Hastings car insurance - The worst car insurance company ever!!

sued1056

sued had no fault accident 28/11/10 hastings have been absolutely appalling in everything even though fully comprehensive no courtesy car due to other person being foriegn driver asked if we could claim for it on his insurance said it would take a while as they have to write to them i said could you not phone them they said no as its a foreign speaking company ;i have now recieved a letter asking for an excess of 275 pounds excess which we have not got we have had to pay for a hire car ourself and also have to purchase another car which we cannot afford our previous car was old but was serviced every year and passed every mot also when i spoke to them on the phone they had the audacity to ask for copy of insurance also said if i wanted to call other parties insurance to query about courtesy car it would be easier i said isn;t that what we pay you for this company is a joke and there customer service is abysmal

kolin_2

i will agree that hastings are a terrible company. I had an accident on the 15th of november, car written off by the repair centre. The repair centre had contacted them[hastings] on the friday following the accident(19-11) and told them the car was a write off. I had heard nothing at all from hastings. so i rung them on the thursday (25th) and was told that the repair centre hadn't contacted them (which was a lie because i'd spoken face to face with the guy who had called them). so the 'person' at the other end of the line said they'd send out a letter with all i needed to send back to them, that day and i'd get it tomorrow. I received this letter on saturday (4-12).

so it'll have been nearly a month without a car by the time i can actually get one.

I will get a paltry offer on my vehicle which wont even get me anywhere near a similar car or age, even at 130,000K miles.

Total time on hold from all the phone calls i've made to them : 86 minutes.
Total times cut off from their wonderful queuing system : 6
Total times menus have gone into a loop : 2 (press this button - wait 6 minutes, go back to beginning)

i've had to chase absolutely everything with this company.

absolutely dreadful and totally useless. I'll never use them again.

afwone

kolin wrote: »

i will agree that hastings are a terrible company. I had an accident on the 15th of november, car written off

Yikes. And earlier in this thread you were going to wrap up your car in cotton wool!


I get the impression that Hastings is a monster that has been created by price comparison websites (and indirectly by MoneySavingExpert.com…). Probably no one would go to them based on pleasant customer experience.

Apparent low cost policies, but the customer then loses out with further charges and poor service.

kolin_2

afwone wrote: »

Yikes. And earlier in this thread you were going to wrap up your car in cotton wool!


I get the impression that Hastings is a monster that has been created by price comparison websites (and indirectly by MoneySavingExpert.com…). Probably no one would go to them based on pleasant customer experience.

Apparent low cost policies, but the customer then loses out with further charges and poor service.

tell me about it. :mad:

i agree, the only advantage is if you manage to scrape the year and pick up another no claims year.

insurance is just a great big scam, designed to benefit nobody but the insurers.

in my humble opinion.

i wonder if hasting have a policy of deliberately kicking you off the phone in order to make you queue again using their 0844 number.

which is annoying if you only have a mobile phone.

rev_henry

fatbelly wrote: »

AutoExpress recently surveyed 39 insurers. Hastings finished 24th!

So they may well be 'bad' but there a lot of companies who are considered worse by their clients!

Rather than a roll of shame it might be better to name the top ten:

1. NFU
2. RIAS
3. Frizell
4. SAGA
5. RSA
6. LV
7. Fortis
8. Adrian Flux
9. NIG
10. Co-Op

Mostly 'proper' insurance companies/brokers who have trained human beings at the other end of their phones, not call centre robots. Unfortunately I and many others simply can't afford the extra to go with such companies.

fatbelly

Hi Rev - I posted that so long ago I had forgotten about it!

I have been with Co-Op and LV before at reasonable prices with good cashback.

I used RIAS for my contents insurance this year as the cashback was greater than the premium. Not an option for the under 50s though.

But generally I agree with you. Getting quality insurance at rock bottom prices seems to get harder each year.

kolin_2

heres another hastings classic that happened this morning.

had a phone call from 'coparts' this morning who were trying to arrange collection of my written off focus. apparently Hastings had contacted them on the 26th[Nov] saying my car was somewhere in York, (and when copart said it wasn't there, hastings then apparently said it was on my drive)

even though hastings themselves had contacted a bodyshop in Barnsley who had removed it a couple of days after the accident(18th nov).

quite why it took this other company 11 days to contact me i've no idea. quite why hastings themselves haven't contacted me at all, i've also no idea.

ho-hum.

i like to think of the call-centre staff there as goldfish. they forget everything you say to them, very quickly.

rev_henry

kolin wrote: »

heres another hastings classic that happened this morning.

had a phone call from 'coparts' this morning who were trying to arrange collection of my written off focus. apparently Hastings had contacted them on the 26th[Nov] saying my car was somewhere in York, (and when copart said it wasn't there, hastings then apparently said it was on my drive)

even though hastings themselves had contacted a bodyshop in Barnsley who had removed it a couple of days after the accident(18th nov).

quite why it took this other company 11 days to contact me i've no idea. quite why hastings themselves haven't contacted me at all, i've also no idea.

ho-hum.

i like to think of the call-centre staff there as goldfish. they forget everything you say to them, very quickly.

Coparts sounds like an accident management company who have obtained the details of your accident illegally (data protection act) and are now trying to 'manage' it for you. Ignore them and continue with the normal bodyshop.

forgotmyname

Coparts auction accident damaged/ salvage cars on behalf of insurance companies.

Depots around the country, Used to be called universal salvage.

Been to their corby (now closed) branch several times, Bargains if you know what you are buying.
Light damage is not always as light as you may expect though, A throrough inspection is a must.