Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews

Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.28

3.3 Rating 2,011 Reviews

56 %

of reviewers recommend Hastings Direct Smart Miles

3.3

Based on 2,011 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

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“Easy to deal with and amazing value for money. And a friendly voice at the end of the phone!”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Would give them no stars if I could. Awful insurance company. I had a lot of trouble with my car battery during winter last year I had to keep replacing it to which they continuously threatened to cancel my insurance as they were convinced I was just disconnecting the black box. Couldn?t even drive past 10 with them dragging my score down which is ridiculous as I work later than that a lot of weekends. The staff were very unhelpful when I would phone and try to discuss these issues and when I even considered renewing with them I basically wasted an hour on the phone to them be told I can?t be insured by them. Nightmare just made things difficult that didn?t need to be at all”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hello,? I'm sorry to hear that you had such a negative customer experience with us. We disclose the limitations and parameters that can affect your score before the policy is purchased so I do apologise if they were missed. It's disheartening to see this feedback concerning members of staff and I'll arrange for this to be passed back to the team so we can look to impove the level of service going forward -Theo

Posted 6 years ago

“The customer service team are fantastic at helping you with any issues you have.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“My car was written off after an accident at the end of August and I received an insurance payment in October. I then received the various emails: 1. We're cancelling your policy - 18/10/17 Now your claim has been settled, we're cancelling your insurance policy as you no longer have a vehicle to insure. This will take effect from 23:59 on 17/11/2017. I then received the following email providing a quote on a car that no longer exists and on policy that they had cancelled?? 2. Thank you for choosing SmartMiles with Hastings Direct. Your motor insurance is due for renewal on 19 November 2017 and we want to take the opportunity to inform you of the next steps in the renewal process and also confirm your premium and payment details. I then received this email for a car that had been written off and payed out for by them?? 3. Recently, we wrote to you about your insurance renewal to let you know that we'd be taking payment on your renewal date. Unfortunately, we were unable to take this payment. We want to make sure that you're covered, so we've attached your certificate of insurance and schedule. If you wish to continue your insurance through us we'll require a payment of ?1,219.01 (Including Insurance Premium Tax at current rates) by 25/11/2017. 4.Further to our previous correspondence, this email is to confirm that your insurance policy has been cancelled from 20 November 2017 We'll be in touch again within the next 14 days to give you a breakdown of anything that you owe us, or any refunds that we owe you. I then spoke to a member of staff over the phone on 21/11/17 after receiving these emails after my policy had been cancelled ( see item 1). I was told that the claims department should have told me to cancel my policy?? 1. this was not the case 2. I have received email telling me that my insurance policy had been CANCELLED. I was then told that Hastings had tried to collect over ?1000 to for new my policy on a car that they have written off and they had payed out for? what exactly would I be insuring if the payment had been successful!! I was then told that there ay be some charges as they had been unable to collect the money for a car that HASTINGS HAD WRITTEN OFF AND PAYED OUT FOR??? I think that the service I have received was very poor and very insensitive. Thankfully there were no serious injuries ( or worse) due to the accident involving the write off of the car. There systems need to be looked into in more detail to prevent an unnecessary stress from customers.”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hi Joshua, I am very sorry to see you were in an accident and hope you are well.? I am sympathetic of your situation and apologise for any distress caused. At this time, I would recommend logging a complaint with our SmartMiles team using the link below;? https://www.hastingsdirectsmartmiles.com/contact ~Connor

Posted 6 years ago

“Really happy with my renewal price and the service I've received over the last 2 years”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Price is reasonable for a young driver like myself and the staff are always friendly when you need to call for help.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Customer service team were helpful and consice when I needed them. Always kept up to date on how I was doing with my driving and details regarding my renewal.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Excellent staff! Always there to answer any questions. Reasonable prices. Amazing company!!”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Absolute JOKE as I've had the black box for a week and already went down 10 points for breaking??????? Next time a cyclist cuts infront of me I wont break ill just run them over :):)”

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Posted 8 years ago

“i would love to give 5 stars so im sorry its only 3, i have problems with your box not being accurate and i feel so restricted on when i can drive, i work all day and like travelling on the weekend, im unable to do so because im scared my insurance will be cancelled due to me loosing too many points, if i were to be a "boy racer" i wouldnt opt for this policy maybe be a bit harsher on the scoring system but allow me to drive later at night so i can visit my long distant girlfriend, i know im just one case of this but it means so much to me and i cant afford 1000s for insurance, many thanks”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hello, Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. We appreciate the points that have been made and the thoughtful manner in which you have done so. We're aware that due to the time constraint, this policy may not be be best suited for all customers and I hope your score isn't heavily affected by this -Theo

Posted 6 years ago

“Excellent service, excellent discount after 1st year with SmartMiles black box”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Great customer service knowledge - they were able to answer all my questions off the cuff. Incredibly friendly.”

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Posted 8 years ago

“No issues with my policy”

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(Car Insurance) - Posted 8 years ago

“This was the worst insurance cover I have ever had. The admin side was ok but the black box was not fit for purpose. It was attached to the battery and on a bumpy road it read that he was breaking heavily and he wasn't. You would not do anything about it and eventually I had to cancel the policy which cost me money as you would not refund anything even though it was your fault we had to cancel the policy. Appalling product. Get the black box fixed!!! I have used three other companies with my other sons and not had this problem.”

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(Car Insurance) - Posted 8 years ago

“After a few days of taking out insurance with Hastings smartmiles I decided to read through the reviews online of how easy it is to fit the black box etc. After reading through just the first page of reviews (which were all terrible!!) I decided to cancel my policy as I was still within my 14 day Right to Cancel period. I was then told i will be charged a £25 cancellation fee (which i was never told when i took out the insurance) and that they couldn't give me an exact figure over the phone of how much i will be refunded and i will receive a letter within 14 days. The whole company is a scam which is why they charge so little at first to draw customers in (especially young drivers) and then charge you much more throughout the year. I am just grateful that i noticed the reviews just 4 days into my policy. I would rather pay the extra couple of hundred pound to know that i am with a legit insurer who wont scam me out of loads of money!”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Hassle free service! I have been with Hastings for a full year and have renewed with them too, fantastic customer service, never had any issues with my black box or mileage, also gained a good driving score which resulted in my renewal discount at 50% what I paid the first year! Brilliant value for money would absolutely recommend!”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Insurance is great for first time car drivers”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Overall scores went up. Average score went down to understand 40???”

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Posted 8 years ago

“Do not buy the box it is faulty. My son had a previous box with another company for a year and averaged 80% which is considered excellent driving. He took out Hastings smart miles 6 months ago and within a couple of weeks he had a warning that he'd dropped below 40 points. We complained to the company and suddenly his score went up although the individual scores stayed the same. Last week his individual scores - acceleration., speed, braking and time of day all went up but his overall score dropped fromy 50 to 38. So his policy will be cancelled. It cofirms the boxes must be faulty. How is this company allowed to get away with ripping youngsters off?”

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Posted 8 years ago

“I completely agree with everyone who has posted about this company. The Telematics box is very erratic and sensitive to braking and acceleration. I was not made aware that if the score drops below 40 then they can cancel the policy and charge £240!! This was not made clear when I took out the policy. This is a significant feature of the policy and should be brought to the attention to customers at the outset. I have received an email stating that my score is below that if the score stays below 40 after another 200 miles then the policy will cancelled. I have raised a complaint and have every intention of taking my complaint to the Insurance Ombudsman. Some advice, yesterday I drove the car on a motorway for about 20 miles ,it's only a 1.0 Peugeot so not really a motorway car anyway the score went upto to 43 almost immediately afterwards. I am sure the score will drop once I start driving on normal roads where you have to accelerate and brake according to traffic situations. So I suppose motorway driving is the answer to keep your scores up. Certainly not ideal but seems a way to deal with this underhand insurer!”

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Posted 8 years ago

Hastings Direct Smart Miles is rated 3.3 based on 2,011 reviews