Hastings Direct - avoid their motor insurance

Adrian_Neave

I made a claim with Hastings following an incident on 8th June where five unattended cars parked in our residential road were hit by a careless lorry driver. At every stage the staff at Hastings have been courteous however nothing that is promised happens. Now on August 12th I am still trying to get settlement as they decided to write off my car. I was promised that a cheque would be drawn and sent over two weeks ago after I had chased them for the umpteenth time to find out what the state of play was. I have called every day this week and been unable to get through to anyone, currently I have been on hold for an hour and ten minutes, I won't be giving up.
I can promise Hastings though that there will be a formal complaint and I will take it all the way to the ombudsman if only to cost them money as any complaint that reaches the ombudsman costs the company the complaint is about a fee whatever the outcome.
I can only recommend that you avoid Hastings Direct Motor Insurance.
If you are having similar issues make sure you take them to the ombudsman, perhaps if their appalling service starts to cost them real money the management might do something about their service levels. #hastingsdirect #badservice

Adrian_Neave

UPDATE: Phone answered after an hour and 23 minutes. Apparently the payment I was promised was not raised until 9th August, over two weeks after it was agreed. It was allegedly authorised and despatched then in the form of a cheque as my bank details did not verify. This is a little surprising as they have had no problem accepting electronic payments from me. As we are already on the 12th August and nothing has been received I am understandably a little sceptical that any such cheque has been despatched. Yet again the member of staff was very courteous however this latest example of their service and controls means I can only reiterate my advice to avoid this company. I will update further when the cheque actually arrives.

Adrian_Neave

TIme stamps on these posts appear to be GMT as opposed to BST?

FutureGirl

The claims team use a different system that the customer services who take your money. When they make a payment to you they check your bank details with experian etc, if the details on your policy are different in anyway to what experian hold, then it won't let you raise a bacs payment so they would have to raise it as a cheque.

missile

Hastings Direct are quick to take your premium, but slow to pay out.
After I got the run around from them. I made a complaint and got £300 compensation.