Hastings Direct took a full years policy renewal, without my permission, knowledge or authorisation. I rang them as soon as I could and after an extremely unpleasant call they agreed to refund. I was advised that as I hadn't contacted them to advise I wanted to cancel they automatically took the money even though we had never recieved any documentation from us, I queried as to why, if they had not heard from us they had assumed that we wanted to go ahead, they advised me that this is the way it is done, I have NEVER automatically renewed as it is too expensive. I had previously emailed for a copy of my No Claims Discount (this should have been a clue that I was not staying with them?) and according to the site they will respond in 3 working days, now at day 4 no response,just called them and after waiting over half an hour to get through was advised, eventually, by one the rudest customer advisors it has been my displeasure to deal with that she would arrange for it to be emailed but it will take 24 hours, TWENTY FOUR HOURS to send an email !!! In every contact with this company I have come up against a brick wall, their advisors must have special training to be as obstructive as possible. Be warned they also charge for everything, change of address for example they want £35 !!! for changing an address on a computer? When I queried how they could justify this, they couldn't.