1st Central Car Insurance

scotney_2

I too wish I'd seen this before going with 1st Central, I had an accident on the 17th Dec 2009 and still have not heard back from the claims team on the 5th Jan 2010. Every time I call Im on hold for 35-42mins nobody seems to know anything about my claim, even though I have spoken to 4 different staff members all of which said my claim would be "fast tracked" so in the end we had to get the car removed from the seen of the accident and place it in storage (its still in storage). I called again today and was told to email them because the claims team could not deal with any more calls......(and the lad I spoke to had only been there two days and couldnt really help me!). I will keep you updated with this and Tom if you read this could you get someone to call us back!!!

Vader123

Hi all

Just discovered this thread.

I have been with 1st Central for a nearly a year now. I have not had the misfortune to make a claim, but I have been in touch about address changes and change in circs.

I can say I got prompt responses from their call centre and emails and I am happy as I can be about a car insurer where I have made no claim.

I knew when I took out the insurance it had no 3rd party cover for other cars, but since I am named driver on my wifes car it never bothered me. In fact thats the reason I thought there were cheap.

I am the first to moan and kick up a fuss when I get bad treatment, so I try to the same when I get anything else.

(No assocation with the company except a policy holder).

Vader

1jim

thanks Vader that puts my mind at ease, theres a lot of new posters reporting problems with getting through but its nice to know that someones whos been here for a bit has had no problems with them and needed to use customer services

Jakesmummy

I am just coming to the end of my 12 months policy with 1st central, now I know every company when they send the renewal try to charge more but to jump from £400ish to £1300 when no circumstances have changed is shocking!!!

anyway besides that I didnt find it difficult to get through to their call centre, admitedly ive never needed to ring them apart from at the beginning of the policy when i had to chase them up for the insurance certificate, oh and to get them to take the direct debits out!! overall my impression has been that they dont seem a very professional company and if they ever show as cheapest for me again I would rather pay a bit more and go with someone else,

1jim

wow!!! thats a huge jump....you expect them to try it on but still.......I guess thats where confused.com comes in....Im pretty much am resigned to changing providers yearly so wont be the end of the world if they try that cr.p with me

jim-meister

scotney wrote: »

I too wish I'd seen this before going with 1st Central, I had an accident on the 17th Dec 2009 and still have not heard back from the claims team on the 5th Jan 2010. Every time I call Im on hold for 35-42mins nobody seems to know anything about my claim, even though I have spoken to 4 different staff members all of which said my claim would be "fast tracked" so in the end we had to get the car removed from the seen of the accident and place it in storage (its still in storage). I called again today and was told to email them because the claims team could not deal with any more calls......(and the lad I spoke to had only been there two days and couldnt really help me!). I will keep you updated with this and Tom if you read this could you get someone to call us back!!!

I am having exactly the same problem. A taxi hit into my car on the 30.12.2009 i reported it that day after 2 hours of trying the claims number, i eventually got throughon a no claims bonus line and gave the details of the incident.

I was told this would be passed on to a member of the claims team whop will call me back. STILL not heard anything. Have sent 5 emails and tried calling numerous times and still nothing. In the mean time i am driving around in a smahsed up vehicle.

I have emaild the ombudsman to report 1st central for not providing me with a service that i am paying for and i suggest you all do the same so it is taken alot more seriously than the odd emai.

I have also had anopther claim deaing with in a pathetic manner and i am taking the driver to small claims as 1st central were so useless and didnt bother to chase up.

This company are a complete joke and should be banned from trading.

I was just about to say all they are good for is taking your money but even a post above says they cant do that properly!!

Jim

triticale

Wow! VERY glad I thought to check on here before going with 1st Central. Literally just about to buy! :O Was actually just checking whether I should include legal cover as an extra, never imagined than anycar wouldn't be included on a comp policy. Phew, Hastings direct get my custom then for an extra £13 (after a quick search here, of course )

Thank you MSE-ers.

mcdebs

my son was in an accident on December 21st 2009 - we manged to report the claim to 1st Central on the day of the accident but since then it has been horrendous. They failed to get the car recovered on the following day - which they promised they would! I got a call from the police to say the car was causing an obstruction to pedestrians so got it recovered myself to a local garage. Since then I have tried ringing on a daily basis - when they are accepting calls (which is rare) I can be on hold for up to 40 minutes only then to get through to someone who knows nothing - promises to get someone to call me back - and then no one does. I have emailed about 9 times - absolutely no response what so ever! My son is unemployed and was offered a driving job dependant on him having his own vehicle - which he doesn't have now and no means of getting another car until this claim is resolved.

Has anyone managed to get through to 1st Central over the past 3 weeks with any degree of success??

AliM_3

Last week I was involved in a car accident that I reported to my insurer 1st Central.

For anyone who has ever had dealings with 1st Central in the past then you will probably say this is nothing short of a miracle. However this is where the miracle ends.

Although I've reported the accident, I've not been provided with a claims reference number - which makes me wonder whether they know my claim actually exists. Although I've been promised a telephone call or e-mail, no one has contacted me to confirm whether someone will be out to assess the damage to my car and I don't even know if my details have been passed to a solicitor so that they can claim compensation etc. from the third party insurer.

To add insult to injury it seems that the third party involved in the accident has managed to contact their insurance company who are now seeking damages against me even though I was not at fault.

How comes the innocent party is being made to feel isolated by her insurance company, when the person at fault seems to have contacted their insurance company & solicitor with such ease.

I have tried to contact 1st Central at least 20 times today either by phone or e-mail to find out whats going on. The last time I tried I was kept on hold for over an hour and then the phone line just went dead!!!

I know that the weather conditions are causing staffing problems and increased claims volumes but this is beyond a joke.

I work in the insurance industry, I understand the FSA principles and what level of service I should expect, and 1st Central are not treating me their customer fairly.

For those of you thinking of getting insurance through 1st Central please stay well clear. Although they will save you money on your premiums (which they did for me) you will end up paying for it in the long run. Sometimes it's better to pay a little bit extra especially when you get the level of service you expect or were promised.

Other than complain to the ombudsman which I plan to do, does anyone have any other ideas or suggestions that prehaps would be of use?

dacouch

Try sending a PM to Tom1st Central who is their chief apologist (That is his actual job title allegedly). He used to come on here to sing their praises if anyone made a bad comment. However he has stopped posting in the last couple of months when MSE was started receiving a complaint roughly once a day about 1stcentral insurance.

He has been on MSE today this afternoon and as normal has just read the new complaints since he last logged on, as usual he has decided not to apologise or post any spin. Perhaps he has realised you cannot polish a tu#d.

Click on send a personal message on this link and he may sort it out for you.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.html?u=752689