Bonkers pricing policy from Tesco Home Insurance

elkrust

My home insurance runs out at the end of January. I found that Tesco Home Insurance came top of the moneysupermarket.com search @ £169.00 for the year so I completed all the questions online, got taken through to the Tesco website and completed the transaction.
I suddenly realised that I had made a mistake with the start date, instead of it starting on the 31/1/16, I need it to start on 29/1/16 - two days sooner.
I got straight on the phone to Tesco Home Insurance and was told that the policy would have to be cancelled and a new one created, which we did over the phone. To my shock the new policy was going to cost £240.00 - £70 dearer than if it were to start 2 days later!!!
The girl at the other end of the phone was sympathetic, but couldn't explain the disparity.To rub salt into the wounds, the £169.00 refund was going to take up to 7 days to re-appear back in my bank account!
Once I had finished the phone call, I got straight back onto moneysupermarket.com and corrected my start date to the 29/1/16 and re-run the search. Guess what? Tesco came out top again at £169.00.
All good stories should have a happy ending, but not for Tesco in this case as I was not going to reward their incompetence. I plumped for buying my insurance with Legal and General who were £30.00 dearer but throwing in free legal cover.
If anyone from Tesco monitors these boards (and I am sure they do) maybe they could provide an explanation or even better - give me my money back asap.

System

Or you could stick with the first policy and stay at home for the two days, being very careful not to damage anything accidentally or set off a gas explosion.

agrinnall

elkrust wrote: »

If anyone from Tesco monitors these boards (and I am sure they do) maybe they could provide an explanation or even better - give me my money back asap.

What makes you so sure? I don't believe I've ever seen an official Tesco rep post anywhere on the forum. A better option would be to contact them on social media. Although I think you'll be wasting your time, the refund is coming as soon as possible and I doubt if anyone at Tesco would make it happen any faster.

noh

The explanation for the price difference is that, in common with many other providers, Tesco Insurance prices policies purchased via the Internet at a lower rate than those purchased by phone.

elkrust

Hi, I am the OP. I am not big on social media, but I did post my experience on Twitter and I did get a "Satisfaction Survey" through from Tesco which I haven't completed. As a rule of thumb I don't tend to complain directly to the company (unless I am out of pocket) as I consider it free market research for them. I would much rather warn other potential consumers of their inadequacies. Also, I don't think that Tesco (or most consumer corporations) have an official mouthpiece in forums such as this as most incidents could result in a slanging match between the two parties. Of course, once something is published digitally it becomes a matter of public record which could open up a load of PR headaches and potential historic claims for re-address. I think they have small PR companies that monitor and feedback this sort of negative feeling.