Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews

Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.29

3.3 Rating 2,010 Reviews

56 %

of reviewers recommend Hastings Direct Smart Miles

3.3

Based on 2,010 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

“If there was a zero score we would be using that 1 is far too good !!!disgusting we are forwarding all information to watchdog as a matter of urgency ....your boxes are inaccurate and yet you fail to accept this ...”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hello, I'm really sorry to hear you've not had the best experience with our telematics box and that it has caused so much frustration. If you need to discuss this and wish to arrange correspondence with our smart miles team please email the policy reference and a contact number to help@hastingsdirect.com. We'll do all we can to arrange some assistance for you -Theo

Posted 7 years ago

“Avoid!!! Absolute joke! They should be ashamed of themselves.. that nasty device to monitor driving is utter rubbish.. We have just cancelled and had to pay £210 for the inaccurate box.. the stress if was causing with it’s monitoring was just too much, if you don’t want your son or daughter to become paranoid of getting in the car when there driving is perfectly fine then do I plead that you don’t use this company!!! I hope people read the reviews and take this as a warning I only wish we had :-(”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hi there, I'm so sorry to see you have had such a negative experience with your SmartMiles box. The purpose of the box is not to make your child paranoid of driving but to monitor it, we do have a dedicated team that just works to help improve scores and give hints and tips to for them to use. The box also gives potential crash alerts so we can call out and make sure your children are safe when out driving. I completely understand your frustrations and wish the best with your new provider. If you do want to disuss this further you can cll our team on 01733 308 380. - Jamie

Posted 7 years ago

“This is the most horrific and nasty device that I have ever come across. And Connor I would much prefer if you didn’t reply to this with your made up nonsense desperately trying to prove some sort of value in something which is quite obviously a failure. Save my sanity please. The box doesn’t work. It is a nasty piece of equipment that does not take reality into account. It’s doesn't consider the place you live, traffic or the necessity of using your brakes in such a way as in to react to what’s going on around you stopping collisions, or the necessity to accelerate at roundabouts. If you actually drove to the standards that the box requires your driving would be less safe, especially when considering the area I live, there is no doubt about it. You naturally have to drive with a little more panache and energy than if you lived the countryside otherwise you would be such a worried driver that it would make matters worse when considering how everyone drives around you. Anyway despite that. I made a real conscious effort over the warning week to drive a lot better. I was one point under the minimum of 40, I made an 8 point increase. I have no idea how I still scored so little as I was driving very carefully. I explained to the person on the phone that there should be a probation period whereby if you’re making obvious progress and you’re genuinely trying to improve you should be then given more advice to then improve for the week after instead of loosing £500 and your insurance being cancelled just like that. Furthermore, how am I supposed to know how much my driving has improved/ what points I have gained if I have not been told? It is unquantifiable as I have no information about how much my driving has improved according to the black box. If I knew it had only improved by a little i would have naturally been able to calculate what I needed to do to improve further. Instead my insurances was just cancelled throug email. She didn’t seem to understand what I meant. Must have been trained to say “there must be a cut off point” without being given the ability to consider what the caller is actually saying. Now this is disgusting, unfair and deceitful. It’s a company that should be closed down for this and quite frankly should go to court over this. I can only do what I can towards this and that is to write letters to who I can to make this happen. This is what I will do week in week out if necessary. Please steer clear form this! It is not a reliable or intelligent enough piece of equipment to give a realistic account of how good your driving is and you will lose money from not doing anything wrong.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

Hello there, thank you for leaving such a detailed and frank review. Firstly may I apologise that we have had to cancel your policy as I can imagine how much of an inconvenience this must be for you. I would like to clear up a couple of points though. We would never cancel a policy without contacting you and giving you an opportunity to improve your driving score, we would have emailed you to advise your driving score was under 40 out of 100 and gave you 200 miles to improve. We also understand that this sometimes is a tough fix so if your score hasn’t improved in that time frame we email you to give you another 7 days to improve. In regards to the driving itself, your scores are generated over an average journey so individual moments of hard braking to avoid accidents are not taken in to consideration, this is the same for acceleration as well. The box updates every 70 miles to give you an idea of what areas are improving and which are not. We also have a dedicated team that try and help you through the whole process. We would be more than happy to speak to you about any issues that have arisen from this on 01733 308 380 I'm so sorry that your policy has been cancelled and wish the best for the future. - Jamie

Posted 7 years ago

“The system does not work and Hastings Direct are selling a product that is not fit for its purpose. Hastings Direct have made no statements on this site to show that the system works as they can't it's just flawed technology they use and just simply avoid the issue. The system could never work and customers are being mislead by Hastings Direct the technology being used is not capable of what it claims it can do, this will lead to young drivers effectively being ripped off by Hastings Direct and the evidence of this can be seen all over the internet.”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

Hello there, I'm sorry that you feel the box data is incorrect, if the review is regarding your driving behaviour score, we do have a dedicated team that can go through individual journey that you have made and show you ways to improve certain elements of your driving. They can also explain how the box generates the data through G-Force ect. You can contact them on either 0800 048 2955 or via email at firstresponse@hastingsdirect.com. I hope this helps. - Jamie

Posted 7 years ago

“Excellent service good box no real limits”

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Posted 7 years ago

“As a low mileage user the system is biased against me especially the curfew.”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hello there, Thank you for your review, even as a low mileage user you still have a great opportunity to obtain a high driving score, the time of day score may affect your overall score but as long as you stick to the speed limits, brake nice and early (and smoothly) and the same with your acceleration your score should still be OK. - Jamie

Posted 7 years ago

“Good renewal quote based on my driving, but disagree with marks for braking . Despite gentle braking it marks braking as harsh”

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Posted 7 years ago

“I rang them and the member of staff was clear and concise which is reassuring.”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hello there, thank you for your feedback. Its reasuring to know that our service was what you exoected. - Jamie

Posted 6 years ago

“Quote me happy. Care that I have found lots of much better quotes. Endeavour to keep old, loyal customer who has never claimed!”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

Hi there, Thank you for your feedback. We send our renewal quotes out 28 days prior to your policy expiring in 'real time pricing' meaning the price on that day. This price can change constantly and completely out of our control, you may well find it has gone up or down in the meantime. If you have a quote reference from a comparison website, we would endeavour to match it for you. ~ Jamie

Posted 6 years ago

“Rewarded me for good driving with a great discount!”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Telephone service was not helpful at all. Online Portal did not allow payment details to be updated”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hi there, Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry that you had a negative experience with Hastings Direct SmartMiles. We will however look in to any issues you have had. Thanks - Jamie

Posted 6 years ago

“I dont have any issues with hastings itself .. however someone has to explain how they work out the driver ratings , i did phone up about them and was told it was a complicated algorithm ... basically they could change your score at anytime and not give any explanation...”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

Hi there, Thank you for your feed back, I appreciate you have spoken to one of our advisers about how the box data is collated but we do have a dedicated team that can go through all the individual scores with you and how the box works them out. You can reach them on 0800 048 2955 and they are available between 9.00?and 5.30. hope this helps. Thanks - Jamie ?

Posted 6 years ago

“A policy that rewards you for your driving standards and keeps you in control of your premiums”

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Posted 7 years ago

“The app is dreadful. Keeps going back to the sign in page.”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hi Paul, I'm sorry to see that you have had issues with the app, hopefully this has all been rectified! If you do have any further issues with it you can contact 01733 308 380. Hope this helps. -Jamie

Posted 7 years ago

“Amazing! Super helpful and sweet!”

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Posted 7 years ago

“Really disappointed with renewal quote especially with a 73 score on my driving for the year”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hello there, I'm sorry that you are not happy with our renewal quote, have you spoken to our Renewals team? They may be able to help further? Thanks - Jamie

Posted 6 years ago

“The service could be improved by actually listening to their customers views and requests and acting upon them. I didn?t want to renew the breakdown cover as I could source this elsewhere and was informed someone would call me back when I want led to negotiate this years price, however the policy was renewed without me confirming this is what I wanted. Also my driving score has rolled over, I would prefer it to have reset as it is impossible to improve... Can?t wait until next year when I can leave this company behind...”

Helpful Report

Posted 7 years ago

Hi there, I'm sorry to see that you have had issues when renewing with us and that the lack of communication meant you had cover on your policy you didn't require. We do take on board you comments and they will be fed back to our SmartMiles team. - Jamie

Posted 6 years ago

“Straight to the point and all my queries have been answered with a good standard of knowledge”

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Posted 7 years ago

“It?s alright SmartMiles.... but I don?t see how using your car once on a night journey can drop your scoring by 7% Overall it?s given me a discount in year two, but I?d of got that with other brokers too. ??”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hi there, Thanks for your review. The time of day score is a percentage of your night time driving (10pm - 5am) and your day time driving (any other time). We have a group of people here called underwriters who are?essentially risk assessors who look at what risk you pose driving during the day to driving at?night hence the drop in score. Hopefully this explains it a bit better for you. Glad you got a reduction on your renewal though. Thanks?- Jamie ?

Posted 6 years ago

“The renewal was easy and good but previously when I signed up I was asked for my ncb proo, which I sent via email. The admin team didn?t pick this up and by the time they did the original premium had gone up by ?13 a month. I made the company aware and someone promised on three different occasions to call me back but they never did. Because of a back log in the admin department I have had to pay the higher premium which I believe should have been given back to me. This never happened.”

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Posted 7 years ago

Hello there, I do apologise for the lack of communication you have received, hopefully this will get resolved sooner rather than later. Thanks - Jamie

Posted 6 years ago

Hastings Direct Smart Miles is rated 3.3 based on 2,010 reviews