Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews

Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.29

3.3 Rating 2,006 Reviews

56 %

of reviewers recommend Hastings Direct Smart Miles

3.3

Based on 2,006 reviews

Shipping & Delivery
Delivery Methods	Courier
On-time Delivery	Greater than 72%
Customer Service
Communication Channels	Telephone, Email, Live Chat
Queries Resolved In	Under An Hour

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Hastings Direct Smart Miles 1 star review on 12th July 2024

James

Hastings Direct Smart Miles 5 star review on 29th September 2023

Jason Major

Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

Sort by: Most Recent Most Recent Highest Rated Filter: None None 5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Stars Helpful

“I love to give reviews, mostly positive ones but I only give negative / constructive reviews when I strongly believe it'll help people from being scammed! There are 4 categories in which people with a Black Box are scored on: Acceleration, Breaking, Speed and Time of Day. Based on this, you then receive an overall score between 1-100, 1 being terrible and 100 being the best. How they calculate this is a total mystery as this information cannot be found anywhere. One would imagine you would add up all individual 4 scores and then divide by 4, to give you the mean average. This would be the most logical way of doing things, however this is not how it's done as my overall score is not the mean average of all 4 individual scores. In order to receive a positive score for the 'Time of Day' category, you need to avoid driving between 10pm and 5am. Since taking out my policy in January 2017, I have made 42 journeys in my car with the Black Box attached. 2 of these journeys were after 10pm, one began at 10.25pm and lasted 43 minutes, the other started at 9.33pm and lasted 45 minutes so went past the 10pm 'watershed' by 18 minutes. Because of these two journeys, my score is 29/100 and hasn't moved up despite it being 1 month since the 9.33pm journey, and with lots of 'good' journeys being made over the past 1 month. I phoned Hastings Direct to try and make sense of this; I was convinced the Black Box must be faulty, as less than 5% of my journeys were in the time deemed to be bad for driving, yet I've been scored 29% (29 out of 100) for my 'Time of Day' score. I was told the Black Box isn't faulty, and that I just need to keep driving from 10am - 5pm as much as possible to increase my score. I explained to the Customer Service Advisor that I have - as he could see in front of him - made lots of 'good' journeys between 10am and 5pm, yet my score hasn't gone up. He didn't really know what to say here, so he re-iterated the fact that I need to keep driving between 10am and 5pm and the score will go up. I asked whether this change would happen over days, weeks, months or years, and he had no idea. The Customer Service Advisor was completely useless and came up with a half-hearted explanation that because 2 of the 42 drives I had done so far were in the wrong time period, my score is low. I pointed out the maths - 2 out of 42 is less than 5%, yet I've been given 29% for my Time of Day score rather than 95% which would be accurate and representative (if you do the maths, 100% - 5% = 95%). He went on to explain that he doesn't know how the scoring system works as the data collection is done by a third company, so he wouldn't be able to tell me the specifics. I asked him if there was some kind of report / logical explanation available for me to read, so I can get a better understanding of how scores go up and down, and he said he can ask their third party company but he knows they will not have this information, nor provide me with it. As you can see from this review, the Black Box is absolutely soul destroying. It saved me over £100, but has taken away the sheer pleasure of driving. Now I know how rubbish this company is, from it's mediocre, uneducated explanations of driving scores, to - frankly - stupid scoring system, to making you feel like you're a rubbish driver (only so they can falsely justify not giving you a discount upon renewal, yet they've taken your money for a year anyway, so they definitely win) I would highly recommend not being greedy and foolish when considering this cheap, rubbish car insurance scam and find yourself a better deal, even if it does mean paying a little more money, don't go down this soul destroying route of getting rubbish service from Hastings Direct SmartMiles.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Went out after 10pm once and my time of day rating went to 0, while everything else was in the 90's.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Impossible to achieve the standard of driving that their black box expects, even after having both of my parents who have 50+ of driving experience between them and the driving score never changed. They also recorded that I had been involved in a multi vehicle pile up which sent my renewal quote through the roof when this in fact had never happened. I have just been on the phone to customer services as £213 had been taken from my account after I had cancelled my policy last month, I had received my cancellation letter but the staff at smart miles had not sent this cancellation through to the company that collects the direct debits resulting in me now being in my overdraft and now have to wait for this to be refunded which I'm sure I will end up chasing as I have no faith in the company or its employees. Would advise all drivers to steer clear of Hastings Smart Miles as they are the worst company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with, their customer service is poor and the way the company is run is terrible.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Good service”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Great little black box and the company is amazing!”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Would avoid this company. Passed my test last year and thought I was getting a good deal by getting the box fitted. My score for braking went to 0 within 2 months of having the box fitted. Your not allowed to drive after 10pm. I got an email saying they were cancelling my insurance as my score was below 40. It would be £210 for the box and £45 cancellation fee that I had to pay even though they were cancelling it. I phoned them and they said it's best if you cancel it yourself so you wouldn't have to declare it for new insurance. So I did then I asked when they will come out to remove the box and then they said oh that will be an extra £90 to get it removed. This company is a con!”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Great customer service, and value for money.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Excellent service, would highly recommend to anyone and everyone”

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Posted 8 years ago

“I have had endless trouble with Hastings smart miles trying to complete the simple task of renewing my insurance! If they weren't offering the cheapest renewal price which was ?20 cheaper then a new policy I would definitely of cancelled. Full payment of the renewal had been attempted to be taken from my bank account the day before I had decided to renew my insurance, even though I had requested when buying my first year not to have an automatic renewal and have proof of this in the proposal email. After hours spent calling a number of times trying to get the right information and being spoken to in a condescending manner I decided to renew my insurance but go for the monthly payments, which I must add the Asian lad I spoke to, for once was very helpful and did everything successfully on his part. A few days later I had an email come through to say that the attempt to take the full payment previously had failed and my policy would be cancelled on the 20th if I do not pay in full. Wasting more of my time I then called back to be told they apologise and that the finance side had not received my payment details and would be sorted straight away. The payment has still not been taken from my account, here's hoping I still have car insurance!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

Hi, I'm very sorry to read about your experience and can appreciate your frustration. We've asked the SmartMiles team to take a look and give you a call to confirm the status of your policy. Hopefully it will alleviate your concerns and we can improve your perception of he service ~Joe?

Posted 6 years ago

“This is my second year with hasting smart miles and they are fab! Fantastic renewal price!! Definitely reccomemt”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Looks like the same as everybody else on the forum, scoring system flawed and when you speak with customer service they have no idea what is wrong. have emailed them today with an official complaint but I have no real hopes of resolving the issue. have threatened to cancel policy because they claim score is less than 40, however the current score is 40 which is not less than ! Bullies !”

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Posted 8 years ago

“If there was an option to select 0 out of 5 stars I would have selected it. This car insurance is terrible! I would not advise anyone at all to go with this company. I really wish I had read the reviews before hand. After reading reviews online, I noticed that there were no positive feedback, all negative! I am 21, and I recently passed my driving test so was drawn to this company as it seems afforadble with a black box. The policy is mis leading as it states that you can drive at whatever time of the day you like, but avoid driving regularly between the times of 10pm -5am. It seems that their scoring system regarding the black box only monitors the time of day you drive. Now as young drivers you don't want to be restricted to when you can go out! Over all, their black box is a sham! It takes ages to build your score up, and it makes you feel like you're a bad driver as it is impossible to drive how they expect. I feel as if this company is a big scam! I cancelled my policy within 4 months as it was too stressful. I am now with admiral.. I totally recommend this company. They are also really good if you have parents that have them as insurers as you can be added onto a package with a decent price without a black box!! Hope this helps!!”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Fantastic and easy”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Awful”

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Posted 8 years ago

I'm very sorry to see you aren't happy with the service. If there's anything we can do to help please get in touch ~Joe

Posted 6 years ago

“1. They initially sent me an email detailing that the renewal premium would be automatically collected from my bank. 2. I then received an email detailing that they had not been able to do this and I had to call them to pay the premium, which I did on the same day. 3. I later received a further email detailing that I had not paid and I had to call them again. When I call them they advised that the email had been sent in error. On reflection, 3 stars is over-generous!”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hi, Thanks for your feedback and review, I'm very sorry you received an erroneous letter ~Joe?

Posted 6 years ago

“The service was easy to use and the price was very fair.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Their service was very friendly, to the point and very clear. I saved about ?500 on my insurance and they communicated this to me in very good time before my renewal, with no strings attached. Brilliant.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“First time insurance alittle expensive but after a year with a black box it was half the prise which is all the better for me as I checked with other company's and they couldn't beat this quote”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Seemed to do their best to help me and got me a better price than anyone else. Very friendly staff as well.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Always polite and helpful when I have phoned up. Their driving app is very useful in tracking my driving score and there are tips to help improve it.”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hastings Direct Smart Miles is rated 3.3 based on 2,006 reviews