Dial Direct Misery (Literally)

katecheshire

In August I took out home insurance with Dial Direct.  My car insurance needed renewing this week. After getting a high renewal quote I thought I would be a good moneysaver and shop around.  Went on Go Compare, attracted by their offer of Excess repayment.  Dial Direct Premium had everything I wanted so I phoned to cancel my existing LV policy. No problems at all - my cancellation email arrived immediately. So I clicked through on Go Compare to purchase from Dial Direct. But their website told me I was already a customer so I should phone them.  So I did. I then had to go through all my details in person (me and 2 named drivers).  Ended up with a more expensive quote.  I said I just want to use my Go Compare quote, why can't I do this online?  It was suggested that I try another comparison site. Same problem.  Lots of chatbot questions which they couldn't answer. Another phone call.  Another quote reference. I then spoke to a customer service person.  No progress. By this time I had spent 3 hours just trying to sort out my insurance. All I wanted to know was why there was no facility on the website for an existing customer to purchase an additional policy. It was then suggested that they would try the original quote reference again - exact same result. By this time I felt quite hysterical and burst into tears.  I said I can't do this any more. I'm going to put the phone down.  
When I'd had a good cry and a cup of coffee I bought my policy from RAC.  I won't be renewing my house policy either.  

Sandtree

New customers receive extra discounts and if you buy the quote you got from Go Compare or another aggregator then the broker has to pay them somewhere in the region of £60-£80. They were happy to do that once to get your details on their book but clearly don't want to pay it a second time to get another product from you, and especially motor where margins are razor thin anyway. 

In an ideal world their website should respond slightly better but ultimately their contact centre gave you the quote for an existing customer and was up to you if you wanted to pay the loyalty tax or not.

chrisw

katecheshire said:

Ended up with a more expensive quote.  I said I just want to use my Go (Compare quote, why can't I do this online?  It was suggested that I try another comparison site. Same problem. 

I would have told them where to go at this point and had a look at the next company on the comparison site list. I'm surprised LV didn't offer to match it to keep your business.

paddyandstumpy

The irony is, you've bought a policy from RAC, which is another brand of BISL, the same broker who offer the Dial Direct brand. 

Same call centre, same system, same staff. Mostly, the same panel of insurers too. 

At point of a claim you would deal with the insurer, but customer services will be the same call centre.