Allen and Allen Car Insurance - Feedback (Good and Bad)

Zhatan7

I took a policy out with them after doing a money comparison for £956, I had put that I had no ncb, but when i phoned they said it hadn't accounted for that and put it up to £1200. I agreed to go ahead, 10 payments of £128 a month for ten months, then two months "free". I thought after December, that would be the end of my insurance policy. How ever I noticed a payment for £98.06 came out on the 3/1/13 and £98.04 on the 28/1/2013 had come out. My car was declared sorn and on a private drive. I wanted to sell the car so thought as its insured i'll tax it and take it to the place i want to sell it too. However the online tax government website said my vehicle was not insured, so i thought what the hell am I paying for!

I called them today, I spoke to someone, who took my details and said they would put me through to someone that can help…after what felt like an eternity waiting on hold, it cut off saying this line is no longer accepting phone calls…

I called back, got someone else, they put me through to someone, who strikes me doesn't know much, but very quick on his feet.

I stated what had happened and saying i didn't agree to anything and surely you can't just open a policy without my say so?
He said its common practise with insurance policy's to automatically renew unless called and told not to. I replied and stated," but how can I be insured, when i tried to renew my tax online, it said my vehicle was not insured"?

He replied there must be something wrong with their website. I said I doubt that's true. he then said, when did you look at it? i replied oh in the last 3 or 4 days. i was then told oh, your insurance was cancelled on the 13th of feb…

I said wait a minute you took payment for feb?…

He said, just cause we took payment for feb doesn't mean you are covered for the whole month, car insurance is more like a mortgage.
But as your policy has been cancelled, there is the matter of the cancellation fee…

I said Wait a minute, you took out a car insurance policy and took money out of my account without my permission and now you want me to pay for a cancellation on a policy i never asked for? How much is the cancellation?

£220.18

He also stated that regardless to having my car on a private drive and regardless that it is declared sorn, it has to be insured all the time as its law! I questioned that saying i'm pretty certain if its not on the road and on private property it doesn't.
He just said im pretty certain but don't quote me on that...

AVOID A&A like the plague!

maninthestreet

If a car is declared SORN, and kept off the public highway. then there is no legal requirement to insure it. You would have thought an insurance company would know that, but not in this case....

Rich0764

Illegal and immoral are the words i would use when describing this company , i worked as a sales rep in their hampton hill office from 2002-2004 and they are a complete bunch of cowboys, i used to sit opposite their top salesman the reason he was top salesman was because he would change vital pieces of information when inputting details for quotes i.e miss out previous convictions or accidents, add no claims bonus that was non existent , then when the customer took out a policy they would receive a call 2-3 weeks into the policy explaining how they had witheld infomation or claimed to have no claims bonus which they didn't , they were then given an ultimatum either pay the extra cost to keep the policy running (which would often amount to hundreds of pounds) or pay a cancellation fee which would be at least 30% of the full premium plus an added charge for each day of cover. So basically the customer would lose alot of money whatever they did. This was just one of the illegal practices i witnessed while employed there , their staff were also guilty of backdating cover, writing illegal covernotes charging customers cards without permission the list goes on. Their customer service is atrocious hanging up on people , keeping people on hold until they would hang up etc etc etc .you would do well to stay clear of these conmen.

rudekid48

And you know for a fact that nothing has changed during the 9 years since you left?

chrisb1978

Roll on 2014 they are still appalling, I must have wasted at least 8 hours on the phone to this company listening to hid diols waiting music! They trade under different names so online comparison buyers beware!
I will never deal with this company ever again - customer service is none existent!