Who am I? if I find out I'll let you know. I know I love, animals have 2 dogs1 cat,3 horses, 2goat...
Who am I? if I find out I'll let you know. I know I love, animals have 2 dogs1 cat,3 horses, 2goats and a peacock I drive a supposed "gas guzzler" 4x4 I get 40 mpg, DON'T park on pavement, walk kids to school, so no school run comments please..
Member since:08.01.2006
Reviews:6
In September (sorry I lied to you earlier, it was not December - must have had a blonde moment) of last year, I got my renewal for my car insurance from the AA, guess what, it had gone up drastically. Now like everyone else, I find the average motorist is being hit hard enough with increases in tax and fuel without having to pay out over the top for car insurance. My renewal quote was for £467.00 this was for fully comp, curtesy car, protected no claims, legal cover and and excess of £100.00.
I know it's always best to shop around and that companies give better deals to new customers, so I decided to hit the keyboard and see what I could save by checking out prices on the internet.
Well I expected to save some money, but not as much as Budget were offering, they quoted me for the same deal as I was getting but without protecting my no claims and their price was just over £255.00. Well I'm a pretty safe driver, so I decided to go for it...................big mistake....................HUGE mistake. I'll tell you why.
I telephoned their freephone number and gave my quote number, they asked a few of the usual questions, and then asked about the security device fitted. I gave them this information, they ok'd it and said they would need a copy of the certificate along with proof of my no claims discount. Well this was
no problem, I asked if I could email these to them, I paid them the full amount by card and that was that or so I thought.
Two weeks later and no sign of my Insurance Policy, I give them a call and ask where it was, to be told it was sent out over a week ago. Wel I certainly hadn't got it, so they agreed to send another out to me. Another week went by and still no sign of the policy, so, still quite calm, I call again. This time I was told in no uncertain terms that they had sent the policy out twice and I must have received it. Well I guess I'm like most people and don't enjoy making telephone calls to insurance companies for no reason, I quitely (and still calmly) told the girl this and suggested that maybe they had the wrong address details and would she check this. To this she replied that the details they had were the details that I had given and if they were wrong, then it was because I had given the wrong address! Well, I know where I live, even if I didn't know where my insurance policy was!
Now by this time I was getting a little hot under the collar, but still quite calm. I asked her again to check the address and this she did, the address was right - Ha! I really do know where I live. After a little more grumbling, it was agreed that a third policy woud be sent out, but if I received the others I was to send them back.
Two days later, can you guess what I received ? My policy ? No. I received a letter saying that as I hadn't sent proof of my immobiliser or no claims discount, they were cancelling my insurance. Not only were they cancelling my insurance, they were charging me a £35.00 cancellation fee.
You can imagine I was not too impressed, once again I called their "help line" to be told in no uncertain terms that they had not received my no claims proof or immobiliser. Now when chasing them up for my insurance policy, it was never mentioned that they had not received the proof of immobiliser or no claims and I pointed this out to the so called helpline - surely if they had not received it they would have mentioned it at least on one of those occasions. But no, no mention at all. It was agreed that I would email the proof they required again and I actually stayed on the phone until they confirmed they had received it. So, there we go thinks I - all done and safely insured. Oh what a silly person I am.
Three days later the policy arrives along with a second letter - can you guess what this letter contains?? No ? Well let me tell you, it was a letter telling me that as they had not received the required documents as proof of..................guess what.................... no claims discount and immobiliser they are once again cancelling the policy with yet another charge of £35.00 cancellation fee.
Now I am normally a calm and collected person, but I can tell you my husband had to peel me from the ceiling. I was furious. I called again and got another "very hepful person" - yeah in my dreams. This time after around half an hour arguing that I had not sent the required details, it was finally agreed that I had and they would re-instate the policy, but could not return the cancellation fee.
Now I have to have insurance, but I want competitive insurance that works for me, not one that costs the earth, but I had screamed and shouted and finally got through to them and silly me, I left it at that. I had insurance, it may have cost me more that it should have but I just had no heart to continue to battle. I waited for the new policy and tried to forget it.
The policy arrived and that was that - or so I thought. Two weeks later you can guess what I received, another letter cancelling my policy, with yet another £35.00 cancellation fee. What has gone wrong this time - you might well ask. It appears that they are no longer satisfied with the fact that my car has an immobiliser, now it must have an alarm fitted and as I have no alarm the policy is cancelled.
By this time even a Saint's patients would have been sorely tested and I can promise you mine was way overboard. Just how much this cheap insurance had cost me was unbelievable.
First off I contacted Direct Line Insurance and arranged cover for just over £300.00. Next I wrote to Budget and made a formal complaint. Three weeks later I got a letter from them saying they had looked into my complaint and more or less said as I had not provided the required information or had an alarm fitted, they were not prepared to do anything about the catalogue of errors.
Well I really had had enough of this company. I got in touch with the Insurance Ombudsman, and made a formal complaint. Gave them all the details with dates and copies of emails and letters and requested they investigate my complaint against Budget. This was almost a month ago now and yesterday, I received a letter from them upholding my complaint and Budget have agreed to refund all the cancellation fees. So in the long term, I have not really lost out financially, but, in terms of time and hassle, I really have. Still I have learnt a valuable lesson, "you get what you pay for" and believe me you get nothing but hassle from this company. I would advise everyone to steer well clear.
I have not included any contact details for this company as I really do not want anyone to have to go through the same performance as I did. I would certainly never even consider them in future and am not prepared to make it easier than it already is for anyone to get in touch with them.
How helpful would this review be to a person making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
Had problems with a fire claim with them. Told me the car was covered, towed it away, told me it was a write off then said it wasn't covered. Then had to pay £150 towing charge to the approved garage and had to remove the car myself otherwise will be charged for storage. Now have a claim on my insurance although did not go through. Terrible service but good review.
martinwi 14.02.2008 08:28
Great review. I'm looking around for insurance renewal and, no way, will they feature on my list. Well done for taking them to the ombudsman.
BristolBud 14.02.2008 01:47
Great review - glad to know that the Ombudsman upheld your claim. Paula
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Feb 13th, 2008
(Feb 15th, 2008)
very helpful by (100%):
