Direct Line Home insurance - is it worth complaining

first_time_buyer_X

Hello

Have been in my first home for about 3 weeks now after exchanging contracts on 20th May. ON the same day i exchanged i rang direct line to accept their quote for Home insurance and told them to start the policy from that date (i remember this distinctly since i was worried about exchanging and completing and not having insurance to cover me should anything happen to the house). Anyway got policy sent a few weeks ago and went to bank today to check on direct debits and whether they had gone out of my account. No direct debit to direct line so i rang them and they told me that my policy didn't actually start til 20th june so the first payment woudn't be coming out til July..so i have been in the house with no home insurance for the past month. I explained that this was a mistake on their part since i had asked for the policy to start back in may as it would have been a bit foolsih to exchange contracts in may and not start home insurance til 1 month later. the girl at the call centre just fobbed me off with a "oh there has been a mistake somewhere along the way" line but as i pointed out i would have been completely stuffed if anything had happened to the house and i needed to make a claim.

I feel lucky that nothing has happened in that time and i am now covered altho it doesn't really inspire any confidence in direct line. a girl i work with reckons i should make an official complaint but i am not sure of the procedure. Does anyone know what the normal procedure is for something like this?

thanks for your time
x

raskazz

There will be a specified formal complaints procedure in your policy documentation.

Depending on the outcome of the complaint you could request a copy of the call recording under a Data Protection Act Subject Access Request. You would have to fill in a form and pay a fee, likely to be £10.

Janjel

Direct line are a nightmare - I had car insurance with them and changed my bank details and address with them. They had not updated their records, i was in an accident - turns out they had been trying to take my dd out of old bank account and sending letters to old address and as they did not get money they cancelled my policy without me knowing - i was in accident and now have to pay for damages injuries myself because of this. They claim i never rang them to update details. it has taught me a valuable lesson to chack bank statements as I did not up to this. At least they admitted their mistake to you but i would complain about them.

dave_behave

Is a complaint really going to benefit you?

I'd say that moving your policy to a different provider would have more impact.

raskazz

dave_behave wrote: »

Is a complaint really going to benefit you?

Of course it is, assuming Direct Line made the mistake.

Firstly, if they resolve the complaint in a timely and professional manner then it can reassure the OP that he or she can at least have a certain amount of faith in Direct Line.

Secondly the OP will receive an apology, which alone can be a relief after dealing with some of the people who end up on the frontline in the call centre.

And thirdly the OP could legitimately expect a goodwill gesture if the complaint is upheld, even if it is a small one.

zkw29

You can certainly go through the complaints process - but I'm not really sure how it will benefit you now. Yes if you had to make a claim during that time it would have been important to establish whether you should have been covered at the time or not. But since you aren't making a claim what are you going to get? A letter saying they would have covered you had a hypothetical claim have occurred?

Also...and I'm expecting to get my head bitten off for this...while it could well have been Direct Line's fault in the first place, it is your responsibilty to check the documents as soon as they arrive to ensure they are correct.

zkw29

Sorry just realised I might have been a bit short before . All I'm getting at is that you will no doubt spend ages on the phone, on hold and posting letters and at the end of it all you won't really be any better off (apart from a written appology :rolleyes:). My suggestion is to put it down to experience and double check the dates over the phone in future or if you're really not happy then voice your dissatisfaction in the way that hurts them most - with your feet.