“"Poor communication from First Alternative. Slow to respond to my claim and unresponsive at weekends. I will not be renewing my motor insurance with them. Stay well clear they are an absolute shambles. "”
“Trying to obtain a copy of your own documents from this company is exhausting. I need a copy of my certificate of motor insurance, you are supposed to be able to access them on the online portal. It does not work, so I contact a ‘human’ on the online chat, after waiting an hour each time I speak to someone who says they will send it across. First person does not send anything, go back through wait an hour speak to someone else. Sends it though, it’s not the right document: back and forth for ages convincing me it’s the document I asked for. Submit my document, gets rejected as it’s not the right document. Back onto a chat for an hour waiting. It shouldn’t be this difficult, customer service is shocking”
“"Been with first alternative for over a year now I renewed in August 2023 everything was fine until e sure taken over them now I can\u2019t log into my account and I call them and customer service can\u2019t even find my policy or myself in general "”
“"Any time u need to talk to anyone it sounds like there sat at side of a constant moving train of at home with children running around very loud back grounds and very minimal English very poor to contact "”
“This is a rogue company cant get hold of any one. they want me to pay an administrative fee for leaving after they took £500.00 from my bank account without informing me. I was not paying by direct debit. Now cant get hold of them at all. I am now starting legal proceedings against them”
“"Can\u2019t get in touch with them by phone long waiting list?, also if you want to make a complaint it goes to claims? I spent probably 9 hours in total\r\nTrying to put my wife on my policy? , still no joy\r\nIf this how they work, I would hate to think if I was claiming??, got 2 months left on insurance, going to cancel and go elsewhere!!"”
“One of the worst car insurance provider. You simply can’t get hold of anyone.
Very long waiting times in phone lines, no email address for customer service, online postal doesn’t work… and so on!
I try log in my account, it sends me email to reset without a resetting link!
Lots of fake reviews here too!”
“"Where to start...\r\n\r\nUpdated to new car mid January 2024 using the First Alternative web chat and paid for change. As of today (30\/01\/2024) online account still shows old car - I don't have the official certificate of motor insurance, insurance schedule or update letter - for my new car.\r\n\r\nIt is very difficult to get through to a person - web chat regularly takes more than 40 minutes, that's if it doesn't kick you off.\r\n\r\nCalling by phone is a lottery of forced disconnects, calls being dropped when transferred, and a bizarre IVR function where the recording\/system says it's sending a security code to your email address so the call can proceed - email never arrives - which results in a forced disconnect - system ends call.\r\n\r\nWhen you try and access your online account you have to reset your password EVERY time you log in as they system says the password is incorrect - another bizarre function of the system.\r\n\r\nI managed to talk to a person yesterday to ask why my insurance documents had not been updated - was told there are system issues ( I knew that). I asked for docs to be emailed - was told they had been emailed - a day later and still not arrived.\r\n\r\nI've checked with the Motor Insurance Database and my new car is insured, it's just that the insurance company - First Alternative - can't seem to be able to issue their customer, who is paying for the insurance, with the correct documentation.\r\n\r\nA complete and utter shambles....\r\n"”
“"My Policy was cancelled due to lack of communication on the side of First Alternative.\r\nI got a letter on the 27th of January 2024 that if I don't pay my premium which is direct debit on that date, my policy will be cancelled.\r\nOn that date 27th January 2024, I tried to call them, I was hanging on answering machine for 4 hrs telling me to hold on till 5pm without anybody to pick my call. \r\n\r\nI call again on Sunday, Somebody pick up after one hour and told me my policy is cancelled.\r\n\r\nI felt disappointed that my has been cancelled and left without insurance."”
“Had a car hit me. During the claim, they don't answer the phone. Have spent 2 weeks trying to get through to request if the claim is now closed as other party confirmed at fault. Haven't had a refund of my excess. Spent over 5 hours waiting to get through this week alone. Got through to someone who had such an attitude and hung up on me when I asked for details of my claim. PAINFUL to deal with.”
“AVOID AVOID AVOID AT ALL COST. Worse customer services. Call waiting time is around an hour. It took so long to deal with the matter that in the end I gave up on my claim.”
“I had an accident which wasn't my fault and First Alternative had to engage solicitors to fight my claim, The solicitors got in touch on Monday 12 June to say that the other party had admitted liability and they had paid in full including the £300 excess that I paid. So far I have had no response from First Alternative Insurance to tell me that the other party had paid out and I have not had my excess paid back. I have tried calling them 3 times now and have been on hold for over an hour each time and had to give up. First Alternative can you please pay my £300 excess back and contact me to finalise my claim”
“Worst customer service ever. Clearly underfunded so have to jump through a million hoops to get anyone.
Worst car insurance ever, I would not recommend in a million years.”
“"After having a car accident a week ago I have called First Alternative 9 times and probably spent a total of 4 hours on the phone in order to try to get a courtesy car which is promised on my policy with no joy at all. One particular claims handler was very rude and unhelpful, I will make a complaint directly to them regarding him. I wouldn\u2019t ever choose this company again I did so because they had a 5 star defacto rating, I don\u2019t know how they achieved it from my experience and being an insurance underwriter myself I\u2019m very dissatisfied with the service, I would not call it treating customers fairly. "”
“Disgusting Awful DO NOT USE THEM. They lost my car for 9 days then had to phone me and ask me where it was, it then went to a garage three days later i phoned the garage who had been told that it was written off. Its now16 days without a car and I am waiting on the phone now 1hr 30 minutes for the 3rd time calling over 2 days. If I wanted a quote they would have answered within a few minutes as I said disgusting I would never use this company again or there sister company Esure 👎👎👎”
