1stquote.co.uk Car Insurance Review

Overall Rating

seams cheep

very bad customer service, long delays.

I just wondered if anyone else had been in touch regarding 1st quote insurance? I ' ve had a few issues with them in the past few weeks and started to look up reviews about them on line and all the reviews are very bad, ranging from trying to complain and being put on hold for half an hour before being cut off, trying to make a claim and it taking months and sometimes the parent insurer having never heard of the person supposedly insured through 1st quote.
My issue was that I ' d taken out car insurance with them in December 2007 as they were marginally the cheapest. Thankfully I have had no scrapes or bumps so I have not had to deal with them again. My insurance renewal date came and went which was mid December. I thought I would wait and see what they would quote me, but nothing came in the post whatsoever, no reminder, no quote, no new document. The direct debit did however keep coming off so I knew I was insured. I tried calling a few times half heartedly and couldn ' t get anyone. Being lazy regarding this kind of stuff I gave up and waited for some correspondence. Eventually I received my new illustration for this years car insurance complete with this years motor insurance certificate which arrived on the 26th of February 2009. This was covering insurance for the 16th of December 2008 to 15th December 2009. Upon checking the price I noticed that it had actually gone up slightly which I was surprised with as I turned 26 last year and now have 5 years no claims discount. After five attempts I eventually got through to someone on at first quote only to be told to call back as their computer systems were not working. I did later that day and after 30mins on hold got someone.
I explained that the documents only reached me the day before (the 26th of feb) and that I wasn ' t happy with the quote they were offering, she told me that it was the cheapest they could get and that they had a problem with the post and it was all redone 1 month later than it should have been. The documentation front letter I had received was dated the 16th of January although I got it well over 1 month later. I told her that I had been quoted around £220 by three different companies and comparing that to their £410 was ridiculous. I also stated that 30 quotes through moneysupermarket.com were cheaper than theirs and how could this happen. She offered no reason. I requested to utilise my 14 day cooling off period and cancel but was told that it applied to the insurance starting in December. I asked how much it would cost to cancel and was told £115. as I had already paid 3 months at £35 per month it just wasn ' t worth while cancelling. After arguing for almost an hour with a ' team leader 'I conceded and gave up.
I do feel partially responsible as I should have chased them harder in December for a quote or some sort of docs. I could have even kept a better eye on what was coming out of my bank account but I feel I was given no cooling off period.