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Fenhopper

Shambolic service from Adrian Flux.

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I took out insurance for my bog standard GT86 through the Broker Adrian Flux in January. They set me up a policy with a firm called Equity Red Star, and assured me that I would be able to add vehicle modifications to the policy for a small fee at a later date.

So the day came (today) when I wanted to add modifications to my policy - catback and air filter; here is the sequence of events that followed:
 
1. Phoned Adrian Flux to enquire about adding the modifications.
Put on hold for >15 mins. Had to end the call.

2. Emailed Adrian flux to enquire about adding the modifications.
Email response from Adrian Flux stated that my policy doesn't allow for modifications and I'd have to cancel my policy and take out a new one if I want to add the after market exhaust and air filter to my car!

3. Phoned Adrian Flux to find out why my policy doesn't allow modifications when I was specifically told that it did when I bought it.
Transferred to another department, after ~15 mins waiting on hold, ended up back at the same department and had to go through the story again!

Put on hold for a further 5 minutes (BTW these are not free calls), told I had no option but to cancel my policy and buy one that is £150 per annum more expensive!

Asked what had changed since January, or was I sold the policy under false pretenses? Was told that they would find out and call me back; they didn't call back.


Obviously I'm pretty pissed off with Adrian Flux. The company generally seems to have quite an amateurish feel to it when you call them, the frontline staff sound very junior and unsure of themselves. I'll probably put the modifications on hold now until the policy expires in January. I'd be grateful for some recommendations for my next insurer; I'm 43 and have never made a car insurance claim.

Thanks for reading,

Matt.

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I've read a fair bit of this sort of thing. Great at quoting and sorting out new policies but not so good when it comes to claiming or making adjustments - at least not without you having to fork out on admin fees. 

I've been using Chris Knott for the last few years and have been very pleased with their service. That said not had to make a claim, but have added mods without a huge increase in price. Worth a go when renewal comes around. 👍🏻

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Hi Lowe,

Thanks for the tip on Chris Knott.

You wrote something that really resonated with me; my Father and Grandfather both worked in the insurance industry for nearly their whole careers, they always said that you only find out how good your insurance is when you come to make a claim.

Thanks,

Matt.

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I'm interested to see what they say regarding it changing / being mis-sold as I took out a policy through them a month ago also using ERS and was told that any modifications were free bar power increasing mods such as turbo or SC and didn't have any hassle adding on my coilovers last week.

Maybe they have different policy levels / plans through ERS but if you was promised it originally then they should honor it for the full length of your policy. The problem is trying to prove it.

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6 minutes ago, HariboPenguin said:

I'm interested to see what they say regarding it changing / being mis-sold as I took out a policy through them a month ago also using ERS and was told that any modifications were free bar power increasing mods such as turbo or SC and didn't have any hassle adding on my coilovers last week.

Maybe they have different policy levels / plans through ERS but if you was promised it originally then they should honor it for the full length of your policy. The problem is trying to prove it.

I don't think there's any point in me contacting the insurance ombudsman over mis-selling, as it's my word against theirs, and it's a relatively minor issue in the grand scheme of things, just very annoying for me as I want to do my mods!

The lesson here is to always get everything in writing.

Matt.

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34 minutes ago, Fenhopper said:

I don't think there's any point in me contacting the insurance ombudsman over mis-selling, as it's my word against theirs, and it's a relatively minor issue in the grand scheme of things, just very annoying for me as I want to do my mods!

The lesson here is to always get everything in writing.

Matt.

All calls are recorded, it wouldn't be your word against theirs. It states this when you start the call.

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43 minutes ago, HariboPenguin said:

I'm interested to see what they say regarding it changing / being mis-sold as I took out a policy through them a month ago also using ERS and was told that any modifications were free bar power increasing mods such as turbo or SC and didn't have any hassle adding on my coilovers last week.

Maybe they have different policy levels / plans through ERS but if you was promised it originally then they should honor it for the full length of your policy. The problem is trying to prove it.

Was told exactly the same, except about Equity Red Star; was told nothing about that; no idea what it even is. Just informed about adding modifications providing it doesn't affect power, and I already told them what was on the car and quoted me a price I was happy with. Policy doesn't start until 1st Oct, but I have filled in what I can on the website that I was sent through on the email and no one has contacted me back about a change in price so it must be ok. I just need to fill in the mileage at start of policy but I can't do that until 1st Oct. 

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1 minute ago, rob275 said:

All calls are recorded, it wouldn't be your word against theirs. It states this when you start the call.

And kept for how long?  That's a heck of a lot of data to store for a busy company like Adrian Flux.

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Just now, Fenhopper said:

And kept for how long?  That's a heck of a lot of data to store for a busy company like Adrian Flux.

Should be for at the very least the duration of the policy IMO. We had an issue at work of being missold gas and leccy and we was able to get the recordings to fight a legal battle. that was 18 months in to contract from what I remember

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Have you made an official complaint? If not, do it.

I work for an insurance company, not in the same line of business, but if any complaint came in like that it wouldn't be able to be 'swept under the carpet' without being dealt with.

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Just now, rob275 said:

Should be for at the very least the duration of the policy IMO. We had an issue at work of being missold gas and leccy and we was able to get the recordings to fight a legal battle. that was 18 months in to contract from what I remember

Wow, massive servers to store every phone call for that long!.

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Just now, maurice said:

Have you made an official complaint? If not, do it.

I work for an insurance company, not in the same line of business, but if any complaint came in like that it wouldn't be able to be 'swept under the carpet' without being dealt with.

No, I haven't made an official complaint, I'm not sure I can be bothered to be honest. I'll just wait for renewal time in January, there are bigger problems in the world, just thought I'd share my experience here to get it off my chest.

Matt.

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1 minute ago, maurice said:

Fair enough.

I'd recommend Greenlight for next time, mods such as catbacks and air filters can be added for free via their website. Don't even need to give them a ring.

Thanks for the tip, I appreciate that. I've noticed that a few people on the Forum have recommended Greenlight now.

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9 minutes ago, Kaisersalsek said:

Greenlight don't insure cars over 20k though

Brentacre are pretty good - anything which doesn't increase performance is no extra cost (includes exhausts, spacers, lowering springs, coilovers too etc), you just let them know you've put it on :-)

Thanks for the recommendation. Unfortunately, my car is worth well under £20k now. :(

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Funny, your experience of AF is completely the opposite to mine. Never had a problem adding or removing mods and my underwriter is also ERS.

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12 hours ago, Fenhopper said:

Wow, massive servers to store every phone call for that long!.

in most cases it's archived off to tape normally in an .mp3 format... you should see the size of the tape libraries the banks have to have ;)

 

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12 hours ago, Fenhopper said:

Wow, massive servers to store every phone call for that long!.

It's not as much data as you'd think. Phone call audio is about 7 kB/s, so it's about 25 MB per hour of call time. That adds up to about 375 GB per year per line, which isn't that much storage in an era of multi-terabyte hard drives.

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We keep recorded calls for 7 years!

If anyone's having trouble with a policy or just wants a myth dispelling we're very happy to give advice and point you in the right direction via here.

In this case I think you've a very good cause for complaint. You wanted a policy that would allow you to modify, you were sold the opposite. I'd be asking for a copy of the call or just making a complaint and let them do all the proving. If you didn't ask for it they'll be wanting to evidence that by providing the call. I'm sure it'll work out fine for you once it gets escalated.

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