Back in January, several customers reached out to Speakers Corner complaining about their experience with Onlia Insurance. A company recently bought and changed from insurance provider to insurance broker, and that changeover had some hiccups for policy holders of the former company.
While Onlia has been working to address many of those issues, some customers say they’re still left frustrated.
Akisha McKenzie is one of them.
“I’ve been trying to reach out to them. They don’t answer. When they do answer, it’s like weeks later,” McKenzie said.
She had home, car and tenant insurance policies with Onlia with no issues for years until the company changed over from provider to broker.
“They cancelled both my home and my auto, and it was only after I contacted you that they reinstated the tenants policy,” she said.
Antonette Bailey says her Onlia auto policy was also not renewed January. She was told it was for non-payment even though she says Onlia was still withdrawing pre-authorized payments.
“The cancellation still went through before my date of renewal but they took the money up for the January payment,” she said. “They then kept going into my bank account to try and take payments, I then suffered from about $45, times three, with my bank for NSF fees, although they said my insurance was cancelled.”
Bailey, who found another company for her insurance needs, says she had to contact her bank to stop the payments from being withdrawn.
“I tried multiple ways to reach out to Onlia but it was very difficult to get a response.”
Onlia, which was purchased by Southampton Financial Holdings Inc. (SFHI), admits some customers maybe experiencing issues but a spokesperson says they did not cancel policies. The company was purchased only after Verrasure — the original underwriter — exited the market.
“Non-renewals by Verassure are not cancellations by Onlia. This distinction has been a recurring source of confusion and we have taken additional steps to clarify this through customer communications,” the spokesperson said.
Onlia says all the billing and payment processing issues customers were facing in December 2024 and January 2025 have been resolved.
“Some payments may be withdrawn after a policy has ended to cover any missed payments that were due prior to the cancellation date. These charges reflect the actual time the customer was insured (time on risk) and are not billing errors,” the spokesperson said. “In rare cases, system overlaps may have led to incorrect withdrawals. These are now being proactively identified, with refunds processed within one billing cycle.”
Onlia also says they’ve made several improvements since our last story including system upgrades to create a smoother online experience. They also say they’ve beefed up staff after several complaints regarding response times to customer concerns.
“Since February, we have hired additional staff dedicated to customer support and broker servicing. As a result, our average call wait times are now under six minutes. We are continuously working on improving our service levels,” the spokesperson told CityNews.
“Every complaint, call, and concern is tracked and used to drive service improvements. We want to emphasise that no customer is being left behind.”
But customers like McKenzie and Bailey, who feel they were left behind, have filed complaints with the Registered Insurance Brokers of Ontario (RIBO) asking them to investigate Onlia.
“We cannot comment on the specifics of complaints or ongoing investigations about any individual licensee,” a RIBO spokesperson told CityNews when we inquired about complaints filed.
“I’m not sure what led to the problems,” McKenzie told CityNews. “Obviously this company changed hands but the way things were handled should be looked into because it’s left a lot of us frustrated.”
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