Never EVER do a life insurance 3a pillar

For anyone still not clear with 3a Pillar scam of life insurances in Switzerland.. please DO NOT make my mistake and stay away from any life insurance contract. Better put your money in 3a accounts or investment funds such as VIAC.

My experience: in 2019 I subscribe a 3a Life Insurance contract with Helvetia, which is the insurance company I use for Responsabilité Civile, and (at the time) also car insurance. They propose me a monthly payment of 300.- CHF, with all the standard conditions. I sign, and the contract starts on 01.06.2019.

Fast forward to 2021, I decide 300.- a month was a bit much, since I was starting using VIAC and other funds, which were looking much more interesting. I ask them if possible to reduce the monthly prime from 300.- (3'600.- per year) to 100.- (1'200.- per year), so I could have more spare to invest in other accounts. They say yes, no problem, just send a letter. I do, and the contract is amended on 01.06.2021.

Fast forward to today, I am planning to buy an apartment with my wife. Of course I start inquiring all the various accounts to check my balance of private funds. Surprise surprise, the amount on Helvetia insurance 3a is strangely low. To remark that they never send automatically the account statements, or at least I have never received them before unless asked. I call and ask what happened. This is what they reply to me: "as per CGA, the previous contract has been released in 2021, so your current amount is the primes paid from 2021 to today".

I am puzzled. I've never asked such thing, and all the exchanges by email are clearly mentioning a modification of the contract, never ever was mentioned that the contract was being "closed". Also, the contract on their webpage "myHelvetia" still indicates a start in 2019. The guy on the phone says that effectively something is strange, but "as per CGA, the previous money is gone". STOLEN, I would say.

So now I am sitting on a loss of more than 5k CHF of the years 2019-2021, and they seem to blame the thing on me. Of course I'm contacting a lawyer (and if you know any good one around Lausanne, please PM me), but the story is: NEVER NEVER NEVER trust insurance companies, and especially Helvetia. NEVER put your retirement money in Life Insurance 3a. NEVER subscribe useless insurances. It's all a big scam, and the client is always the one to blame.