Nightmare with car insurer

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 18:59

Hi guys.

I'm having a nightmare with my car insurer. My policy was expiring on the 7th June.
During May I received an automated renewal quote email from my insurer. I called them as this quote was for 2 years NCB (I had a secondary policy on a different vehicle which had 7 years NCB which could be used on this policy as I sold my secondary vehicle a few months ago)

Anyway cutting a long story short I called them and provided my 7 years NCB proof, all accepted. As the NCB was changing they had to do a new quote seperately.

So they had to ask me all my details, I gave them all the details and he pulled some information from his system. When he got to the detail of my license obtained date, he read out an incoorect date, which was 23rd August 1999, that was wrong, my licence date is 24th June 2008. I advised it was wrong and he took the correct information from me, and entered it. (note I checked my previous policy and the date was correct on my policy just about to end - so I dont know where he got the incorrect date from).

Anyway after going all over the rest of the info and data for me, he had to put me on hold because he had to check something with his Head Office quickly, he then came back to me and said he needed to requote due to having to change a flag on his system something to do with the extra NCB, so he asked me a few questions again, which he had already asked me previously and he rekeyed them. However he did not ask me for my license information again (there were a few other points he didn't re-ask either)

Anyway he gave me my quote (aprox £820) and I paid by credit card in full. This was on the 25th May, the new policy started yesterday, and today I have had an email saying some of the information conflicts on my policy with their records and they asked me to provide copies of my license so i did take photos and emailed them.

It transpires they used my wrong licence date for the quote (as assume as he had to rekey the info in again for some things, and he didn't re-amend the date of my license) and now they are demanding an extra £723 premium as the quote should have been higher, based on the correct date according to them.

The email to me states:

Dear Mr Bryan

Thanks for providing the additional documents we requested. After reviewing these documents, it has emerged that some of the information on your policy is incorrect.

Our records indicate that when you took out this policy you advised us that you obtained your driving licence on 23rd August 1999. However, it has now been brought to our attention that you obtained your driving licence on 24th June 2008.

As a result, your premium has been re-calculated and there is now an additional amount of £723.82 (including a £50 administration fee) due.
What happens next

We will be in touch shortly to confirm how payment will be taken.

If you require any further assistance, or if any of these details are incorrect, please contact the Customer Services Team.

Kind regards

Darren Jeffery

Luckily my phone is set to record all my calls and I checked it and I advised them of the correct date on the call 100%.
However I've called them and the agent is having their calls records checked and he will call me back, after an investigation is completed. But he doesnt know what the outcome will be though even if I'm right. (which i am as I listened to my call recording twice)

Where do you think I will stand legally?

teenwolf · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:06

geez that is shocking.
no idea on what you can do but please share with us who the insurer is.

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:07

1st central

Oh top it all off, they have also been sending me emails and letters with a policy number that is 100% incorrect and doesn't relate to me as well. They have confirmed it is a mistake, yet they keep sending me communictation with the policy for somebody else.

Adam · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:08

Surely the answer is that you wait until they finish their investigation?

I was told I'd get a refund from Admiral and when it hit my card it was significantly less. They listened to the call and refunded me the right amount.

paradigm · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:11

Only ever read bad things about 1st Central, did you go for the cheapest quote on a comparison site by chance?

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:11

Adam said:
Surely the answer is that you wait until they finish their investigation?

Correct, but wondering if anybody know what my rights are etc. What I'm entitled too?

Surely a quote verbally is legally binding as the details I gave are all 100% accurate, but because they keyed in the wrong data, the price should legally be honoured, but I don't know the Law on insurance quotes via phone.

They love to sting you if YOU give them wrong information in error don't they!

p1RATE · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:12

So this was a new quote? You will have 14 days to cancel without penalty.

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:13

paradigm said:
Only ever read bad things about 1st Central, did you go for the cheapest quote on a comparison site by chance?

Yes in May 2015. They did offer me the cheapest quote last year, so I went with them. Come renewal time year they also were the cheapest too, against others.

Flack88 · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:13

This happened to me concerning annual mileage when insuring my bike. Guy got it wrong, however I mentioned it when my documents came through and they went back and checked recorded call and sorted it for free with the original quote price. I'm sure insurance company's have to record all calls.

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:14

p1RATE said:
So this was a new quote? You will have 14 days to cancel without penalty.

Is that 14 days from the policy start or 14 days from the date I agreed and paid for the new policy, because the policy started on the 8th June, yesterday. But I took the policy out on the 25th May and paid in full (15 days ago)

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:15

Flack88 said:
This happened to me concerning annual mileage when insuring my bike. Guy got it wrong, however I mentioned it when my documents came through and they went back and checked recorded call and sorted it for free with the original quote price. I'm sure insurance company's have to record all calls.

The agent I spoke to last confirmed they DO have the recording of the call, so they are checking it and he will come back to me before Monday. (probs tomorrow or Saturday he said)

kindai · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:15

Ace Modder said:
Correct, but wondering if anybody know what my rights are etc. What I'm entitled too?

Surely a quote verbally is legally binding as the details I gave are all 100% accurate, but because they keyed in the wrong data, the price should legally be honoured, but I don't know the Law on insurance quotes via phone.

They love to sting you if YOU give them wrong information in error don't they!

Basically they'll cancel your policy and refund you is whats going to happen, unless they decide to keep you as a customer as a show of good will, but most likely its going to be a "computer says no" moment.

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:17

This will be fun then. I expect they will try to play the "£75 cancellation fee" and also the 2% credit card fees.

But I won't accept that.... I want full refund for what left my credit card.

paradigm · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:19

Ace Modder said:
The agent I spoke to last confirmed they DO have the recording of the call, so they are checking it and he will come back to me before Monday. (probs tomorrow or Saturday he said)

Wouldn't it be "surprising" if their call recording doesn't match what you are saying, and for some reason your own recording can't be used as "evidence".

I'd honestly just cut your losses and go to a company that isn't renowned for being incompetent.

rodenal · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:19

It will be fine, let them complete their checks and if by chance this doesn't turn up provide your own evidence.

Likelihood is they will apologise and honour the price, worst case you cancel the policy - it won't result in you having to say a policy was declined or cancelled so I wouldn't be particularly concerned

I would probably be keen to cancel anyway, but be absolutely certain the correct result R.e details is recognised

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:23

I think I need to cancel for sure. I will wait for their decision on what they can do first though.

Here is an email I sent to them and the insurance ombusman this morning, before they gave me the new higher quote aswell.

Hi

I wish to log a number of complaints. I will explain the history of
my dealings with your company.

I took a policy out in June 2015, all was fine for the whole year
(fpm6001563101fc). (I changed my addess in January, and that
adjustment was done smoothly too)
The problems started when renewal time came.

I received a renewal quote via email, I called you to advise that on
top of the NCD earnt via yourselves I also had earnt 7 years NCD via a
secondary policy on an alternative vehicle (used to have 2 policys
running side by side with 2 seperate NCD trails being earnt). I sold
the secondary vehicle and Oct/Nov 2015 and stated I wanted to use my 7
years NCD earnt from that on my policy renewal with you. I provided
the NCD evidence which was accepted.
After emailing my NCD I called the following day to discuss the new
renewal price and was told that due to a none fault accident (my
vehicle was driven into the side of when parked and the engine was off
- 3rd party fault) and because it was a Saturday the quoter at your
company could not provide a quote as he needed to speak to the claims
teams.
So I called back on Monday to obtain a quote and strangely the person
on Monday didnt need to speak to them anyway? And he advise his
colleague should not have needed to do that either on Saturday. So I
wasted time having to call on Saturday and again on the Monday.
(first complaint!!!)

Anyway I paid for my policy in full using a credit card and the policy
was setup to start the date of the old policy ending. The correct
new policy number is fpm2010386941fc,

I asked for a payment receipt on 3 seperate occasions over the
telephone and 3 times i was advised i would receive it via email
within 24hours. Never did I receive it. In the end I wrote a
complaint email and was responded too within 24hours and after some
internal emails between staff I was forwarded an email stating my
receipt was attached, yet there was no attachement, so I logged into
my online portal account and nothing there either. So I replied to
the email saying nothing was attached, no reply from that. A few
days later I called and insisted on speaking to your accounts team,
who were great and sent me the confirmation within 5mins whilst on the
telephone to them. (second complaint - why did it take some much
communication to just get a payment receipt)

Even though I had renewed, I have been continually receiving emails
advising I have not renewed and you would be looking to take a payment
from me again before the first policy expires to auto-renew. As I
had already paid for a new policy I didnt want that, so I logged in
and opted to disable the auto-renewal for the old policy. This then
caused a number of emails from you advising that my old policy was
expiring on 7th June and as auto-renewal was disabled I would not be
covered with a new policy. BUT I'd done it over the phone and paid
in full. (third complaint).

Now is where the fun and games started, Over the last week I
received my first email asking me to provide photos of my front and
back of my licence as you picked up that my quotes showed a number of
different conflicting details. So I check my statement of fact and
for my new policy the agent who took payment and setup the account
keyed in my license obtained date wrong, he keyed in my DOB wrongly
(but with a random year as my license date, which was totally wrong)
even though it was correct for the older policy and I record all my
calls and I have listened back to it, the agent made the error 100%)
so then I took photos of my license and emailed it back to you. (I
called your customer services and explained what had happened and she
put a note on the account to say it was agent error) Then after I
noticed the email requesting the photos actually had a policy number
which wasn't mine (FPM69002568857FC) so I called you and advised, the
agent checked and said oh its just a mistake we made.
I have actually received two further emails repeatedly asking for
licence photos, so I sent them again.
And now I have received a letter also asking for the photos of the
licence, BUT ALSO asking for the code to check my license online. The
policy reference number on the written letter is also incorrect too)
I have just provided the photos again this morning for the 3rd or 4th
time and I have provided my license check code too.. (forth
complaint)

I have also checked the askmid.com database today and my vehicle is
showing as not insured on that database, even though I renewed my
policy in May with you (fifth complaint)

I would like a satisfactory answer to these complaints.

Regards

bainbridge · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:34

You can push this. Under the principle of estoppel you made them aware of the facts and they decided not to use them, therefore they've estopped themselves.

Of course they'll try and limit their losses by wanting to cancel, but if you escalate a complaint they'll get until the end of the next working day to sort it. The team leader and above them the ops manager probably won't have the authority to write off 700 quid so your complaint will go.formal, and the final response will probably be an offer to write off the ap.

If they still don't agree you'll be eligible to approach the fos who would almost certainly rule in your favour. For 700 I would fight this all the way.

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:36

I want too because I know the best quote elsewhere was around £350 more than 1st central, so I will be paying 50% extra anyway.

My concern though is what would the process be like IF I have to make a claim.

Ace Modder · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:47

Oh actually. they can cancel on me if they want as long as they give me full refund.

Anybody know what achoice are like?

p1RATE · 9 Jun 2016 at 19:55

Ace Modder said:
Is that 14 days from the policy start or 14 days from the date I agreed and paid for the new policy, because the policy started on the 8th June, yesterday. But I took the policy out on the 25th May and paid in full (15 days ago)

Its a 14 day cooling off period from the start of the policy. I don't think that counts if its a renewal but i am not sure on that one.

Nightmare with car insurer

Sgarrista