The Great Hastings Direct Rip Off!

twincamms

I'm posting to inform the public of Hastings Direct rip off administration fees.

They came out in the top three for price on Confused.Com so I purchased my insurance through them.

Twenty days into my policy I changed my car. I phoned them and informed them. They charged me an additional £9.42 for insurance as the car was a higher group and a £35 admin fee. I also mentioned that I'd sent off paperwork for a personal plate and it would need assigning to the car when I got the documents. I was told that will cost an additional £35 when I call back to update my policy. On top of this I was on the phone for 28.42 minutes at 5.1p a minute. What a rip off!

I called again, this time to complain and wasn't taken seriously, in fact the twelve year old Customer Advisor just kept reading the same nonsense about terms and conditions off his screen, he was rude, flippant and didn't care. I asked for my case to be escalated to a Senior Customer Service Advisor. Reluctantly the twelve year old accepted my request and I was called back. The resolution offered was that if my documents arrive within fourteen days I'll only be charged £20 as a gesture of good will, over fourteen days and it'll be £35.

I'd suggest avoiding this company, they are the modern !!!!!! Turpins of car insurance, STAY AWAY!

It's time the Government hit the insurance industry like they do the banks, fine them, tax them, regulate them and stop them ripping off the working man!

twincamms

Dear Mr twincamms

Thank you for your email.

We would like to take this opportunity to express our apologies if the service you have received from us has not met your expectations.

We would like to explain that all our fees are shown in our Terms and Conditions when you accepted your policy online. You would not be able to proceed with your quote without first agreeing these, which is done by ticking the appropriate box. The fee to amend your policy is shown as £35.00.
Our fees are made clear ensuring that we are providing a transparent whilst honest service.

When making changes to a Motor Insurance policy, we as an Insurance broker also incur costs, these costs include.
- Administration of your change including the cost of staff and systems
- Generating, printing and delivering documents either electronically or by mail
- Provision of system and controls to process the updating of the Motor Insurance Database, which Police and other agencies use to check the status of your insurance

In regards to our cancellation fee to confirm ‘if you or we cancel the policy within the 14 day withdrawal period, whether cover has commenced or not, we will refund the part of the premium you have not used subject to our cancellation fee of £25.00 and any other charge made by the insurer. If you or we cancel the policy at any other time, we will refund the part of the premium you have not used subject to our cancellation fee of £55.00 and any charge made by the insurer’. This is confirmed in your policy booklet.

We are sorry if you remain unhappy regarding the administration fee and the service, we are unable to waive the administration fee on this occasion as we have acted using the correct criteria.



Yours sincerely,
Lee Roberts

Hastings Direct Conquest House, Collington Avenue, Bexhill on Sea, East Sussex| TN39 3LW

GingerBob_3

They, Hastings Direct, are bottom feeding scum. Unfortunately so are most other insurance companies. They really take the p**s with their enforced T&C, but because the useless regulator doesn't give a monkeys we are all stuck with it. They already have all this electronic infrastructure to manage their business, and your changing a policy has zero additional cost. It's just a money-making scam that we have to put up with. All you can do is move to another scammer when your policy is due for renewal, and tell them why you're doing it, and how you'll be briefing against them at every opportunity, not that the 12 year old will give a toss, of course.

You'll soon be aware that on this board you will get little or no sympathy. Reason being it's stuffed full of smartarses who spend all day reading the small print of T&Cs then take great delight in telling you that you should have done the same, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. Well I'm the first to admit that often I don't read all the T&Cs because these days they are too long, they are often ambiguous, and you end up wasting your time.

The insurance industry needs tougher regulation, but I doubt it will get it in the foreseeable future.

dunstonh

Twenty days into my policy I changed my car. I phoned them and informed them. They charged me an additional £9.42 for insurance as the car was a higher group and a £35 admin fee. I also mentioned that I'd sent off paperwork for a personal plate and it would need assigning to the car when I got the documents. I was told that will cost an additional £35 when I call back to update my policy. On top of this I was on the phone for 28.42 minutes at 5.1p a minute. What a rip off!

How is that a rip off?

You were creating admin. Who is going to pay for that if you are not?

I

called again, this time to complain and wasn't taken seriously, in fact the twelve year old Customer Advisor just kept reading the same nonsense about terms and conditions off his screen, he was rude, flippant and didn't care.

From that, we can see you are rude too.

I'd suggest avoiding this company, they are the modern !!!!!! Turpins of car insurance, STAY AWAY!

Whilst, I wouldnt want to buy insurance from this company, it is not for the reasons you have said. I would suggest you read the details about what you purchase ipn future.

It's time the Government hit the insurance industry like they do the banks, fine them, tax them, regulate them and stop them ripping off the working man!

Insurance companies have been regulated to a higher standard than banks for a longer period. There is absolutely nothing wrong with what they have done in your post.

You'll soon be aware that on this board you will get little or no sympathy. Reason being it's stuffed full of smartarses who spend all day reading the small print of T&Cs then take great delight in telling you that you should have done the same, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. Well I'm the first to admit that often I don't read all the T&Cs because these days they are too long, they are often ambiguous, and you end up wasting your time.

So, anyone that reads about what they buy first is a !!!!!!? you don't need to read every bit of the small print to see the charges that apply. There is a nice and clear page on their website which shows the charges: http://www.hastingsdirect.com/ourFees.html

If you pick an insurer with the model of cheap premium with admin costs stripped out then then moaning about admin charges is silly. If you dont want admin charges then dont buy the cheapest premium policies but buy one with the admin costs built into the premium.

twincamms

[QUOTE=GingerBob;65374
You'll soon be aware that on this board you will get little or no sympathy. Reason being it's stuffed full of smartarses who spend all day reading the small print of T&Cs then take great delight in telling you that you should have done the same, etc, etc, blah, blah, blah. Well I'm the first to admit that often I don't read all the T&Cs because these days they are too long, they are often ambiguous, and you end up wasting your time.

The insurance industry needs tougher regulation, but I doubt it will get it in the foreseeable future.[/QUOTE]

Spot on didn't take long for a smart !!!! to appear!

Browntoa

they all have admin charges , like its been pointed out its ALWAYS in the small print or the documentation they supply and on their terms and conditions on their web site

I'm with direct line and aware that I'm charged for any changes during the life of my policy

twincamms

Last year I was with quotemehappy.

I changed my car three times. On each occasion I logged in online and changed my details. No charges other than the difference in insurance cost. Change 1 cost me £9 , change 2 they gave me £12 back change 3 cost me £44.

I should have stayed with them......

forgotmyname

£35 is less than the DVLA charge to tranfer your plate though isnt it?

Is it still £80? Have you complained to them about that?

trukdiver

GingerBob wrote: »

They already have all this electronic infrastructure to manage their business, and your changing a policy has zero additional cost.

How do you expect them to pay for the infrastructure, processing costs, software etc? - or do you think software is free?

mayfair1985

I was on your side until this happened.....

twincamms wrote: »

I called again, this time to complain and wasn't taken seriously, in fact the twelve year old Customer Advisor..........

Disgusting attitude, and I bet that it was present on the call that you had with the Customer Advisor, which is probably why he wasn't interested in helping you.

rudekid48

Those charges aren't buried in small print - they're very clearly stated. If you couldn't be bothered to read them, then take a bad attitude when you call them then you've nobody to blame but yourself.