Now I’m sure lots of people deal with Hastings Direct Customer Services and are totally happy. Their prices are cheap, so there’s every reason to give them a try. Actually, in the first instance – buying car insurance from them online, I was happy… barring an error in the start date of my policy. However, from that point forward I had the most ridiculous experience with Hastings Direct Customer Services – details below:
1) I Purchased an insurance policy online
2) I Realised it started a week after I needed it
3) I Rang to make the necessary changes
I had hoped it would be simple, but then was told I’d have to start a new policy and cancel the old one, so was put through to someone in sales. The new policy quote was nearly £100 more expensive than the one I had bought 5 minutes earlier online. So, I said I’d cancel the old one and
try again online.
I then spoke to someone in the cancellations team, cancelled the policy, which cost me £25; for a policy which hadn’t even started yet, and had only been opened up 15 minutes previously. That would be an £876,000 per year premium going by the per minute cost of having my policy with Hastings.
I sent them a grumpy David-Mitchell-style email stating: “Next step small claims court, because I refuse to have the piss taken out of me in this manner. I’ve now gone elsewhere for my insurance, and I genuinely feel I have a grievance against you (I made sure I avoided all your sister companies/trading styles too). If your customer service agent had taken the time, and been flexible with this ridiculous sting of a cancellation charge then I probably would have stuck with Hastings… but alas, script reading and insincerity was taken to a new level by the final customer service agent I spoke to.”
In the end, they did refund my £25 cancellation fee, but what a palaver. There ends my Hastings Direct Customer Services Fail tale.
