Does anyone have any feedback on Hastings Direct?

A short version of a long story. Hastings Direct
I have insured my car with this company for some time, I decided to add my stepson onto the insurance as a named driver, so I logged onto the portal to find out what I needed to do to add him.

I noticed that the portal only showed a cancelled car insurance policy form 8 months earlier, alarmed at the prospect of having been driving my car for 8 months without insurance I contacted Hasting Direct through their live chat and asked them to clarify the situation.

After chatting with their staff member I was told I did not have any insurance at all, I raised the question why have you been taking regular payments from my bank for the past 8 months, I was told that I should have cancelled the direct debit, I asked how I could retrieve the money I have been paying to them and their staff member told me to claim it back through the bank.

I immediately cancelled the direct debit and contacted the bank who through the Direct Debit Indemnity Scheme returned several hundred pounds to me within three days, at the same time I searched for a new policy to make sure I was not driving without insurance with another company.

A week later I received a bill for the money that I had claimed back plus a cancellation fee and an admin fee, I contacted Hastings Direct again through the live chat as it is much faster and after a very long conversation was told that they were in the process of changing the system over to a new system and there had in fact been a live policy that only showed on the new system which is why it didn't show on the portal as the new system was not live yet and that the advice I had been given was probably from a staff member not currently trained or able to access the new system resulting in incorrect advice and information being given to me.

I pointed out that I am now being billed for Admin and early cancellation and was told to send a copy of the new insurance which would put a stop to the letters and demands. I did as I was directed.

Emails, letters and phone calls and still no further on we are, it has now turned into a complete farce, I am now after refusing to pay ANY money to them dealing with a so-called senior customer relations representative.

She has told me that my claims are not true as there are no live chats relating to the account, I have demanded she investigate further and no matter what I have asked for she is looking for phone calls despite telling her no phone calls had been made because it was all done through live chat, she is searching for emails despite being repeatedly told it was all done through live chat, she has been searching on dates after the recharge was made for conversations that had taken place before the chargeback despite being given specific dates to search under and she is still telling me there are no records of any live chats.

I searched my browser history and gave all the dates of all the interactions and she still can't find any records of any live chats, I have requested a transcript of all the live chats and still to no avail.

To be honest I believe that they thought they would tell me they think I am not being truthful and I would just toddle off. But because I didn't, it looks as if they have done the least they possibly could in their investigation, they have obviously not investigated fully, I'm not sure if they are trying to be deliberately dense or if it is a case that the person I am dealing with is particularly inept but on this occasion I will not be going away quietly with my tail between my legs.

I have now contacted the Ombudsman they will investigate properly & if necessary I will take my complaint and demands the for the Live Chat Transcripts through the court system, I wonder how many other people have been having problems with Hastings Direct during their change over from the old system to the new system.

Hastings Direct has told me that they need evidence of the conversations, why would I keep a copy of the live chats, this is something Hastings Direct should have done, I needed evidence of a live policy which they didn't supply, the onus is on them to prove the alleged debt which they haven't done, it is also their responsibility to keep diligent records and to provide them within a dedicated time period as directed by the data protection act which they have not done. Hastings has made a mistake and for some reason, they are determined not to investigate my complaint correctly or to take responsibility for their actions.

I am currently looking forward to the Ombudsmans results, hopefully, they will have more luck and save me a visit to my local court to demand the transcripts.