Tesco Bank car insurance WARNING

[tescocardisgrace]

I was stopped by police!

I had paid in full on November 3rd and had sent them in my no claims.

 

I then was pulled over by the police on the 14th January for having no insurance,

 

I called them up in the police car to which they said it had been cancelled due to not receiving my NCD.

 

I explained it had been sent in and why did they not contact me to tell me they hadn't received it.

 

They then said that they had sent 4 letters which I didn't receive.

 

I then asked them to reinstate my insurance but by this point the police had already arranged to seize my car

and the recovery company were on their way,

 

they told me that they couldn't reinstate it as it was against their policy to insure impounded cars!

 

So, my car was taken away I was then charged with no insurance which is 6 points and a £300 fine.

 

I then had to take out a new policy as I couldn't get my car back until it was insured.

 

The cheapest cover I could get was nearly £200 more than the original Tesco one.

I then had to pay £150 for the impound fee.

 

When I contacted Tesco again I was told they had sent 7 letters, 4 letters, then 5 letters then no letters as it would have been emails,

 

asked for proof of the emails then it changed to no emails and 1 letter!

 

Every single member of staff I spoke to told me something different and had no interest in trying to help me at all.

 

I also asked why they didn't phone me, which their reply was "we don't phone customers".

 

now I'm facing court with the charge for no insurance and have had to pay hundreds of pounds

because Tesco can't send a letter or contact you by phone to tell you they haven't received documents

which they could have got themselves by simply calling my previous insurer which most insurance companies do anyway.

 

 

Total joke of a company!

[unclebulgaria67]

Send Tesco Car Insurance a Data Protection SAR to get hold of all the information. Register a formal complaint with them and threaten to take them to court if necessary. There is nothing stopping you issuing a small claim courts claim against them and you may win, given the different information provided about them writing to you about the cancellation.

[tescocardisgrace]

I have lodged a complaint with Tesco, and received a reply tonight

not admitting fault but being sympathetic in how I haven't received any letters ect.

 

They can't provide any proof of any letters or emails being sent apart from saying it's on the system that they have been.

 

They also offered me £75 towards the £150 I had to pay to release my car from the impound.

 

They also said that the letter saying my insurance has been cancelled was sent out after they cancelled it

and said that they admit that I would not have known it was cancelled due to the timescale

of the posting of the letter (which I still haven't received!).

 

I'm going to provide this letter to the police in the hope that my charges are dropped before it goes to court.

 

I'd be grateful if anyone has any thoughts on this as I'm not sure about the in's and out's of mitigation and special cases?

 

I have been reading forums and reviews ect and it seems that this is a regular occurrence.

The letter states how they will change things in the company to avoid it happening to anyone else.

 

My friend also worked for Tesco car insurance for two years in their call centre and said that similar things happened daily.

 

If the police don't accept this I will be contacting the financial ombudsman again and taking it further.

 

I'm not overly concerned about the money that it's cost me it's the points on my licence that concern me more.

[unclebulgaria67]

Hopefully the Police will see sense and not continue with the prosecution.

If you did not know of the car not being Insured then how would you know not to drive the car.

 

With the letter, you should be able to go to the FOS or court for an easy win.

 

I would suggest that you contact Tesco to give them one last chance to deal with this properly.

 

There is no reason that they could not contact the Police dealing with you case,

to advise them that it was their fault, that the letter advising of the cancellation was not sent out giving their policyholder notice of cancellation.

 

Tesco could also compensate you for any hassle you have been through and they could issue you with a policy at the same premium as you had before.

 

Tesco can fully resolve this for you, without it going to the FOS or court.

[tescocardisgrace]

I went to speak to the police yesterday.

 

They said it's out of their hands now as it will be already sent to the ticket office for the proceedings to be started.

 

I'm going to take it further with Tesco I think,

 

I appreciate them offering me something but it's really not enough

 

considering it was their admin team or system that has caused everything.

 

I'm going to ask if they could reinstate the original insurance policy but if not I think I will be going to the FOS and taking them to court if need be.

[tescocardisgrace]

I took out a fully comprehensive car insurance policy with Tesco Bank on November 3rd which I paid in full.

On November 30th I received an email asking for proof my NCD which I sent to them that day to the freepost address given.

This was the last I heard from them.

On 13th Jan I was pulled by police and told my car was showing as uninsured.

I told them this was a mistake as I had paid in full for the year with Tesco.

I was able to log onto my bank on my mobile to show the payment to the police.

I then called Tesco to find out what the problem was?

To my complete shock it turns out they cancelled my policy due to not receiving my NCD.

I asked why I was wasn’t notified of this and they claimed five letters were sent.

I was told as my policy was cancelled there was nothing they could do.

My car was then seized by police and I was charged with driving with no insurance.

I was then left to walk miles home in the pouring rain without a coat.

Also I had no car to take my little girl to school in the morning and no pram for my two year old as it was in the boot of the car.

I called them up again to try and resolve this matter and received different stories each time.

It changed from five letters to seven letters, then to four letters.

Then I was told it wouldn’t have been letters it would have been emails as I had applied for the policy online.

Later that day I was called by a manager and told it was one letter that was sent on 19th Dec.

Tesco had sent me no letter’s or emails after the 30th November.

Any normal insurer would have just given a quick call to you or your previous insurer but Tesco just cancel rather than do this.

I had to pay £150 to get my car from the impound and hundreds more for another insurance policy as Tesco

were unwilling to reinstate mine.

A part refund for my Tesco policy was not in my bank yet so I had to borrow money to get my car insured again

and out of the impound or it would have been crushed.

I’ve been looking online for evidence of this situation from other Tesco customers

and have found quite a few with almost the exact situation.

Also I have spoken to my friend who worked with Tesco Bank for over two years.

He told me that he personally dealt with this situation almost daily.

He reckons it’s a problem with their automated system or maybe an admin error and is willing to help me if this matter does go to court.

I put a formal complaint into Tesco and a few weeks later I got a replay from them offering me half my impound fee

but without admitting fault apart from saying they could make improvements.

Instead of simply reinstating my policy they would rather let me face a criminal record, 6 penalty points,

a fine and thousands in increased premiums.

I even told them of the proof I have of other Tesco customers with this problem

and that a former employee told me this happened all the time,

but still they were unwilling to help claiming their underwriter’s won’t allow them to reinstate.

I am disgusted at the way Tesco Bank have treated me on this matter.

When I took the policy out I thought I was being insured by a good company going by the Tesco name,

but it couldn’t be further from the truth. If only I had checked their reviews first.

My previous insurer Hastings was only was only £10 more to stay with them.

Going with Tesco could cost me so much I hate to think how much.

I have contacted the financial ombudsman hope they find the truth so I don’t end up being prosecuted for Tesco’s mistakes.

If anyone else has had similar problems with Tesco please let the ombudsman know about it.

[unclebulgaria67]

I went to speak to the police yesterday.

 

They said it's out of their hands now as it will be already sent to the ticket office for the proceedings to be started.

 

I'm going to take it further with Tesco I think,

 

I appreciate them offering me something but it's really not enough

 

considering it was their admin team or system that has caused everything.

 

I'm going to ask if they could reinstate the original insurance policy but if not I think I will be going to the FOS and taking them to court if need be.

 

You will be sent the court notice and will be given the opportunity to provide Magistrates with the letter from Tesco admitting to not advising you about the cancellation. I cannot see the Magistrates allowing the prosecution to stand and they should dismiss it.

[unclebulgaria67]

You should also contact Tesco Supermarket Head Office to let them know of what has happened and that their Insurance office complaints people have been really unhelpful.

 

Phil Clarke ([email protected])

Tesco PLC

New Tesco House

Delamare Rd

Cheshunt EN8 9SL

[govig]

Given our experience with Tesco car insurance, I would advise anyone contemplating business with this lot to record everything and keep screenshots of all web pages involved in an online quote. This is a bit of a long story but it is necessary to wade through it to understand how they appear to operate...

 

My wife bought an old Porsche off a friend who was insured with Tesco. She had 17 or so claim-free years and did an online proposal saving all the screenshots to a Word .doc. It produced a premium which she was happy with but she did not complete the transaction at that point.

 

Next day she realised we had not notified a non-fault claim (damage to our car parked on the drive caused by a car coming through the garden hedge!) so did a further online proposal but was a bit surprised to see this added to the premium so decided to call the Tesco insurance call centre. They found both online quotes and instead of taking the second, they amended the first with the claim and the premium returned to the original one to the penny.

 

During the phone call, all the online questions were re-checked and she read all the answers off the screen shots so they now had every answer three times. The premium was paid and the docs were emailed. We checked them very carefully and were puzzled to see the car purchase date was now down as March 2011 instead of the correct (and confirmed three times, twice on line and one verbally) Feb. 2014. She called to correct this and was unhappy to be told that correcting this purchase date would cost an extra 27% of the quoted premium. Yes that's correct, a premium rise of 27% to change the car purchase date back to the 3 times correctly stated date!

 

She refused to pay this in the many subsequent calls which were all recorded. They said the charge would stand as we had specified an incorrect car purchase date. We then realised the date they used had been the previous owner's purchase date. They couldn't confirm this of course due to the DPA and still refused to revert to the original quote. At this point, enough was enough and we cancelled before the policy start date and eventually received a full refund.

 

A few weeks later they admitted their mistake, apologised and sent a £50 Tesco voucher which we spent, without any feelings of hypocrisy, to make up for the hours of arguing we had been forced to endure. Had we not kept good records, we would have had to pay a clearly incorrect premium hence the earlier advice.

 

So what? Well, we shall never deal with them again. Imagine conducting a claim with Tesco if this is what they're like at the start. We have reviewed everything they were told and despite the mistake clearly being theirs, they gave us a quite hard time on the phone over three calls all at our expense in money and time. However (sorry, we're nearly there) there appeared to be a final 'confusion' from them.

 

Their justification was that the wrong date had been put in accidentally by them which had produced the lower (incorrect) premium. This can't actually be true of course as we have two screenshots and a recorded call clearly stating the correct date. You have probably worked out already that had their version been correct, the system wouldn't have produced an same exact premium with the wrong date (to the penny) as the original online quote with the correct date.

 

I'll leave it up to you to decide if this is a company who will see you right. After 40+ years of driving with a clean licence, I've see and heard of most catches but this was a new one.

 

PS Tesco, if you want to put your side to this on here, crack on. I've kept all the evidence to support my version of events.

Edited March 30, 2014 by govig

[dacouc]

Given our experience with Tesco car insurance, I would advise anyone contemplating business with this lot to record everything and keep screenshots of all web pages involved in an online quote. This is a bit of a long story but it is necessary to wade through it to understand how they appear to operate...

 

My wife bought an old Porsche off a friend who was insured with Tesco. She had 17 or so claim-free years and did an online proposal saving all the screenshots to a Word .doc. It produced a premium which she was happy with but she did not complete the transaction at that point.

 

Next day she realised we had not notified a non-fault claim (damage to our car parked on the drive caused by a car coming through the garden hedge!) so did a further online proposal but was a bit surprised to see this added to the premium so decided to call the Tesco insurance call centre. They found both online quotes and instead of taking the second, they amended the first with the claim and the premium returned to the original one to the penny.

 

During the phone call, all the online questions were re-checked and she read all the answers off the screen shots so they now had every answer three times. The premium was paid and the docs were emailed. We checked them very carefully and were puzzled to see the car purchase date was now down as March 2011 instead of the correct (and confirmed three times, twice on line and one verbally) Feb. 2014. She called to correct this and was unhappy to be told that correcting this purchase date would cost an extra 27% of the quoted premium. Yes that's correct, a premium rise of 27% to change the car purchase date back to the 3 times correctly stated date!

 

She refused to pay this in the many subsequent calls which were all recorded. They said the charge would stand as we had specified an incorrect car purchase date. We then realised the date they used had been the previous owner's purchase date. They couldn't confirm this of course due to the DPA and still refused to revert to the original quote. At this point, enough was enough and we cancelled before the policy start date and eventually received a full refund.

 

A few weeks later they admitted their mistake, apologised and sent a £50 Tesco voucher which we spent, without any feelings of hypocrisy, to make up for the hours of arguing we had been forced to endure. Had we not kept good records, we would have had to pay a clearly incorrect premium hence the earlier advice.

 

So what? Well, we shall never deal with them again. Imagine conducting a claim with Tesco if this is what they're like at the start. We have reviewed everything they were told and despite the mistake clearly being theirs, they gave us a quite hard time on the phone over three calls all at our expense in money and time. However (sorry, we're nearly there) there appeared to be a final 'confusion' from them.

 

Their justification was that the wrong date had been put in accidentally by them which had produced the lower (incorrect) premium. This can't actually be true of course as we have two screenshots and a recorded call clearly stating the correct date. You have probably worked out already that had their version been correct, the system wouldn't have produced an same exact premium with the wrong date (to the penny) as the original online quote with the correct date.

 

I'll leave it up to you to decide if this is a company who will see you right. After 40+ years of driving with a clean licence, I've see and heard of most catches but this was a new one.

 

PS Tesco, if you want to put your side to this on here, crack on. I've kept all the evidence to support my version of events.

 

I had the miss fortune to work in an Insurance call centre many moons ago, the sales staff are on bonuses / targets and would frequently adjust the details to reduce the premium so they could sell the policy safe in the knowledge that when / if the customer rung back that they would be dealing with a different department (Customer services) and their bonus would not be affected.

 

Adjusting the year of purchase would reduce the premium with most insurers especially for a performance car, I think you will find the sales person did it while you were on the phone to them

[Cumulonimbus]

Hi TescoDisgrace,

 

I have just seen that you have had a very similar problem to us, except that we use our car periodically and so we were fortunate enough to find out before any Police involvement. I'm sorry to hear that you were not so lucky.

 

We too have complained to both Tesco and subsequently to the Financial Ombudsman Service; we have just received a response from the Ombudsman. Unfortunately, they have not upheld our complaint. I would like to give you specifics, but I have not asked for permission to widely share their findings on a public forum. However--given the context--it seems reasonable to say that a key factor in this decision was that Tesco has given the Ombudsman statement that they have not received any similar complaints.

 

From your post, it would seem Tesco should have had at least one other very similar complaint.

How are you getting on?

 

Warm regards,

 

Cumulonimbus

Edited July 20, 2014 by ims21

[unclebulgaria67]

If you click on the triangle in posts, you can send the CAG admin team a note, asking them to send an email to TescoDisgrace and whether they would be interested in contact.

 

I cannot believe that the FOS would make a decision based on whether similar complaints had been received. There is no barrier to you placing some info online about what happened in your case. Depends on whether you will be taking this further, as sometimes it does not help putting too much info online.

 

If you have suffered a loss as a result of a failure by Tesco, you can still go down the court route.

[ims21]

Please keep all of this in the open forum as you will more than likely get better help from a number of sources.

 

 

You don't need the permission of fos to publish their findings in your case as fos do not put gagging orders on their decisions and individuals are free to discuss and dissect their decisions with anyone.

[Cumulonimbus]

Thank you both for your advice. As things stand, the complaint filed with FOS is not yet closed, and I have the opportunity to provide additional evidence.

 

I think it could be very effective for each of us to tell the FOS about the other's complaint, if tescodisgrace is interested. But to do that, we probably need to share claim numbers -- hence the need for a PM.

[tescocardisgrace]

Had some good news from the Ombudsman. Tesco have been told to give me a letter of indemnity stating that I should have been fully insured, the impound fee paid, all cancelations removed and £500 compensation. Tesco are a complete sham of an insurance company, they even fought this all the way but the ombudsman made their final decision. Its a shame for a lot of other drivers have just accepted Tesco failings and not fought their case as I've seen a lot on various forums. Thanks for your help.

[tescocardisgrace]

If you check review centre you'll find a few with same problem, theses other sites too just google Tesco car cancelled. Tescos answer to my complaint was that their WAS similar but that they got away with them. My friend even worked in Tesco bank in Glasgow and he said he had this type of problem many times.

[tescocardisgrace]

.ombudsman-decisions.org.uk/

[BankFodder]

tescocardisgrace I've had a press contact about your story. Would you be interested to speak to the press about this. A story in a national newspaper would help to highlight this problem for hundreds of other people who maybe have suffered i the same way and who have not been able to do anything about it.

 

Please email me on our admin email address with some contact details if you are interested.

 

Thanks

[SabreSheep]

Hi TescoDisgrace,

 

I have just seen that you have had a very similar problem to us, except that we use our car periodically and so we were fortunate enough to find out before any Police involvement. I'm sorry to hear that you were not so lucky.

 

We too have complained to both Tesco and subsequently to the Financial Ombudsman Service; we have just received a response from the Ombudsman. Unfortunately, they have not upheld our complaint. I would like to give you specifics, but I have not asked for permission to widely share their findings on a public forum. However--given the context--it seems reasonable to say that a key factor in this decision was that Tesco has given the Ombudsman statement that they have not received any similar complaints.

 

From your post, it would seem Tesco should have had at least one other very similar complaint.

How are you getting on?

 

Warm regards,

 

Cumulonimbus

 

 

I find it hard to believe that was the ombudsmen decision. Was it in fact an adjudicator?

[turkishstar]

tesco are not the only insurance company that cancel policies regarding proof of NCB and then fail to inform the customer...

..

SWINTON did this to me also