Beware of seeus2save - scam artists

Thrifter_2

I went through an online comparison site called tiger.co.uk and was presented with an extremely cheap quote from Seeus2Save. I subsequently tried other quotes - they always come up the cheapest by a FAR margin which makes me think they do it on purpose to then whack customers with admin fees and premium phone line charges.

ANYWAY, I took out the policy, and there was an obscure terms of conditions which had been hidden away. I purchased the policy only to find that following T&C being sent to me by email.

7. Fees and Refunds

In addition to premiums charged by your insurer, seeus2save Insurance will at our discretion, apply the following non-refundable fees up to:

New Business – Up to £100.00
Renewal – Up to £100.00
Mid-Term Changes – Up to £100.00
Duplicate Documents - £25.00
Temporary Changes – Up to £100.00
Cancellation (Within the 1st 14 days) – £65.00 plus 20% of the total value of the policy
Cancellation (After the 1st 14 days) – your policy is non refundable
Credit Card Default & Returned Cheques - £25.00
Amendment to Finance Agreement - £25.00
A card transacted fee of 3% will be applied to each payment made on a debit or credit card

14. Cancellation
Right to Cancel

After entering into an insurance contract, retail customers have the right to cancel the policy. Your instructions to cancel must be sent in writing, along with all policy documentation (if received), to seeus2save Insurance within 14 days of inception. A charge of 20% of the premium will be made plus an administration fee of £65.00.
Cancellation after expiry of Right to Cancel Should you wish to cancel your policy your instructions should be sent in writing, along with the relevant Certificate of Insurance, to seeus2save Insurance.
A charge of 50% of the Insurers return premium will be made plus an administration fee of £65.00.These terms are imposed by seeus2save and supersede the Insurers terms and conditions regarding cancellation.


Calls to this number are charged at a premium rate of £1.50 per minute when called from a BT landline. Calls from mobiles and
other networks may cost more. Please ensure that you have the bill payer’s permission before making the call.


These guys are highway robbers - I would stay right away from them. I cant believe the FSA has given them a license to rip people off.

magpiecottage

seeus2save.com is a web based intermediary.

However, if you look here you will see the FSA's rules on this.

Given that it is quite clear that cancellation with 14 days must be without penalty, I think that probably is a breach.

However, the FSA cannot keep its eyes on everything without massively increasing fees - which would be passed on to the consumer.

You can forward a copy of the terms to the FSA if you want. They have powers under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 and can, and have, used them to force firms to change them.

Thrifter_2

Thanks Magpie.

I'm literally crying myself to tears with these thieves.

There's no cooling off period and they are very evasive when i call their premium line, they play music and say "hold on" everytime i question when im going to get my refund.

They've charged me £665 for my insurance which i would like cancelled, its only been 1 day since ive taken it out that i realized that I would like to go with someone who is slightly more reputable.

They said they'll charged me £65 admin cost, as well as 20% of the premium itself, and a 3% transaction fee.

Basically they said they'll give me back £443 back from the original £665 i paid for 1 days of insurance. That's not including the 20mins of phone calls on the £1.50 premium line to them.

I have this worrying gut feeling that there's no chance of me getting any of the money back, i can just sense it.

PLEASE HELP!

What do you suggest i do? Call /write to/ email the FSA??

I've never been through this process before so i do not know where to start.

Quote

Why do you want to cancel it?

Thrifter_2

Because I would like to go with churchill who offer better services at a slightly higher cost.

Plus if i make a claim/wish to change car or make any amendments to my policy i won't be hit by substantial costs.

magpiecottage

In that case you CAN put in a complaint if you want to and then take them to FOS if you are not satisfied with their response.

You can add on the cost of the call to the claim if you wish as well.

The complaint is breach of FSA rule ICOBS 7.1.1R

theoldman99

i,m new to this forum but when i was purchasing a policy from this company online, the terms and conditions are there for you to look at before you buy the policy. so its just a matter to make sure that you look instead of just maybe clicking yes that you agree like me though i usually just say yes but i thought i would be better just check incase there might be any small print. so all i would say to any one is just spend a little time to over look the terms and conditions..... and hopefully the you should then have no worries and be happy for the next 12 months of your insurance.:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

dunstonh

I havent looked at the site but surely they are retailing their service as an intermediary on a fee basis. The FSA allows fees not to be refunded if no business is purchased or is cancelled. It would have to be documented correctly though.

Peter_Martin

Do i have the right to cancell and get a full refund?

Their web site quoted me £172.79, thinking this was a good deal I paid this amount in full via my debit card, I was sent an email with three attachments, the proposal, Cover note and Seeus2save Motor Insurance Terms of Business.

The Proposal was all wrong stating the Premium was £203.28 not £172.79. I was alarmed to find there are loads of hidden charges not clearly shown on the web site but listed in the seeus2save Motor Insurance Terms of Business. such as Telephone Calls to their admin being charged at a premium rate of £1.50 per minute when called from a BT landline. Calls from mobiles and other networks may cost more. A charge of 50% of the Insurers return premium, plus an administration fee of £65.00 for cancellation, these terms are imposed by seeus2save not the actual Insurers.

The Cover note is invalid as it is not signed by the Agent (seeus2save), despite the cover note having a warning right below where the agent enters their detail, it clearly says "This cover note is not valid unless signed above by a person authorised by the Company". I emailed them about this matter and they promptly sent me another cover note, again it was un-signed and thus not valid.

I have not been supplied a correct proposal and after all the hassel I have no confidence in the company.

I ahve contacted Fortis the underwriters of the Insurance (i never got) and they confirmed that the cover notes were indeed not vailid, since taking out insurance with seeus2save I have not been able to drive as the cover was not in place, the policys have errors as well. I am disabled and this has realy set me back. Fortis said I should phone seeus2save and point out out all the errors to a line manager or department manager and if they were but available to leave my phone number and ask they phone me back. when I called seeus2save the chap flatly refused to let me talk the a manager, I gave him my phone number as requested by the fortis customer service person, he promptly and rather rudely said we don't do that.

After chatting to Fortis it seems to me that "THEIR AGENT (seeus2save)" is not following own Fortis's guidelines, I have requested that my problems are passed on to Fortis's Agent's admin team. but i am not hopeful for a quick outcome it sounds like they are not too bothered having a dodgey agent finding new business for them, time will tell. I am off to the trading standards office next. probably by bus or taxi.

foggytown

Thrifter - find out from these pirates who your actual insurer is. Then have a go at them for allowing seeus2save to scam their policyholders and sully their (presumably good) name. Might get some action.

danielganson

Got stung by these scamming artists. There are mnay variations of two-word phrases that sum these cowboys up; pond life, scam artists, con artists, etc.etc. but not forgetting the main one; robbing bast**ds! Charged me £191.80 'within' the 14 day cooling off period. The admin [at] seeus2save address returns a Notification Failure, after being redirected all over the place...
Your message:
To: tony.evans2010 [at] 2email.co.uk
Subject: Complaint
Sent Date: 46:48 +0000
has not been delivered to the recipient's BlackBerry Handheld - ???

I Will be reporting to Finance Ombudsman.