“I have been insured with admiral since Jan. Initially I was happy with my cover. Unfortunately, last month while on holiday, I unexpectedly missed a one instalment (a bank error). I have previously paid my 8 instalments on time.
I returned home unaware of the issue as I'd had no correspondence, I received a letter after a week of driving my car explaining my policy had been cancelled a week previous due to non payment.
I was shocked! Not only had I had no previous correspondence, I also was sent a letter after my cancellation date to inform me I was uninsured and had to pay the rest of my policy and an additional cancellation fee.
I immediately contacted them to explain I was away and it was a bank error, no fault of my own that the direct debit was not paid. The call handler was very abrupt, unhelpful and rude. He reduced me to tears. He was not listening to me, he repeatedly interrupted me and showed me no compassion what so ever. He said as they had the rejected payments, both of which were days apart whilst I was out of the country. I had no choice other than to pay the rest of my policy plus the cancellation fee. I explained I was not in a position to do this and I ended the call.
After my own research I found out that as the fault was with the bank this was not the case at all. I contacted them once again and thankfully was greeted with a very, helpful, lovely call handler. She kindly apologised for her collegue and explained my next steps and reinstated my policy immediately.”
“I've been with Admiral for a few months and have had a little box fitted. After a few months, occasionally driving of a night I received a letter. Notice of Cancellation. Reason? Their statistics say that is more dangerous to drive at nights. Always received bad score for my driving, even if I drove almost excellent.
I'm going to report them to Ombudsman Services. We all should do that!”
“This company cannot stick to dates. Apparently they would apply for my payment within 7 days, this was 16th Sept. The payment was attempted on 27th. Somebody needs to help these guys out with maths and the Gregorian calendar because when I went to school, 16+7=23. So it should of been 4 days earlier.
Now I'm expected to cough up the remainder of my premium in one lump, all because they can't count!”
“I've been with Admiral for only a few months now and have had a little box fitted. During the phone call I questioned if there was a curfew for the box and she responded "no, we do not take that into account". Thinking that was perfect I obviously went ahead with the insurance. A few months down the line, occasionally driving of a night I check my online score. Never has it changed from the lowest score and I even received a threatening email to say if I did not improve then they would cancel my insurance within the next 30 days. I called them up and as you could probably tell, they were no use. I've even stopped my social and hobby arrangements to improve on my score yet this hasn't made any difference.
I'm screwed basically...”
“They doubled the price of my insurance and took the money out of my account without even confirming it with me. Its almost criminal and daylight robbery”
“It was 17.00 13th of September 2016 post code S20 1FW, I was sat at a zebra crossing waiting for a young mum pushing a pram with a toddler in tow on West st leading onto Drake House Ln, The crossing is inbetween the Sothall Green and Orchard lane. I cyclist appear from no where and plowed into the near side rear (passenger side) Rylan Cranner,I believe lives near Woodhouse Sheffield had come down Orchard Ln with what he said was no brakes and was going to from left to right and carry on up Sothall Green. He wasnt injured but had damaged my car he said he would pay, but of course he lied. I've seen him since doing exactly the same dodging kids on the crossing so I thought its best we have another chat,plus ask him where my money was that wont cover the repair. I called Admiral the advisor informed me that as a result of my accident my premiums would increase? He waffled on about his car being damaged, I asked about my legal cover, which he had claimed he could only access given my reg policy number. Having got them he said "I'm not sure what your asking me to do"? The reason for the increase is because people change their driving habits after a collision he could elaborate any more than tht because its what they are trained to say. The say he wont be insured and they wont even try recover any money, its going down as a fault claim plus I have to pay my excess whicxh they also wont recover. Ive cant believe they are allowed to do this,whats worse is the pretentious condesending tone of voice.
Admiral's pre tax car insurance profits for last year was £219 million,they payed their share holders 1.9 billion over the last 10 years. Never going with them again something needs to be done as this cant be fair, they will be quick to pay 3 third party claims I'm sure. Whats the point in having insurance. I used to commute on a cycle got knocked of a few times, but I appreciate now why some drivers hate cyclist and insurance companies”
“If anyone is considering buying platinum level cover or a home emergency policy from Admiral, please think again. We've been treated shockingly by them. Whilst waiting for boiler replacement, our immersion heater failed, leaving us with no hot water. Admiral have refused to cover this, leaving us without a source of hot water for a week (so far...).”
“I took out an admiral policy and I had a black box, I put down that I was going to do 10,000 miles a year. I took the policy out In May and I had an email from them on last week telling me they have calculated my miles and they worked out that I will go over 10,000 miles over the course of a year, bearing in mind that I have had my policy out for 5 months and have done 3,500 miles in my car ... So I hadn't even gone over at all. I called up to dispute it because I am not happy to accept this. They basically said tough luck its in our terms and condition. This is an absolute con. Not any cheaper to get the black box and admiral are conning people. Go elsewhere!!!”
“I had a notice of cancellation from you over my so called lack of response of drivers license details and no claims bonus proof. But my grandson who deals with all my dealings in my presence, went on line and gave that information. I was concerned as to my cover, on talking on the phone I mentioned it was a camper van and was told they didn't do that type of cover and by the end of that phone call I would not be covered, and my refund would be £256.73, after only 28 days cover. They where margin me a cancellation fee that they instigated, plus two administration fees for letters sent to me. My total cover payment was £406.72 which I paid full, not direct debit, disgusted”
“In May someone left a note on my car saying I had hit them they didn't leave no phone number no number plate. So to be on the safe side I call up at admiral just to let them know. They said that shouldn't be a problem and it won't go down as a claim. My insurance renewal tense up and they put it as a claim and will not take it off anymore. Very rude advisor on the phone as well”
“A 7 year customer of Admiral.nevery year the same nonsense with renewal:
- ask for auto-renewal to be removed
- policy is auto-renewed
- price goes way up
- have to phone in to get them to reduce premium
- they reduce it
This year the auto-renewal was £977. The first phone call after auto-renewal (said I was taking up cooling off period) and it magically dropped by over £200 to £774. This was about 4 minutes into the call.
Found another policy for £635. Over £300 less than Admiral's original renewal price. Cancelled it. Amusingly I received a call to upsell me their black box service for existing customers 3 days later "do you have access to customer notes?" Yes I do. "Have you read the notes on my record?" Oops. Looks like you've cancelled. Sorry!
To Admiral if you read this:
How awful to say after 7 years as your customer I felt satisfaction in cancelling and no longer being your customer. Although it is an industry-wide issue, the attempts to rip off customers at the point of renewal every year are so tiresome. You actually manage to breed disloyalty by acting in this way. Although churn is an industry norm, I would imagine the administrative cost of multiple calls to an agent, emails, policy changes and complaints all add up - perhaps you could look at these costs and reasses your approach to pricing renewals.
I do hope at some point consumer pressure and/or the regulator solve this farcical renewal situation. Admiral should be ashamed of their strategy and treatment of customers - I am ashamed of you and it does not reflect well on your brand.”
“The usual scam of inviting new customers in on a good price then after 1 year more than doubling the price and they hope you wont notice!!!!
Took me nearly an hour on the phone not stop the renewall, they simply would not accept that didnt want to pay double!!”
“I changed my car insurance to Admiral as I have heard good things about them. However, this is one of the worst decisions I have ever made. This company will do ANYTHING to get more money out of you. Avoid admiral at all costs, they are absolutely appalling and the staff are no help at all. I will be changing my insurance company once my cover is due for renewal.”
“I've been with Admiral since 2011. And every year my insurance renewal was more than the market average. This year, the increase was 2 X the market average. When I questioned them about, given that their sister company gave me a better deal. They responded saying that their under writers were different hence the price change. Total nonsense.
The do have sudo customer care. They don't really listen to your query, rather a scripted feedback is given. Not fit for purpose, and wastes time. The company's value is ingrained into their sales staff. And that's a no care attitude.
If they are under the opinion that the brand sells itself, they will soon be mistaken. Overall poor service with loads of marketing.
Admiral, please consider if this is the way you'd like your business to run. Else make a change, and show us this change in your marketing.”
“I worked for five years in Admiral's claims department. I left because I couldn't sand the levels of hypocrisy and pseudo customer care. All they cared for is paying out to third party claimants in order to reduce their level of corporate risk. Managers are only concerned about their own career progression and are simply not equipped to deal with the real issues. They are mostly in their twenties and have no real life experience, recruited off the streets with no business acumen ... in fact, I witnessed their ruthless cull of intelligent, educated, experienced personnel who dared speak up.”
“How can I put across in just words how I feel about Admiral that does not revert to swearing? I do think they need to add a zero star option on here.
I am stunned and amazed by the total lack of customer service that Admiral seem to have, despite the glossy magazine, paper, radio and TV ads, the reality is they don’t care about the people who pay the premiums every month/year, they don’t care about anything other than the money coming in, and if they need to manufacture a way of increasing that money by allowing false claims, then all the better, who cares?
It has now been 2 weeks since I sent an email of complaint and as yet I have not even had the courtesy of a ‘holding’ email to tell me they are looking into it, I also complained last year about the same thing I might add.
In all my dealings with Admiral, bar the first to set up the car insurance, I have received nothing but (and I am going to be generous about this), 2nd rate service and corporate speak, I have been lied to, not only by phone but also in a letter.
I have been told one thing, yet that never happens, I have been told something else, and that too doesn’t happen either, it seems to be an on-going situation with them, and one that I do not see ever improving, as it seems to be a systematic approach by all staff to mislead and misinform clients, i.e. me.
This is not one or two situations where the training has not been quite complete, or where someone has misinterpreted something, this appears to be something that is en-grained in all the staff throughout the business, it is normal operating procedure, and as long as no one finds out, then long may it continue it seems..
A recent example of this, I phone to not renew my insurance with them, and I have to spend almost 20 minutes on the phone justifying why I do not want to stay with them, I have to do that so that I know it has been done, but all the time I am trying to tell the person on the end of the phone that:-
No, I don’t want to stay with you.
Why?
You are more expensive
Well we can take £168 off the premiums
So that still only makes you £180 more expensive
I have had a bad customer experience with you also
Well sometime these things happen, but we would like to put this right
I am not interested in staying with you
Oh, well if that is how you feel, but you know we do pride ourselves on our customer service
I don’t want to stay with you
I can’t reduce it anymore, but we do listen to the feedback and try to improve
I just don’t want to stay with you...........
Yet, this seems to not be good enough, I have to assume that the person at the end of the phone has my records available to them, they have to see I made a complaint, they have to see I had a false claim against me, surely they should be able to work out for themselves that I have no desire to stay, but Admiral has so en-grained them to keep the customer, they will try anything in order not to lose me, even when it is crystal clear, and I did make it so very clear, right at the start I had no desire to stay. Customer service be damned, it is all about the money.
Admiral listens when they want to, and are deaf when the truth is too painful.
Allow me to take you back to when all this started
Admiral allowed a 3rd party, via, supposedly, a Personal Injury lawyer, to make a claim against me, what was the first thing they did?
It wasn’t contact me, it wasn’t tell the person that they would need to investigate the claim, no, the first thing they did, was send me notification (by email) that they were putting my premiums up and remove my NCD.
I call, I say I am not happy about this, I say this is false you need to look into it, I am told they will
The next thing they did? Was it investigating the claim? Was it look into all the facts and determine if any of what this person said had even the faintest ring of truth to it, no, the next thing they did , was pay her £1500, three days after the claim was made.
How did I find out? it wasn’t because someone phoned me, I got an email, that supposedly I should not have been sent, telling me that an agreement had been reached with the 3rd party.
I phone, I complain about this, but again, I am told that this is what they can do.
So what happens next, I complain to them in writing, I get a call from them telling me that Admiral can pretty much do as they want, but that someone will keep an eye on my account, and let me know if the person does make a claim for anything else, I had been told they had been informed that she was going to claim for other things, but were unsure at this point what they were, they were waiting for confirmation from her insurance company.
I call in October 2015; based on the fact I had heard nothing, I am told nothing has changed, but as nothing has been logged yet, it may very well be that it is under investigation, and could take some time.
I call in June 2016 to change my car on the policy; I am told nothing has changed.
I get my renewal notice, guess what, there is another £4100 on the claim, how did that happen? I was expecting a call, I was told I would get a call, I was promised in a letter that if anything changed I would get a call to talk through it, guess someone must have been sick that day then?
I find it curious that car insurance companies, Admiral included, bleat about the fact that false claims put everyone’s premiums at risk/up, and cause companies like Admiral to look at things a lot harder than they used to, taking up valuable time, and meaning that often people have to wait for payouts because of this.
Yet, the reality, based on my experience with Admiral, is that they are quite happy to accept false claims, quite happy to payout on them really quickly, quite happy to not do any investigation into those claims, for the sole reason of putting premiums up, as well making sure that people like me have to pay the price in terms of higher premiums and removal of the NCD, meaning, higher cost to me
I have sent my complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, as it does appear that dealing with Admiral directly gets me nowhere, and I have no idea what else I can do to get any response from them, and while this would be my ideal, to get some dialog started, I feel that this is now a moot point, given the lack of any constructive dialog up to now.”
