Last week I had an amazingly bad customer service experience with Sunlife Financial.  It was probably the worst overall experience I have had with any company during my entire life.  Enough to make  me think I should to sell all my Sunlife shares.

A simple Question

The amount paid by my group medical drug claim plan administered by Sunlife, for a drug I have been taking for years, changed.  Not by much but you figure there has to be a reason.  The pharmacist (who auto processes the claims) had no idea but did indicate Sunlife had recently outsourced their group benefit claims processing to a third party, I should contact Sunlife.

My Incredible Journey

First I tried using Sunlife’s on-line chat to request an explanation, the AI transferred me to a service rep. who indicated they could not help and would transfer my chat.

The chat was dropped and I tried again, same steps, dropped again.  The third try I complained and the rep. stayed with the transfer till it was complete.  Unfortunately I was transferred to the wrong rep., they tried another transfer and of course, dropped again.

So I phoned.  After being transferred four  times, with my identity checked on each transfer, I got a service representative but in this case the title was an oxymoron as she refused to provide service, insisted I fax my receipt and they would get back to me in a couple of weeks.   I did this but have not heard anything yet.

Not Giving Up

So I tried a secure email, in which I pointed out the BMO group plan rules and how they had not been followed in the case.  My response (finally) explained how the calculation was done.  Although it was clearly in violation of the plan claim payment rules outlined in the BMO benefit booklet, this fact was ignored.

Keep on trying

So now I am following up with BMO the group plan holder.  My question, do you care Sunlfe is not following your stated benefit payment rules?  I guess it will be interesting to find out what happens next but I at this point I do not expect much.