DannyBoy Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 I am very VERY cynical when it comes to insurance companies. I think they're a bunch of incompetent pirates for the most part, but even with that mindset my experience today has genuinely shocked me. I'm insured with Admiral, and my policy auto-renewed in mid February. It was actually a surprisingly good quote so for the lack of hassle I decided to let it tick over automatically and recieved my documents in the post a few days later and filed them. My old man managed to break his neck skiing a few weeks ago (silly sod), and due to the resultant operation will be in a neck brace for at least another two months. Obviously he can't drive in a neck brace so he has to be ferried around everywhere, mainly by me. Now as most of you will realise, the Zed isn't exactly an ideal car for transporting someone with a severe spinal injury on UK roads, so I need to be able to drive the family bus for a bit. First port of call I thought would be to check if i'm third party on my own policy, as said family bus is only worth £1500 or so. I though only being 23 that I probably wasn't but might as well ring up Admiral and check. This is where it gets interesting. On phoning Admiral and giving them my policy number, this is the response I get: 'The policy number that you've just given me was cancelled on the 2nd of March' What. The. F***. So it transpires that Admiral were unable to take payment for the premium, and so cancelled the policy. On asking why the hell they didn't feel the need to tell me this, they replied that I should have been sent a letter and an email confirming cancellation of my policy. I didn't recieve either. I could believe that a letter got lost in the post, but the email address they have for me is checked probably once every 10 mins during office hours, and at least several times daily at weekends. My junk filter lets Admiral through, and even if it didn't I scan my junk every few days. Basically if they had sent an email I would have seen it and actioned it. They also have two phone numbers for me, at least one of which I am at 24 hours a day, my mobile is actually next to my bed at night. Apparently they're happy to ring people uninvited to blab at them about special offers, but not to inform them of anything that might actually be important. Here's the kicker: I ring up my bank to find out what the hell happened to the original payment, thinking it may well be their fault; Just ask Jez @ H-Dev how reliable they've been at processing large transactions in the past. There is no record of Admiral (or anyone else) trying to debit my account for the amount due. Nothing at all, no declined transactions, no fraud stops, and there was enough money in the account to cover the premium three times over. So to summarise, Admiral failed to even attempt to take my money for reasons know only to them, and then made the most half-arsed or possibly even non-existent attempt to contact me about it. The result of which is that I have been illegally driving around uninsured for almost two months without a bloody clue. My blood runs cold at the thought of something having happened in that time. I could well be on Her Majesty's room and board right now. I understand that for a lot of us younger members on here Admiral (and sisters) are the only way we can sensibly afford to insure the Zed. For that reason I'm not saying 'don't ever use Admiral', because no one would listen. But if you do, please for the love of god don't let them do anything by themselves, treat them like an excited three-year-old with a pair of scissors and don't trust them for a second. DB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodgeevans Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Shocking! lucky you didnt get pulled over by mr plod as im sure they wouldn't believe this story and you would of got six points and your car confiscated, Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rabbitstew Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Thats mad. Ive had problems with the auto renewal before, but not in that way. Ive had it twice now where ive cancelled my policy because ive got the renewal half price elsewhere and the relevant insurance company has STILL taken my money. Its been pure luck ive had the money in the account to cover it, but then when ive asked for my money back, they have ummed and arred and in both cases said it would take2 weeks to "process" and it would be a cheque in the post. Clearly they get interest on my money for the month or so they have stolen it. Neither companies i had problems with were Admiral though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrumbMC Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Well get this, On the second year insuring my golf GTi i switched insurer from admiral for cost and service reasons. I tried to make a claim against a farmer and they were useless but thats another story. anyway i found a better value insurer and rang up and cancelled the renewal. A few weeks later i get a phone call of my dad saying that admiral had just taken £900 from his credit card that i had used to pay for the previous years insurance. (i only had a £500 limit on mine at the time). Not only this but when i rang them up they accused me of trying to swindle a months free insurance from them Absolutely hopeless for customer service, and as you said, they are happy to ring you up (happened 3 times on this years renewal) to flog you crap you don't want but they are useless. EDIT: looks like rabbit beat me to my story Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ebized Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 That's why I always prefer to use a broker and get actual paperwork posted to confirm, rather than just rely on automated systems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmike20vt Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 my old insurance company neglected to tell me they had written off my car, so I had been driving around with it officially a CAT D right off for over 2 months. The only reason I found out was becasue I phoned them to pull their finger out and give me some info on when the car would be booked in for work (it was only wing and bonnet damage with the lights still working). Am not sure what the answer is to be honest. So much now is done over the phone and via direct debit etc, much of it just in good faith...... but good faith does not account to much if you do 20K worth of damage in an accident and are uninsured, or god forbid you paralyse someone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ricey Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Have you changed your card in the last 12 months......that,would explain why no recited of an attempt. Bro in law had same problem.....I found the ceo's email address and sent him on of my special emails. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Never, ever trust auto-renewal. Doesn't matter if it's with Admiral, or Direct Line, or the AA: Always, always, ring them up and speak to someone. In all likelihood if you'd been stopped and this had gone to court, you'd have been okay with what the bank has told you, but that doesn't stop it being terrifying anyway. I tend to check AskMID every week for all my vehicles, just to check. Takes 30 seconds and whilst overkill, does put my mind at rest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DannyBoy Posted April 23, 2012 Author Share Posted April 23, 2012 Never, ever trust auto-renewal. Doesn't matter if it's with Admiral, or Direct Line, or the AA: Always, always, ring them up and speak to someone. In all likelihood if you'd been stopped and this had gone to court, you'd have been okay with what the bank has told you, but that doesn't stop it being terrifying anyway. I tend to check AskMID every week for all my vehicles, just to check. Takes 30 seconds and whilst overkill, does put my mind at rest. TBH I would no longer view this as overkill. If I had taken 5 mins to do that then this wouldn't have happened. On the other hand, as I said, I did actually recieve my documents which in a sane world would be a fair indication that things are in order. @Ricey: definitely not a card number issue, as I ammended my existing policy when I got the Zed in August and paid with the same card. I did also check this when on the phone to them and they have the right card. DB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-Chris- Posted April 23, 2012 Share Posted April 23, 2012 Admiral are useless I had loads of trouble this year. They got all the details wrong even though I double checked them on the phone Luckily I checked the docs but I was fuming. I rang up and they tried to charge me an extra £200!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HassanZ Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Just a quick one with regards to having he Zed insured on a fully comprehensive policy and driving another vehicle on third-party cover (obviously with the owners consent). With Admiral, you have to be 25 years or older to benefit from this. I'm 24 and still have 1 year left until I can drive my family's cars around on third-party cover. Seeing as you're 23, unfortunately you're in the same boat as me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris`I Posted April 24, 2012 Share Posted April 24, 2012 Sounds very dodgy to me, dont know how they've managed to balls it up. As the others have said though, always ring up and make sure they take payment properly. The only near experience I've had with Admiral they were actually ok. My CC had expired and they called me up to check the number for the auto renewal. I told them I didnt want to renew as a new quote was cheaper so they matched it there and then. I guess working in IT I can understand when systems have blips and things can go wrong, so I never assume that auto anything will work Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KyleR Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 This is extremely weird for me and may or may not be an explanation as to what happened with you. I phoned on 2nd March to insure my Zed. First I had to cancel another policy with the Primera on it and then take out a multi car as that would end up being cheaper. So they cancelled the Primera policy and then started a new 12 month multi car policy with the Primera and Zed. Still following? Right ok... At the start of April I got 2 emails in regard to the Primera. Both emails were 100% identical except for the policy number. One email was the new multi car and the other was the old single car policy for the Primera. The emails said there seemed to be a problem with the registration and to check it is correct as it appears that this car (the Primera) may be insured on another policy with Admiral or another company. The reg was correct on both policies. So I called them up to see what was going on, explained about the emails etc. They came back to me after 20 seconds and told me that there had been an error and the old policy hadn't been cancelled after all. It was quickly rectified and they're refunding me extra months premium they had taken at the end of March. So, is it possible that they cancelled your policy instead of mine on 2nd March? Maybe the policy numbers were similar?.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
docwra Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 That's why I always prefer to use a broker and get actual paperwork posted to confirm, rather than just rely on automated systems. My broker found me an excellent policy last time round, saved me £100 on last years and offered better cover Said bropker then contacted me 3 months later to tell me there had been a mistake, and that the policy was actually £400 more than Id been quoted. I couldnt get anything else (imports on trade insurance ) so had to pay it, within a week to stop the policy being cancelled. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iwantone Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Am I the only one who absolutely objects to auto renewals? Just who do the insurance companies think that they are making the assumption that we will want to remain with them for another year at a probably inflated price? I'm so serious that I think it should be illegal! Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigmike20vt Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Am I the only one who absolutely objects to auto renewals? Just who do the insurance companies think that they are making the assumption that we will want to remain with them for another year at a probably inflated price? I'm so serious that I think it should be illegal! Steve I see your point BUT at the same time, I bet you would be gutted if you were say away on holiday for 3 weeks when your insurance ran out and in that time some scally broke into and stole your car. The way I see it, no matter what system you use someone is going to not like it, but this way (in theory at least) your car will always be insured so with that in mind, auto renewal with the option to cancel at any time is the best system for me personally. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 If you're too stupid to remember when your insurance is due, then that's your fault. Same with MOT and VED. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ekona Posted April 26, 2012 Share Posted April 26, 2012 Not you personally, I meant in general. *backtracks* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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