HASTINGS DIRECT a genuine insurance grievance..

[Hetzer]

[flat eric]

Before my accident, i was looking at insuring my bike with Hastings Direct. But not after reading this story.

I was with Motorcycle Direct, and even though they are brokers, they were the cheapest last year. and when it came to the accident and sorting everythong out, they were brilliant and sorted it very quickly. After i turned down their first offer for my bike, they came back with a much better offer and i got more than i paid for the bike. So well happy with them. The insurance under writer was Groupama.

regards.
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There is always someone worse off than you !

[Sload]

So the gist I'm getting is, Hastings are bad then?
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Honda Varadero >> Triumph Speed Four >> Honda CBR1100xx

[charlie_a]

Heh.

[scorps]

so if Im understanding the gist of this thread, Id be right in assuming that

Hastings Direct are SCUM
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Do not presume that I am male.

[Rogerborg]

[charlie_a]

The cooling off period cancellation fee is £55! Looks like I've signed up with another money stealing scum bag insurance company. Outside cooling off (14 day from start) it's £50 plus 20% of premium.

They go by the name of PerformanceDirect.co.uk. Another one to avoid.

[what and why]

Hastings direct is by far the most incompetent company I have ever come across. I took fully comp insurance out with them only to find out that they charged me £50 extra for modifications i.e. alarm and immobiliser, better lighting, professionally fitted luggage and crash mushrooms, all things to protect the bike. When I phoned to query the overcharge they were absolutely not interested and the woman I talked to was arrogant and rude so I had to accept that I had lost my money and feel as if they have robbed me. When the policy came it stated that I didn't have any modifications so I phoned again. The person told me that no modifications had been logged so I pointed out that they had charged me for them. They eventually agreed to put them on the notes but I told them that because of my experience to date that I wanted written confirmation as I do not trust them, that was a month ago and I'm still waiting. I have had to make several calls to chase this up and no matter the time of day I always end up on the phone for at least an hour, most of it listening the their recorded message saying that they value my custom, I suspect that the only have two people working at any one time or maybe they are earning money from keeping people waiting on hold. I am still waiting for written confirmation.

My whole experience with them has been rubbish. They have kept me hanging on the end of the phone for as long as is possible. They are rude. They are incompetent and they don't keep promises to call back. They run you from pillar to post so that you just have to give up in despair. They may seem cheap but they are not. I do not trust them and have never experienced such a ridiculously poor service anywhere else, they score a minus 0 from me and thats way too generous. I feel like I have been robbed and cheated and I can honestly say that if you are considering using them then think long and hard and then find another company.

I would really like to say what I really think of them, alas, the forum has rules but the more of us that put the message out, the less people will get crapped on .

[Clanger]

When my renewal came up, I switched...but it took many phone calls and letters and emails before Hastings 'finally' sent me my NCD certificate. It nearly cost me my next insurance!!!

I asked my new insurers to hassle Hastings themselves as I was seemingly getting nowhere...it was a ridiculous amount of time to wait for the paperwork (over 4 weeks!!!)
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who matter won't mind - Dr. Seuss

[J.M.]

Well, by the looks of it Hasting Direct are scum and I'll have to avoid them upon renewal.

To balance things up a bit though, I've been insured with:

Rampdale (50cc/125cc only I think):
Got given very good service. Updated me from a provisional licence to a full licence for free. Sent me my NCB in email format upon request (within 24 hours) and also as a hard copy which arrived the day after I got the email.
The only downside that I encountered is that you do have to request your NCB - they will not automatically send it out.

WickedQuotes (Underwriter Equity Red Star):
Again, good service. When I had my crash (my fault) they appeared to be helpful. I got everything sorted in a single phone call and was told there was nothing else that I needed to do.
They also don't charge even a penny extra to declare all of your mods, even the ones that you wouldn't class as mods (i.e. tank pad, satnav, alpha.dot, restrictor kit, alarm, etc.)

I'm planning on using WickedQuotes/Equity Red Star again next year unless someone else comes out considerably cheaper (which I doubt with a fault accident against me).
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2004 R1 & 2018 XSR900

[cromwell]

Great, just got my insurance with Hastings. Looks like it'll be a fun year
I should have known too cheap meant crap.
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"unbelievable"
Current - Suzuki Bandit 600
Ex's - Yamaha YBR 125

[dransy]

I also just got insured with Hastings about 4 month ago
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Being shot out of a cannon will always be better than being squeezed out of a tube. That is why God made fast motorcycles

[charlie_a]

[P.addy]

[GrumpyGuts]

Not doing enough to discredit HASTINGS DIRECT

https://i48.tinypic.com/s0ztld.jpg


Get this thread to number 1 damnit!
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My Bikes: Lifan Beat 125cc '11 -> Suzuki B120P '76 -> Suzuki EN 125-2A '08 -> Honda CG 125 '04 -> Honda CB600F Hornet '98 -> Kawasaki ZZR 600 '99 -> Kawasaki GPZ 500S '95 (Current)
Theory test passed - 09/02/2012 >>>> Module 1 passed 24/07/2012 >>>> Module 2 passed 24/10/2012

[Rogerborg]

If I understand PageRank, you'll want to link to this thread from other places where you mention Hastings Direct.
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Biking is 1/20th as dangerous as horse riding.
GONE: HN125-8, LF-250B, GPz 305, GPZ 500S, Burgman 400 // RIDING: F650GS (800 twin), Royal Enfield Bullet Electra 500 AVL, Ninja 250R because racebike

[J.M.]

[charlie_a]

Yeah what Rogerborg said. Link from other forum signatures, twatter, etc. Helps if you vary the text you use in the anchor text.

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=235369
Hastings Direct are scum
Rip off Hastings Direct

[charlie_a]

[GrumpyGuts]

I would have thought their marketing department pays Google to be at the top? Advertising purposes?
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My Bikes: Lifan Beat 125cc '11 -> Suzuki B120P '76 -> Suzuki EN 125-2A '08 -> Honda CG 125 '04 -> Honda CB600F Hornet '98 -> Kawasaki ZZR 600 '99 -> Kawasaki GPZ 500S '95 (Current)
Theory test passed - 09/02/2012 >>>> Module 1 passed 24/07/2012 >>>> Module 2 passed 24/10/2012

[charlie_a]

There's two types of results in Google, paid for and free. Increasingly the free stuff is being pushed down the fold by paid and other Google products like shopping and local search. But for the purpose of getting this page in the top ten or five results there's nothing they can do to get it removed from the free results, unless this website gets banned from Google for some other reason.

[Itxi]

So if I had this in my sig it would show up higher on google?

[charlie_a]

Good to use the main url:

https://www.bikechatforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=235369

without all the query string crap '&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0'

and of course the keywords as the anchor text

'Hastings Direct are scum'

[NeiljohnUK]

Distinctly dis-chuffed with Hastings, renewal last week, still not showing as insured on AskMid, 45 minutes on the phone queuing system I finally got a 'human', who stated yes I was insured, all the Police would have to do is to phone them!

I can't see a copper standing at the side of the road for 45 minutes waiting for them to answer and confirm insurance, just seize the bike and worry about it later...

[dungbug]

I had a bad experience with Hastings back in 2008, long story short my ped was pinched. Plod found a little scrote hooning about on it 6 days later, ped was recovered to a pound & I was told by Hastings that I had 14 days to retrieve it otherwise no claim could be made (fair enough) so £110 release fee the following day as I would be charged an extra £14 per day on top.
Hastings offered way below what it was worth, I argued for about 3 weeks emailing them identical examples in terms of age, condition & mileage (all were about £250 more than the offer). In the end I gave up as I needed the cash to get another ped, they didn't want to pay for the release fee despite telling me they would refund it before I collected it.......they could find no record of me being told that & it wasn't "standard policy to make that offer" Another 3 weeks of phone calls & emails resulted in me getting my realese fee refunded. Alot of arsing about and wasn't happy with them, haven't used them since despite them coming up cheaper on comparison sites for the GN, I always opt for someone else now. PITA company to deal with, hope the OP's health has recovered fully.
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CBT: Pass 25/06/2011 Theory Test: Pass12/06/2012 Mod 1: Fail 08/07/2012
Mod 1 Retest: Pass 15/0702012 Mod 2: Pass 03/08/2012
Suzuki GN125 (Sold) ~ Current bike: Yamaha YZF 600R Thundercat