Trying to diddle me? (Admiral Car Insurance)

Member Name: richardings

Product:	Admiral Car Insurance
Date:	17/02/03 (1263 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cheap

Disadvantages: Poor customer service, Maybe crooked?

Here we go... OK, the chances are you're only going to write a review if you want to gripe and I am no exception. So I will try to be balanced at the end.

I am currently in dispute with them (just before my renewal which has advantages and disadvantages) about backdating my No Claims Bonus (NCB). My NCB was lost while a claim made with my previous insurer was being settled. I took out a policy in May 02 with Admiral because my £1800 renewal premium represented a 150% increase, and Admiral could give me a deal for £1100 with the promise of a rebate once my NCB was restored. My claim was finally settled and my NCB was finally restored in Jan 03. I sent off the details to Admiral and very promptly (a plus point) received confirmation of my rebate. From 0 years NCB to 4 years NCB I expected a reasonable rebate - maybe 30%, I was guessing. A few hundred quid in any case. I got £100. I looked closely at the revised certificate which stated the revised policy took effect from November 02.

Of course I rang them and spent 30 mins on the phone to Delhi or wherever and tried explaining this. Here are the reasons I got.

* This is correct.

But why November?

* Because that's when your policy started.

No it started in May.

* Yes but it can only be backdated to November.

Er, why?

* Oh, it's actually a technical error. They tried to backdate it to the beginning of the policy and it didn't work. So they took it back as far as they could.

Right. So the fact that my policy started on 11.05 (11 May) and the rebate was backdated to 05.11 (5 Nov) is just a coincidence?

* Yes.

But clearly I should be getting more than a 10% discount from 4 years NCB?

* No they would have worked it out correctly even though the computer couldn't backdate the policy statement beyond November.

Well, I only have their word for that. When they can show me the paper an
d pencil they used to work it out I'll believe them.

As an experiment I used their website to calculate a premium for myself based on the information as it would have been had I had 4 years NCB in May 02. It was about £800. About £300 difference then. Now, this is exactly the method they would have used to work out my rebate. Now a quotation can vary on a daily basis - but it's an interesting discovery.

Anyway, cut a long story short, I've been back and forth with Bombay and (occasionally) Cardiff for the last week and have got one or two people on the inside to listen to my story and understand it. This is not settled, but the bad feeling this has created makes the likelihood of renewal about 10%. Reading the other reviews on here, I can see people have had problems when claiming and cheap is only good until you have an accident.

On the plus side I did get a CSR who was really keen to help (although he left me on hold for 20 minutes while he "rushed around" departments to try and sort it out), but I still got the same answer I have got every time I call - it was a technical problem but the amount will be correct.

Summary: