Hastings direct car insurance terrible experience 26 March 2010 at 9:07PM in Motoring 17 replies 16.8K views

SOMETHINGTOSAY

Avoid h d car insurance at all costs in my opinion!!!

If your car is broken into and as a result your alarm is faulty; in my experience they wouldn't pay out for the alarm to be repaired because they got a dealership's opinion that the alarm fault isn't theft related and it's impossible to prove otherwise. It goes off nearly constantly since the break in but they still won't pay for it to be repaired.

The repair to the door, using their approved repairer ncrc, was botched.

Also the courtesy vehicle ncrc provided kept cutting out in first gear and with me happened on a roundabout.

On my policy the personal effects cover for the items in the car was only £150 so even if i'd had say £1000 pounds of equipment stolen i'd only get £150.

Well at least the courtesy car, which only had about 2 miles of fuel left in it when their approved repairer dropped it off, didn't cause me a nasty accident.

It will cost me £266-00 to get the alarm fixed through the car dealership. So in all i'm going to be down about £900 as a result of the car being broken into since the excess was £175 on top.

During the evenings it also took me about two weeks to get through and make the claim in the first place and it wasn't a freephone number or 01 or 02 number.

Never ever again!!

This is not my idea of car insurance!! I've been told they use ncrc because they only charge £20 an hour labour where as a dealership can charge upto 4 x as much.

I was also told that the repairs were being done to the manufacturers repair specification but according to the manufacturer of the car there is no such thing for repairs.

Woby_Tide

I'm with Hastings myself, when I went to claim as it was thrid party I got put through to Helphire instead that I subsequently rejected to go with 3rd party insurer, Churchhill. They are just as bad I imagine. I'm on the 2nd rectification work now with their approver repairer, not NCRC. I've subsequently had someone else hit the car though and currently that work is with NCRC so I will see if they are any better than Seward repair centres who are awful. Luckily I've had hire cars from Enterprise throughout who have been faultless.

With regards to your insurance policy, I would suggest if you want to cover £1000 of equipment in your car you get a policy that covers that amount. Not the cheapest policy with £15o of equipment cover. That isn't Hastings fault.

mikey72

That's the thing with going for the cheapest off a price comparison site.
They're cheap for a reason. You get the service you pay for.

Kilty_2

YES

SOMETHINGTOSAY wrote: »

The repair to the door, using their approved repairer ncrc, was botched.

Complain to NCRC / Hastings about it and it'll be reviewed - that's the whole point in using an approved repairer....

SOMETHINGTOSAY wrote: »

Also the courtesy vehicle ncrc provided kept cutting out in first gear and with me happened on a roundabout.

I'd have called NCRC immediately and told them that they needed to provide me with a different courtesy car

SOMETHINGTOSAY wrote: »

On my policy the personal effects cover for the items in the car was only £150 so even if i'd had say £1000 pounds of equipment stolen i'd only get £150.

Why would you have £1000 worth of equipment in the car if your policy only covers £150? It'll clearly state on the policy documents (and during the quote process) what is covered and what isn't - don't take out a car insurance policy that doesn't cover enough for your needs!

SOMETHINGTOSAY wrote: »

Well at least the courtesy car, which only had about 2 miles of fuel left in it when their approved repairer dropped it off, didn't cause me a nasty accident.

It wouldn't even have come close to causing you a nasty accident if you'd have called them and informed them that the car was faulty, and fuelling of such cars is always the hirer's responsibility unless you request and pay for otherwise.

SOMETHINGTOSAY wrote: »

This is not my idea of car insurance!! I've been told they use ncrc because they only charge £20 an hour labour where as a dealership can charge upto 4 x as much.

Lots of insurers use NCRC as their approved repairer - but they have others if you ask... I seriously doubt that labour is £20 per hour though.

SOMETHINGTOSAY wrote: »

I was also told that the repairs were being done to the manufacturers repair specification but according to the manufacturer of the car there is no such thing for repairs.

I assume by this they mean using genuine parts so that the car is in the same state it would've been pre-accident....

kwaks

YES

Kilty kinda covers it all, all I would add there couldn't have been that much damage if it took you almost 2 weeks to report it. Next time try calling during the day!

Takoda

I've always paid a bit more and used the Co-op. Not the cheapest but I've had 2 claims with them now and they've been faultless.

Dick_Van_Dyke

SOMETHINGTOSAY wrote: »

Avoid h d car insurance at all costs in my opinion!!!

If your car is broken into and as a result your alarm is faulty; in my experience they wouldn't pay out for the alarm to be repaired because they got a dealership's opinion that the alarm fault isn't theft related and it's impossible to prove otherwise. It goes off nearly constantly since the break in but they still won't pay for it to be repaired.

The repair to the door, using their approved repairer ncrc, was botched.

Also the courtesy vehicle ncrc provided kept cutting out in first gear and with me happened on a roundabout.

On my policy the personal effects cover for the items in the car was only £150 so even if i'd had say £1000 pounds of equipment stolen i'd only get £150.

Well at least the courtesy car, which only had about 2 miles of fuel left in it when their approved repairer dropped it off, didn't cause me a nasty accident.

It will cost me £266-00 to get the alarm fixed through the car dealership. So in all i'm going to be down about £900 as a result of the car being broken into since the excess was £175 on top.

During the evenings it also took me about two weeks to get through and make the claim in the first place and it wasn't a freephone number or 01 or 02 number.

Never ever again!!

This is not my idea of car insurance!! I've been told they use ncrc because they only charge £20 an hour labour where as a dealership can charge upto 4 x as much.

I was also told that the repairs were being done to the manufacturers repair specification but according to the manufacturer of the car there is no such thing for repairs.

Each and every point is either due to you not reporting it properly or asking for insurance you hadnt paid for.

00ec25

I have been with HD for the last 3 years and about about to renew with them next month.

I have been involved in 2 bumpos in that time, both involved a rear ender where the other party was at fault. Both times when i contacte dHD I made it plain I was not claiming on my policy becuase it was obviously the other persons fault and I would deal direct with the other insurer. All Helphire wants to do is hire me a car which may or may not be funded by the otehr party's insurer,so i did not bother. I have been contacted 5 times by HD's ambulance chasers desoite making it very clear than no one was injured.

I am renewing with them becuase I am happy to get what I pay for, cheap service at a cheap price (my renewal price being lower than anything from the MSE recommended comparison sites and only £10 more than through a cashback site).

SOMETHINGTOSAY

I'm putting down my experience so other people don't have the same one.

I did complain about the door which is why it went back in to be repaired again.

With regards the courtesy car, it was a bit late in the day to contact them and get the car replaced.

With respect the £150, yes I'll know in future to look at this.

With regards the fuel, the first hire car they sent had ample fuel in it. However the second one did not and since the electronic 'miles left till next refuelling' was giving out a higher reading than it should have been it might have caught someone else out.

The labour at £20 an hour came directy from someone working at HD.

They didn't use genuine parts, they welded the area back together. As I said such a Peugeot repair specification does not exist.

I couldn't call during the day because of work commitments. I had trouble in the evening because the call centre kept shutting down between 1-2 hours before it should have done over at least a two week period.

Clop

I have been trying to contact my insurers-Hastings Direct for the last 3 days. I have been on hold, with their v poor quality hold music (when they can be bothered), for over 50 minutes over this period. I have also contacted them via their website asking them to call me back as I couldn't get through, though surprise surprise they didn't.

When I finally got through today-I only wanted to change my address and add business insurance, the girl was hardly apologetic. I asked her the best time of day to call and she said around 3pm. If anybody knows of any 'cheats' to get round through their phone system quicker/at all I'd be grateful at hearing them. I even tried calling and going through the system as a 'renewal' thinking they'd pick up my call quicker as they'd want my business, but alas no. At 10p a minute my phone bill will now be larger than expected. I do worry whether they'd pick up if I did need to speak to them about an accident. On this basis I'd be reluctant to renew my policy with them.

december

NEVER IN A MILLION YEARS

I had an accident before Christmas and it took them until mid April to settle the claim. Other party admitted liability in writing pretty much straight away but Hastings customer service has been appalling, it took them 8 weeks from when they declared the car a write off for them to settle the claim. I've made a complaint and they've not even been able to keep to their own complaints proceedure, says it all really and I'm still £40 for telephone calls and 2 months of policy out of pocket.