1st Central Car Insurance

Quentin

Read up on them here and on the net and you will see you have had a lucky escape!

nhutchie

I felt the need to share my experiance of this appalling company.

OK I called 1st Central on there Customer Service number....

Spoke to an agent with the intention of changing my home address.

After he confirmed that there would be no change in premium, but there was an admin fee... I asked how much ?

£30.00 .... I felt this is excessive for online delivery of a PDF.

I asked for cost involved in cancellation... I was put on hold.

After 5 minutes he came back on the line and said he cant give me a cancellation figure as a Direct Debit from yesterday hadn't been confirmed cleared... I asked him to assume the it has or hasn't and give me the figures based on that..... Answer no...

I asked to speak to a manager ...... Answer NO, "Managers are not customer facing" ! Only a team leader will speak to you within 48 Hours...

The next sentence was brilliant " Oh and now we know you are moving we will put a 7 day chase on the policy for the £30 and if it is not received we will cancel your policy..... No refund."

So not only are they charging customers excessive fees, they are unwilling to provide cancellation figures ... and threatening people ...

I await the team leaders Call......

:mad:

1jim

nhutchie wrote: »

I felt the need to share my experiance of this appalling company.

OK I called 1st Central on there Customer Service number....

Spoke to an agent with the intention of changing my home address.

After he confirmed that there would be no change in premium, but there was an admin fee... I asked how much ?

£30.00 .... I felt this is excessive for online delivery of a PDF.

I asked for cost involved in cancellation... I was put on hold.

After 5 minutes he came back on the line and said he cant give me a cancellation figure as a Direct Debit from yesterday hadn't been confirmed cleared... I asked him to assume the it has or hasn't and give me the figures based on that..... Answer no...

I asked to speak to a manager ...... Answer NO, "Managers are not customer facing" ! Only a team leader will speak to you within 48 Hours...

The next sentence was brilliant " Oh and now we know you are moving we will put a 7 day chase on the policy for the £30 and if it is not received we will cancel your policy..... No refund."

So not only are they charging customers excessive fees, they are unwilling to provide cancellation figures ... and threatening people ...

I await the team leaders Call......

:mad:

The midterm adjustment fees and cancellation charges are in your policy documents and were available to see before purchase. Other companies charge similar

dacouch

The fees and cancellation fees will be detailed in the 1st Central's terms of business which you will have accepted when you took out cover.

The good news is that the same Terms of Business detail what fees they charge for cancellation which 1st Central are bound by. Unless you've had a claim or are a long way into your policy there should be a refund.

I recommend you don't allow them to cancel the policy as it will have a massive impact on your ability to obtain any type of insurance at a reasonable cost.

Kevin1985

Hi guys I've ran into almost the same problem as nhutchie but it went one step worse and now I'm banging my head against a wall. I would massively appreciate anyones advice about what I can do.

So to summarise, like nhutchie I called 1st Central to request a QUOTE for a change of address, in order that I can start driving and parking from a new flat that I started renting instead of my parents' home. I supplied what I thought was the correct postcode to the company, then asked them to halt everything they were doing as I thought I may have given them a slightly wrong postcode (last thing I would want is for them to turn around and say my policy is void because the address is wrong by one letter). It turns out that the postcode was in fact incorrect by one letter.

In the phone call I explicitly asked the salesman not to make any changes to the address. I was aware that there would be a £30 fee to change the address. However:

* the salesman did not warn me he would disregard my instructions and change the postcode anyway (to a postcode that was in fact incorrect by one letter)
* did not warn me that they would need a payment in 7 days or they would cancel the policy
* the letter that they sent regarding this arrived late to my address because the posting office had to re-direct it to me (on top of the fact that this was around christmas time so there were a few non-business days)

Needless to say that when they did cancel my policy it came as a shock, firstly because I had no prior warning and secondly because the sum of money they returned was about £150 short of what I would make out to be proportional to how much of my year's policy I had used. Though I suspect they would have a good excuse for the latter in the form of some kind of cancellation fee.

Now I called in to try and have my policy reinstated, simply so that I could drive but the salesteam who listened to the tape came to the conclusion that even though I did say I wanted them not to do anything, they are obligated to change my address if any mention of an address change is made to them (even if it is simply a quote request).

They passed on my case to their customer relations service who have yet to call me back, initially referred me to another team member when I called who never called me back and now I can only get through to an answering machine that (this is a kicker) only gives me 'zero' seconds to record a message.

I'm honestly at my wits end, as now that they've cancelled my policy I'm having a hard time looking for a new insurance company as I've had a cancelled policy in my history and all I want is to have my policy reinstated.

I would be so infinitely appreciative of anyone's advice on this forum, I've read through a number of the threads and feel that there may be a common theme of general customer neglect here from this company...

Thank you for anyone who has taken the time to read the above horror story

Pixie_hammers

Upon contacting 1st central insurance via post and sending them a copy of my wedding certificate, I was told they would not change my name and marital status until I paid an extortionate admin fee of £30. Numerous emails passed between us following this. Mine consisted of asking for a breakdown of this so called admin fee and theirs consisted of refusing to provide this information. I consider this admin fee to be nothing but theft. The last email I received from them can only be described as blackmail. Pay the fee within 5 days or we will cancel your policy (which we will charge you £50!!! for doing). I have no option but to pay this extortionate charge as I need car insurance. This company is nothing but thieves and blackmailers. STAY AWAY. Pay a bit extra and go with a reputable company rather than blackmailing cowboys. Can not wait until my year is up. Then I will go with a proper company.

rs65

Pixie_hammers wrote: »

Then I will go with a proper company.

Most now charge admin fees so make sure you do your research before signing up next year.

UnderPressure

Well after reading this I have just taken a new policy out with them. I got the quote from a comparison site, the quote was excellent and cut my renewal with Swift Cover in half, I then telephoned them to make a few minor enquireies, mainly to judge the level of customer service for myself, I spoke to a young man called Brad who answered the phone quickly, was very thorough and knowledgeable and put my mind completely at rest.

I am not anticipating any problems and even if there are they seem to work through them eventually, but then again I am not what you would call a high maintenance customer anyway..........

Quentin

UnderPressure wrote: »

Well after reading this I have just taken a new policy out with them...........

Don't understand this.

The thrust of this thread is summed up by this type of key word and phrase:

If you’re thinking of using this insurance company, I suggest you don’t

oh i wished i had read this before i signed up with them

PLEASE DO NOT USE THEM YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED

A DISGRACE to insurance companies

UnderPressure

I meant it as more of in spite of this thread rather than it being any kind of a recommendation.

It was the fact that most of them were newbies with 1 post that made me not take any of them seriously. I think a lot of the time the way you are with people makes them decide how they are going to be with you, manners and common courtesy don't cost a bean.

We will see, time will tell fingers crossed I do not have any kind of accident then I will have no need to test mu theory