Admiral Insurance - Questionable Tactics

[bottomburp]

We took out car insurance with Admiral in April 2010 and paid the whole year up front. At the time we lived on a busy road and had to park on the road.

 

In January we moved house. We notified Admiral that we had moved to a safer area and that the car was now parked on a driveway, behind a security gate. Thanks they said, we'll charge you approx £15 for updating our records and about £15.00 for the less secure parking and worse area...Hang on a sec we said, it’s a safer area, look at the police data base and we're now parked off road. Admiral wouldn’t budge.

 

We then received a letter saying they wanted the [approx] £30 immediately. We telephoned and asked for a bit of time to pay as we were strapped for cash. No worries they said.

 

Before the payment date we rang again and asked for a bit more time. Again they said no worries, we'll put an "indefinite suspension" on the time to pay.

 

Today (4th March) we receive two letters from Admiral. Both are dated 25th February. Slightly different wording in each but both inform us that they have already cancelled the insurance as of 15th February ... so we have unwittingly been driving around uninsured for nearly 3 weeks. And, to add insult to injury, they want £16.00 from us for the privilege of having our insurance cancelled /for our having been driving about uninsured /for them stealing two months premiums from us... We telephoned Admiral, explained what had happened, and their reply was along the lines of "too bad, not bothered, your insurance is cancelled."

 

We are, to put it mildly, absolutely livid! We’ve reported this to the Financial Ombudsman. They’ve given us a reference number and are writing to Admiral. The FO seemed to agree that this was shocking because (1) Admiral had told us they had put an "indefinite suspension" on the payment (2) they wrote to us after cancelling the insurance, leaving us uninsured for around 3 weeks (3) they want money to cancel the insurance they had specifically told us they would not cancel...

 

Apparently we have to allow 8 weeks for Admiral to get back to us. Then we can ask the FO to investigate. Meanwhile, we have been relieved of around 2 months insurance, are expected to pay around £45.00 in "charges" and have had our insurance cancelled (which will presumably have a knock-on effect on future insurance).

 

We have taken out insurance with another company but feel we have been totally misled / defrauded (two months premiums gone to waste) / libelled (they'll probably notify their database they cancelled our insurance / ripped-off - "charges" etc

 

We are thinking of pursuing them through the courts for damages etc. Anyone else had this sort of trouble with their insurers?

Edited March 5, 2011 by bottomburp
typos

[bottomburp]

I sent them a very strongly worded letter, giving them the reference I had been given by the Financial Ombudsman and threatenting to take them to court, talk to the media etc etc if I did not get a resolution within 7 days. And I complained in similar terms via their website. I also checked my phone records and sent them details of every call I had made showing date, time, duration and number called.

 

On day five of the 7-day deadline I had a call from a Complaint Executive who apologised profusely and said that it was all their fault blah blah. She suggested re-instating the policy. No good as we'd taken out cover elsewhere. (I said I thought that it was illegal to have two sets of insurance for the same vehicle and she said it wouldn't matter for a short time???).

 

So she offered a refund of approx £34 and suggested rounding-it up to £50 as a gesture of goodwill. We negotiated. I got the offer increased to £34 + £50 goodwill. She then insisted she had to refund the debit card I had used to pay the premium due to "anti-money laundering". What the heck has this got to do with money laundering I said, you cancelled the insurance... she insisted she had to refund the card. I suggested that I'd be happy to go back to the Financial Ombudsman (I understand raising a complaint costs these firms money) and suddenly she decided she could send a cheque after all.

 

Today I received said cheque, it had been sent to the old address (how predictable) - thankfully I have a re-direct with the Post Office.

 

What she did say was that the agents had not followed company guidelines and the matter would be taken up with their managers. She was also extremely anxious about the company's reputation.

 

Hope this helps. bb

Edited March 18, 2011 by bottomburp
typos of course!

[bottomburp]

The call centre numbers I called were 0871 882 8208 and 0871 882 0000 - they were hopeless, refused to help, forgot to mention the policy had been cancelled etc.

The complaints people can be contacted by email at [email protected] and the telephone number I have for Yvonne Seage, Complaint Executive, is 0800 118 1695 ext 835705.

bb