“Reluctantly Written Review: I Would Advise Against Using This Insurance Company
On 22nd August 2024, an accident occurred. It was reported to Darwin Insurance immediately, and they gathered details about what had happened, including the location and time. They arranged for a courtesy car through Auxillis Car Rentals while someone from Darwin was supposed to collect my own vehicle. However, due to miscommunication on Darwin’s part, the wrong person initially came to collect my car. Thirty minutes later, the correct person arrived to collect the vehicle, leaving me unsure of where my car was or who had it. Darwin then contacted me, their customer, to ask if I knew where the car was, despite having arranged everything themselves as my insurance company.
Meanwhile, we were in contact with Auxillis regarding the hire car. We explained that we were due to go on holiday the morning of the accident and urgently needed a hire car. Despite this, Auxillis delivered the car to the wrong address, which was baffling as they had asked for extra ID multiple times because the car wasn’t at the address listed on the insurance policy. They called me to say they had arrived, but I informed them that I was outside and they were not there. After confirming that they were at the incorrect address, I provided the correct one, and they arrived 30 minutes later. After assessing the hire car, they handed over the keys. The car was a Hyundai Tucson, and I had stressed the importance of fitting car seats, prams, a bike, four suitcases, and all passengers, similar to my own vehicle. Auxillis reassured me that this would be possible, but it clearly wasn’t. We had to leave luggage behind and struggled to repack due to the limited space in the car. We were travelling to a caravan site in Blackpool and then on to Portsmouth for a two-week holiday during the summer holidays.
We arrived in Blackpool missing luggage and feeling very unhappy. We contacted Auxillis, and after numerous calls and being told there was nothing they could do except provide something in the same vehicle group, they eventually offered to deliver a different car to Blackpool. The replacement car was similar in size to our own vehicle but with a lower specification. By this point, we had had enough and accepted the car. We had to leave Blackpool a full day earlier than planned to return to Ramsbottom to collect the luggage we had left behind, before heading back down south.
During this time, I called DLG Auto Services in Heywood to explain the situation and mention that an EPC light was showing after the accident, putting my car in limp mode. They assured me that this would be addressed unless the car was deemed unrepairable.
The ongoing issues disrupted our entire holiday. Despite being on holiday, we received constant calls from Darwin, Auxillis, and DLG Auto Services regarding my car.
On 6th September, I received a text message stating, “Good news, your car repairs are finished! We will call you soon to arrange getting your car back to you. If you have a hire car, you will be contacted separately to arrange for it to go back.” However, I did not hear from them for a week. I called to check when my car would be returned, and they informed me it could be delivered in a few days, which I accepted.
When my car arrived, we still had the rental vehicle. Upon inspecting the car, I noticed that the paintwork didn’t match, and the door handles were rough and different from those on the opposite side. When test driving the car, we could hear constant wind noise coming from the front passenger side. Additionally, the EPC light was still on. Essentially, the car was in worse condition than when it was sent in, except for the dents that had been repaired.
Before contacting DLG about these issues, I took the car to Volkswagen Bury for an assessment. They confirmed that the paint did not match the original and that the door handles were not genuine. They said the overall bodywork was not up to Volkswagen’s standards and advised me to contact the insurance and the garage immediately.
I called DLG Auto Services to discuss these issues, and they required me to bring the car in personally, which seemed unreasonable given that it was their mistake. We had to make arrangements for our 4-year-old while dealing with this. At the garage, the environment appeared unprofessional; an older man took the keys with a young lad, around 16 years old, who was dirty, to assess the car, which made us uncomfortable. After inspecting the car, they acknowledged the noise and said they would call when a part needed to be replaced. When they returned the car, it was dirty inside, with oil and dirt on the glove box from the young lad who had been sitting in the passenger seat.
Meanwhile, they sent someone out to assess the EPC fault on the dashboard. The person connected a diagnostic box to the car and, after about 20-25 minutes, concluded that the car needed oil. I then purchased oil and added it to see if it would make a difference.
We still had the courtesy car, so we dropped it off again at DLG while the car damage was repaired once more. Later, we found out from Auxillis, who came to collect the rental car, that I was no longer insured while driving it with my family. On a specific Saturday, a DLG representative was extremely rude, even shouting at me over the phone, saying it wasn’t her issue as she just answered the phone and worked in the office.
Eventually, DLG considered the repairs complete, and I got my car back, but the entire computer system was now down. Upon further investigation, it appears DLG manually overridden the computer system to hide the error, which likely hasn’t been fixed, leaving me with a car where features that should work do not. Darwin Insurance is still trying to find a resolution. This ordeal has been ongoing since 22nd August, exactly nine weeks ago today, and there is still no end in sight.”
“Be very wary of insuring your car with Darwin insurance They are demanding I pay an additional £65 three weeks before the end of my policy for a non fault insurance claim from June 2023 (despite explaining we weren't even in the vehicle when someome drove into it and it was paid in full by the other parties insurance company) they are still demanding we pay them or they'll cancel our policy which will then be recorded for future insurance quotations!”
“Charged me £25 cancellation fee when THEY cancelled my policy.
No warning, no notification, just an email saying they were cancelling it.
Appalling level of customer service when I tried to get an explanation, probably lucky I never had to make a claim over the years really if this is how they treat customers.
Will never go near Darwin, Direct Line, Churchill or any of their other companies.”
“If i could give zero star i would ! i treated unfairly from this company and they opened my incurance on the 10 of june of june and after 2 months they decided to cancel on me ! i have paid deposit 288.43 to this company and 146.48 on July ! now they are not paying me back my refund they just cancelled it and spoke with three people on here they wasn’t helpful and being rude towards me! they are all scums and messing around with people all thieves these people shouldn’t be working in that place this company should be shutdown ! Graham and kane these two will report it they both work for this company need to be deal with for how they treated me and being rude towards me messed around with me ! avoid avoid at all cost”
“Got insurance paid for it then they say don’t accept company no claims
They wanted nearly £200 more told them to cancel it and have money put back into my account
They took it out straight away and said it will take about 5days to refund”
“months into my I never autorenew, I always shop around but when I rang them to cancel, they said they could beat the quote I'd received so for the first time ever, I
stayed with them. 3 months later they asked for £48, which was for a claim THEY processed 8 months earlier, which should have updated in 24 hours! Then apparently they hadn't changed my address, despite a courtesy car being delivered to my new address and me passing Data protection when I rang up twice, and wanted (yes you guessed it) £90. So that 'cheap' renewal quote wasn't cheap. Yes I went elsewhere but I had 7 days to do it and we know that doesn't get you the most effective quote so I lost out again. Very poor service”
“Put car reg in , it listed car as hatchback , when queried changing my number plates they had to change car to estate and the quote went up £60, their fault with their system so went back to Churchill £50 cheaper , what a joke”
“Cancelled my policy without informing me for a payment of £35 in which I offered to pay. I was told you don't need to pay now we'll put on you're next instalment. I haven't heard anything for 4 months from them until the day before renewal to be told you haven't had insurance for the last 5 days. I find this totally outrageous that I've had my grandchild in my car uninsured. I would totally avoid this company and there bad business like the plague”
“Do not use this insurance company! I went to renew my insurance policy after being with the insurance company for a year and paying my payments upfront for the year and then when I came to renew my policy they cancelled due to moving house which was 5 minutes down the road! Very poor service, left me with no insurance!!”
“Very poor customer service. angry and abusive phone conversation. left us without a roadworthy car following an accident. fixed the car my self with no motor knowledge following a guide on Google. took 5 mins to fix as was a common fault loose connection but they told me it would be an approx 500 quid repair maybe even more. they told me it was wear and tear and was advised by another mechanic that it was common to have loose connections following a bump. did get an apology for the abusive conversation but nobody apologised for the fault or not checking. just got told that there was no common fault as the computer said no!”
“They failed to cancel my insurance. They act like begs and are soo greedy they are over charging for less than two weeks and forced a new policy on my via email. They didnt even call me or anything to ask me.”
“Was looking to switch to Darwin as they offer good value on business insurance. However as a named driver on my son's policy, they failed to complete the cancellation of the policy, despite emailing confirmation of this. Direct debits were attempted later that month for which money had not been placed into the account causing problems, we have had to take our new policy out with a more reliable provider.”
“Failed to cancel my policy fully, left my direct debit running and caused credit score to drop. Have had to chase up multiple times for follow up and to make sure they cancelled the direct debit this time. They would rather have their customer service staff apologise profusely on their behalf than acknowledge any responsibility themselves, or alternatively try to pass the buck to the credit financers. Will not be taking out a new policy with them which is a shame. My last call was handled by Viola and so far has been the only positive interaction with the company.”
