Dial Direct Reviews

Name: Dial Direct
Rating: 4.29

4.3 Rating 2,992 Reviews

83 %

of reviewers recommend Dial Direct

Company Reviews

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4.3

Based on 2,992 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Own Driver, Postal Service
On-time Delivery	99%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour
Customer Service	4.2 out of 5
Returns & Refunds
Refunds Process	Difficult

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Dial Direct 5 star review on 19th September 2024

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Filter: Rated 1 None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“IF YOU NEED AN INSURANCE COMPANY - THAT FLOODS & DAMAGES YOUR HOME - WHEN THEY ARE SUPPOSE TO FIX THE PROBLEM - AND THEN RUN FROM ANY ACCOUNTABILITY - THEN DIAL DIRECT AND ITS AFFILIATES CLAIMDESK, SEDGWICK & ARAG PLC. IS WHERE YOU NEED TO GO. Over the December holiday period in 2019 our hot water boiler decided not to work. We called our home insurance provider "DIAL DIRECT" they then sent out an engineer via "Claimdesk"/ Sedgwick. To cut a long story short, to my horror, the engineer managed to empty the tank of water - which came gushing out - flooding our up stairs landing, kitchen below & part of our study. The upstairs carpets need replacing, we've had loud industrial blowers & dehumidifiers in our home now for almost a month. Videos & images were taken of the water coming through the ceiling, the engineers tools & part which was forced out, saturated carpets,more. ARAG plc who I believe were suppose to be representing us & investigating the matter truthfully, just completely dis-owned our complaint - and said that the engineer was not at fault, this came from a lady called Abigail Hole. THEN WHO's FAULT WAS IT? My wife is heavily pregnant and we have a big family. This has caused so much stress, time off work, countless phones calls and much trouble & upset for us. Not to mention - the fact that we will be faced with a rising home insurance premium in the future for a claim which was caused by DIAL DIRECT. This was clearly the fault of our insurance provider DIAL DIRECT and its affiliates. The insurance company and its affiliates ARAG, CLAIMDESK, SEDGWICK are suppose to help when things go wrong, like a faulty boiler - Not partially flood your house and then say - its not our fault. PS - Why isn't there the option for 0 stars? Lee Pallister.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“3.87 star rating, and still tour getting bad feedback. You guys are the pits, worst ever. DO NOT USE THESE LUNATICS.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Worst one in 40 years of insurance. Arrogant, cocky, take your money, bombard you with exacting impossible criteria to meet standards set by them. All the time adding money on the 13 emails I got. My policy started at £188, they finished at over £500, so I cancelled within 12 days and they charged me £50 to cancel. Total idiots.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“THIS IS THE WORST OF THE WORST COMPANIES, JOIN AT YOUR PERIL, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. RIPPED ME OFF, AND I CHANGED TO ADMIRAL AND SAVED £200”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Nearly 5 months on since I had a leak and nothing is moving on despite chasing! Do not insure with them!!!!”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Rip off company. Been with them for 6 years but never again they really know how to p--- o-f a loyal customer”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Avoid, poor service wigging out of claims”

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Posted 5 years ago

“I discovered after just three weeks from buying my nearly-new car that it already had breakdown cover included so I wanted to switch to a policy without it to save cash and they couldn't/wouldn't offer me one. I asked about cancellation so I could go elsewhere and while the £50 cancellation charge was fair enough, they said that my NCD protection and other items in my policy were non-refundable so they wanted a whopping £168 in total out of my original annual policy payment of £569 for a policy that was just three weeks old. Clearly, I'm not impressed that an insurance broker would bury such non-refundable items in the small print in 2019 - this is the sort of pallava we all went through with brokers 20 years ago looking to gouge every last pound out of you. Obviously I'm trapped with these guys for 11 months now so I'm really quite annoyed at this - they're gouging me for so much money for simply wanting to switch policies that it's not financially viable for me to cancel and go elsewhere where I can get a quote for £150 cheaper without breakdown cover from a variety of other brokers. My mistake initially of course but hidden small print clauses are from yesteryear everywhere else I've ever used so I dread to think what happens over the next 12 months if I ever need to use the policy cover in the event of an accident or anything else - who knows what other costly small print items have been tucked away in my policy? They're not worth the worry IMO - look elsewhere for a car insurance broker that plays it straight and upfront.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Quoted me £500 for van insurance on confused for my personal van, which I accepted, only to be told that my 9 years company car insurance no claims is not valid, as I cannot get letters quoting every single registration of company cars I've had over 9 years. I change my company car twice a year, so they want me to remember 18 car registrations!. So then they doubled my insurance to £1000 approx. This 'technical issue' was not stated in any of the text upon taking the policy. All other insurers have accepted letters from my employers, with not having to get every single reg of company cars I've had. Just be careful with Dial Direct's T&C's before you take a policy with them if your in a similar situation as me. Then I get an email from Toni wanting to speak to me, im not interested, I am just stuck with you now for a year, probably with a big penalty if I want to leave, if they let me leave without a penalty, I will be gone... ***UPDATE*** just been back on confused and got quotes with NO COMPANY CAR NCB just to check, and I am getting quotes for £700, so I am being over charged by approx £300 by dial direct anyway!”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

“Bit of a con. Quoted me £500 for van insurance on confused for my personal van, which I accepted, only to be told that my 9 years company car insurance no claims is not valid, as I cannot get letters quoting every single registration of company cars I've had over 9 years. I change my company car twice a year, so they want me to remember 18 car registrations!. So then they doubled my insurance to £1000 approx. This 'technical issue' was not stated in any of the text upon taking the policy. All other insurers have accepted letters from my employers, with not having to get every single reg of company cars I've had. Just be careful with Dial Direct's T&C's before you take a policy with them if your in a similar situation as me. Then I get an email from Toni wanting to speak to me, im not interested, I am just stuck with you now for a year, probably with a big penalty if I want to leave, if they let me leave without a penalty, I will be gone... ***UPDATE*** just been back on confused and got quotes with NO COMPANY CAR NCB just to check, and I am getting quotes for £700, so I am being over charged by approx £300 by dial direct anyway!”

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Posted 5 years ago

“Please don't insure with this company. The process is very complicated and there are so many different departments. You'll end up with nothing being solved and a nervous breakdown.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“I have never written a bad complaint about any company however I feel I would be wrong not to about Dial Direct car insurance. They have the worst customer service I have ever seen. I called to change my car Insurance as I bought a new car and this was before the end of the insurance term, I gave them the opportunity to quote but it was much higher for less cover than any of the other four reputable insurers. That’s fine and not an issue in itself, I was told it was £50 to cancel admin fee, again totally understand. I then called the new insurer and took out the policy and called back direct line to cancel, now to be told it was an extra £38 as it wasn’t passed a certain date. I explained that the first person had not mentioned that at all and the adviser commented that that does happen and if it had been him he would have told me ! I asked to speak to someone to make a complaint and was told I would get a call back in 48 hours, awful service considering I wanted to complain ! No call and then 4 days later a letter explaining my complaint would be answered in 3 to 4 weeks !! They are clearly very busy with complaints. They can however answer within 2 rings in the new sales team ! Disgraceful”

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Posted 5 years ago

“I took out the policy as they were the cheapest and offered more cover. I had made no claims so review is based on their communication. DD sent me a renewal notice. My old policy was £162. I had a renewal quote of £202, so yes, you look for cheaper. I found a policy being a mirrored policy for £134. Back to the email and they have a link to confirm your renewal but no link to cancel. You have to phone. Twenty minutes nearly to listen to a recorded voice blabbing total rubbish to be polite. (i wanted to use a word beginning with S and ending with T, but the system spotted it) You have to speak your requirements to go through to the next question. I have a welsh accent but not clear enough to be understood by a robot. Once i got through to what i wanted, your forced to listen to total babble about their terms and cons, their special offers, law and order and god knows what else. i put the phone down until i heard silence guessing that i was through to a human. Once the human confirmed by personal details, he offered me a reduction of £145 renewal. If they had offered that initially which was cheaper than my existing policy, i would have taken it. But to try and con you to confirm renewal, i thought stuff you. Should have offered that in the first place. This is not the first company that i have experienced doing this but ideal if you dont like swapping. What i dont like is the above and the audacity to try and extract more out from you. If they value your custom, they would have offered the best deal in the first place. I fully understand increase in services year on year but £60 increase as a renewal at the outset was not going to wash with me.To cancel is such a drag to get. Even more reason not to buy from dial direct. Knowing this, i would never consider them for any future policies.”

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Posted 5 years ago

“These rip off merchants charged me £280 to change my policy to a newer car of the same specification 5 months into the policy. Absolute joke, reasonable cost at the outset but ripped off if you need to change your car. I'll never use them agsin”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Thought home insurance was on autorenew. Realised this morning that it wasn't - it ran out at midnight last night. Called this morning to make payment and was refused.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Having had building and content insurance via Dial Direct for one year, I was surprised to receive a letter stating they would not insure me again! I have not had any claims nor have I had any issues in the past 37 years that I have had building and content insurance with various companies. I telephoned Dial Direct but am still none the wiser as to why this has happened. During my telephone conversation apparently their computer system crashed and the call handler stated she would phone me the following day. This did not happen and I have had no contact since! I would have quite happily renewed my policy given the opportunity, however perhaps their customer service leaves a lot to be desired.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“BEWARE! TRY TO SCAM YOU OUT OF EXTRA MONEY I would not recommend them or ever use them again. I signed up for my car insurance, i used the form on confused.com. The form clearly states "CLAIMS AND CONVICTIONS" i declared both my at fault accidents as requestedc that were claims on my policy and got my insurance. A few days later i got a letter from them saying i hadnt declared an accident THAT WASNT MY FAULT! Why would i declare accidents that are not my fault? That is not what the website asks for! they said they would charge me another THIRD!! of my policy as i didnt mention someone hitting me in a car accident. What absolute scum to try and milk people for something that wasnt their fault! If theres one thing i cant stand its being ripped off, i filled the form in accurately and then they just try and scam money out of you when youve done nothing wrong. They then have the cheek to tell me if i want to cancel ill have a £50 fee to pay, well i will be taking this up with the ombudsman if you charge me any money to cancel your scammy policy. Thats nothing short of extortion.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“Really bad customer service, I set up through comparethemarket with this company, rang them within an hour as the wrong address had copied over. They added 30 pounds correction fee so I cancelled and went elsewhere. Have I got my money back yet? NO a week later they still havent refunded the CC payment, cancelled WITHIN THE HOUR of being processed. You have to listen to over a minute of spiel before you can even get through to anyone, then you get a load of excuses. Not at all impressed and grateful that I went elsewhere, heaven forbid you have to make a claim with these people, you have been warned!”

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Posted 6 years ago

“I had a no fault claim, when another driver drove into my parked car. The other driver admitted full responsibility. Despite being written to by the underwiter Covea, to say that its not my fault and there's no claim against me, Dial direct doubled my insurance quote and keep saying the claim is open. ( Covea have said its been closed for weeks)They are using the incident to inflate the cost of my insurance. They are also refusing to give me my no claims bonus.Use them at your cost.”

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Posted 6 years ago

“15 minutes waiting to take out a new policy! Obviously not that good so taken custom elsewhere.”

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Posted 6 years ago

Dial Direct is rated 4.3 based on 2,992 reviews