for €100, and you’d probably be right. But by this time the red mist had overcome me, and I decided I would move to the new insurer.

I hate the whole price match thing. If they can do it at the price, then they should, surely? If you sell on price, why not just give your best price?

Better still, why don’t they employ people to check other people’s pricing all the time? Why should I have to do it?

And then, why insist on me getting a paper quote? Why can’t they simply check on their competitor’s site?

Have they not realized that keeping me on board is so much cheaper than marketing to find new business? Why don’t I get a huge discount as an exiting customer that reflects the fact that I’ve cost nothing to capture?

What do you think?

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