Insurance Company Charged me Twice for my premium, Gave me a small compensation

Glenn_Lambert

I have recently renewed my car insurance with First Central and had significant difficulties doing so. I tried to pay for my insurance premium over the phone but encountered many problems and was passed around from person to person being left on hold for long periods of time which was due to their system being down. I was on the phone with them on their premium rate phone line for around 3 hours. Eventually the payment went through however upon checking my bank statement they had taken the payment twice (two separate payments). I rang them to inform them of their mistake however they said I must email my bank statement to them and they would investigate. After a week I had no reply so rang them again and finally they said they will refund one of the payments but will take up to 5 working days. In the meantime I have been subject to an unnecessary stress in phone calls to them as well as having to borrow money in order to buy food/pay bills/etc.

My complaint was acknowledged and First Central sent me a cheque for £50 as a form of compensation. I appreciate the gesture however I do not feel this be an adequate amount for the difficulties I have encountered over the last two weeks. Do I have any ground to pursue this complaint further?

marliepanda

How much money did you spend on phone calls?

How much do you think is appropriate?

societys_child

A refund + £50 seems fair but how much do you want?

Glenn_Lambert

marliepanda wrote: »

How much money did you spend on phone calls?

How much do you think is appropriate?

Not too sure exactly how much I spent on phone calls, less than £50 though.

I am suspicious that they sent me £50 so readily which make me think I have a case for a bigger complaint. It may sound greedy but that is the world we live in and I have no problem trying to get the most out of an insurance company who would do the same if the situation was vice-versa! I am not too informed on the whole legality so hoping that someone here may have a better idea of the law regarding the matter.

marliepanda

Legally you are entitled to your losses. What are those.

Stress and lending money will be far too difficult to quantify

tomtontom

Glenn_Lambert wrote: »

Not too sure exactly how much I spent on phone calls, less than £50 though.

I am suspicious that they sent me £50 so readily which make me think I have a case for a bigger complaint. It may sound greedy but that is the world we live in and I have no problem trying to get the most out of an insurance company who would do the same if the situation was vice-versa! I am not too informed on the whole legality so hoping that someone here may have a better idea of the law regarding the matter.

Yes, it does.

lincroft1710

£50 seems fair.

unholyangel

With all due respect, you think that because a company has actually provided you with good service after they made a mistake that it somehow means you're due more?

In law when one party is in breach of contract, they are liable for the reasonable losses incurred by the other party as a result of their breach. The other party has a statutory duty to mitigate their losses where reasonably possible (for example - by borrowing money from a friend/family instead of incurring bank charges)

Theres no entitlement to anything for inconvenience or stress.

All things considered, imo they've gave you a very good result.

cookie365

Glenn_Lambert wrote: »

I am suspicious that they sent me £50 so readily

Sometimes MSE forums are beyond satire.

daytona0

Glenn_Lambert wrote: »

My complaint was acknowledged and First Central sent me a cheque for £50 as a form of compensation. I appreciate the gesture however I do not feel this be an adequate amount for the difficulties I have encountered over the last two weeks. Do I have any ground to pursue this complaint further?

You most certainly DO have grounds to pursue this complaint further!

You can reject the 50 pounds and claim for the full amount you are out of pocket due to this whole situation. Of course, that will likely only be the cost of the phone calls because you can't really bill them for your time in this scenario (and stress happens from time to time, especially in unavoidable situations). So, unless your phone call cost about 25p a minute (assuming 200 minutes) then you will likely be claiming LESS than the 50 pound offered. Just as a side note but the managers would be more than willing to listen to you if you decide to pursue this complaint further Oh and ANOTHER point is that if the company have a cheaper rate number listed on their website then you might even get less money because YOU chose the more expensive method of contact. Who knows

Shaka_Zulu

Don't settle for less than £1m!