Swinton car insurance - do not use

garooba

I rang for a quote for car insurance on 24th November 2010 and I was given a quote but thought it was high. The staff member wanted me to take on the quote but I was reluctant to do so and then offered me a discount but I felt it was still too expensive. After being pressured and before my brain exploded I took the last quote. I could not believe that I was on the phone for an hour and I even had a coughing fit!

I then spoke to my husband who queried if I had phoned for any quotes but I told him that it was the first quote and my husband also felt that the quote was too expensive. I then ran the call centre to cancel the quote but as I did not want to speak to anybody, as I thought that I would be harassed again, so I got my husband to speak to somebody but they put him on hold TWICE. The third time I rang and I spoke to somebody and when I told them that I was going to make an official complaint and take it to the Ombudsman then I was told to ring the Luton office.

I rang the Luton office and the person who answered put me on hold. I could not wait too long as I was at work and I cannot afford the phone call as I am on pay as you go mobile, so I rang again and was told to give my name and phone number and nobody replied. I even sent faxes but they still did not reply.

I rang my husband to let him know the situation and he rang the Luton office and was told that you are going to cancel my policy with reluctance. The call centre staff did not say about a £50 cancellation fee. In fact I did not hear a lot he said as he just waffled on. I cannot understand how your company can operate and will put something on the internet to let people know about my experience with your company. I have contacted my building society for the credit card payment for the initial payment who are going to send me a Dispute form and I need you to cancel the rest of the payments which would have started in January 2011 or I will be taking legal action.

To make matters worse the phone rang at 7.20 pm on 25th November 2010 and a voice asked for me and then said "do you know who it is" and then when I said "no", said it was (got not catch the name) but said he was from Swinton and I spoke to him last night. I replied that I did not want to speak to him and said goodbye and put the phone down. How dare he ring me, what can he do. I suppose he is upset that I am cancelling the policy and he will not be getting his commission – tough!

I am extremely annoyed with the service I have received. I thought that with the recession and as you are a well known company, people would receive good service. I think that the call centre staff should be sacked. His attitude was totally out of character and childish.

I need to cancel this policy and if I do not hear from you then I will be taking legal action and contact the Ombudsman.

I have now received a letter saying that I owe £66.06 for the period of cover that was taken with Swinton but I was insured with my insurance company until 7th December 2010 so therefore I should not pay any money.

Please please do not go with Swinton, their service is unacceptable and I should have never accepted the quote with them.

sarahlou89

I would never use Swinton again.
Me and the OH have had so many problems with them from 2009 which are still not sorted

catfink

similar story, took insurance with Swinton and then found a cheaper quote elsewhere. Phoned Swinton to cancel the next day, the insurance was not due to start for a week anyway so to my mind we not only had 14 days cooling offer due to it being a telephone (distance selling) transaction but also the law states that only a nominal charge can be made for admin in cases such as this. To my surprise I was told that charges would be £10 admin and £50 cancellation charge. After some discussion over the illegality of this I was told I had agreed to these charges on the phone. Well I'm sorry but a phone call doesn't change the law so I took the whole thing up with the financial ombudsman who agreed with my point of view and wrote to Swinton on my behalf.

After a few days Swinton phoned to say they would refund everything and that in this instance would I drop the case, which I agreed.

So, for those caught in this trap, contact the financial ombudsman and I'm sure you will find yourself on the end of a 'goodwill' phone call from Swinton.