WARNING - Budget Car Insurance 2011

pkinghan

Hi all

I joined this forum just to post this as I feel so horrified at what has just happened. Every year I purchase car insurance I do so with a view that I never intend to make a claim; I'm doing it only because I am legally obliged to.
As such, this year I took out car insurance for myself and my wife (age 40 and 37) with Budget Car Insurance who feature highly in lowest price in UK aggregating forums. The cost was £290.47 for the year; a very low price.

I have since sold my car and called them this morning to cancel my policy, beign fully aware of the horrendous cancellation charges. In my case, as the policy was from 01Feb11, and I'm cancelling today (30Mar11), i.e. within 2 months, the charge is 50% of premium plus a £75 admin fee. This equates to a charge of over 75% of my total premium for the year, which of course I have to accept - fine.

I called from my mobile fone (O2 simplicity tariff). They use 0844 numbers. I was on hold for 20 minutes and was charged £5 before I had to give up. I then called back from Skype at a more reasonable £0.07 per minute. I was on hold again for a further 25 minutes i.e. 45 minutes in total; in my opinion completely unacceptable.

I asked could I get a charge fee for cancelling policy, to which I then get asked the usual questions, why ae you cancelling etc, have you sold the car etc. The charge was exactly as I had measured, however when I asked the girl to walk me though how she calculated, she was unable to do it. I then offered that it was based on a 50% charge for cancelling within 2 months, to which ou said I was wrong etc. I then directed her to where I was getting this information from i.e. their own documents, and she finally conceded I was right etc.

I asked how I go about making a complaint, to which I was told I had to speak to a team leader - you guessed it, I was then put on hold for another 5 minutes.

I told the other employee it was unacceptable to be on hold for over 45 minutes. There was the classic, we are currently experiencing high call volumes etc. To be fair, she apologised, however I was not seeking an apology, but simply wishing to make a complaint.

The call centre is an out-source in South Africa.

I strongly recommend no-one purchases car insurance from this company; if you search online there are loads of complaints.

Shocking charges and shocking customer service, irrespective of the very low premiums they offer.

TSx

pkinghan wrote: »

I told the other employee it was unacceptable to be on hold for over 45 minutes. There was the classic, we are currently experiencing high call volumes etc. To be fair, she apologised, however I was not seeking an apology, but simply wishing to make a complaint.

How would you prefer this was resolved? I heard this many times when we had 45 minute waits during the freezing weather in December. There is a finite number of staff in a call centre, and we ran overtime constantly as well. Whilst they had 'geared up' for a bad winter, it was much, much worse than the previous year since it went from snow claims (damaged guttering) to frozen pipe claims with no gap inbetween.

It's not as if the agents are sat there twiddling their thumbs inbetween calls...