Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a firm (and vocal) supporter of DAN, its mission and goals. I have been a member since 2006 after they came to my assistance for a dive related incident and I have since purchased all of my dive insurance through them. They have always been professional and had nothing but confidence in their abilities.
I had signed up for the DAN Preferred insurance plan from day one, but as soon as I moved to Bermuda I was told the Preferred plan was not available outside of North America and I would have to drop down to the Master plan when I renewed last year. Ok, bit of an inconvenience, especially as I was diving MORE now that I was in warm water, but rules is rules and I downgraded.
At the end of April I received both email and mail based correspondence from DAN saying:
Dear DAN Member,
It's time for you to renew your DAN membership. According to our records, your membership will expire on May XX, 2010. We would like to take this opportunity to welcome you to your new DAN region - DAN World. DAN World has been established to better serve the needs of members like you in regions outside of the United States and Canada but previously covered by DAN America.
I discovered the reason was insurance companies were changing the rules to a more North American centric model and anyone outside of USA - Canada was being affected.
So I went to the TravellerEMS link to renew my DAN membership. I saw a link to DAN World, clicked on it and it tossed me back to the TravellerEMS travel insurance purchase screen which confused the heck out of me. Went back into the DAN web site and logged in there. Clicked on DAN World link and once more ended up at the same place.
Called the DAN World number and a gentleman answered (on the worse Skype connection I have ever experienced) in Venezuela saying he was with TravellerEMS. He explained the DAN World membership was included in the TravellerEMS purchase price. Unfortunately this was not documented as the web site was thrown together quickly. He went on to say that the whole DAN World experience had been very frustrating for him and his staff. He said I should purchase the Preferred coverage. OK, stuff happens, so I went back to the purchase page and clicked on the Preferred plan. The page that presented itself asked for my credit card information, but I saw the web page was not secure.
As a quick explanation, "Secure" web sites encrypt your information so it cannot be intercepted between you and the company you are dealing with. For example, when you do on-line banking you log into an HTTPS site rather than an HTTP site. The TravellersEMS web page was not secure.
I wrote DAN and told them about this and explained I would not send my CC info over an unsecured link. While I was waiting for a response I read the Preferred plan coverage and discovered it only covered me if I had an accident more than 50 miles away from my residence. Well, I live in Bermuda and the island is only 23 miles long. It is not possible to get 50 miles away which made me a little more leery of the whole situation. So I fired off another email to DAN asking for clarification.
The first response was a DAN rep who apologized and explained the delay in getting a secure site was because of their IT team and they were trying to get it up ASAP. The second email from DAN about the coverage:
The part of the coverage that has a mileage restriction is the emergency evacuation and travel assistance benefits. Those benefits are only in force when 50 miles or more from home. That would include things like:
Medical evacuation for non-diving injuries
Repatriation of Remains
Legal Assistance
Travel Assistance (like Return of your Vehicle and Visit of Family Member)
Personal Services (like Pre-trip Information)
The portion of the coverage that is for Medical Expenses for diving accidents has no mileage restriction on it. You can be diving in your own back yard and you will be covered. If you need emergency transportation there locally after a dive accident, that is covered under the benefit for medical expenses for the diving accident too.
OK, that was fine with me. If it ever got to "repatriating my remains" stage I am sure I will not care.
Plus, I don't own a vehicle so no biggie there either. Then last night I got another DAN email saying the secure payment link was up. I looked and sure enough the site was HTTPS. I renewed my membership within a few seconds. Done and dusted.
After talking to several DAN and DAN World staffers through this process I got the sense this organizational change was badly handled and I was not the only one to be at best confused, and at worse annoyed. I am sure that it will get better over time and while I am still an avid DAN member, this whole transition could have been handled a lot better.
So if you do reside outside of North America read and heed. I hope your experience is smoother than mine.
