Quote me happy!!has any one used them before?

vinylmusic

I am almost decided to go with Quote me happy
it clearly says that courtesy car is covered on all policies yet they automatically included option 2 which is Legal cover and Hired car at
£4.10 a month extra
I chose to remove the option 2 and got the following message:

Are you sure you want to remove Legal expenses and Hire car?
Up to £ 50,000 in legal costs following an accident
24 hour legal assistance
Up to 21 days hire car if your car's been written off or stolen.

Ok, I may go for option 1. Legal cover at £2.25 a month but can anyone tell me what is the difference between a courtesy car and a hire car?

With option 2 removed I'm still getting a courtesy car included.... very strange

NonGeographicalMan

vinylmusic wrote: »

can anyone tell me what is the difference between a courtesy car and a hire car?

A courtesy car is one provided by their approved repairer if you car is damaged and can be repaired for less than the market value of the vehicle so is not written off. You do not need to take their Option to be entitled to the Courtesy Car as it is a condition that their Approved Repairers provide QMH customers with a loan vehicle during the repair.

A hire car is one provided to you by a hire company for up to 21 days and paid for by QMH under the hire car insurance policy in the event that your car is either stolen or is so badly damaged that the repairs cost more than the market value and so it is completely written off. In either case your car is not then in with an approved repairer for repair but instead you are waiting for financial settlement from QMH. The point of the hire car is to tide you over in the up to 21 days it may take QMH to pay out on the value of your written off or stolen car. This cover is therefore most beneficial for someone with an expensive vehicle who could not possibly afford to fund a replacement before QMH paid out and/or for someone in the middle of a long distance business or holiday trip at the time that their car was stolen or written off.

Its worth noting that if you do your quote with QMH through confused.com that they currently have an offer where legal expenses cover worth £30 per annum is actually thrown in for nothing (half of Option 1). However if you do the quote through Confused.com you may not get the £40 for taking out a new policy offered by Quidco or £30 offered for a new policy by TopCashBack. Although it is in fact possible to get both these things but you might want to PM me for an explanation as to the methodology.

motherwoman

After a long farcical issue with this shoddy company I have now had to complain to the ombudsman.
I had a policy with them, didn't want to renew as they wanted to charge me over £200 more than other companies (who were giving me a better policy!) and they 'don't do price matches'.
As they're an 'online only' company I tried to go through their system to cancel the renewal. Got through to the final stages where it promtply told me I could cancel the renewal policy starting in 2013 - a policy that didn't exist, and certainly hadn't been requested as the renewal I wanted to cancel was the one starting in 2012!
I emailed them about this issue, inlcuding screen prints of what their system was showing and asking them to rectify the issue so I could cancel online, or to cancel it for me, and got no reply. Emailed again, nothing. again, nothing.
I then went to my bank and cancelled the DD to them, and emailed them about it to inform them it had been cancelled so they couldn';t take money out of my account for a policy I had been trying to not renew and they had not responded about.
Went to their facebook page - spoke to someone, also told them I had had to already involve than bank and had cancelled the DD, mailed them and they passed it on to someone who eventually - 14 days after I first emailed them - assured me that the policy would cancel. I told them I did not trust them to give me a correct NCD through a system that clearly had a problem, and would they post it to me via 9am special delivery. They agreed to do so....
so, on the day my existing policy should have lapsed, imagine my surprise when I got an email welcoming me to a new year of driving with them! I emailed them about this - and as they don't do saturdays or sundays, even though they claim 24/7 help, I had to wait until monday for a reply! They did say there had been an issue, but that the policy would be cancelled and that my NCD proof would be in the post as agreed.....
That was on the 3rd september.
STILL no NCD document as agreed!
And - I found out from my bank on friday that they had put a claim in on thursday for the money for the policy they had eventually cancelled on the monday previously and had tried to take money out of my account without authorisation!

They have stopped me from commenting on their facebook page to warn others of their thieving tactics, and they are now ignoring my emails.
I still have no NCD proof, and I cannot log into their site to print it off (if it would even be correct in the first place!)

I cannot warn you enough about this shoddy lying thieving company!

The Ombusdman has contacted them over a week ago, and they have still not bothered to reply or get in touch with me in any form.


Please please please - its worth whatever extra payment it takes to go with any other company than this one! They are so disgusting it is unreal!

I have also since found out that they have charged someone the full policy price for a policy that was cancelled the day after they took it out (so well within the legal cooling off period), and they are now having to go through the ombudsman to get any of their money back, after they took over £400 off them!

NonGeographicalMan

motherwoman wrote: »

I cannot warn you enough about this shoddy lying thieving company!

The Ombusdman has contacted them over a week ago, and they have still not bothered to reply or get in touch with me in any form.

motherwoman,

I agree what has happened to you is not at all good and like you I did find it unacceptable that when I called the main switchboard number (listed at https://www.saynoto0870.com) for QuoteMeHappy's actual owners (Aviva) that they refused to put me through on the phone to anyone even for a high level escalated complaint and even when reminding them of their duty to handle the complaints of customers correctly under the Financial Services Authority's rules.

However after expressing some considerable unhappiness on the subject of their corporate obtuseness in accepting proof of bonus from Admiral (I had scanned and sent them the right documents showing my proof of bonus but they then complained they thought my policy with Admiral was still in effect as my QuoteMeHappy policy began three weeks after the original Admrial expiry date and demanded proof the policy with Admiral was cancelled even though they could have called Admiral themselves or checked with the Motor Insurer's Bureau to verify this was the case) I was directed to the "Not Happy" link in the middle column of the bottom of their website's home page. The direct link for this is http://www.quotemehappy.com/not-happy and complaints made via that form are basically looked in to a lot more quickly and at a higher level compared to their normal complaints process

After using this Not Happy Contact Us form and saying how I also intended to write to the FSA saying they were in breach of its complaints procedures by only having email contact for unresolved long running issues I did then get an email from a named person at QuoteMeHappy assuring me my no claims bonus was now successfully transferred and my policy now in force. I had already noted QMH's quite excessive and unreasonable short term rate insurance charges if they decide to cancel a policy on the basis of inadequate proof of bonus from a customer and I am suspicious as you are that they try to cancel as many policies as possible and invoke the cancellation charges to offset the low headline prices used to lure new customers in.

Anyhow I would suggest you try the above QMH Not Happy complaints link if you have not already done so and if that does not work try contacting Sophie Gregory at Blue Rubicon, the PR agency that handles QuoteMeHappy's press liaison work. These details are listed at http://www.quotemehappy.com/media-centre/new-low-cost-car-insurance-launches and both a phone number of 020 7260 2700 and an email address of Qmh@bluerubicon.com are quoted on that web page.

I understand why QMH might try to avoid customer phone calls for simple issues as they can go on and on for a half or so per call via the phone yet be resolved much more simply in an email (by cutting out the customer's angry rant time). However it is not acceptable that there is never an official phone call channel for making complaints even if an issue has gone unresolved by QMH for an excessively long period of time.

If you do persist with your FSA complaint then I will be very interested indeed to hear what the final outcome is.

Quentin

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

After using this Not Happy Contact Us form and saying how I also intended to write to the FSA saying they were in breach of its complaints procedures.......If you do persist with your FSA complaint then I will be very interested indeed to hear what the final outcome is.

The FSA does not deal with complaints like this.

If you have a complaint you must give the company the chance to deal with it, and then if not satisfied take it to the FOS. If still not satisfied your only other option is court.

motherwoman

Funnily enough, this late afternoon/evening "out of the blue" I got a call from someone at Aviva about my complaint. Unfortunately they chose the 'most' appropriate time of dinner time to call me (cynically I believe this to be a puposeful choice) meaning that I did not have time to go into what will be an exceptionally lengthy call explaining all their incompetancies and thieving ways. I don't think my young children would have appreciated me spending an hour on the phone to someone instead of feeding them!
I asked them to put the details in the post and I would dicuss it at time appropriate for me, not them. They say no.
Then they also tried to say that they could not send me my documents via 9am special delivery as agreed because the service wasn't available!!! I *work* on the post so now know they just make up lies for their own purposes!

They're apparantly 'looking into' my complaint - its only taken them over a week to do so - and if they do not provide a satisfactory outcome I will be asking the ombudsman to take it further. When speaking to the ombudsman they explained the company has 8 weeks to reply in, but should ideally, if they were a reputable company, reply in writing within 10 days (which as QMH don't work weekends will mean almost three weeks...) they did also say if I wasn't happy with the outcome they could then investiage themselves, using any documentation I can provide - and amongst other damning evidence I have a long list of emails from half their staff pratting around and trying to be 'hilarious' to show that they don't take problems seriously! That alone shows their incompetances! But I'm sure their staff thought they were being funny at the time.

I do, miraculously, have an 0800 number to ring for the person dealing with my complaint (albeit someone from aviva - watching this are you?!) should I ever feel calm enough to not want to shout from the rooftops how disgustingly unprofessional this company is and how much they love to pee off their customers.

NonGeographicalMan

Quentin wrote: »

If you have a complaint you must give the company the chance to deal with it, and then if not satisfied take it to the FOS. If still not satisfied your only other option is court.

The FSA still has rules about the way a company is meant to handle complaints from the public. If the company does not follow those rules then your first point of redress is with the company itself and then its Chief Executive (if the customer service apparatus fails to provide a satisfactory response as is all too often the case). After that you take the matter to the Financial Services Ombudsman.

Failing to accept a customer's proof of bonus and then hastily cancelling the policy leaving them on the road and uninsured if this is done too quickly could potentially become a very serious issue as could the unfair and unreasonable charges made by QuoteMeHappy for short term insurance of a few weeks if they choose to cancel on you due to them not accepting your documentation such as proof of bonus mainly because they don't ever speak to customers on the phone to clarify the issue properly. They should only charge pro rata for cancellation where they cancel the policy on a customer due to a dispute about paperwork as opposed to where a customer cancels on them voluntarily.

motherwoman

Hi all
Just a update -
I have now received my NCD via post, but not as 9am special as agreed.
Their people are "looking into the matter", but its not a case of them not accpting my NCD, its a case of them refusing to cancel my policy renewal, stating I must do it online, when their online system showed a policy for next year (starting date 2013) not this. They refused to acknowledge their mistake, then, 3 weeks after my DD was cancelled they tried to claim money out of my account ( this was three weeks after I told them the DD was cancelled) and to this date not one word of apology,...

I do now however have the monthly payments refund in my account twice, as my bank claimed it back, then QMH refunded it.....

Quentin

Leave it where it is till they get round to asking for it back!

NonGeographicalMan

motherwoman,

I don't actually understand your reason for insisting on 9am Special Delivery for your Proof of Bonus when Royal Mail now charges around 17 pounds for this service compared to just under 6 pounds for 12.30pm Special Delivery and just over a quid for 1st Class Recorded Delivery? Since QMH are a renowned Ryanair type company surely you can see it is unlikely that they would comply on your 9am Special request which appears to be just in order to make you "feel better"?

If you had needed the proof of bonus early then a scanned copy by email or fax would have been the cheapest way for QMH to get it to you cheaply and quickly.

As to your renewal premium being extortionate this appears to be the general game of these companies under their crazed sales led mentality with it being viewed as crucial to gain new customers at all costs no matter how low the premium whereas they seem to think most customers will then only have the time to shop around once every five years so they can make a fortune by stitching them up with expensive renewals in between when they finally move companies. The worst in this regard seem to be Admiral Insurance Services who out of their four brands (Admiral, Bell, Diamond For Women (& Men) + Elephant) only have one offering the cheapest rate in any particular week or month and they arrange this in relation to the 52 week renewal cycle so that the brand you came to them under (because it was cheap) never has a cheap premium 52 weeks later even though one or more of their other brands may well do.

One reason I moved to Quote Me Happy is because I do like online policy administration (if it works properly and even if they insist on charging you something reasonable like a quid if you still want to speak to them on the phone) and I had hoped that their minimum admin approach would mean consistently low renewal rates in future years. However perhaps I was naive in expecting that and when this policy comes up for renewal I will still have to move on again. I still don't know whether I'm going to get my £40 Cashback from Quidco as although it showed as tracked the day or so after I took out the policy its status hasn't moved on any further since then.