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+--- Thread: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct (/showthread.php?tid=56831)
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Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - martynR - 21-12-11
This is a copy/paste from other forum, as I believe that as many people as possible knew about it
Original Poster: "A chap I know had a horrific, near-fatal accident in March ans has received nothing but contemtuous treatment from Hastings. Here follows a little rant from him that he has said we can freely cut and past into any mtoring based forums we use, as his dealing with them are done. These are not my words, but those of a very poorly treated customer."
[/size]"Hastings Direct
Having finally decided to settle and put this whole sorry episode behind me, I feel I am now fully justified in telling everyone who is interested, just how contemptuously Hastings Direct have recently treated me, I am not suggesting Hastings Direct treat all of their customers like this, however, I find it a bit hard to imagine they just thought this up for my case alone.
Allow me to explain.
I was involved in a RTA in March 2011, where I lost control of my bike, at low speed, while approaching temporary lights, resulting in me being thrown into the oncoming traffic and impacting a Luton van and sustaining a list of horrific impact injuries. At this point in time the suspected cause of the accident was road surface contamination.
Unfortunately, I had insured through Hastings Direct.
First, I arrive home after 8 weeks in hospital (5 of which in a coma) to letters from Hastings Direct threatening legal action for my not responding, despite the fact that they had been informed I was in a critical, comatose condition and could be for some time!
But of course, Hastings Direct will only deal with the policy holder, so what information they had been given, was apparently discarded or ignored.
Once the police had closed their investigation and released the bike, Hastings Direct, then authorised a third party to remove my bike from the police storage facility - without my consent - obviously authorising this third party to treat my bike with total disregard, by 'slamming' it down side first, causing yet more damage and transporting it across Scotland, laid on it's side consolidating the destruction.
Please bear in mind at this point, I have still not lodged a claim with Hastings Direct and as such the bike is still mine!
Why didn't I raise a claim? You may ask, well, the answer is simple, after speaking to the attendant police officers and having them describe 'cosmetic damage' and realising that I had my luggage system on board, I decided I wanted to view the bike for myself and have the opportunity to remove my luggage system and it's contents (fortunately for Hastings Direct , the contents amount to a set of waterproofs, a luggage net and a small tool kit - hardly worth mentioning, however, they were still my property).
I then receive a letter from Hastings Direct, stating they have assessed the bike as a write-off, containing an insulting offer of settlement and requesting that I send them my V5, MoT etc.
Important note here – I still haven't raised a claim!
So, I duly wrote them a letter expressing my concerns and the fact that, I had a luggage system that was not insured and I would like to view the bike myself BEFORE raising a claim.
This was totally ignored by Hastings Direct, who responded by saying that if I did not respond within 21 days they would consider the matter closed.
Then, Hastings Direct took it upon themselves to make my decisions for me. By selling my bike!
So I wrote a letter of complaint to Hastings Direct about my treatment thus far and I also informed them that all correspondence would be via the Royal Mail, that way I would have to pay their grossly inflated 0845 call charges (and I had a note of all correspondence from them).
I then received a letter from Hastings Direct stating that ... "In some cases apologies no matter how sincere are not enough and the only meaningful gift they have to offer me is financial"
Then they follow that up with yet another derisory offer.
At this point sheer desperation leads me to write a lengthy email to them and at the same time bring a solicitor in to aid me. She also expressed her outrage at they way Hastings Direct have treated me and my case so far.
Hastings Direct in coming to form a meaningful financial offer, send me photographs of the bike, after it had been stood out in a yard for at least two months, and then the third party had attempted to reduce it to iron filings and ask me to justify the damage and condition?!
Oh, and of course Hastings Direct made no mention of the luggage system that they had taken and sold without consent.
I then discover from my solicitor, that the 'meaningful gift' is actually the market value of the bike (which I believed was the risk I had paid them to take in the first place, via the policy) minus a host of arbitrary deductions, which turned out to be little more than the original derisory offer made to me, after the bike was illegally sold.
Also Hastings Direct asked me to justify the stolen luggage.
Bearing in mind, I have still not lodged a claim, can you now see where my abject disgust comes from, having to deal with insurers who act with seemingly "criminal" abandon, as well as having to recover from near fatal injuries.
So after a bit of to and fro, between Hastings Direct and my solicitor, Hastings Direct finally up the Meaningful Financial Gift and offer me the market value of the bike and a little bit more for the luggage, which they quite rightly stated wasn't insured, which was why I never raised a claim in the first place, however, they deducted their excess and a few arbitrary deductions and we get back to the basic market value of the bike – Now what I can't understand here is, how can they deduct excess when I still even to this very day, have not raised a claim! – we were seeking return of the vehicle or suitable compensation, obviously Hastings Direct retain 'excess' from compensation payouts as well.
Ultimately I was advised to settle for this insult as to take it to court, would end up costing more than I would stand to gain by winning the case.
So even when Hastings Direct acted in my opinion illegally and would lose in court, they could still win, how bizarre!
Well, this is all behind me now, so why did I write this? Well in my email to Hastings Direct, I promised that I would write a narrative of the shameful and contemptuous way Hastings Direct have treated me and publish it as widely as possible, so here I am keeping to my word.
Oh and just as a final footnote, to add to injury and insult, Hastings Direct blatantly lied to me! I received a closing letter from one of their complaints operatives, stating that Hastings Direct and the third party both offered to have the luggage system and rack removed and returned to me.They never did and still haven't.
As I was in a severe state of disability, I was trying to work out a way to get across Scotland and remove this kit for myself, so I would have jumped at this opportunity, had it been offered.
Clearly from this you can see I will never even consider Hastings Direct again but I leave you, the reader, to come to your own conclusions. The saddest aspect of this is that in a few weeks this narrative will be all but forgotten but Hastings Direct will, most likely, still be putting profits over customer service and treating cases like this with utter contempt.
Please feel free to cut and paste this into any motoring based forums or chat rooms, to give people a little bit of information, so they can make a more informed choice before renewing any insurance."
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - Rehab - 21-12-11
Does seem a bit rough eh.
If this is true its all a bit scary what these companies can do and get away with!
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - BBROWN1664 - 21-12-11
:agree
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - DILLIGAFF - 21-12-11
Take your complaint to the Insurance ombudsman.........
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - chris.biker - 21-12-11
Posted on to another site so word travels I wonder how many links before it comes up at the PC in Mr Hastings home.
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - Gingernutz - 22-12-11
Shameful way of treating a customer - they are on my black list now
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - John Silva - 22-12-11
Bloody disgraceful customer cervice.
And thankfully I have never insured anything with them or ever will.
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - Bracechenko - 22-12-11
Disgraceful treatment....cheapest quote for my dual bike policy though so i'll just keep hoping I don't crash! :eek
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - BIG MAC - 22-12-11
While I have every sympathy for the person subjected to such incompetence I would make one point. The policy may have had an exclusion in relation to the fitted luggage which may have voided a claim.
We do not as much as we like to think we do Insure the item per-se...an insurance contract is a financial one..we insure against the potential financial loss and for the insurer to put us back in a similar financial position in relation to the insured event and immediately prior to its occurence.
If no claim has been made then this person should not have accepted a settlement under the policy in fact if Hastings managed to turn it into a claim..well done them (for all the wrong reasons) What the insured were / are due (In my opinion) is a full reinstatement at the insurers expense and damages for their trespass upon his property and associated expenses. The lawyer doesn't sound too hot too me..
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - Skinbeatersam - 23-12-11
Wow. We are really at the mercy the financial sector. It sickens me.
I will spread the word.
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - Hodge - 23-12-11
(21-12-11, 12:03 PM)DILLIGAFF link Wrote: Take your complaint to the Insurance ombudsman.........
This is the way to go. Someone should pass the info onto the guy concerned.
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - Kev8261 - 24-12-11
Bloody hell, my insurance is due in a couple of weeks and their quote was the cheapest, as I don't have much money at the moment I was considering Hasting direct.
Not now though!
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - locksmith - 24-12-11
Very complex/unusual case I'd have thought.
Not saying hastings are innocent but you can't judge a company on one internet related report.
Anyway, just recently insured my bike and van with them..............gulp!
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - Farjo - 24-12-11
From the original board:
We’d like to thank the members of this forum that have brought this case to the attention of the senior management of Hastings Direct. Some of your fellow members have raised this issue directly with the CEO of Hastings. Whilst we can’t comment on the specifics of this case, we can acknowledge that our handling of this matter has fallen well below the standard we expect, and normally deliver, for our customers. We continue to review all our processes, and the failure in this case will lead to a change in part of our claims handling service. For privacy reasons we cannot provide further information or updates about the case in question, but would like to apologise for any inconvenience or upset caused.
____________________
Lisa Finlay
Customer Experience Team
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - dolau - 28-12-11
And then there was the Bennets fiasco- is that sorted out yet? before I put myself up for a renewal and have to go round my bike looking for stickers and headlight covers?
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - Easy Rider 13 - 29-12-11
This Is going To face book and my large amount of biking groups...
See what they think.... personally i thing its disgusting!
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - pitternator - 29-12-11
In many ways I am not surprised. I too tend to look at such matters a bit dispassionately cos at the end of the day we are not truly fully protected by our insurance companies, and we do always tend to buy from the cheapest insurance company( rather than best as ranked by their customers).
Insurance companies are out to make a profit , not be benevolent to their customers.They have liabilities to us, but that is the end of it, they are not charities .In any " own fault" accident they will always try to minimise their outgoings. This term " market rate" nearly always gives them the right to settle claims entirely to their own bias.Its only in third party liability claims we will get anywhere near full compensation since there is always the threat of legal action to make the other side cough up.As much as we might hate the ambulance chasing lawyers, in truth its their proliferation which keeps insurance companies in some degree of check.However for own fault claims...we are at the mercy of the insurance company.And it seems they do get their " payback" at this time.
I also have had a few experiences of insurance companies ignoring correspondance if it doesnt suit them. Its utterly frustrating at times, and it would be intersting to see if the ombudsman does anything to help this chap.
I dont think Hastings Direct are the only guilty party either...I have had similar treatment from the Co-op and E bike.Both companied failed completely to acknowledge urgent communication from me, luckily not to major detriment to myself.The Co-op in particular still not replying to 2 letter sfrom me for a year. You do get to the point where you wonder igf you are flogging a dead horse.
Oddly in my family we have had one good "just" settlement from a claim, and that was from a small insurance company. :\
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - tex - 29-12-11
I reckon 60% of people, if they went to claim, they would find they are not insured, this could be for not declaring points, or forgetting to tell their ins about a claim they have had in the past, or vehicle not up to spec, ie bald tyres.
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - MEM62 - 03-01-12
Difficult to comment without the full story but, taking the story at face value, the guys approach was wrong from the outset. If the bike had been removed without his instuction or consent then Hastings or their agents were guilty of theft. I would also argue that the manner in which the bike was transported constitues vandalism and both of these offences should have been reported to the Police. Rather than deal with their claims department the bikes' owner should have sued them for return of the machine and had the police bring charges for the offences commited.
One interesting point though - how did Hastings know (a) that the bike had been involved in and RTA and (b) where to collect it from? Someone has obviously informed them.
Re: Everyone should know about Hastings Direct - chris.biker - 03-01-12
The Police did was my assumption they have the information on a computer base now.