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Aviva apologises for calling thousands of customers Michael

Joanna Faith
Written By:
Joanna Faith
Posted:
Updated:
28/01/2020

Insurer Aviva has been forced to apologise to several thousand customers after mistakenly calling them all Michael.

The firm said a “technical error” in its mailing template meant that customers received emails addressed to Michael rather than their own name.

One customer, whose real name is Andrew, told the BBC: “The irony is I hadn’t noticed the original ‘Michael’ email, it was this follow up that caught my eye.

“Getting a first name wrong is one thing, but what if it was my data – my address or policy information – being sent to someone else instead?”

Aviva said no personal details had been compromised.

A spokesperson from Aviva said: “We sent out some emails last week to existing customers, which, as a result of a temporary technical error in our mailing template, mistakenly referred to customers as ‘Michael’.

“We’ve apologised to these customers and reassured them that the only error in the email was the use of the incorrect name as a greeting. There was no issue with personal data; the remainder of the email and its content was correct.”


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