Tesco Car Insurance

Oatcake

Ok, here we go...

I took out cover in January with them for my car the premium was £568 per annum.
Today i have a letter saying 'My premium has gone to £1700 per annum!' because they put down i had 4 years no claims discount, a mistake on their behalf.. But i still have to pay up. I then told them Ive had cheaper quotes than that, is there anything they can do? They said "NO" if i want to cancel the insurance it will cost me £200 ! So i search for car insurance on confused.com and tesco came up at £1200..
So i phoned them up to tell them and they said they have to go on the prices set in January...


Surely this isnt right? Has ruined my day....
Is there anything i can do?!


Many thanks, Matt

dacouch

They do have to go by their prices in Janurary which would normally work in your favour.

How did you get your quotation, was it over the telephone or over the internet?

Oatcake

Got it from confused.com

dacouch

If you got it from confused.com then surely it was you that you that entered into the website that you had 4 years no claims bonus.

asbokid

tesco pulled a fast one on me, too..

i was a loyal motor insurance customer of tescos for 6 years.. no claims, no convictions.. protected NCB.. every year up until the last one, tesco charged me much the same premium to insure the car, TPF&T... so far, so good..

Then last renewal date, the specimen policy from tesco lands on the door mat... i realise that the premium has basically doubled in cost since the previous year..

and furthermore, the liberty-takers at tescos are going to automatically charge my card and renew the policy unless i specifically tell them not to!!

i give tesco a call to ask why my premium has soared in spite of another year of claim-free motoring, and "to see what deals you can do for me.."

an unhelpful and insolent young lady says "the policy costs more because it has gone up in price"...

well, fancy that!

the only "deal" she can offer is to downgrade me to some budget policy branded as "tesco value" with no bolt-ons, and vast excess, and for MORE money than i paid last year!

i point out to little miss muffet that tescos are handing out gifts galore to *new* customers who sign up with them and take out a new car insurance policy.... that basket of goodies for newbies included...

karcher pressure washer (worth £100)
10% for paying online
£25 discount on a breakdown policy
double clubcard points

i ask... as a long-standing customer of 6 years... are you going to offer those goodies to me, too?

"nope", says the tesco sour-puss.

okay.. well thanks for nothing, and it's au revour for good to tesco insurance.

it's a well documented phenomenon that customer inertia breeds corporate contempt.. so vote with your feet...

however, if you're like me, when you feel especially aggrieved as a customer by mean-minded, mean-spirited, corporate bean counters, you can tell that your dissatisfaction with a company will last a lifetime.

that's one for the tesco PR goons to dwell on...

fatboy2002

hi there,

wanted to add my 2p's worth.

an "error" at tesco has come to light recently when waiting for my renewal letter:-

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1669077

LeeSouthEast

The muppets added £350 to my quote last year after several years with them and continually dropping premiums over the years. Told them to shove it and went to the Post Office. Total premium was £250, including all the extras tesco wanted extra for!

Never going back to the ripoff merchants.

Oatcake

dacouch wrote: »

If you got it from confused.com then surely it was you that you that entered into the website that you had 4 years no claims bonus.

No, It wasn't even on the my original policy. They blamed it on a 'computer error'


I'm so annoyed with them, £1700 for a year!
Ive just found a £900 per year with the postoffice too..


No wonder they make billions profit every year.. the scam artists!

Oatcake

asbokid wrote: »

tesco pulled a fast one on me, too..

i was a loyal motor insurance customer of tescos for 6 years.. no claims, no convictions.. protected NCB.. every year up until the last one, tesco charged me much the same premium to insure the car, TPF&T... so far, so good..

Then last renewal date, the specimen policy from tesco lands on the door mat... i realise that the premium has basically doubled in cost since the previous year..

and furthermore, the liberty-takers at tescos are going to automatically charge my card and renew the policy unless i specifically tell them not to!!

i give tesco a call to ask why my premium has soared in spite of another year of claim-free motoring, and "to see what deals you can do for me.."

an unhelpful and insolent young lady says "the policy costs more because it has gone up in price"...

well, fancy that!

the only "deal" she can offer is to downgrade me to some budget policy branded as "tesco value" with no bolt-ons, and vast excess, and for MORE money than i paid last year!

i point out to little miss muffet that tescos are handing out gifts galore to *new* customers who sign up with them and take out a new car insurance policy.... that basket of goodies for newbies included...

karcher pressure washer (worth £100)
10% for paying online
£25 discount on a breakdown policy
double clubcard points

i ask... as a long-standing customer of 6 years... are you going to offer those goodies to me, too?

"nope", says the tesco sour-puss.

okay.. well thanks for nothing, and it's au revour for good to tesco insurance.

it's a well documented phenomenon that customer inertia breeds corporate contempt.. so vote with your feet...

however, if you're like me, when you feel especially aggrieved as a customer by mean-minded, mean-spirited, corporate bean counters, you can tell that your dissatisfaction with a company will last a lifetime.

that's one for the tesco PR goons to dwell on...

Feels horrible doesnt it. I shall never use a tesco again in my life.

lahornby

If you ever get hit by a Tesco insured driver - throw a party and celebrate your luck immedietely! Pity the poor unfortunate sap who actually holds the policy though, his luck has just run out :mad:

Last year, after almost 4 years (no points on my license in all the time I have had one, no parking tickets, no speeding fines and certainly no accidents) my partner, poor love, bumped into a car in a parking lot whilst reversing out of a parking - now, when I say 'bumped' I mean it barely registered but that contact was made and, of course being 'fine-upstanding' citizens, :A we apologised and politely asked if anyone was hurt, receiving no affirmative reply and we did the dutiful thing, we handed over our details and exchanged numbers for what seemed like a very straightforward claim for a minor paint-job - 8 months later I receive my renewal for an increase doubling my premium!

When I called up to enquire why my premium had gone up so much despite one small claim, Tesco dutifully informed me that the driver had not only claimed for damage far more than I am prepared to believe could have been possible to achieve whilst reversing at less than 4 miles an hour in a shopping mall parking lot, but, it seems that her completely mute passenger or '3rd party' had also made a claim for injury! A princely sum of well over £2000 + the repair costs, thank you very much, added to that a fabby courtesy car for the duration of her repairs, which incidentally took all of 2 weeks...for a scratch on her bumper? give me a break!! :cool: No recourse for me though and apparently I never asked to be kept informed of the details of the claim if there was to be a payout 'according to their records' which is utter bollox.

Fast forward to March 2009, my named-driver is reversed into by a !!!!!! trying to edge his way out of a traffic jam and when asked for details gets aggressive with her and refuses to hand them over saying that he will say she hit him if she does. This continues until a witness in another vehicle shames him into taking my named-driver aside until the witness is out of the picture before telling her once again, that she can whistle for his details. What a charmer :beer:

Traumatised, she returns home and tells me the sad tale and I think, well, no details, no biggie we lost our no claims last year anyway so a little kink and scratch to the bumper and fender with a slightly jammed bonnet should be a pretty straightforward claim for Tesco to deal with and we report it, after all, thats what insurance is for right?

Two days later, we discover the windscreen wipers won't work and naturally assume that it could be a result of the impact, especially in a car as old as mine (nearly 10 years) so we mention this to Tesco and ask them to pass the info on to their appointed agents who will be receiving our car for assessment as soon as we hear back from the other drivers' insurers whose registration was all we managed to get at the time. And so we wait...and we wait...and we wait... After several calls from various companies offering courtesy cars for the duration of our repairs we had to turn them down when it transpired that if the driver who hit us refuses to accept liability we will be charged for the hire. Nearly two weeks later, we finally have our car collected for initial assessment and, hopefully, repairs - great!

Skip to the big day! assessment day, my oh my what an intelligent bunch they have working for them! I receive a call (only after incessent nagging by my partner) from their 'assessor' now some 6 days AFTER my car was collected by the garage to say they cannot establish whether the impact was caused by my driver or the other party. In addition to this, they don't think the damage warrants a specialist repair blah blah blah...the long and the short of my choices it seems, is to accept what they call a 'cash payout' of £425 (their estimation of the extent of the damage) so that I may have the repairs done at a local, independant shop, should I so wish.

To add insult to injury, the assessor wasted no time pointing out that my car is probably 'not worth much' as a result of all the dents and nicks left by previous not-so-well meaning drivers who simply could not bring themselves to leave a note of apology for their bad driving and ensuing unprovoked attacks on my innocently parked and unnattended vehicle, not to mention any offer of recompense! Of course, had I bothered to claim for any of these 'unwanted gifts' as vandalism I am pretty sure the response from Tesco would have been another excuse to shove my premium right up to the stratosphere

When I enquired whether their agents could at least make the necessary repairs the windscreen wipers so the car could be used in the interim, Mr Assessor tells me that in his trained opinion that there is no way the impact could have had an adverse effect on the wipers, beside the fact that they worked just fine up to the date of the incident. To which I very patiently ask him to explain his reasoning, he replies that the electrics could not have been affected by such an impact to the front end. I helpfully point out that the wipers also consist of a very basic mechanical element called a motor and a swing-arm linkage which is probably located at the base of the windscreen to the rear of the engine cavity, which, to my albeit untrained but perfectly logical mind, could well have popped loose which explains why I can still hear the motor turning even though the wipers refuse to budge. He continues to disagree and I repeatedly request that he take a look anyway since he was still at the garage where my car was being kept (knowing full well this check could not take more than 5 minutes for someone with access to the right tools).

Now, more than a month after the incident and more calls to the claims dept. than I care to remember, they finally confirm what I knew already, that the other driver has denied liability and that the cash payout offer of £425 stands. On enquiring yet again about the windscreen wipers and the cost to repair them they tell me they know nothing of this issue and that the assessor who is currently away on hols (nice for some) will have to come and check this out on his return - how lovely!

The garage was supposed to return my car this Saturday just past and their assessor was supposed to do a home visit this morning. I had plans to do some shopping for a local volunteer organisation (weather permitting) only to be rung at 9am and be informed that since the wipers are not working the garage were not prepared to deliver the car by driver (go figure!) and that I should be the one to get in touch with the insurers to make alternative arrangements as they "did not have the number to do so themselves..." say what?! At this point I just put the phone down, counted to 1,000,000 and then decided to forget all about it until today.

Come this morning, I observed a roll-back truck depositing my car on the street some way down from my home whilst on my way out to work. Since my partner was in at the time, I left it for to her to deal with the delivery and receive the keys, oops! my mistake. She discovered the keys chucked thru the flap 20 minutes later, no knock, no call and my beloved but much-beaten hyundai sporting a brand-new flat tyre for her trouble, and still no sign of that learned assessor...fantastic. This afternoon we discover that the postman had delivered a cheque for the aforementioned £425 made out to my partner, whom it just so happens, is leaving for a trip to Africa for three weeks at 6am tomorrow and its far too late to get to a bank in time before she goes, oh joy!

How lovely, now I get to ring them up and start yet another version of this strange, one-sided and indeed, completely alien process called 'communication' with Tesco Car Unsurance alllll over again...

Needless to say, I am absolutely beside myself with glee at the thought:T

And the moral of this sad tale you ask? Join a car club, pick up a great, zero fuss and gleaming alternative to car ownership and if you should be unfortunate enough to hit someone or have them hit you, let the car club have the pleasure of dealing with it, after all, that's what insurance is for right?!

soon-to-be-ex London car owner

Quote

Tesco are a charity now?