“Last year I was crashed into by another car through no fault of my own and it was my first experience of having to go through the claims process myself, in 21 years of driving.
I cannot therefore compare my experience with Hastings to any other company but overall, I can say it did not meet expectations.
I actually feel like maybe if I'd been injured, I'd have had better service but (luckily) I was ok, my car was not, it was decided to be a write-off due to its age (10 years).
The first problem arose when I was sent a pay-out without previously accepting it, through advice from the local garage and a little online research I realised the amount was below my car's worth.
Although I had been corresponding via email beforehand, all emails I sent after pay-out were ignored. Eventually it was the salvage partners Copart that advised me to raise a complaint which would get an answer.
The reason Copart were calling me was to establish whether I wanted to buy my car back for repair, I was unable to give a decision until I had been paid the proper amount.
During this time a direct debit payment was taken from my account, the regular monthly payment I set up to cover my insurance over the year. Which is the second problem, because the remaining cost of my insurance agreement had been deducted from the settlement amount before I received the pay-out, as is standard. So, one department had not spoken to the other in good time (and for the record, this wasn't all within a few days or even a week, it was 3 bordering on 4 weeks).
So, I raised another complaint.
A resolution was offered for my first complaint, the amount was increased by £450! Hastings sent me their calculation sheet and the website details where they check it's a fair value. Great. Why wasn't this the amount they offered in the first place if it was fair and right? Why did I have to challenge it at all?
Having accepted this additional pay-out, I contacted Copart about buying back my car, I already knew the amount they were charging but needed to take into account delivery cost and logistics. The helpful comms at this point broke down because I was told Copart did not have my car and in response to my two replies I got nothing but the equivalent of 'computer says no'.
So, I raised a third complaint with Hastings.
It took 3 weeks to get Copart to admit they did indeed have my car, by which time it was December 27th. The crash had occurred on October 8th.
I had only been given a courtesy car for 3 weeks (until the initial pay-out was sent to me). I had radiotherapy during those weeks so that worked out but otherwise I was lucky my mum is part-retired so I was able to use her car to attend my Search & Rescue volunteering commitment. I had warned Hastings I had jury service coming up at the beginning of January and that's without mentioning Christmas and the to-ing and fro-ing I was due to help my family with then.
So, I had to look for an alternative, a new (to me) car. I exhausted all options within 60 miles of my town, there was simply nothing with my basic requirements that I could afford (5 doors, less than 10 years old, petrol). I hadn't had to buy a second-hand car for over 16 years, so it was a minefield.
None of this is taken into consideration by the compensation given by Hastings.
What were my expectations? To be paid out fairly. To be assured the insurance company is doing its best by me. To have the company manage its admin efficiently so as not to put me to further inconvenience. What would be extra nice is to have time and assistance given in finding a new solution after the loss of your vehicle.
Where am I now? My complaints were closed out, the mitigation of my blame in the claim continues without progress update. I've ended up with a car that is 2 years younger than my one was but otherwise no better and costing me more. Plus, the cheapest insurance I can secure is costing me £20 more PER MONTH than I was paying before this accident. On the positive side I can say that all the conversations I had with Hastings staff were polite and friendly.”
Hi, I'm sorry to hear you've had a negative experience with us and you're unhappy with the service you received. I hope this has since been looked into and resolved, however if there's anything we can do to help, please don't hesitate to get in touch at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com. ~Lillie
“I have a query about my insurance. I am unable to find how to contact you, or online chat
I have tried FAQ couldn't get the information I needed.
Very disappoined customer.”
Hello, I'm very sorry that you struggled to reach us and get the help you needed. You can reach us on Twitter @HastingsDirect and on Facebook if you still nee assistance. ~Theo
“We started a policy on the 27/1/23 for a young driver policy with black box , which still has not arrived 10 days later we received an email stating our policy would be cancelled if we did not paid our box. Contacted customer services and advised it was Royal Mail delay and to call back 6 days later if still not received . Not happy and if my policy gets cancelled I will not be happy .”
Hello, I apologise for any frustration caused by this process. Please keep in touch with the team and make them aware if the box hasn't arrived. If there is no communication, it will be presumed that everything is in place. Once they are aware of what is happening, they can then take measures to help you. ~Theo
“Been trying to get hold of someone to amend NCB but no joy. In my experience of customer service within insurance companies it defo does not exist. Seems to be maximum premiums and sort yourself out with the admin.”
Hello Alison, I'm sorry if you have struggled to reach the Customer Service Department to arrange this. If you still need help, please email us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com. Please ensure you include your proof of no claims from your previous insurer if this change needs to be made. ~Theo
“Failure to have a suitable class of 'overnight parking' for where my vehicle is leading to illogical and unfair charges, poor customer service. I called just now to update my overnight parking location, back-dating it to November 1st 2022, when I moved. Since then, my car has been kept in a private area, off the road, with individual parking spots for the 8 or so flats in my block. Before that, it was kept in a parking space at University Halls of Residence. Somehow my new parking situation is described as a 'public car park'. The idea that my current parking location is equivalent to a public carpark e.g. a multi-storey, pay-per-hour one, where hundreds of cars come and go frequently and salubrious behaviour frequently occurs is completely ridiculous. You refused to classify my parking location as either private properly nor open compound, despite these sounding much more appropriate to me. Of course, this would mean you having to give me a larger rebate, which I know is terribly painful for you.
Over-charged me significantly. This, surprise surprise, has led to me being refunded a grand-total of £3.47 (after the £20 fee for changing my policy) for the nearly-3-months it has been in its new spot. This was after a 45 minute call where technical system errors and liaisons with another department made it lengthy. That call was also after I accidentally rang your claim-line (the first number that appears in a google search) and instead of being directed to the appropriate department, was simply hung up on.
Will definitely not be renewing with you and will make sure to let people know how you treat your customers, although I doubt there's much variation between insurers as you all seem to be money-grabbing scum.”
Hi Marcus, I apologise for any trouble this may have caused. We are unable to backdate changes, so the change made would be effective from the date of the change till the end of the policy. The refund you received would be from the point of change, to the end of the policy. Please do get in touch with us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com so we can discuss the overnight location. If you believe that 'public car park' is not the correct description, we can look at correcting this. If you still require help, there are a few ways to contact us and you can find the best way for you here; https://www.hastingsdirect.com/help/. ~ Jas
“Although I tried several times to take out a policy with you over the phone like I normally do, I was told I needed to do it online now. I don't like doing things online, I don't have access to it on my phone, I am unable to print things off and I prefer speaking to someone.
I ended up doing it online, but I have had nothing but problems. One problem that had to be raised as a complaint for me has kindly been sorted out by Pat and she has kindly sent me a paper copy of my documents as I have been unable to access them online.
Unfortunately, since receiving the documents, there is another problem which has been passed to Rumaysa to deal with.
If I had been able to take the policy out over the phone in the first place neither of these problems would have occurred!”
Hello Samantha, I'm very sorry to see that you've had such a poor experience when trying to purchase a policy with us. I can appreciate you have a preferred purchase method and I understand the frustration at not being able to do it in that way. I can see that a recent complaint has been logged and I hope that you get a satisfactory resolution to this. Thank you for choosing to insure with us despite the experience you've had. ~Theo
“Selected the app only policy but cat get the app to work managed to eventually get through to support not very helpful with the only solution of delete the app and reinstall which still doesn’t work”
Hi Daryl, I am sorry to hear you are having trouble accessing your MyAccount. Please email us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com so we can assist you. ~ Jas
Hello Jillian, I'm sorry if you're struggling to use the app and I appreciate the frustration this can cause. Please contact the team at mobileappsupport@hastingsdirect.com if the issue continues so they can take a look at this for you. ~Theo
Hi Susan,
I apologise if this is the case, if you'd like for us to look into this for you, please contact us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com with your policy details and query.
~Lillie
“My Policy was auto-renewed even though I had taken it out online days prior to the start date. I was then sent an email telling me that I was not insured and that my policy had been canceled. I insured myself again and then discovered I had two policies and I had paid twice. It took a convoluted phone call to get Customer Service to confirm a refund. All the information passed on to me was unclear and there was no mention of the double payments.”
Hi Naomi, due to new policies being created under a new account, our system does not have the capability to automatically detect the same registration being insured. We do send our renewal documents out, which state if we don't hear from you regarding cancelling the renewal, it will go through automatically. We are happy to hear this has been sorted and that you have stayed with us for another year. If you need any further assistance, please visit https://www.hastingsdirect.com/help/. ~ Jas
“When I spoke to H.I. They couldn't not beat there own renewal price ....for my car insurance. I had to go through 'another route' KEEPING my same cover (with H.I.) but waiting right up until the renewal date....”
“Buying Car Insurance, though a legal requirement, it should not be made so difficult that it becomes an intorogatory exercise - such that One feels that it is racially biased. The cost of this Insurance these days is 'cut-throat' and probihitive and does not justify the benefits. Very discouraging and dissatisfactory. The worst is that you have this backward Policy that requires a would-be Customer to purchase a Cover via the Internet which involves a lot of time wasted when direct purchase would have morethan surficed and faster.”
Hi there,
I am sorry to hear this and I apologise for the troubles you have experienced when attempting to access your documents via the online account and app. If the issue persists, please email mobileappsupport@hastingsdirect.com and they will be able to look into this further for you. In the meantime, if you require a copy of your policy documents, please contact us as at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com and we will be able to help.
~Aadam
“The Hastings direct app does not give you control over cancellation of direct debits. This is unacceptable in my opinion. There is no helpline phone number available on the app again very poor. I asked for my documents to be posted when I took out the policy and still waiting. Not good enough.”
Hi Christopher,
I apologise for any frustration. You should be able to cancel your direct debit with the bank or if needing to reinstate a mandate then can do this under the payments tab. If you have any trouble, you can find more information on how to contact us here: https://www.hastingsdirect.com/help/ or can email us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com if there's anything we can do to help. Your chosen delivery method is email, but I can see documents were posted on the 9th and again on the 16th. Postal documents can take 7-10 working days to receive.
~Lillie
“Just taken out Home insurance with this company for the as a first time customer and I have spent 2 hours trying to login to the so called " my account"facility to obtain all documents and the system is not working, I sent emails to them this morning what is happening and no response so far, very unreliable website and customer service, think twice before purchase.”
Hi Ralph,
I'm very sorry to hear of the trouble you've had and the delay in our response to your emails. We are aware of a current intermittent issue with the account which may be affecting you. We can manually email your documents in the meantime, if you can please contact us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com with your policy details.
~Lillie
“I've been trying to add a driver to my account for 2 days now. Called and been cut off 3 times and chat feature not available. I thought better until now.”
Hi,
I apologise for any possible frustration caused by this matter. We'll be happy to help, if you can contact us at socialmedia@hastingsdirect.com with your policy details.
~Lillie
“I have been with Hastings Direct for many years and always have to ring up and haggle about the renewal price. This year they have put my premium up by over £200 and expect me to renew. Why they don’t give me a realistic price to start with and stop all this hassle. I will not be using them again, will they never learn.”
Hi Allan,
I'm sorry if we weren't able to offer a competitive renewal for this year. Renewal quotes are automatically generated and issued via the Underwriter and based on the same information as the previous year. As a Broker, we can then review your renewal details and the best quote we can offer.
~Lillie
“Why will Hastings not provide a contact tel.no. to enable point to be cleared up. Have tried for 3/4 hrs to find no. 'How can we help' question gives no info or explanation
The product offer is very good but just needed some clarification. If it's this hard when trying to start with them, then what chance when committed. A big put off for continuing.”
Hi, I'm sorry to read you are having trouble contacting us. I hope your query has been resolved, however, if you still require help, there are a few ways to contact us and you can find the best way for you here; https://www.hastingsdirect.com/help/. ~ Jas
“Been with Hastings Direct for many years - each renewal is painful as they grind through minor details to get premium down to something approaching reasonable .
This year once again I have completely clean record but I am quoted a premium of +47% - goodbye Hastings Direct and good riddance .”
Hi David,
I'm sorry to hear of the increase in your renewal and if this meant we're no longer competitive. I hope this is something we'll be able to look into for you again in the future.
~Lillie
