Great-West Life Group Benefits Insurance Reviews

This company only wants the premium. They do not want to do any service. They try their very best to frustrate customers. Calls take > 30 minutes to connect anyone. Emails take 4 days or more.

I feel like they scam people I’ve paid into this company for years through my work. I never had to use them until just recently. I had to have surgery and was going to be off work for 1 month to 6 weeks. All the papers were filled out by both myself and the surgeon. It has been a month and I have not seen any money from them... In fact, they are asking for all the forms to be filled out again by me and my surgeon. My surgeon has faxed them three times now..now no one is responding to my calls and messages that I have left. I had to pay my bills and rent with my credit card. I’m running out of money and I feel helpless. I’m not sure what to do anymore. This company needs to be Investigated.

I've been off work for 5 months, my EI ran out in April, it is now the end of May. They told me complete lies about waiting for my employer to respond about my income to find out they didn't actually reach out until May 23rd. I've called a few times a week and they kept giving me the same excuse while talking down to me as if I'm bothering them to do their job. Now the person who handled my claim is away and will call me next week. I've been told next week for 4 weeks. This is completely unprofessional, you can't seem to get through to anyone in charge. I'm a single mother, having health issues, no other income. This is insurance I pay for and they treat me like I'm working for them. I have not been able to speak to one person who has been polite or understanding during this whole process. This is completely unprofessional...

If you have an option, stay away from their service. I tried to call a general helpline and find out more info regarding disability claims. They gave me another to call for disability claim info. I called that number, and the lady on the phone told me I should call another office in Scarborough, so I called Scarborough disability claim office. They said they only help with existing claims. With all this passing around, I still couldn't find out if they will accept my situation, where to submit claims, and how to get claim form etc. Useless, rude, slow, ineffective customer services. Lastly, I found out I should contact my account rep-M.D. She never answers her phones or returns phone calls. Every time I call, she is out of the office or away from the desk. If your company is short of staffing, hire more people, and hire smarter people. Super Disappointed

If you have a choice, stay away from this company. They will do anything to not pay your claims. i.e. multiple short-term disability claims of my colleagues have been delayed in payment for months after their disability period. Cancer medication claims have been ignored over and over again. One of my colleague's husband passed away more than 6 months ago and there are still no payments. You can imagine the financial stress this creates. For myself, basically, every claim in the region of 100 $ + (over one hundred) is "randomly" selected for audit half the time then ignored after successful completion of the audit. The customer support line phone always has a busy tone. You simply cannot reach them. The online written requests get no answer. If you escalate to your company administrator, they will make statements that they tried to call you three times to clarify. They will state that you as a customer ignored them and therefore they do not pay. I can go on and on with these stories... Overall, this is a full-on fraud company.

Unfortunately, my husband has a group plan with this company. They provide the worst customer services, the hotline often gets disconnected. They refused claims even though we provided all the documentation they requested. I'm just hoping their company will choose another insurance company with better credibility, I can’t wait for this nightmare to end soon.

I recently was really sick on a trip to Cuba, I am from Canada. My workplace has "travel assistance" coverage through Great West Life. I read through their benefit booklet before I left and felt assured that they would have the resources to help in an emergency. This is a quote from our benefits booklet. "This program provides medical assistance through a worldwide communications network that operates 24Hours a day. The Network Locates medical services and obtains Great West Life's approval of covered services, when required as a result of a medical emergency" They talk a good game, sounds pretty sophisticated, and sounds like they have resources to help. Unfortunately, I was violently ill in Cuba. We are all given an emergency travel assistance card, so I tried calling the number on the card. It didn't work. And they had a special number just for when you are in Cuba. There was also some fine print that mentioned you may need to dial "00" instead of 1 if you are in another country. I tried this, this also didn't work. So then I tried dialling "00" plus "1". And it worked! I got through. Now I will certainly get some help....not so. They had absolutely no medical assistance for me at all. I had to go and find my own...in Cuba....while violently ill. The customer service rep was like a cold robot. They didn't seem interested at all in providing help. I'm asking for help and all the guy wants is my address, my phone number and postal code. Another thing is, you need to call the number they give you first or they may not pay your claim. They then give improper instructions for dialling outside the country. So your claim can be denied. Highly unethical company, to the point of straight-up fraudulent in my opinion. We need stronger laws in Canada for this type of behaviour.

Calling in to their customer support will guarantee you to wait on the phone, as their call centre seems both understaffed and underqualified. Also the call centre agents are oblivious to my benefits and insisted I contact the HR of the company I am working for - what is their customer support centre's purpose then?

Website provides minimal information regarding group benefits plan to see what my coverage is. Coverage is pretty terrible for the money, some of the worst that I've seen from any group plans so far. Dental claims are often delayed or denied with no clear explanation. To give them credit, getting a pair of subscription glasses went moderately well, but even that somehow took longer than 4 weeks to process.

This is the worst company I have ever had the displeasure of having to deal with have been trying to set up my benefits package for a years time now with no response other than a number with a reference code that don't exist. They have bin deducting money from my pay cheques for the entire time and tell me I have no benefits with their company and that they have no record of me at all in their system. I would recommend everybody to steer the hell clear from this company.

Quite horrified from dealing with Great West Life regarding the group medical benefits plan we pay into at work. After a dental claim was refused by GWL because my dental office booked my appointment 7 days early from my 12 month anniversary of that appointment, they refused to process the claim. When I called out that this fact isn't clear to members (most plans are as strict with the 12 rolling months issue), they indicated that there was no course of action for me, no way of escalating the matter, or getting any satisfaction from GWL. That's consistent with the rest of the complaints about this crappy company and coverage. It's table stakes coverage at a standardized rate and a lack lustre experience all the way around.
Take charge in your workplace. Petition for better service. Both dental clinics and insurance companies have it very easy - they are guaranteed payment of premiums by the employer (retaining at source) and no one disputes dental clinics maxing out their clients' plans.
The only one NOT profiting from this arrangement is the consumer who must pay for everything even when the service is REALLY BAD.
Great West Life - you suck big time!