Name: Hastings Direct Smart Miles
Rating: 3.31

“My son has exactly the same issue with acceleration scores lowering for no reason. Apparently no issue with telematics box! I am waiting for a report to see where the issue is being triggered. I’ll reserve full judgment for now”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi, I'm sorry if you were unhappy with the service. Please call us on 0333 999 8372 and we can look into this for you. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“I have not been with this company long and I already hate it everything apart from the acceleration scores accurate but I have been driving very carefully in my car making my parents drive it who have perfect driving records and over 20 years driving experience and the acceleration scores still went down I'm sitting currently on 19/100 for acceleration and it will not move up it just keeps going down, does anyone else have this problem?”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi there, I'm sorry if you were having difficulties with your telematics box. We have a team dedicated to helping you improve your score and you can reach them on 0333 999 8372. I hope you manage to make some positive progress soon. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“DO NOT GO WITH THIS COMPANY!!! Worst insurance company I have ever experienced. Rude customer service. I was involved in a car accident that wasn't my fault yet it has taken over 2 months to sort this claim out (Still not sorted). One month of which I was left WITHOUT a courtesy car!! I am still waiting for my car to be repaired due to them waiting for a canister of spare wheel foam... when called I told the garage they could fix the car without the canister and I can pick up the canister of foam another day to which they answered "oh okay, I guess we will START fixing your car then' THEY SHOULD HAVE STARTED FIXING IT A MONTH PRIOR TO ME EVEN TELLING THEM?! The solicitors you are passed onto by this insurance are terrible as well. They do not explain anything, just bombard you with emails and texts. Hastings also admitted to forgetting to pass me through to their solicitors as soon as the crash took place. I was put in contact with them after asking them a month after the crash due to someone trying to scam me. This resulted in me getting physio a month too late. You'd think they would offer you physio as soon as you first call saying YOU CANNOT EVEN WALK due to the injuries. Ridiculous. This company has caused me more stress than help which is the opposite of what you pay for. Smart miles is meant to make your insurance cheaper yet I have found insurances WITHOUT a telematics box and WITH my crash details on that come out a few hundred pounds cheaper which baffles me but I'm definitely aborting my annually paid insurance to go to someone cheaper and better and I suggest you do the same!!”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi there, I do apologise if you were unhappy with the service when making a claim with us. I hope you've since managed to make some positive progress. If you do need further assistance, please call our Claims team on 0333 321 9800 and they'll do their best to help you. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“I have only given 1 star because it was,mt possible to give none. Horrendous experience, my advice is dont get black box insurance with these!! You get what you pay for and there is a reason they are cheaper!”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Joe, I'm sorry if you were unhappy with the service. If you require any further assistance, please call us on 01733 308 370 and we'll do our best to help. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“Used for 3 years, although a few hiccups on their side about blackbox readings, everything was rectified and helped save a lot of money on insurance.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Chris, Thanks so much for sharing your feedback. I'm glad we were able to offer you a competitive deal! ~Lillie

Posted 4 years ago

“1st year renewal really good and halved the policy. My driving has remained the same and this year the policy is £300 more! I'm now looking elsewhere. In 3 years I have NEVER had an accident or claim either...………..Ludicrous!!”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi there, I'm sorry if you were unhappy with the renewal. We send this out based on last year's details, if you do find a cheaper price online then our Renewals team would be happy to check the price for you. Please call them on 01733 308 380, I hope you manage to make some positive progress soon. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“I really dont feel like driving no more due to the score. Its ridiculous, ive come do a point where im trying not to use my breaks to a point where it’s dangerous. The score never seems to go up only down. If i dont press my gas my car will stall but if i do my score goes down. I tried calling the numbers listed below for help however its always busy. Im not happy.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi there, I'm sorry if you've had some difficulties using your telematics box. We have a team dedicated to help you improve your score and you can reach them by calling 0333 999 8372 and they'll be happy to assist. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“I have been with this company since age 16, i am now 22. all was fine until i decided to take out a car on finance to celebrate moving out and getting my first proper job. Of course ,this required a new box, which i offered to fit myself. i followed their instructions to the letter and the box was fitted on roughly the 14th of january. I then heard nothing until this morning , where i got multiple texts and voicemails insisting i call them. When i did , i found out they wanted me to pay £40 . i had no idea what they were on about and it was literally only then i found out it was a cancellation fee. When i got put through to the customer services team i then found out that not only were they trying to charge me , but that my policy had been cancelled since the 19th of january (its now the 3rd of feb) without me having any clue . when i asked why , i found out they hadnt gotten a signal from my box and so they insisted it wasnt installed . When i said it had been , and either i must have installed it wrong (though i followed the instructions to the letter) or the box must be faulty , i had 2 employees insist i must be lying. When i tried to suggest ways to recify what was obviously an honest mistake, such as me sending a picture of the box as proof ,having an engineer come out at my cost to check the box is installed correctly and functioning and/or having an engineer talk me through the box installation incase i made a mistake -i was shut down with nothing but 'you need to pay the fee and then take out a new policy with us ' (at a massively increased cost, of course) . when i expressed annoyance that my policy had been cancelled out of the blue without my knowledge, i was informed they had sent 2 emails roughly a week ago . 2 emails! 2 emails to cancel my policy after 6 years , but they can ring me multiple times in a few hours to get the cancellation fee out of me ?! this is appalling ! I now have a cancellation on my record for life ! i literally cried from the stress because i dont have allot of money as a trainee and im dreading how much my insurance is going to increase. Im now terrified waiting for what my new insurance is going to say. all because i wanted to treat myself to my first self-brought car. Do not go with this company , they do not care about you . they just want to con you out of more money.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi there, I do apologise if you've had a negative experience. I hope you've since managed to resolve this, however if you do wish to raise a complaint due to the service, you can do so by calling 01733 308 370, or emailing contact@smartmiles.com and they'll be happy to assist with this. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“I have been with this company since age 16, i am now 22. I brought myself a new car to celebrate moving out and getting my first real job . This required a new box to be installed , which i installed exactly to their written instructions around the 14th of jan. I think nothing of it until today , where i go to lunch to find multiple phone calls from them. When i ring them back they say they cant take £40 out of my account , at first i thought this was from my monthly payments so i was confused , but only then do i find out that this is actually a cancellation fee due to them not getting any signal from the box . the woman then puts me through to the customer service team and its only THEN that i discover my insurance has been cancelled since the 29th of january (its now the 3rd of feb) without me having any clue! When i insisted that i had installed the box exactly as they said and i didnt know what else they wanted me to do , 3 of their workers implied i was a liar. when i said i was upset that my policy had been cancelled on me without any warning , they said theyd sent 2 emails around a week ago -2 emails!! ive certainly never saw them, but sending 2 emails before cancelling the policy ive had with them for 6 years (not to mention they were quick enough to phone me multiple times in a few hours to try and get the cancellation fee out of me) is appalling! when i tried to suggest ways to rectify the honest mistake (such as sending a photo of the box as proof , getting an engineer to come out and check the box incase it was installed incorrectly or defective etc) they told me absolutely nothing could be done and my only option was to pay the fee and take out an entirely new policy with them (with increased payments a very large upfront cost, of course) . Now i have to declare a cancellation on my record for the rest of my life . I was literally nearly in tears from the stress earlier , considering insurance is expensive enough for a 22 yr old and money is not exactly flowing in my graduate placement. all because i wanted to buy myself my first car from my own money . never go with these people! i thought they were great for 6 years and then they dropped this on me .”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Chloe, I do apologise if you've had a negative experience. I hope you've since managed to resolve this, however if you do wish to raise a complaint due to the service, you can do so by calling 01733 308 370, or emailing contact@smartmiles.com and they'll be happy to assist with this. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“All in all, it's just overly harsh. I have an overall score of 83, but my acceleration and braking have been rated in the 50s - 60s, which is frankly ridiculous. I don't accelerate harshly whatsoever, and if I brake any less I would probably stall. Unfortunately, it seems like Hastings has rigged their system in order to gather as much money from young drivers as possible, luring them in initially by undercutting competitors, but at a significant unknown cost to the policyholders. Definitely will be going elsewhere when my insurance comes to renewal.”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Jake, I apologise if you've had a negative experience. We do have a team dedicated to helping you improve your score and you can reach them by calling 0333 999 8372, they'll be happy to look into this. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“My acceleration score has remained 37 for a couple of months, i have been consciously accelerating very carefully and slowly & my score won’t go down. Also my time of day score has been 55 for a few weeks and I haven’t driven between 10pm & 5 am once in this time. Why isn’t my score going up and how can I improve this please?”

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Posted 4 years ago

Hi Alex, I'm sorry if that's the case. We do have a team dedicated to helping you improve your score and you can reach them by calling 0333 999 8372, they'll be happy to assist. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“One big scam”

Helpful Report

Posted 4 years ago

Hi Samuel, I'm sorry if you were unhappy with the service. If there's anything we can do to help, please call our Customer Service team on 01733 308 370 and they'll be happy to help. ~Elle

Posted 4 years ago

“Good if you want cheap insurance for first time driver. The black box however seems useless. For the first few weeks my braking score went right down even with an experienced driver who was also on the policy driving. The score soon went back up but now my acceleration is going right down. I have tried accelerating to the point where it is dangerously slow but no matter how fast or slow I accelerate the score still goes down. The worst part is that my score goes down by simply moving my car off the driveway onto the road outside my house where there is physically no possible way of accelerating fast. The black box map which shows you where you have been jumps massively along the journey. Will not be going back with Hastings Direct smart miles even if the quote is significantly lower than any other insurance company's.”

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Posted 5 years ago

Hello Thank you for taking the time to leave a review with us. I'm very sorry to read that you've not had a positive experience with the telematics box. The score tends to update roughly every 70 miles so perhaps you can look for that marker and see what the score is once you reach that point. If you don't believe that it reflects your driving, please contact the First Response Unit on 0333 999 8452 and an adviser can take a look at this with you. I hope that your experience with the telematics policy improves soon. ~Theo

Posted 4 years ago

“I’m a new driver, and I’m 6 months in to my policy. All was great, none of my scores dropped below 85, until about 6 weeks ago, when my braking score started falling rapidly. I haven’t personally noticed anything different with my driving. I feel that the score is very quick to fall, but it seems to take weeks for points to reappear. I appreciate that the point is that you work on improving, but it takes so long that I feel my driving only counts if the system thinks it’s bad, not good? It’s incredibly stressful, and I feel it’s unfair that if I’m reacting to someone pulling out on me, or someone else braking sharply themselves, I lose points. It feels impossible to get a good braking score back on this system”

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Posted 5 years ago

Hello, I'm very sorry to read that you've had such a poor experience while on your Smart miles policy and I hope that some positive progress has been made since the point of your review. If this continues to be an issue, please contact the Smart miles First Response Unit on 0333 999 8452. A member of the team would be happy to take a look at your policy and discuss the scores with you. ~Theo

Posted 4 years ago

“Put the box in myself around a week ago been looking at the app on a daily basis and recently noticed that the braking score is going down randomly by either 1 or 3. I don't feel as though I am doing anything to make this happen but it just won't stop going down, went for around a 3 mintue drive to find it had drooped by 1 again hopefully it will sort itself out as I am driving with atleast 6 seconds behind another car just so my braking is good”

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Posted 5 years ago

Hello there, Thank you for your feedback. I'm sorry to see your braking score is dropping. Your box collates data through G-force so any harsh or late braking can make your score go down. We do have a team that can go through your scores with you and give the hints and tips on how to improve your score. The team can be reached on 0333 999 8372. ~Jamie

Posted 5 years ago

“I haven't had a bad experience per se but I don't really understand how the acceleration scores are calculated. My acceleration score is 56 and I've never seen it go up only down even though I feel like I'm a really safe driver and very rarely accelerate harshly. My sister was very confused also as she says I drive like a granny. I also dont understand why it says I drive during the day over 99% of the time but my time of day score is 85.”

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Posted 5 years ago

Hi Alice, I'm sorry if you were unhappy with your score. We have a team dedicated to helping you improve this and you can reach them on 0333 999 8372, they'll be happy to help. ~Elle

Posted 5 years ago

“Highly would recommend staying away from this company, they have messed me about from day 1 trying to get more money out of me for no legitimate reason. If you do decide to choose this company then good luck on getting information that you have the right to see such as No Claims Bonus (NCB) proof as I contacted them multiple times and were still not able to provide the information.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

Hello Jordan, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. If you have had any trouble locating the proof of your no claims bonus, our customer service team should be able to help with this and you can contact them by calling us on 01733 308 370. Hopefully once you've spoken to someone, you can get any issues you may have sorted. ~Ethan.

Posted 5 years ago

“Highly would recommend staying away from this company, they have messed me about from day 1 trying to get more money out of me for no legitimate reason. If you do decide to choose this company then good luck on getting information that you have the right to see such as No Claims Bonus (NCB) proof as I contacted them multiple times and were still not able to provide the information.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

Hello Jordan, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. If you have had any trouble locating the proof of your no claims bonus, our customer service team should be able to help with this and you can contact them by calling us on 01733 308 370. Hopefully once you've spoken to someone, you can get any issues you may have sorted. ~Ethan.

Posted 5 years ago

“Highly would recommend staying away from this company, they have messed me about from day 1 trying to get more money out of me for no legitimate reason. If you do decide to choose this company then good luck on getting information that you have the right to see such as No Claims Bonus (NCB) proof as I contacted them multiple times and were still not able to provide the information.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

Hello Jordan, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. If you have had any trouble locating the proof of your no claims bonus, our customer service team should be able to help with this and you can contact them by calling us on 01733 308 370. Hopefully once you've spoken to someone, you can get any issues you may have sorted. ~Ethan.

Posted 5 years ago

“Highly would recommend staying away from this company, they have messed me about from day 1 trying to get more money out of me for no legitimate reason. If you do decide to choose this company then good luck on getting information that you have the right to see such as No Claims Bonus (NCB) proof as I contacted them multiple times and were still not able to provide the information.”

Helpful Report

Posted 5 years ago

Hello Jordan, I'm sorry to hear you feel this way and I hope you have since managed to speak to someone to look into this for you. If you have had any trouble locating the proof of your no claims bonus, our customer service team should be able to help with this and you can contact them by calling us on 01733 308 370. Hopefully once you've spoken to someone, you can get any issues you may have sorted. ~Ethan.

Posted 5 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