Hastings Essential Avis 

I mistakenly entered the wrong date I bought my car unknowingly. I received a call and they told me the system won’t allow them to make an amendment to my policy, which I would have been happy to pay any admin fees of course. Instead they offered a new policy with a new deposit to pay which was more expensive than my current, and also gave me the option to cancel. So I cancelled, I just do not understand how they can phone me up to carry out an amendment and then say this is not possible?? I have now had to pay for another insurance and pay another deposit, I understand initially it’s my fault for entering the wrong year but I just do not understand how amendments are not possible without a brand new policy

Same as few others , no fault claim . car was witten off for a bumper scratch , had to buy another car for what would have been about a £200 repair bill , This year insurance went up £150 , so I looked around , actually you did me a favour, £40 cheaper than last years price, but £380 last year, now £530 , I don't think so , I actually saved £186 on your price,
+£20 in Halfords vouchers , so stuff I want FOC , when I did the decent thing and phoned up to tell you don't try and auto renew on my card , the lady then said lets see what we can do for you, I said don't bother, she rudely talked over the top of me , we can do it for £418, so all a sudden you just give me £112 off for no reason at all, pure money your taking from your customers as pure greed and profit, loads of other companies easily matched £418 and lots easily beat it.

Its only taken you 48 days to reply , I won't need to phone any of your special customer numbers , I'd like to know how you can suddenly knock £112 the price without any circumstances changing , no discussion involved at all , is the the "New customers only " routine kicking in , well I am a new customer only , only with someone else who's not tryimng to shaft me for extra money Bye Bye,

Oh and come june , that will be another car policy moved to somebody else as well

So far so good with my car insurance and YouDrive tab. I saved about £200 and I get to check how well I am driving, which is a win-win for me (not a young driver but I have kids in the car and want to model good habits).
I found it easy to purchase and set up.
I hope that i will receive more detailed driving feedback than just a score, and hope that my renewal quote is a lot lower next year 🙏

Had to cancel due to car being uneconomical to repair, rip off price for new car cover so had to go elsewhere so this bunch of robbers have charged me over £70.00 for just 20 days of cover. Excuses will be cancellation fee etc but they are totally geared up to rip off their existing customers by either charging extortionate fees for a different car knowing that you will shop elsewhere or charging a rip off cancellation fee. Avoid these greedy insurers.

Dishonest service, cancelled my policy with no warning. Impossible to get hold of over the phone

The company has a great lack of transparency in my personal opinion.
The are experts at reducing duty if candour to a fine art, that Hobbes would recognise.

Never ever expect a simple interaction.

Raising a complaint places your in a Orwellian play. With go to the FSO its not a issue to us. We are beyond regulated behaviour we navigates the hole in regulation and build our policy around this.

Welcome to the free market.

My car insurance is due next month, and I am looking around for best price as I have been quoted (from the company I am currently with) renewal of over £700, that’s a large jump of way over £400 from last year’s charge. I know Insurance companies are robbing people majorly this year, and come up with false reasons, but when I got the cheapest quote from a well known comparison site, cheapest of £487.68 with Hastings Essential, I clicked ‘Go to provider’.............
As soon as I clicked onto your link, you shot it up to £548.29, trying to rob me of a further £60.61. Quote as Hastings Essential, click went to Hastings Direct, it is all Hastings, but never thought they would decide to pocket more money.
I therefore WILL NOT be insuring with Hastings.

Completed online but couldn’t finish my insurance so I phoned them and spoke to Aqeel who was very pleasant and very helpful. Kevin Rumsey

What a dreadful company they have sent me a renewal gone up from £118 to 142 went on go comparison site same policy same company Hastings £97 check before you renew

We all know customer service is terrible these days so expect that but I can honestly say Hastings is by far the worst company by a long shot. 6 months to fix car with not a single call or email in all that time after somebody hit it when parked. 8 different advisors have given a different answer each time to the question as to who has to disclose claim on future insurance quotes the named driver who parked car before it was hit, the main policyholder, no-one as claim not made on our insurance as it was parked..etc they all have a different answer and when I asked for an answer sent via email or writing so I wouldn't be liable if there were queries in future..I was told no so had to put in a formal complaint to try get it, despite an email saying they would call me to discuss ..still nothing. I have to wait 8 wks before I can go to ombudsman. Don't stay 2 years with them , if u do u will loose all your ncb as they won't accept an emailed ncb proof which is all most companies send these days themselves included ! So much more I could list that they refuse to deal with / or can't be bothered ..I have spent over 25 hours on hold to get nowhere over a period of months its a complete joke if you ever have a problem.

Con Artists. My stepson got insurance on his first car with Hastings Essentials as they were the cheapest around. He had to have a black box which he fitted and then drove the car. He got excellent first ratings for his driving and then the next morning Hastings cancelled his insurance for no reason at all. When he contacted them they did not give any explanation why his insurance was cancelled and then told him he would have to wait 3-5 days for a refund, which now means he does not have the money to insure his car until he gets his refund from Hastings. I will be contacting the Insurance Ombudsman and ask them to look into this case as it seems like he is not the only one this has happen to you. WATCH OUT HASTINGS AS I WILL NOT GIVE UP ON THIS!!!!! They are a bunch of scammers. Also my own insurance is with Hastings and I can assure you it will not be renewed with them

The worst insurance company:
- I call to notify someone reared into my car (no claim made). Months after I find out it was logged as a claim and affected by No Claim Discount.
- It took 6 months to get money for another claim where I was not at fault. The driver admitted fault on the day while Hastings was on the phone, now they are saying this is being disputed and is not yet settled.
- Countless hours spent on the phone with them. Many advisors sound like they don't want to be there. Nobody is forcing you!

My recent encounter with this company left me deeply dissatisfied and disheartened. The service I received was nothing short of terrible, and I can honestly say that I won't be using their services again in the future. If I had the option, I wouldn't even grant them a single star.

Informed Hastings I would not be renewing my car insurance. Then received a call week later from them which they quoted me a lower price. I specifically said I would consider it but on the expiry day of the policy, received an email they simply went ahead and renewed without my agreement. Had to call them to cancel only to be told I did not inform Hastings not to renew, so to cancel would be subject to £20 cancellation charge. I would have been happy to take this on in a small claims court but several hours later, Hastings called me again to inform me they reconsidered my case and that they agreed to waive the cancellation on this occasion. Rating moved from 1* to 3* .

The lady who dealt with insurance was Afoma, has a excellent customer service . She gave me a good rate. Very polite ,

Absolute amateurs . Shocking customer service . Broke my IPad , made a claim , wanted me to send to some company . The iPad contains personal information plus banking details , passwords etc . GDPR must be being broken left right and centre

Please read this to the end so you too don't become a good laugh for Hastings Essential. I had a car accident in March (my fault) and logged a claim. Everything was logged correctly yet March went, April went and finally at the end of may I got an appointment for someone to assess the damage. They advised against driving the vehicle so I left it with them and asked for a hire vehicle to which their laughable reply was 'there is a global shortage of hire vehicles'. I stated I could get one from Enterprise or Thrifty delivered within one hour but they said they wouldn't cover the cost if I got one myself. So basically I had paid upfront when I took out my policy for a hire car but wouldn't be given one because the perfect useless lie was in place and it would save them an absolute fortune by not providing unfortunate mugs with vehicles they had paid for. Even one of the phone operatives went quiet when I said 'you know its not true about hire vehicles'. PLEASE DON'T GO CHEAP, its ok until you have an accident but then you regret it just like I have.

After getting my Home insurance quotes from Hastings Essential and then reading the reviews.
I'll not be buying.

Home insurance claims are outsourced so don't expect any help at all from Hastings. I phoned and played roulette with my keypad before being peremptorily being disconnected!

The Hastings Home insurance isn't with Hastings it is with Lloyds Bank. In turn Lloyds use a claims handler which is part of the Davies Group. ( see their reviews!)

Don't expect a quick response. After phoning to report a loss ( a hearing aid) it took 2 days for them to ask me send various proofs of loss etc ( I expected to have to do this) . I emailed the info the following day. I then phoned them the following day and were told it would take 4 days for their Admin team to "append my email to my records" and only then could they give me the go-ahead to buy a replacement hearing aid.

I asked to speak to a supervisor. It would take up to 2 days for a manager to (perhaps) ring me back ( I'm still waiting).

I found an email address for "Customercare" - still waiting for a response.

Not sure when or if I will be able to get my reimbursement ( about £1000) for buying the replacement aid.

The Hasting quote is priced for inconvenience and not service. I shall go elsewhere upon renewal.

The most stupid thing about Hastings Insurance is their on-line account management system designed no doubt by a complete nincompoop. So if you have two policies with the same email address one policy will be fine to manage on-line but the other will be locked out and cannot be managed. I have to wonder what fool designed that bit of technology for them - It does not work so change it. This affects the customer so badly that I am cancelling two policies with them.