QuoteMeHappy

od017

Hi, just a warning to those using QuoteMeHappy for an online insurance policy.

The first issue I had was that when I received the policy confirmation via email, the policy was due to start on a date that I did not request - it seems from a brief search on the internet that others have experienced the same issue. The website is 'clunky', and also quite unintuitive, and as (as will be detailed below) I had to fill in my details many times, I noticed that certain steps of the information-filling-out process were missed out on some occasions.

More painfully, when I had cancelled this policy and was attempting to purchase another with the correct start date, I was given multiple 'your card has declined' messages. It transpires that each of those transactions took money out of my account, resulting in a situation where there were 8 'failed' transactions. This, coupled with the delay in receiving the first refund back from the incorrectly-dated policy, plus the one successful transaction (I had to do this on someone else's card), meant that QuoteMeHappy had taken 10 times the amount of money they should have (an £80 deposit). Even non-maths scholars would be aware that is a total of £800. I am a mature student, and I pay my way with a p/t job that pays £120 a week.

In any normal situation this would have been relatively easy to rectify, however with the internet-only nature of the company, getting through to someone was a nightmare. Luckily, a few members of staff at their Claims Dept (their only department with a telephone number) were very helpful, although I was promised three callbacks from the finance dept that didn't happen over the course of the working day yesterday. It was not until I stressed that these unauthorised transactions had rendered me at the bottom of my overdraft limit with absolutely no available money to me whatsoever that the situation escalated. Fortunately I spoke to an intelligent member of the finance staff with Aviva (I had tried Aviva initially when this situation arose on Monday PM, but was told even though they owned QuoteMeHappy, they couldn't help me), and he dealt with the situation.

As the transactions were pending with my bank account, nothing could be done. This did not change the fact that I had access to no money whatsoever as a direct result of this (presumable) fault with their website.

One of the most difficult parts of the ordeal was being made to feel as if I was asking to be put through to the Pentagon when calling the company up. I understood that they try to avoid customer calls as they don't have the staff to deal with it (that's one of the reasons they were the cheapest after all), however from a purely customer service point of view, I was made to feel worthless, at one point I was even told that if someone in the claims dept tried to transfer my call to the person in the finance dept who could help me, it was "highly unlikely they would take my call". Incidently, this was after being initially told that the finance dept were only contactable by email.

Some refunds have appeared in my bank today (this began on Monday), however not all funds have been accounted for - I'm still missed over half the money that was taken unnecessarily - and I have been given the email address of the gentleman that assisted me in case they have not all been returned by tomorrow - one of my concerns being that I would be left with no money over the Xmas period.

Internet-only companies are fine if there are no issues (I have used other internet-only companies before) although in this instance it was an utterly stressful situation, where I felt I had no control at all over what was happening.

Even though this situation will hopefully be resolved by tomorrow, should I take this any further? I have lost many hours on the phone to the company, plus any increase in interest on my bank account from the reduced funds...

Many thanks,
od017

InsideInsurance

Unfortunately you are looking at a brand new website and no matter how much Sys Test and UAT that goes on a few gremlins will almost always make their way through to production as even if you wanted to you cannot test for everything. A former client was desperate to get rid of their website because it was so user unfriendly but were too scared of the risks of breaking it by making big changes that they just kept tweeking the front end a little and using styling. The one project that did do a moderate change of creating a new log in system and the first steps to a "single customer view" came in at nearly £15m, did almost nothing and had terrible issues on the last part that it was all but descoped.

I am confused as to what you are saying they have taken, what they "reserved" and what they attempted to reserve but was declined.

Interest on £800 over a week or so is going to be fairly negligible but it is likely that a moderate gesture of goodwill should follow the hassles you've had. Certainly one of the challenges of internet only companies is they are internet only, personally I like to speak to people and so don't go with insurers that take this model.

od017

InsideInsurance wrote: »

I am confused as to what you are saying they have taken, what they "reserved" and what they attempted to reserve but was declined.

Interest on £800 over a week or so is going to be fairly negligible but it is likely that a moderate gesture of goodwill should follow the hassles you've had. Certainly one of the challenges of internet only companies is they are internet only, personally I like to speak to people and so don't go with insurers that take this model.

Thanks for your response. All 8 'failed' transactions were 'pending' with my bank. They did not show up as completed transactions (apparently this takes up to 48hrs), however the money was taken from my available balance, and was, therefore, unavailable to me. QMH acknowledged yesterday that they had overcharged me at least 3 times, but they did not have any more information than that. I provided them with the times and authorisation codes for each of the 8 transactions, but even this did not enable them to find the data trail. I presume this was a fault with their website, I was not aware this was a new site for them.

Both my bank and QMH did say that the transactions would most likely return unpaid (which some of them have as of today), however I was reluctant to accept this possibility yesterday.

I primarily wanted to use this message as a warning to anyone who gets the 'card declined' message when using their inconsistent website.

InsideInsurance

Most corporate entities do use a two step process, they do an authorisation call first to the bank which reserves/ ring fences the requested funds and then a second call is done later to request the funds to be transferred/ settled. Small players often do the two calls together/ instantly after each other.

It is a devils own job to cancel authorisations at the best of times but if glitches have occurred with payments being authorised but the system interpreting the result as being a decline it would only make it harder. The authorisations will drop off naturally and it is actually down to your bank to decide when they expire (normally its somewhere between 1-5 days).

[Deleted User]

Hi od017 -

Sorry to hear you have had this experience with QuoteMeHappy. I would like to help resolve this problem for you, if you email me at [EMAIL="david.hyam@aviva.co.uk"]david.hyam@aviva.co.uk[/EMAIL] with your policy number/quote number, name, postcode and some policy details then I will endevour to get you some resolution.

Kind Regards
Dave