Hastings direct smartmiles con

aym280

Thank you for the advice. I never knew that. What stressful time Hastings SmartMiles has given me.

Quentin

aym280 wrote: »

Thank you for the advice. I never knew that. What stressful time Hastings SmartMiles has given me.

They have a damage limitation system that flags up online bad-mouthing which will hopefully catch on to your issue and post a stress soothing message for you shortly!!

Hastings_Direct_company_representative

Hi,

Thanks for raising your concerns and the feedback you've offered. I'm very sorry that you feel let down and unhappy with the adjustment to you and your son's policy. I've let the team know about your issue and we'll look into the situation for you. As Smartmiles is a policy for young or inexperienced drivers, the NCB is a very important detail and there could be an issue with this high amount that possibly we are not communicating clearly. Hopefully you'll receive a call with more info today and I trust that we'll come to the right outcome soon.

Many thanks,

Joe

amberdaz

I'm also having issues with Hastings Smartmiles scoring my daughter ridiculously harshly for unexplained reasons... She is scoring 100 on everything except for braking and driving at night - for both those she scores zero which takes her score below 40 and triggers threats of cancellation! We requested more information to help understand these zero scores as her driving seems to be good and consistent but all we got was general "drive smoothly" advice and were told that the algorithms had thresholds that trigger a zero score but they refused to say how the algorithms work or what the thresholds are because they are confidential - very unhelpful. They also completely avoided the question as to whether having to drive over lots of speed bumps on university campus every day was inaccurately or unfairly impacting on braking scores...but surely an accelerometer in the black box will interpret slowing down and hitting a series of speed bumps on a regular basis as excessive braking would it not - even though it has nothing to do with the quality or safety of the driving!
NOT IMPRESSED!

Al_Cooper

My son has just been advised that his insurance is cancelling because his braking is at zero on the scorecard
100 on acceleration
75 on speed
0 speeding alerts and excellent
0 on braking (never altered always registered 0)
he rang them to complain they said it would improve when calibrated
then a letter to say cancelling cover with effect from 09/02/2017
£275 for box £1500 paid in advance for cover .....cancelled without even acknowledging complaint
BIGGEST CON! AND BULLYING BEHAVIOR........WILL NOT BE TOLERATED....SOLICITORS BEING EMPLOYED AS WE SPEAK

paddyandstumpy

Save yourself the cost of the solicitor and just write a complaint to them.

They then have 8 weeks to formally respond or you can escalate to the Ombudsman at no cost to you.

EdGasket

stugib wrote: »

How? I can't find anything that lists accelerating as a cause of accidents.

I failed my first driving test for not getting up to speed with the traffic quickly enough!

Main cause of skidding is accelerating and braking too sharply.

Brooker_Dave

Al_Cooper wrote: »

My son has just been advised that his insurance is cancelling because his braking is at zero on the scorecard
100 on acceleration
75 on speed
0 speeding alerts and excellent
0 on braking (never altered always registered 0)
he rang them to complain they said it would improve when calibrated
then a letter to say cancelling cover with effect from 09/02/2017
£275 for box £1500 paid in advance for cover .....cancelled without even acknowledging complaint
BIGGEST CON! AND BULLYING BEHAVIOR........WILL NOT BE TOLERATED....SOLICITORS BEING EMPLOYED AS WE SPEAK

Another unlawful cancellation?

Dave_White

My daughter took out a policy with Hastings Direct Smartmiles one month ago at a cost of £816. Of this the Telematics box is charged at a cost of £210 and RAC breakdown cover for £59.99. The box has to be fitted within two weeks of taking out the insurance.
It was quickly identified that her acceleration was continually scoring zero. This despite her previous insurers Telematics box which was still fitted was scoring a much higher mark for acceleration. She quickly received the threatening cancellation email if she didn't score above 40. She pointed out that the Telematics box must be faulty as it must be impossible to consistently score zero, particularly when another box is scoring differently. She was fobbed off with 'advice' on driving without accelerating.
The threats continued and we have decided to cancel and go back to her previous insurers.
I contacted Hastings to complain. They have refused to refund the cost of the Telematics box because it's been fitted. The very fitting and assessment puts you outside your 14 day statutory rights of cancellation rights so they will always keep your £210. Never mind it not being fit for purpose under the Sale of Goods Act.
When I asked about her RAC membership it transpires Hastings never actually make you a RAC member so they keep the £59.99 also.
The refund offered after one months insurance is £378. 10 from the £816 initial outlay.
I have since learned from a basic Internet search that Hastings were subject of a Watchdog programme and the Internet is littered with people reporting similar issues with their Telematics boxes. They are raking in a lot of money with this from unwitting drivers.
I await with interest the resolution of my complaint which I have also lodged with the Financial Ombudsman.
I will update this post with the response.