Only on here although we do probably have mutual friends I think I’m also a few years older than my other poster friend
I like the term merged!!!! Cough Cough .... Known in the trade as ALLIED crowbar they used high pressure techniques and fell foul to 000's of complaints and 000's of misled customers that when the time came to"cash in" found what they had been told didnt measure up ..especially endowment mortgages ... hopefully you were not part of that! I think they were based in Swindon? I think their demise around the same time as ABBEY LIFE? I had 2 of their policies and didnt get back anything like or the terms I had believed were part of ... Abbey were banned from selling anymore business but continued to trade as management of their existing funds..
Banksy’s best mate is one of my wife’s friends from when she started out in insurance when she was with Royal Assurance.
I think we established that we have mutual friends/colleagues Angelic. Several of my old Somerfield colleagues ended up working with you I believe..(?)
thats good! I came up against them a few times .. our most senior manager at the time used to go back [ after we left the appointment had to phone in for a debrief if not a sale ] within an hour and 4/5 got them to sign up with us [ so I got the deal and got paid ] ........ I remember one occassion the crowbar rep had told them they would get more than double, and cash in hand on what they owed on the house at the end of the 25 year term. pay off mortgage £30k and still have £60k or more over!
Yes bcfcredandwhite Friends that came to Capgemini in the late 90s abd early 2000s worked for Somerfield in Whitchurch, which is only a 2 minute drive from where I live
used to take me 6 mins..lol .. one of my best earners is now all changed ... when the private equity company that had bought Somerfield out of the stockmarket listing the plan was always to "cash in on it as they did" 5 or 6 years ago! every month on a Friday night I had to to pick up the minutes of the monthly board meeting and take it to one of the top directors down in the new forest. would have to wait for him to read and sign then take them back. WHILST he did that I had free reign of the kitchen! the island in the middle of it was bigger than most peoples kitchens at home. AS the then 5th largest supermarket chain they knew it was a good time to integrate into the others or flounder! CO OP basically got the dregs! Tesco did best and Sainsbury and Morrison [ mostly Scotland and north England ] did well. I lost out on about £600 per week! But other jobs came my way so drop was only about £200.........
When I left school started as trainee estimator, at a glazing company on Hartcliffe way only there a short time as went to college to become computer programmer, hated it so left and went into transport, had various transport supervisor/managers jobs, one of which I worked with JGF, then bad health meant I decided to Knock the stress of management on the head, did a bit of time as self employed motorcycle courier, absolutely loved it, money was crap and broke my wrist in a crash on the Bath Road, held up rush hr traffic for couple of hrs. Left that and just worked in a warehouse for a bit, no stress loved it, then within the same company changed to working on a van collecting damaged TV’s , delivering and installing repaired ones. Then went on to repairing TV’s in people’s homes, before a career change again working in Insurance.
Hi ROD, I joined as a scrawny 16 year old apprentice soldier in 1988, and rose to the dizzy heights of WO1, then got commissioned to be an officer, and joined the Australian Army, topping out as a Captain ( 1 year short of getting Major, but I'd had enough by then) and leaving in 2016. No issues with the transition tbh, but then again, I was in a job/corps that had been heavily civilianized over the previous 10-15 years, so working with civvies was nothing new to me. I don't miss the Army at all tbh.
When I look back on my life, it's had the usual ups and downs, but there have been few regrets. Overall I've done ok - quite well actually. However, not having served in the military is one life regret I do have. I'm in awe of people who have served. Not sure when I could have done it though without being away from my family - I was a father at 21!!!
