Group Benefits Reviews

Manulife Group Benefits Insurance Reviews

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(80 reviews)
Manulife
1.3 out of 5 stars:
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The Worst Insurance Company

by NoraF on Feb 18, 2022
1 out of 5 stars

I've had coverage through Manulife several times over the years through different companies I worked for as well as once for life insurance. Each time an employer had benefits through Manulife it was awful. They typically do not provide packages that offer eye care or things like a visit to the audiologist. The coverage is also often very low such as $200 coverage for glasses. Well, good glasses from an eye doctor have cost over $500 for the last ten years. Or $75 coverage for an eye exam. Well, eye exams now cost well over $100. We've had to call a few times about coverage and they always put you on hold for extended periods of time and then come back and let you know that there's nothing for your needs.
The life insurance experience was atrocious. The people on the phone couldn't understand English and one woman thought that I told her I had tumors! I don't. Then another person lied and said we would be 100% covered through them for death and disability. They sent a package that showed we were preapproved for 100% coverage. Then after we signed up with them they sent another package that showed the underwriters had refused us full coverage and we were paying full premiums for partial coverage. Our broker working with us was very upset. We ended up switching to another insurance company. However, Manulife continued to withdraw funds from our bank account for six months! When I figured out what was happening and called the woman on the other end refused to refund the funds claiming that it was our fault for not calling sooner. I assured her that we would be blocking them from taking any funds from our accounts in the future.
Both my husband and I currently have Manulife as our insurance provider and I hope to be filing a complaint with our Human Resources group about it shortly. They're awful and I really encourage anyone who has a choice to go elsewhere.

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LONG-TERM DISABILITY BENEFITS

by Denied on Aug 30, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

My daughter started a new job with a company whose benefit plan is provided by Manulife. During her first 3-month probation period she visited her doctor and received a prescription for anxiety. Six months after she started her job she required hospital care for a mental health disorder. Since she visited her doctor and received a prescription drug during her first 3 months of employment, Manulife denied her long-term disability benefits due to her having a "pre-existing condition". She lost 9 months of disability benefits. Manulife self-promotes itself as supporting mental health initiatives at the same time that they deny benefits to mental health patients. Public, corporate image is more important to Manulife than supporting its clients with the benefits that their clients' premiums are paying for. It would likely follow that if a cancer patient started a new job with a company whose benefit plan was provided by Manulife, they would have to stop their cancer treatments for their first 3 months of employment or they too would be deemed to have a "pre-existing condition" that would negate long-term disability benefits if the cancer required extensive hospital care. Manulife focuses on their profits first and caring about their clients last.

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Awful to deal with for medical

by Amanda on May 13, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

Through my work group insurance I have dealt with many companies over the years...Blue Cross...you name it...but these guys are the absolute worst. They turn down claims based on a few dollars and expect the client to pay hundreds because they'll save 20. Not good enough when you are paying these people 40 or 50 dollars a week for coverage that you have no say in. It's just so unfair and disheartening to see a big company like this treat their clients like this. I would never recommend this company. Ever.

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Review topics

Forms - denial

by Michael T on Jun 23, 2015
1 out of 5 stars

They have multiple layers of forms to fill out before they will process a claim.And if you miss any detail it is denied and sent back.
Enough to frustrate the most patient and organized accountants in the world....
I have coverage through my employer and every time I see an ad for them I hope people read these reviews as I would never deal with them if I had the option.
The only reason I continue to go through their processes is that I won't let them win.
I have co-workers who just don't bother anymore.

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Refusing to insure child

by frustrated on Jun 27, 2014
1.5 out of 5 stars

Our daughter has a heart murmur for which she has never received any treatment or medical intervention. Manulife has only recently allowed our her two siblings to be covered on our group insurance plan, after a full year of waiting. We have had to jump through all sorts of hoops and still our daughter, who doesn't even have to take antibiotics when she visits the dentist, is not a recipient of our family's benefits.

When I do contact Manulife they try to imply that they have no record of my husband's policy, because they never include his certificate number on any correspondence that we've received. I'm curious as to how they suppose that I'm receiving correspondence from them, because they certainly seem to have at least our address! I am very unimpressed with this company and their lack of desire to help.

He/she put me on hold for about 15 minutes and when they came to say they couldn't help me, the customer service representative, (admittedly I was angry by this point), pretended that he/she couldn't hear me. I demanded their name, and they simply continued to pretend that they couldn't hear me. I demanded to speak to a manager, and they continued the game of not being able to hear me....even fading their voice so that maybe I might think that the connection was fading out. I hung up and phoned back and guess what? The customer service rep that I got this time, could hear me just fine! And she was able to help me, quickly, I might add!

I get it, it's not fun to deal with an angry and frustrated customer and I was hopping mad, but just pass me off to management rather than implying that I don't know what I'm talking about or playing games with me!

Sadly the experiences that I've had when I've had to contact Manulife have more closely resembled my encounter with the fading out customer service rep rather than the lady who I later spoke with.

I just want our daughter, who is eight and as healthy as a horse to be taken care of! It's been over a year of waiting!

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Frustrated

by Frustrated on Aug 25, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

I am under my husband's benefit plan and we have had non stop issues dealing with them. Every time I call them to ask them questions or try to get answers they have said your husband needs to call and we will discuss with him the plan. Even to change a password they said that I need my husband to call.

Also, they originally said that our plan started on the 10th so I went in to get my eyes checked. When I went to pay it was denied from Manulife. My husband called and they said the plan didn't start till the 20th!! What??? We were told that it started the 10th. All the guy said on the other line was "I apologize." He didn't do anything about it!!

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Ripped off since 07/01/2012

by Irish666 on Aug 7, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

They have given us back $435 out of almost $3000. They owe us they have avoided us but sure keep taking money off my husbands paychecks knowing they are denying us any claims we put in. We have tried to arrange a meetings and have waited for calls twice. These calls never come. It took me 4 years to figure out my husband did not have direct deposit and he was not getting any money back from my claims.. Not once did the company contact us to question why we're putting in claims and we never got anything via email or mail to let us know there was a problem. We have paid almost 10,000. For coverage we were never covered for.. No apologies no explaination. I'm so discussed with how we're are being treated they got our money they don't care about us...Poor customer service .
I asked how far back they could go they said 2 years gave us 6 months. The employee said as long as I'd submitted they had to pay... even after I run around getting duplicate receipts and they refused everything anyway....Not understanding or professional at all so if you want to give your money away I'm out 10,000. Go to Great West they were amazing before Husbands company wanted to save money by dropping dental and went to manulife for more money less coverage then they did not cover us anyway.... what a waste.... half a years wages gone...Sorry I'm very dissapointed and want others to not have to be treated like we have.

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Short Term Disability

by STD anxiety on Aug 1, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

Applied for short term disability due to anxiety from work. I received a phone call from a Manulife rep and she asked me questions if I was ready to go back to work. I said no as my doctor said I was not ready yet. She then said I needed to have another form filled out to extend my benefits from the doctor. She then said you have to go back to work on a certain date. Which was a week later which did not give me time to talk to my doctor, so I had to tell her I couldn't go to work before seeing my doctor. They did not send me the form and I had to ask twice before I got it. I have been taking medication and it had horrible side effects for me so I could not take them, she says oh come on it's not that bad and was very rude. She then says did you go on vacation and I said no as I have not, and then she says I find that hard to believe. Where do they get off for being so rude and what gives them a right to decide that I am well enough to goto work. Long story short got the form filled out and sent it in. Received an email back saying we will decided if your STD will be extended.

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Useless

by DM on May 30, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

I've been covered under different insurance plans such as Great West Life and Equitable in the past, and I have never in my life been given as much hassle as I have with Manulife. They won't allow me to submit claims online - I have to physically mail in my receipts - only to have them rejected for arbitrary reasons a few weeks later. The company I was with previously​ reimbursed me for the exact same service within a day or two of online submission.

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Excellent service and value

by eagleye on Mar 12, 2017
5 out of 5 stars

I've had three experiences on the claims side with Manulife. Two were of their life insurance policies and one was with their group employer short-term and long term disability coverage. In all three cases, I was not the claimant as such. With the two life insurance claims, I was the executor and administrator of two separate estates where the deceased was life insured by Manulife.

In both life insurance death benefits claims cases, Manulife's claims dept representatives were helpful, efficient and professional in their work. In both cases the death benefits were paid in full, expeditiously and without any delays or obstacles.

In the case of the short and long term disability case, it involved one of our company's employees. There again, Manulife's service was exemplary.

In a sense, am surprised by some of the negative reviews; however, it is more likely that one would be more motivated to place a negative review when feeling to be short-changed than a positive review for just receiving the expected. Thinking back I did have a terrible experience with one of the bank-owned insurance companies who did everything to deny a valid and fully documented travel medical emergency claim to the point that they eventually succeeded in frustrating the claim.

That case, not with Manulife but one of the bank-owned insurance companies, involved a medical emergency during a Carribean cruise. Despite having all the documentation, diagnosis, treatment, etc. they insisted on interviewing that attending physician whose personal contact information was unavailable due to privacy rules of the cruise liner. Apparently, they knew about that privacy rule of the cruise liner and used that knowledge to zap the customer.

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