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

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

“My son had a black box fitted last year with another insurance company. He almost got over 80% rating with them all the time. This year we changed his insurance to Hastings because we're with them. He's be with them for 35 days and is in his second warning because he is below 40%. He works away during the week and drives a work van. He only uses his car at the weekend and occasionally on an evening if he's worked locally. On average about 5 -10 journeys a week and he has only driven a couple of times after 10pm coming home no later than 10.20pm. But his time of driving is on zero. Also his acceleration and braking is really low about 6-15 scored. Although he says he never revs the car above 2 and he's never braked hard. Whatever he does he can't score higher. So tomorrow is d-day to see if it's gone back up but after a weekend of driving correctly, safely and before 10pm his score has only gone up by 2points 36 to 38. I wouldn't recommend going with Hastings.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“So I've been insured by Hastings smart miles for a week now and so far everything has been good, customer service when I took the policy out and the booking of my black box installation. However today was the day my box was supposed to be fitted, I booked the 8-12 slot so I could carry on with the rest of my day, only to be sitting there an hour after 12 and the engineer still hasn't turned up. When I ring again the customer service was great and they transferred me through to the right people. When I was put through to the right person they had a look to see where the engineer had got to and proceeded to tell me that said engineer had rang in sick this morning so there was never an engineer on his way out to me. I had no phone call to say that my engineer had to cancel this morning and they didn't ring to say that there wasn't any spare engineers available to cover the original who rang in sick. I told them I'd he waiting since 8am and could have been waiting all day hadn't I rang them to find out what was happening. Considering I've only been with this provider 1 week I'm not happy so far with the service provided and I hope throughout the year they give a better service or they won't have a loyal customer for next year!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Absolute scam of a company. Acceleration score never moved off 0 but I was told because the braking score works it's fine, I totally don't agree with this as they are 2 separate ratings and should work individually. Asked for someone to come out and check and was told no because nothing was faulty, I paid this company £2500 to be mugged off I have 2 months of insurance left and they are giving me the 200 mile improvement warning clearly to cancel the policy before it ends so I don't get the years no claims, my scores have been average up until now. Avoid avoid avoid”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“I WOULD RECOMMEND NEVER GOING WITH SMART MILES AND GETTING A BLACK BOX , YOUR SCORE NEVER GOES UP YOU NEED AT 40 OR ABOVE , WHEN I CALLED AND EXPLAIN THE RUDE MAN SAID "WELL YOU CANT DRIVE THEN HAHA" I DIDNT REALISE I WAS PAYING FOR A DRIVING INSTRUCTOR AGAIN I THOUGHT I WAS PAYING FOR INSURANCE .... 100% GOING THE CO-OP INSURANCE , VERY STUIPD IF YOU GO WITH SMART MILES”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“What a money making scam. My acceleration never moved of 0, when i rang up to see why, they replied with 'if you live in a hilly area this could be affected' had to cancel after a month beford they canceled it. Avoid!!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“absolute joke of a company, will scam you and give you box that ensures scores will only creep up. will then send you warnings telling you to improve then once you cannot improve due to the box being faulty and the whole thing being a scam itself, they will cancel. go out a minute past 10 at night you will be penalized and score will drop, breaking score will never move off 0. Apparently every time i break i slam? LOL FUCKING SCAM, Stay clear and pay that bit more at the start for a better company, if u go with Hastings smart miles you will regret it.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Absolute scam,company needs shutting down please if you are a young driver avoid at all costs”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“It was the cheapest product, what a mistake that was! Never again will i use a HastingDirect product! The scoring elements acceleration, breaking, speeding, and time of day, where completely useless. Only generic advise is given, nothing specific. I have been driving for 10 years and never had an issue with an issue company before this. What I can't understand is I was told to drive more to increase my score as I hardly used the car. Surly this increases the chance of having a accident?”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Absolute scam. Firstly, you are not told that there is a curfew between 10pm and 5am and the print only says 'avoid driving regularly between these hours'. I have driven between these hours twice since the box was fitted and no matter how much I drive during the day (and I drive A LOT), my score will not go above 40. My braking score hasn't gone above 0/100 since I got the box fitted and I do not brake harshly. I have heard that, if you tend to queue a lot or regularly get stuck in slow moving traffic, it majorly affects your braking and acceleration scores. So I'm being punished for getting stuck in traffic? Awesome. It records bad driving data on days where I haven't even started the car and, whenever I talk to customer service about this, apparently it is my fault and nothing to do with the company? I wish I had read reviews before taking out this policy as this whole thing is clearly a money making scam aimed at young people who can't afford standard insurance.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“AWFUL SERVICE. Cancelled my insurance without any warning and refused to renew ir referring me to being on the 'black list'”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Unfortunately you don't have a category for zero stars! This is a marketing ploy to entrap the client by 'offering' a low premium and then install an inappropriate device into your vehicle which is impossible for either a new driver or competent established driver to conform to. It has a curfew hidden in the small print which means you are not permitted to drive the vehicle after 10.00PM. Zero customer service with unskilled / uninformed aggressive staff completely unhelpful with the sole aim of finding an excuse to increase the premium / or cancel the insurance and extort the cancel fee and removal of device fee. Ignore the ridiculous seagull ad.Should be reported to the Insurance Ombudsman for giving insurance companies a bad name ! Best advice STEER CLEAR”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Same as the other reviews; their business model appears to be to charge you for the installation fee of the black box and then calibrate it to ensure no one can reasonably drive within their parameters before cancelling your policy and charging you 45 pounds for cancellation and 90 pounds for the removal of the box. I called when my score started to drop and asked about the algorithms they use to meter your acceleration, braking etc and they were less than useless; as a mathematician I still can't figure out any sensible system this could be based on! Apart from losing bucket loads of money you'll just end up stressed the entire time you're driving, not to mention accelerating and breaking so slowly you end up putting yourself and others at risk.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Ditto - Not going to waste lots of words but this definitely needs referring to the insurance ombudsman asap. How the hell can an insurance company endorse a scheme such as this. We had a year with a different provider with no problems. We only changed as this was a better deal. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Avoid at all cost, the policy is clearly a scam to make money, my daughter had a black box fitted by myself as instructed by them. Whilst the score that needs to be above 40% started high it dropped of quick due to time off day driver and that she parks at her boyfriend house. As a student she works some evenings and weekends and as such they score you down. The policy was over £1200 and black box is received by post, which you have to fit. At the point they cancel 8 months in they charge £200 cancelation fee, when they advise you to cancel as if they cancel the policy they say you will not get insurance else where they also charge £90 for the black box to be removed but you take this out yourself? My wife and I have both sat with her whilst driving and found her to be very safe. So I took her car for a period off time and drove it on my policy and regardless off how well I drove it during day time hours they still knocked the score back to keep it under 40% The are aware that if you search for a policy with out the black box that the cheapest you will find is £1880 which is theirs. pay more at the start and avoid Hastings direct at all cost. regards Keith”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“As with everyone else on here this company threatened to cancel my daughters insurance. They said she had gone under the allowed score 3 times but when I pointed out that they had not told us and that their own app showed it didnt they said it was a problem my end. The boxes never score high even when I had the car for a week and drove as carefully as humanly possible (i am a driving instructor) it showed my braking as bad. AVOID AVOID AVOID They are then going to charge me for cancellation even though it is at their behest plus want £200 for the box etc plus £90 to remove it > AVOID AVOID AVOID”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Exactly the same as all the other reviews, just wish I had read reviews before taking out the insurance!! Please go to the fb page and you will get there from a lovely lady”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Same as most people on here! Stupidly took out this insurance without reading reviews. Although sounds like I'm one of the lucky ones that didn't get my policy cancelled! Threatening letters when box already fitted. Took a further £270 as NCB not proven even though you need to show the certificate when they fit the box! (I did get this back 3weeks later!) Finally got to the end of my year and Hastings essential (no telematics) was £180 cheaper. Similar poor experience with the scoring system, I had 100speed 82acceleration but somehow 0 braking. Apparently I crawl up to just under the speed limit then slam my brakes on. Please avoid this company you'll most likely regret it!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Exactly the same as all these reviews, how are they getting away with it!!! Braking score of 0 (how is that possible) and as soon as you go out past 10 your score drops making it impossible to get it back up in 7 days. When I first got my policy they said it would be okay to go out past 10 a few times a month... well clearly not. Having to cancel policy leaving me with only £600 refund after only 2 months. They are a JOKE! Need to be shut down. 😡😡😡”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Before my insurance is due to start I have already had problems. Rude calls, Box sent to wrong address, complaint ignored, received threatening e mails (WE HAVE CANCELLED YOUR POLICY due to not having box fitted on time) (this just after the box was fitted on time). What an abysmal excuse for an insurance company!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Much like all the previous reviews, I wish I'd searched reviews before I'd paid for this. I was actually told on the phone by customer services when I enquired why my braking score has been zero for 4 weeks that it can go into the minus...however you can't go above a hundred if you're driving well! This is misleading and as such I think many of us have been mis-sold the product. I've been unduly penalised for driving once in 3 weeks after 10pm for an hour...my score has gone down to 64 which is grossly disproportionate. THIS PRODUCT IS NOT FIT FOR PURPOSE.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

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