Sun Life Group Benefits Insurance Reviews

I had no choice but to choose Sun life since my company is tied up with them. I applied for Short Term Disability (STD) in January 2016 due to a mental illness I have (depression and anxiety). Could not work so needed time off, so I applied and submitted to Sun Life. Within 3 days they declined my claim saying it is not a physical injury that prevents me from working and further says I'm claiming money for personal reasons!

Being said, Sun Life thinks mental illness is a joke unless I have a disease or in physical pain. A huge disappointment coming from a large corporation to make this comment. And to think in Canada we raised 25 million dollars to research on the stigma on mental illness and Sun life thinks it's nothing. And to think I'm claiming money for personal reasons??

I spend more than $100 to complete this from only to be denied in 3 days. Worst insurance company ever, and now I have to force myself to return back to work with this illness.

This company is the worst to deal with. I pay for coverage through my employer for short-term disability. I had carpal tunnel surgery in September and am still unable to return to work. My surgeon filled out the paperwork stating no use of the right hand. Not sure what more they need. There is a very high chance of another surgery to try to correct the problem. Now more paperwork needs to be filled out by the doctor. What a run around. They say they will return your call within 24 hours. Another crock. It took my member of parliament calling them for the call to be returned. I have not been denied yet but looks like it is going to go that way. I am trying to find out if there is a way to opt out of paying for this as when it is needed, they don't pay. I have never claimed been unable to work until now. I am not asking to be off for the rest of my life. Just until they fix the problem. I would rather donate my payments. Why should I have to pay for something I can never use? This company is a joke. I realize that they make money by not paying out however it is crooked to take money from people if they can never utilize the services that are supposed to be provided that you pay for. Will be talking to my union to see what steps to take to remove this payment from my pay and put it to anywhere but these crooks

My fiancee was insured with Sun Life through her employer and we had a great package (medic, dental, life). When she lost her job, a Sun Life agent contacted her to offer us to continue with the same package but for a higher price which we found worth it. I gave them my credit cart information to activate the coverage.

When we received all our insurance details by mail almost one month after, we realized that we were not getting the same deal, not AT ALL. There is no way we would ever pay what we were paying for that kind of coverage.

We tried to call Sun Life many times and could only leave a voice message, no agents available. They would not even return our calls! We kept trying week after week after week, on a lucky day we would get to an agent who promised that someone more qualified would call us back. Never happened.

In the meanwhile they kept taking payments on my credit card. We also tried by email and kept receiving automatic responses saying they would get back to us in two days... which of course never happened. The last email we received was saying that our cancellation was under review and that it would be processed within 10 open days. 15 open days later, no answer yet and they took another payment on my card.

This is a real joke, I have never seen such a bad customer service. This is close to robbery. If you can get Sun Life coverage with your employer, fine. But never, NEVER deal with them as a private consumer.

You've been warned.

My employer uses Sun Life, so I'm stuck with them. I've even considered other jobs just so I do not have to deal with them. If I could give zero stars I would. Their interface is convoluted and their customer service is atrocious! No one wants to take any accountability and pass you around until you've literally spoken with a dozen unhelpful individuals only to have you give up in sheer horror and disgust. My partner has blue cross and I thought being treated like subhuman was the norm until I spoke with them once. Wow! What a difference!

I am a Civil Servant with a group policy through Sun Life. I was involved in a high speed MVA (no fault of my own deemed by ICBC) by a driver under the influence who fled the scene. I have a RCMP file number and a lawyer looking into my case.

My injuries are severe including a concussion with very slow progress. I applied in April and my claim was denied in August even though final tests results were not sent to my doctor yet. I have appealed with new information from 2 medical professionals stating my incapacity and I am unable to perform my duties. It has taken until end of June before I even heard back from a Sun Life rep. only because I placed a phone call.

My claim has passed through multiple agents including one of the first agents recording of "this will be approved." The agent has now mysteriously disappeared and my claim has passed through the hands of 4 other agents with another agent being removed from my file and then another agent denying my claim.

I have contacted a manager and will be moving forward to contacting her Director and will keep going upwards including the media in this and involving ministers in this matter.

I have been a civil serv. for over 30 years and have been fortunate enough to never have to utilize the services of Sun Life. I also have a disability which I have managed through the help of my physicians and myself that is not related to this incident. I cannot believe the lack of service and empathy on Sun Lifes part and I am very disgusted with how they handle claims.

I have used all sick benebits available and now have no income. I have now been told it can take 30 days for the appeal process. I have placed a urgent call to this "new" agent and I am waiting to hear back.

If anyone out there is considering a health policy I suggest you may want to look else where than with them. I would not want anyone to have to go through the horrible stress that I am going through with this company. I had no choice to use them as that is who the Federal Government uses.

I have been dealing with this insurance company through my own company and I have to say that their company culture is highly problematic. I went on long-term disability and I had issues regarding both drugs and disability.

Now, while complaints and issues happen with all insurances, the problem with Sun Life Financial is the way they do things. Not only do they seem to attract incompetent people ( 3/3 never returned calls/ e-mails over the course of weeks), they won't let you change whoever is assigned to your case, effectively stonewalling you in case things go bad.

For example, I was refused to be insured for a drug because it had the wrong code (never mind the fact that it was a refill of a drug that had been insured the other time). When I escalated this situation to the supervisor, I was told they would find the right code with the pharmacy. 6 weeks, 5 calls later, that supervisor, Mrs. X, is absolutely unreachable. Worst, whenever I called to ask to get in touch with Mrs. X's colleague or boss through the customer service, I was told it would be done before being transferred to Mrs. X's voicemail.

In the end, Mrs.X seemed to not appreciate my behavior of searching for a resolution as she called back and said there was nothing to do.

I've written enough for a review, but I have a similar experience with the disability department, letting me know that it's a company wide problem, not just a single person problem.

Word of advice: Avoid like the plague.

LTD benefits were offered through my employer. I almost DIED and Sun Life DENIED the benefits that were part of my benefit package through my employer. They used ONE sentence in ONE medical record that indicated my condition was "improving" (ie, no longer DYING) and they denied me based on that.

My "customer service representative" was a poor excuse for a human being and should be ashamed of herself for treating other human beings like that!

Ended up having to get an attorney to get what I was owed, and they still SUCK! If there is a holiday, they don't prepare in advance and get the checks cut early! Oh no, they wait until AFTER the holidays and just send your check LATE!

They should be shut down!

If your employer offers you this insurance either refuse it or see if they are willing to look into other insurance companies. I have 100% on prescriptions, but today I have spent over an hour in my pharmacy trying to find out if an IUD is covered by my benefits. It got to the point that my pharmacist had to sit on the phone and firstly explain what an IUD was and that there were non-hormonal and hormonal ones. .. He had to explain multiple times that because it was not hormonal it did not have a drug identification number. They attempted multiple times to tell me to just pay for the item and submit a claim to see if it was covered but luckily my pharmacist stood his ground and made Sun Life search their systems until they found the item (which they had previously told us either didn't exist or was too new and so wasn't in their system). In the end I was told that the item was not covered (which is frustrating) but I was told still to attempt to submit a claim, so it it covered or not?!
My pharmacist told me that he has made claims with Alberta Blue Cross and other companies for this IUD without any trouble. I don't know why I was surprised since every other medical claim I've made in the last year has been 'randomly' selected for auditing. AVOID AVOID AVOID

I'm covered under group coverage through work, and there have been two times where they have denied dental coverage. First, my son had to go to a dental specialist (although is someone who provides similar dental services), and they said it wasn't covered, so they provided a 'similar' fee guide for services performed - which ended up being about 35% lower. Second, I paid $3400 for a dental surgery /services and the first part was put to my wife's benefit provider (also Sun Life), which ended up getting paid, but then, although my information for coverage was also on the form, they did not pay my portion. They told me I had to re-submit... which I did about 100 days later and they denied it saying it was beyond my plan's time limits. 90 days? Even though on the first submission everything was there. Enough said.... if you're thinking about going with a particular provider, well, you know what you should do...

I had a health plan through my group. Alberta
Took pre-authorization for orthodontal and endodontic expenses separately submitted by each of these specialists.
The Sun Life team approved both the pre-authorization separately.
These orthodontal and endodontic treatment expenses for the child are very expensive and not easily affordable for parents.
Despite the pre-authorization approval received from Sun Life, the insurance company refused to pay an amount of approx 463$ which is approximately 8% of the payment made by us ($10000) for these specialists.

A complaint was registed with Sun Life and case id was issued.
Their customer care representative Mr. G informed me that the pre-authorization approval was a mistake by their team and hence then cannot compensate the amount of $463

I followed up with Mr. G for several months and the case was open. But Mr. G states that he has put a write-off request to his senior management due to the error from Sun-life in the pre-approvals. But his senior management did not take steps.

Despite several follow-ups, Sun Life did not honor their pre-authorization approval and did not reimburse me for the expenses made

Result
Orthodontic Expenses for the treatment by us : $8000
Endodontic expense for the treatment by us : $2600

Pre-authorization sent out separately for the above to Sun Life
Approved pre-authorization amount for orthodontics : $2000
Approved pre-authorization amount for endodontics : $463

When expenses were submitted after treatment, Sun Life insurance company paid only 2000$ instead of the pre-approved amount of 2463$ with further loss of 463$

Experience
1) Despite taking approvals, the team is not professional enough to understand customer concerns and did not honor their commitment.

2) Why the customer has to always bear the loss due to the any lapses of Sun Life medical insurance team.

3) please be careful when you sign up with Sun Life plans and they will tweak the clauses to their own benefit despite preauthorization

4) they collect hefty premium for these plans

5) Sharing this information to all of you so that no other customer should have to face similar things while dealing with Sun Life health and dental insurance