Gladiator: Extreme high cancellation costs

[jaytec]

I took out a years insurance with gladiator on 31 july 2009,while on holiday in the UK away from my home address. I paid via card / phone in full £462.00. Was told i could ring up and cancel within 14 days to cancel. I called them on the 12th august to cancel, was put over to sales to try and sort something out , they couldnt match my cheaper quote ...but they said they would call me back to talk to me 3 hours later, which didnt happen,... i then called them back on the 14th august to cancel again and was told it would cost £45 but it had to be made in writing by me or they could send me a form to sign via 1st class post ! , so i agreed to the form, this form took 5 days to arrive. With the form was a breakdown of costs and because they hadnt recieved my cancellation in writing during the 14 day period. I thought that my phone call was enough to cancell things. The cost was now £ 178.00 !!!!!!!!!!!! for which was effectively 12 days of insurance and which equates to 33% of the yearly policy !!!!!!!!!!!! Am i the only one getting caught like this or is this standard procedure ? I have called customer services many times over the last few days but i am getting nowhere with this.They said it was all 'read' out to me in the script at the time of my first initial call, which it may have been but.... they talk so fast and in a deep welsh accent it was hard to make out what was being said in the first place ! So i have requested a copy of all our phone conversations at a cost to me of £10 stating the data protections act. I will then send a letter to the FOS , to Watchdog and anyone else that may be able to assist me in trying to bring this cancellation fee down to a more realistic amount, any information on how to do this will be much appreciated

[MARTIN3030]

Welcome to the site.

Will move your thread-have a read through some of the threads there-Gladiator is not unknown to CAG.

[mallymclane]

The 14 days cooling off period is set down in law, it's not something that each insurance/finance/sales company has (though they like to make you think so).

 

So, unless you did something within the 14days that caused a claim on the insurance or similar, then you are well within your rights to cancel without penalty.

 

Ideally, Gladiator should have cancelled it down from the first phonecall, but maybe they had incompetent staff etc... Hopefully their recordings of the phonecalls will solve it all.

[rudekid48]

The 14 days cooling off period is set down in law, it's not something that each insurance/finance/sales company has (though they like to make you think so).

 

So, unless you did something within the 14days that caused a claim on the insurance or similar, then you are well within your rights to cancel without penalty.

 

Ideally, Gladiator should have cancelled it down from the first phonecall, but maybe they had incompetent staff etc... Hopefully their recordings of the phonecalls will solve it all.

 

Sorry, but this post is absolute rubbish.

 

The FOS have already ruled that administration charges of up to £50 are acceptable, you can look on their website to find the evidence of this.

 

Also, not cancelling a policy following a phone call has got nothing to do with incompetence, cancellation requests should always be put in writing. If a phonecall was sufficient to cancel a policy, anyone could phone up and cancel your insurance without you even knowing! This is a common problem with acrimonious divorces/splits etc where one partner cancels the others policies out of spite. The written cancellation request is there to protect YOU.

 

But hey, let's not let any facts get in the way of a good rant.

 

I'm not defending Gladiator here, the OP may well have some valid issues with them.