Buying car insurance online - distance selling query

Imnoexpert_2

I have come up against a problem when buying car insurance online.

It may be a small mistake on my part in that I have failed to notice an automatically populated data field, or some quirk of the website that has caused a vital piece of data to be different from what I entered when I took out car insurance online and certainly not what I wanted.

The information for the policy was not available to check until after I pressed the 'pay' button. I immediately then spotted the problem. The site doesn't have phone access and the site told me that to change it I had to cancel the policy and reissue it with the desired information. It also said it would charge me £26.50 for the privilege. I cancelled it and emailed to explain the problem.

I've queried it and so far they have played a straight bat and implied they will charge me (though the wording is 'may').

I am annoyed (to say the least) about this because I think their business model and website are partly to blame. Other sites leave a field blank and expect you to fill them in (but prompts if you don't).

I expected to be covered by the distance selling reg's cooling off period but I don't think financial services are included (PLEASE ADD TO MSE ARTICLE), how convenient, and typical. I have suggested that under the FCA 'Treating customers fairly' charter they should make the change to the policy for free.

Do I have a case? How should I proceed?

Fosterdog

Who is the insurance with? I've never seen a policy that you couldn't fully review before committing to buy.

It will cost them staff time to deal with an issue that you have caused so I can't see a way out of paying for what was most likely your own mistake.

DSR doesn't come in to this because you are buying an insurance service and not a physical item.

Saying all that we once had a problem with Santander car insurance, myself and OH had both reviewed the policy info more than once (an initial quote then retrieving it a few days later) when the printed policy came it had four errors, we were charged £20 to fix this and they still got the info wrong second time around. They wanted to charge us again so we cancelled the policy and went elsewhere.

agrinnall

Fosterdog wrote: »

DSR doesn't come in to this because you are buying an insurance service and not a physical item.

DSRs apply to services just as much as goods. However, I think insurance is not covered, as explained in section 2.11 of the guide here.

The DSRs do not apply to the following contracts:

• Contracts relating to financial services to consumers.

But it then goes on to state where these contracts are covered by law.

visidigi

Had the policy begun or was it post dated?

Imnoexpert_2

The policy was started as soon as I paid. I didn't want it to be and the field that does this is automatically populated and has to be typed over to change. Thus the policy was live for about the 10 minutes it took me to find out that the only way to change it was to cancel.

The administration cost must be tiny because the policy was started and cancelled in seconds electronically. The costs of dealing with my complaints by comparison will be fairly high! They will also lose a customer.

visidigi

Every policy I have bought, including the house insurance two days ago auto fills the start date. It's no where near as unusual a behaviour has you imply.

The cancellation costs can be what they define as long as reasonable. They are also generally weighted beyond physical costs to deter insurance 'flipping'. E.g. Taking out a policy, getting the certificate and then cancelling.

I'm not sure on what grounds you are complaining, this sort of data is confirmed and presented to you multiple times before buying (what's the URL?) If they have 'lost' you as a customer I doubt they would be bothered. You'll soon find of the hundreds of insurance companies on the market there are only a handful of companies in perspective behind them....

Imnoexpert_2

Just to correct you Visi.

The information wasn't presented multiple times. Just once and in the form view.

The definition of reasonable would probably ultimately be in the hands of 'the authorities'.

My claim (if I make it) is based on the 'Treating Customers Fairly' expectation which comes from the regulator. I think it is unfair in a distance selling relationship to not give a clear a chance to check the agreement and to make changes for free afterwards. There should also be a cooling off period.

I don't want to give the URL or the company name at this stage because it may be that they do put this right so I don't want to denigrate them in public(at this stage).

Imnoexpert_2

The company are going to refund as a gesture of good will.

I think even now we are all (consumers and traders) still learning about e_commerce.