anyone got 1st central car insurance?

cptcaveman_2

Hi Guys,
After looking through this thread I have just cancelled my Insurance with 1st Central.
I signed up with them as they were the cheapest on a price comparisson site but after reading this lot and seeing the unofficial posting from their guy Tom who was here at the beginning saying how they are going to improve then once the barrage of comments came in saying how bad they are he disappeared!
Really thats not the best advert for an insurance company, it's usuallly when things are difficult you want them to be answering your questions and dealing with your claim not running for the hills!
Admittedly the phone was answered a bit quicker than others have experienced (still took 9 mins on hold and it was an 0845 number i had to call not the 0800 one) but they still don't offer third party cover on other cars and the guy on the phone admitted this was very bad and lots of people have been complaining that it is not made clear enough at point of sale.
I only had my policy for 5 days but still have to pay an admin charge of £30 so watch out!
Reading some posts on here i think it may be worth £30 just to leave them!!Lucky escape i hope (as not had conformation yet but Direct Debit is cancelled!)
Andrew

etherington

I would just like to say thanks for all the feedback you have left.
Upon looking at a comparison site 1st Central came up as one of the best, but something just wasn't right. Firstly I had never heard of them, so i looked them up and found this site.

Needless to say I am glad I never brought with out checking first.

So thanks to you all.

ajadri

Hi all,
I am beginning to wish I had found this before I signed up. I am having difficulties contacting 1st Central.
I first made a claim on the the 10th Jan. My car was collected on the 13th. The garage confirmed they have sent their assessment to Motorcare (the accident management company 1st central use) on the 14th. I have been trying to contact their existing claims number, last week it just range for 60 secs and disconnected. This week it goes through an automated system, once you select the option for existing claims, the music comes one again for about 60 secs and disconnects. My girlfriend managed to get through to the sales number on the 22nd and expressed her frustrations, the lady took our numbers and said someone would call but nothing so far (she also mentioned that they are trying to get an assessor/engineer to see the car). To my annoyance the garage can only give a courtesy once they get an authorisation from motorcare so I am left stranded (is this standard procedure?). I would have though a courtesy is given as soon as your car is taken away??
All I want to know is the status and how long it will take for the decision to be made so that I can at least make arrangements to hire a car. Is this too much to ask?
Could I seek compensation, it will be two weeks this wednesday. I have also emailed them but no response. I am going to try to pm Tom.

dacouch

Ajadri see post 77 on this thread for an answer to someone who is in a similar situation to you (Whats the better all their clients who have claims at the moment are in the same boat as you and the reason your calls end after 60 seconds is their phone system cannot handle the amount of people keep ringing chasing their claim)

pramsay13

Thanks guys, 1st Central came up cheapest on a comparison site so I thought I'd check them out here as I hadn't heard of them.
I'm glad I did and I will going to the next best quote and avoiding 1st Central.
Tom from 1st Central, I appreciate you coming on here, but it's not good enough as others have said. If things had been sorted you would have had my business.

d4nsc

Just to share my experience 'so far' with this company.

Just before Christmas my car was hit by a 3rd party, they were insured with 1st central.:(

My car was recovered back to the garage where I left it. I was contacted by the accident assistance people and they sent me out a hire car, while my car was off the road.
The garage sent in an estimate, the car was inspected and written off, I agreed a price that I would accept for the car and sent that in.

In the mean time I was advised what would happen, and it would be settled promptly, so then went out put down a deposit on another car to replace our damaged one, as did not want to be hunting round after the hire car had been returned, and that I would be able to pay the balance on receiving the pay out on my damaged car.

So last week get a call from the accident assistance company, they said the 3rd party was not insured, :mad: its taken six weeks to get this far and tell me that, yet I have seen there insurance certificate and they had paid the premium!!
Now the car hire company want there car back and me to pay for the hire just over £1000!! talking to the guy there, he said they have been trying to get through to 1st central with no luck, they were closed over christmas/new year that was understandable, and the office was closed during the snowy period too, when they tried to call just put on hold, when they do get through and request information say that someone will call back to help and nobody returns there call, they say that the car is not on the MID database, yet the 3rd party had paid the company, so the admin work had not been correctly entered.

In all this I am the innocent party and now faced with a written off car, recovery charge, storage fees, £1000 car hire fees, and sure there will be others who want some money, and to top it off now need to find the balance to pay for the replacement car or lose the deposit (not a small one either)

I will post what the outcome is and update what is going on, but if you have your car insured with them yes a good price but service really poor, willing to leave there policy holders out in the cold, with no cover:mad:

poorman66

Surely there must be someone who can shake this company up!!!.
Come on Martin..lets get them on the TV!!!
At the very least get them to ditch this ludicrous £30 fee as a gesture of goodwill to all its current customers -then the onus is on them to resolve this totally unacceptable customer service or their customers will walk.
Alternatively how about a claim against the company for the stress caused to those who have had an accident and are awaiting resolution or to those of us who are dreading having an accident in case we are left stitched up with huge bills but cannot afford to lose £30!!!

buzzmonkey

Hi

Like th majority of people I never checked out this site before taking out my insurance with 1st Central. I had my accident Friday 29th Jan (not my fault). Phoned 1st central, got through straight away, they said the garage would phone regarding the courtesy car and valuation of my vehicle, well that was friday, i;ve heard nothing and now i cannot get through to anyone. I spent almost all day yesterday on hold or trying to get through with no luck. Today I will try again and tomorrow I will cancel my direct debit as i'm sure someone will contact me then....

savingmummy

Something really needs to be done i can`t believe all this happens!!
Thankfully we have only ever had good insurers and will certainly remember not to go here............dreadful!

buzzmonkey

Update::::

I got through to 1st Central yesterday (they also contacted me) who said ot was in hand and i should expect a call from the garage today. Today i got a call from the garage an email from the garage and an email from 1st Central saying my car would be taken in today and i would get a courtesy car today, which is nice.

So, 1st central are cheaper, but i guess that in a hard winter (cars sliding all over the place) they cannot cope as well as the major companies, so it has it's pros and cons, yes it's cheaper, but it does take a little longer to sort......