Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.29

“Robots with zero customer care Unfortunately too many obnoxious staff overshadowing their helpful colleagues. Conflicting and confusing information from an array of associates backed up by denial of accountability. A scurry of minor issues leaves me trust less in their ability to represent me in a serious scenario.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Robots with zero customer care Unfortunately too many obnoxious staff overshadowing their helpful colleagues. Conflicting and confusing information from an array of associates backed up by denial of accountability. A scurry of minor issues leaves me trust less in their ability to represent me in a serious scenario.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Currently on 2nd year of insurance with Hastings, as a young driver their cheap policies were obviously attractive. Literally the worst customer service ever, they have tried to cancel my policy a couple of time due to severe speeding , all 3 alerts were then revoked due to their malpractice and a faulty black box. The second time I got an email while in Switzerland with the car saying that my policy had been cancelled !!!! I am now in the middle of a fight with them about 2 more alleged recordings , there is never an offer of evidence or proof. Customer Services seem to have absolutely no idea what they are talking about or what to do. My driver rating is penalised heavily due to driving at night despite there being no curfew on the policy. I wish I had never taken a policy out with them, the cheaper price isn't worth the stress .”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“I took out a Hastings Direct Smartmiles policy in 2013 for my son who had passed his test. All great. No problems. Told all my friends how pleased I was. Then I took out a second policy on another car, for my daughter who had just passed her test in 2016. What a different story. Complete nightmare. They have changed their black box supplier. The black box in my daughter's car is obviously faulty as it is returning a score of 100 for acceleration and 0 for braking. Concerned that something was amiss, I have been driving the car for the past three months. My daughter has not driven it at all. I have 30 years experience and have been driving super-smoothly. I have spent hours on the phone trying to get customer services to send out a technician to check the box, but they refuse. They insisted I go through a complaints process - which has taken another two months - and ended up with them telling me that the data from the box is correct. I am a chartered electronics engineer, and I can tell you that the box is likely suffering from a calibration problem. If the braking was really that harsh, that would indicate an erratic driver - but with a score of 100 for acceleration, I don't think so. Every time I ask for data analysis, they refuse, and every time I ask to speak to a manager - someone who can actually do something -they are all too busy. So I just end up repeating myself to yet another call centre person who knows nothing about electronics or signals analysis. Safe to say, I will be cancelling this policy. And for good measure I will cancel the other one too. I want nothing more to do with this bunch of cowboys. It seems that customer service is not part of their company operating values. Will they miss my two policies? No I doubt it. There will be some other 'customer' out there. Absolutely shocking. I have gone from evangelising about Hastings to absolutely loathing them. Tell all your friends not to bother.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“My 19 year old son insured with Hastings and immediately got low scores for his driving. he scored 0 for acceleration even on days when I was driving and definitely don't use fast acceleration. The policy states there is no curfew, however we have discovered that you get marked down considerably for driving after 10pm making it impossible to keep your driving score above 40. He has been threatened with having his policy cancelled without refund. His previous insurer rated his driving as very good, so how could it change overnight! Do not use Hastings Smart Miles..”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Alright insurance was two hundred pound more expensive once I had purchased insurance.”

Helpful Report

(Car Insurance) - Posted 8 years ago

“terrible company cancel your insurance with NO warning whatsoever and do it via royal mail so you get the letter too late, then the claim dangerous driving, even when I drive and I have been driving for many years the scores don't go down the box is rubbish they don't work and we have reported this to them and got no response. speeding was at 100% in the positive night time driving we lost 5 points because she came home at 10.01p.m. even though it is meant to be a non curfew box. Accelaration has stayed at 0 since day one but apperently the box is fine. So please think twice about parting with your money”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“I urge people not to use this awful company. They lure you in with cheap premiums but the whole time they are looking to cancel your policy even though the box is ridiculously inaccurate and scores do not correspond to reality. Customer service is also a shambles they dismiss the facts as they are just after your money. Please do not take the gamble with your hard earned money and go elsewhere.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Everything I've read below is the same as my 19 year old daughters experience - low driving score, cancellation of her policy after 2 months driving when her previous insurer classes her as a good driver. Never was a problem with previous insurer even when having to drive for a night shift. The night shifts did make a slight difference to her scores but NEVER had low scores. Hastings Direct said she won't get penalised for late night driving and no curfew, but I beg to differ on that! Hastings Direct have said her scores were too low so breached her contract and now cancelling her policy after 2 months. It is a disgrace. We will be cancelling her policy and will NEVER even consider any companies associated with Hasting Direct Smartmiles. Complete rip off. Seems to me they don't even want to help young drives, once they say policy will be cancelled that's it they take your money for nothing!!!!! BEWARE, please do your research thoroughly and don't get caught out like many of us have. Lesson learned!”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“My 18yr old son's experience is very similar to all the negative reviews on here. No communication, phone calls not recorded, no data so he didn't know what he's score was or what needed to be improved. Then two weeks ago he received a letter telling him to improve his score or they would cancel his policy. So he rang again, still no data available and the customer care consultant he spoke to was very unhelpful and suggested he avoids roads with potholes!! He was told he needed to talk to the supervisor who was never there and when promised they would phone him they didn't. In the end to avoid anymore Stress and his policy being cancelled we cancelled the policy and are now out of pocket. I believe this company preys on young drivers who aren't confident in dealing with such tricky situations and they are pushed to cancel their policy before the company does it which would make insuring with another company more expensive. This company should be ashamed of themselves.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“My daughter got insurance from Hasting Direct Smart Miles and has had an absolutely dreadful experience. She was insured on 12th September and got the black box installed on the 20th. Unfortunately her car broke down on the 23rd and had to go to the garage for 2 weeks. During this time her points fell from 51 to 25 even though she hadn't driven her car. E mail from Hastings arrived saying her policy was being cancelled in 7 days. Despite numerous phone calls (costing a small fortune) and e mails from myself and the garage proving that her car was in for repair Hastings Direct Smart Miles cancelled her policy. My daughter is now uninsured, has a cancelled policy on her driving record. Has been charged 45 pounds for cancellation, 210 for the useless telematics box, admin fees with interest and is not getting her money refunded for at least 14 days..... I really do not know how this company can get away with treating young first time drivers with such absolute contempt, cancelling policies, charging unbelievable cost, leaving my daughter distraught. This is an out and out scam.. luring young drivers into believing that they are getting a good deal and then conning them out of hundred of pounds. DO NOT INSURE WITH THIS COMPANY PLEASE.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Got out this insurance in February 2016, as it was the cheapest one for me as a first time driver. After purchasing the insurance I started to read reviews and really should have listened to them but chose to see how my own experience with them would be. All I can say is don't! First of all, the preference of you not to use your car after 10 is not a preference, it affects your score massively, and it feels like I have my mother in the car with me at all times, cutting social events short because I have to be home before 10! (The reason I wanted a car was for my own independence, and that's gone out of the window!!) Also, the clutch went on my car last month, meaning in the run up to that happening my car's accelleration was very high for a few weeks. Therefore my score for the accelleration has gone down to below average. After ringing the company to explain my situation to see if the score could be undone at all (even willing to provide the supporting evidence), they turned around and told me nothing could be done, the score is based on my driving and that was my driving at the time. If you're thinking of going with this insurance please don't make the same mistake as me and others, spend that little extra on a better insurer.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“After three years using Insure the Box without the slightest problem I changed to Smartmiles to save my daughter £200. What a big mistake it was! After a few months using it she split from her boyfriend who lived miles away hence the use of the car rapidly declined. Her score was great without any issues until then but now she's hardly using the car apart from locally in town where of coarse one uses the brakes more often and one has continuous stop and go. And yes because of this she's been punished and received a letter cancelling her insurance even though not once she was accused of speeding. So 7 months ago she paid £800 and now she's gonna get £80 refund for cancelling before they cancel it and leaving a negative impact on her future when it comes to buy another insurance. Smartmiles? Perhaps smartcrooks is better. Shame on you, picking on the young and early drivers. CROOKS.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“The service is terrible, tried to up my premium after two month in due their own mistake. Nobody listens to you and they don't even put things down on the notes for the next person to deal with the case. Wouldn't recommend to anyone.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“NOT EVEN WORTH 1 STAR. Unfortunately before getting insured I didn't read the reviews but I wish I had! Within 1 month of driving, I received an email saying that I was way below the needed score of 40/100 and that they were going to cancel my insurance if I didn't 'improve' my driving even though I had been driving perfectly fine... One thing they do not make clear is that their 'no curfew' part of their policy is a load of lies as you cannot go out after 10pm without your score being significantly dropped. Just the other day they called to tell me that I had not improved my driving and they were cancelling my insurance and that I was going to have to pay them £260 "plus any other fees". When I asked to hear why and asked to hear the stats from the records, they were unable to provide any information as he "didn't have hold of them". Long story short, if you actually want to drive a car then don't insure yourself with this company.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“I read the reviews of Hastings SmartMiles and thought, no that's not going to happen to me because i'm not stupid and my daughters a good driver, it must only happen to thick people, So i took out a policy on my daughters behalf and it happened to me! After 3 weeks of driving her brand new, smells lovely inside, 4 miles on the clock car so carefully, Hastings sent her 2 messages to say her driving was well below the 40 out of 100 score they require and may well cancel her insurance. I have cancelled this insurance post haste and gone elsewhere, the only advice i can give you is that if you have a car and want really cheap insurance as you're only planning to use the car as a paperweight or have it pushed everywhere then this is the policy for you. If however you actually want to drive your car then i suggest you do the same as John from Reading so beautifully put it when i read his review......................... "KEEP CLEAR OF THIS COMPANY ITS A CON". Happy motoring as the AA say (or is it the RAC)”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Please avoid its a con! We took out a smart miles black box policy for our sons second year of insurance as it came in the cheapest. The first year he was with another company and his driving score was very high, we were proud of his excellent driving. As soon as he joined hastings his driving score went so low within 4 weeks we had to cancel the policy before they did and caused us more problems. They say the proof is in the pudding, please read on. The old black box from his previous insurer was still in the car and guess what? it was still live and his driving showing perfect. When faced with the proof hastings claim their box works different, they except nothing and their sales staff are brainwashed. We are now many hundreds of pounds out of pocket, we have been ripped off. Months later and back with his old insurer we have no problems, their box was never disconnected and to us that is the only proof we need. We are so angry that a company so big need to rip people off, they cannot loose they took hundreds from us.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Not even worth one star. Absolutely dreadful. Misled by agents who then told us to lie to another insurance company over cancellation. Cancelled policy by telephone call at 3pm when phoned to confirm told recorded as cancelled at 2.10pm. Daughter did a total of 350 miles in 6 months never moved off 0 for braking. Drove for total of 20 minutes after 10 3x - dropped below 40 2x policy cancelled £210 for box £1400 in payments 6 months cover. Nice work if you can get it. Told me they have 8 weeks to respond to complaint of cancellation. Couldn't even read complaint back to me as had basically just written rubbish down. DO NOT BUY it's a scam and money laundering racket.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“give this company a wide birth BIG TIME I took this insurance out as I was told it was on performance then after going through everything I was told there was a curfew I said I wasn't sure about that as my daughter works late shifts and was told as long as she doesn't drive much on that day it would even out. I wasn't happy about that so I rang back to check and the lady was helpful and said this wasn't the insurance for my daughter and she would ring me back on the Monday to let me know if I could get my money back .I had to ring yet again and was told she'd email the woman I spoke to the woman did ring me back and again was helpful and we could cancel and I'd get my money back in 14 days .3 days later I'm still waiting no payment so I ring back again and asked to speak to the manager he told me it needed to go to the finance department so I explained I was going to have a full refund minus the £25 cancellation fee where was it and he explained he they needed to work out how much I had used after arguing with him he discovers I was right and no need to go to the finance department as he would authorise it (bull) . Next day still no money so I ring back again and now he tells me there is another 3-5 working days for them to sort it out. I told him he never said that and he told me you didn't ask!!!! I was also charged my first direct debit and have also got to wait for that even though the policy was cancelled I've ran up a £20 phone bill on top and still no money Back stay away from these cons it'll cost u more than going for a decent company”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

“Worst car insurance ever. Zero score for braking which never increases no matter how you drive and customer service cant give you a breakdown, just tell you to drive as if you have a bucket of water in seat beside you. Curfew of 10 pm which we we're never told about. Got overall score of 38 which seems to be a common number when reading the reviews. Was told if you are driving at 2 mph and you brake hard the G Force will cause the box to record bad breaking. there are 4 categories, 1st Time of day (most important according to Hasting) 2nd Braking (most important according to Hasting) 3rd Speed (most important according to Hasting but fortunately 1st for police) 4th Acceleration (most important according to Hasting) so. if you take this insurance racing away from stand still is a must. Paying £210. to get OUT of this scam is more than worthwhile.”

Helpful Report

Posted 8 years ago

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

Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews