Hastings Direct Smart Miles Reviews

Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.31

3.3 Rating 1,984 Reviews

57 %

of reviewers recommend Hastings Direct Smart Miles

3.3

Based on 1,984 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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Anonymous

Anonymous // 01/01/2019

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“Typical robbing insurance company... I received an email that my car insurance was due for renewal a week before my renewal date (aware that I was selling my car and did not need insurance, I ignored it). I continued as normal, checked my bank account a week later and the new policy renewal price had been taken from my account. They claimed that I had signed up for auto-renewal but I don't believe I would have as every year prior I have rung up and rearranged my insurance. After calling to cancel my policy - aware that if I cancelled within 14 days I would receive all my money back - they informed me that there are still charges that must be paid! Insurance companies should not be given any authority to auto-renew your policy without specified consent at the time and the arrogance to still try to take my hard-earned money is appalling. Terrible customer service, typical tactics, and horrible company, will never be using Hastings for insurance.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Had a black box and then had a fault accident. We were assured don't worry keep insurance for 30 days so can add new car! Nope threats to cancel insurance as score dropped. Explained We ve no car so can't improve score. Didn't care! Instead had to cancel so didn't go against in the future. Well they then wanted the whole year premium!! Over 2.5k. Been an awful experience. They ll still not been in touch with the 3rd party.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Avoid this insurance company and don’t get sucked in by there cheaper prices. The black box insurance that they sell is a way for them to get your money and then they cancel your policy. The customer service is shockingly bad. The black box data is over sensitive and if you were the best driver in the world they would still cancel your insurance.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“do NOT get this black box, it is not worth the low price. God forbid you go round a round about faster than 2mph or build up speed to merge onto a motorway. This thing critiques everything! i literally can’t drive without losing points due to using motorways and multiple roundabouts every trip. I try to drive waaaay slower and go round bends slowly but it doesn’t matter what i do - my score sits at around 30 AND if someone else uses your car, the drive isn’t recorded but you lose points anyway?? so stupid”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Partner had a fault accident and the car was taken to storage, garage has been assigned, but the car is awaiting collection for it to be assessed for repairs or write off, paid extra at the start of the policy for a hire car, 3 weeks on, and I keep being told until the car is not assessed either for repairs, then a courtesy car will be given by the garage, if its a write off we get a hire car. This is a complete joke, pay for comprehensive and hire car so that you are not left stranded without a car, and Hastings do not honour this, and to make matters worse the complaints team are a complete waste of time, another week or 2 before anything can be done. Totally understand a shortage of parts at the moment, but why pay for the extras when this is not honoured, a hire car should be provided until a decision is made. Would never use Hastings as an insurance provider ever again.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Having insurance is a necessary item we need to have with a hope that we never ever have to actually use it. Well after many years of careful house ownership I had to call on my insurer Hastings Direct. I discovered a crack in one of my walls and feared I had subsidence. I contacted Hastings right away but they just were not interested ...their excuse that they don't actually insure me , one of their underwriters do but they didn't know who that was! After many calls and being passed from pillar to post i managed to find out who my insurer was. The company they had used "Get out and run brothers inc" were as much use again. They passed me on to loss assessors who after many months came and had a look and said yep it's subsidence. These guys then put together a quote of the work without actually doing a full survey. The work they detailed equated to some paint wallpaper and to patch up some plaster. This is with major cracks appearing through the building. Then after another long wait an engineer came to do boreholes and check drains and water. This was 6 weeks ago. I have not been contacted by Hastings or the insurer at all to explain what is going on. So if I was you I really would avoid they have let be down beyond comprehension.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“They were cheap, but when I had to make a claim they have been absolutely useless. I submitted the claim in August 2022. It's now May 2023 and after them never proactively contacting me (I've always had to chase them) my repair has still not been carried out.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“You can’t literally brake. I called them, explained it must be faulty as when I tested this I’ve been driving like miss daisy. The best driving in my life that any human could do, when I was given a score of 51 out of 100 for sudden breaking, it’s clearly faulty or a conspiracy to mentally want people to crash or take away one’s insurance for increased premiums, they can not answer. These should not be legal, are EXTREMELY dangerous & mentally damaging. Hastings fix take down the breaking element. If you can’t break people will die! Is that what you want?”

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Posted 1 year ago

“A frustrating, unhelpful device. I drive a hearse for a living and even when driving in a hearse-driving like manner I have had lousy scores. I drive a 3L Discovery only when I have - it is a tow car for our caravan. Have had to deactivate every notification source I can as I was penalised for using the phone. I NEVER EVER use the phone when driving. After 1 week of driving since then my scores have crept back up but last night's short trip, driven in a saintly manner, has inexplicably brought them right down to low 40s and in an amber warning colours. I drove as though I was in my hearse. Really thinking of paying the upper premium. They haven't got it sorted.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“tried to add a temporary driver for 1 day to our policy and was told that hastings would not do this. upon asking for a reason i was told by the agent that they would not tell her. for lack of transparency on something so simple i am concerned if actually have to make a claim. complaints procedure told me that this was because it was an australian licence. i have personally added temp drivers to a policy before and numerous people iasked the same. all with international licences. not very impressed with the complaints experience even though never expected anything other than the reason. obfuscation and the email received from her glosses over the issue. she gets a 1*”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Don’t use! The most sensitive black box ever. Says you’re breaking harshly all the time when you are just breaking normally. Hard cornering is anything over 15mph & you can’t accelerate at all without it marking you down. If you drive like a normal person then avoid this insurance or they’ll cancel your policy after 3 weeks. Marks you as on your phone when you’re using a sat nav. Was told I should put the phone in a holder at all times just in case the phone moves in my pocket and the screen gets touched as this will mark down as phone use. no one can use your phone whilst driving. My old black box before this one gave me a happy face 95% of the time and now apparently I have a score of 12 with the Hastings you drive. How did it go from almost perfect with admiral to so poor with Hastings? Cancelling the insurance & getting a new one as it’s a joke. Not worth the stress & having to drive like you’re on a driving test all the time. If you got out and pushed the car it would say you was going too quick Guy on the phone was very unhelpful & told me to drive better & didn’t seem to have an explanation on why my driving was good with admiral but a week later it was poor with the hastings black box”

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Posted 1 year ago

“APP doesn't work so. Cant seem to find live chat anywhere despite the advertisement of it. Email address for complaints won't accept any mail. Wouldn't even help me with the app on the phone despite numerous password changes. Seems to work on the computer but that is not going to work with the black box or the app. Nightmare and will not give full money back!!! I would steer clear of this company - pardon the pun!!!! Cheap means poor service by the looks of it.such hassle”

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Posted 1 year ago

“They put a claim against me as a policyholder with hastings , when the accident fault was deemed to be because of the third party not myself. Tried to contact them to at least understand why they do that & they never responded to my emails . Of course this affected me on my next car insurance .”

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Posted 1 year ago

“My daughter had the box for 2 months then it stopped working. After contacting hastings she was told she was force stopping it by swiping it off her screen. This she did when she got inside the house. No where did it say to keep it open at all times. The box itself wouldnt connect no lights on. She was constantly phoning and being put on hold for 30 mins at a time to be told if it didnt start recording miles they would cancel her insurance. She kept telling them the box wasnt working but they were not interested. Finally we decided the best thing to do was change insurers and cancel hastings. Awfull experience for her and from what i have read a lot of other youngsters too. Avoid at all costs”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Terrible customer services. Called a few weeks backs as my score was low due to me using my 'phone' i use my phone as a sat nav within a secure phone holder. I was told this would be fine as long as i don't touch the screen and not to worry. Called this morning as my score is low again due to me using my 'phone' was told i need to switch my phone off once the maps has been enabled so the screen is black and just hear the sat nav talk. If anyone knows how Sat navs work, you look at the screen to navigate your route. Sat navs can be very unpredictable with telling you in little notice so viewing on a screen can be alot more helpful for some. I have been told to leave the app running in the background whilst i drive. Which i have and this makes no difference whatsoever. I was told by one staff member as long as the app had tracked one teip a week then that's all that matters, that's not how a black box should work. Being told numerous of things by different staff to then not get issue solved. Will be looking elsewhere for a new insurance policy.”

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Posted 1 year ago

“Terrible service ! If you're a new driver DO NOT go with this company. Only had the insurance for a week with the telematics system , this was my 2nd year of driving biut 1st year with this company. My review system kept marking my braking as very bad eventho I was doing it very carefully. Called up 3 times about the fact it must be faulty in some way and all I was told is " the system is very accurate and you need to change how you drive " the previous year with my old company I was marked as a top driver at about 95/100. Ended up cancelling as I was being threatened with emails saying if my score lowers they will just cancel my policy automatically. For a black box system with supposed "very accurate telematics "there seems to be many reviews saying otherwise !!!”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Terrible customer service - in fact the worst I've received from any company for any product! They decided to cancel my car insurance on the basis that I wasn't driving the car enough. They warned us that this was going to happen (via email) and my son responded to that email. Hastings Direct now say that replying to that email was incorrect - because they don't monitor that mailbox. The issue is that there was nothing about their senders address, or anything in the email body that said they would ignore our emails. Worse still, they claim that we received an automated 'bounce' email. That is not true. I asked for a copy of the bounce email - and not surprisingly they can't. In short they are a bunch of liars - and I will never darken their door again.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Breaking because of hazards Infront of you gets you marked down. Accelerating on a roundabout gets you marked down. Breaking at a zebra crossing gets you marked down unless you brake 5 minutes before hand and come to a crawl before stopping. Utter nonsense. Hard breaking saves lives and this app wants you to think that you're doing something wrong. I'd rather hard break a hundred times and avoid a crash or a death but the app seems to not ever want you to break in a dangerous situation. The app seems to think that other people and cars don't exist on the road so even if another driver causes you to break it's still your fault. App hasn't been recording my data for days now and judging by the reviews this is going to be my problem very soon, regardless of whether their app or black box is in the wrong. Absolute con.”

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Posted 2 years ago

“The most sensitive black box in the world. Put the brakes on at a red light or someone pulling out on you and you're screwed. Sometimes I can get a perfect score then the next trip has like 5 moments of acceleration and 3 heavy braking issues for the same journey driving exactly the same! I wish I NEVER went for this Policy but it was my cheapest option at half the price of other policys. Now I see why. Terrible company If i get any threats of cancelling my policy I will be going to the financial ombudsman!”

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Posted 2 years ago

“Awful just had my driving policy cancelled , had the device fitted from the day it was sent out Recieved email saying that it has not been recieving data back to Hastings , I checked the app and resolved the issue 2 days later my policy has been cancelled”

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Posted 2 years ago

Hastings Direct Smart Miles is rated 3.3 based on 1,984 reviews