eCar Insurance are totally inept.

Example 1. An email sent to me on the 27/7/11 by eCar Insurance asks for written proof of No Claims Bonus to be sent to email ncd@egroupltd.co.uk and the email states that “we require written proof to be sent to us within the next 7 days to allow us to validate your discount”. Further down the same email eCar state that “Failure to provide us with valid proof of NCD within 23 days after the policy start date may result in the policy being cancelled”.

Clearly some confusion about the amount of time.

Example 2. On the 5 August 2011, I sent proof of NCD to email address ncd@egroupltd.co.uk at 12:36, and again at 12:43. I also sent proof of NCD on 6 August 2011 at 10:07 to email address ncd@ecarinsurance.co.uk. No reply from eCar was sent to my email address acknowledging receipt of the proof NCD. Again on the 6 August 2011, I emailed Lisa Osmond, at enquires@ecarinsurance.co.uk at 10:08, asking if eCar had received proof of NCD. Lisa Osmond replied on the 7August 2011 at 9:55 stating that “As soon as you have sent this to us we will be able to determine that you have 9 years No Claims Discount and we will amend this accordingly”.

On the 7^th August at 11:24 another email was sent to Lisa Osmond asking if proof of NCD had been recieved. At 11:38 on the 7 August 2011 L replied with “Please be advised I have now validated your Licence to your policy and sent the proof of No Claims Discount to our Case Handlers who will amend the policy to 9 years No Claims Discount and advise you of any return premium on the policy”.

So lets recap, Lisa Osmond on the 7 August 2011 at 11:38, two days after I initially sent the proof of NCD acknowledges she has received a copy of my proof of NCD and has sent it on to the No Claims Discount Case Handlers.

However, on the 14 August 2011 at 3:34, seven days after Lisa Osmond acknowledged receipt of my proof of NCD, I receive an email from eCar Insurance stating “Further to our previous correspondence, we are writing to advise you that the valid Proof of No Claims Bonus have still not been received. Please accept this email as notice that the above policy will be cancelled 7 days from the date of this letter email. Therefore you will have no insurance cover in force after 20th August 2011 at 0:15 on vehicle(s) xxxx and you are advised to obtain alternative cover elsewhere before permitting your vehicle to be used on the public highway. It is an offence under Part VI of the Road Traffic Act 1988 to drive, or otherwise use your vehicle on the public highway without insurance cover being in force”.

After which I sent eleven copies of my proof of NCD to ncd@ecarinsurance.co.uk at regular intervals throughout 14 August 2011 up until 12:50, then I sent a further 3 copies to each of the following email addresses ncd@ecarinsurance.co.uk, complaints@ecarinsurance.co.uk, and customerservices@ecarinsurance.co.uk. On the 15 August 2011 I sent another two copies to each of the following ncd@ecarinsurance.co.uk, complaints@ecarinsurance.co.uk, and customerservices@ecarinsurance.co.uk. The last email was sent at 15 August 2011 at 10:30.

On the 15 August 2011 at 11:41 I received an email from K which states “I confirm receipt of your Proof of No Claims Discount, this has been passed to our Case Handling Department to increase.”

A similar situation was going on with copies of the paper licence counterpart and the photo licence.

I have been told by trading standards that eCar are in breach of contract under The Supply of goods and services act 1982 which states that all services should be carried out with reasonable care and skill.

Its clear from the vast majority or people on her and elsewhere, bar one individual, that eCar cannot supply services with reasonable care and skill.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT INSURE WITH THIS COMPANY! save yourself time and hastle by not insuring with them!

I insured my vehicle for third party, fire and theft, on business with ecar last year. I made one mistake on my insurance details - the requote for the insurance was doubled due to this. I was harrassed for my driving license details and even recieved emails threatening to cancel the insurance after i had sent all the relevent documentation.

As i was due to get a company car, I went onto the pay as you go policy, i did forget to initially send mu documentation off, but even after sending all my documentation again! why i dont know, the harrased me again for my driving license and my no claims bonus - even though my last policy was through them!!

I will never go with ecar insurance again and i have another car to insure the end of the month, i would rather pay that bit extra for a company that actually takes care of its customers!

I too am furious with Ecar!

My fella is a new driver, Just saved up his money to get his 1st car on the road. So, we paid 645 deposit to Ecar! Happy to be insured!!! Afew hours later we had a complication and was told we couldnt drive the car for up to 4weeks+, So instead of paying 255 for the car to be sat on the drive for a month, we cancelled.

The policy states that you are able to cancel within 14days of the policy if the insurance policy doesnt meet your requirements, however we were told we still had to pay a 75pound fee for cancellation. We agreed to this anyway.

We were then told we were eligable for a full refund, but obviously 75pound less for the cancellation fee! We cancelled at the beginning of october, and we were still waiting until today. When i recieved an email, saying we have been ''partially'' refunded 342pounds! Half of what we paid! There was no way, we owed 302 pounds for insurance that lasted a couple of hours!!!

So, i send an email back and get a reply of all the charges they've added on!!!

40 for a direct debit that was never took, Various others! & one that stuck in my mind because of the sheer cheek..... 155pounds ''Commision'' Now... if im right, shouldnt the company pay the employees for their commision! Not ME!!!

Id love another opinion on this, to state weather were in the right as we believe we are! & how i can take this futher.

I read a comment on here where a woman said about watchdog! I might join her, i think this company are a joke!!!!

Here is the advice now on how to complain about Ecar insurance:

'You should also be asking for your complaint to be formally registered and then after 8 weeks if you are not happy, you can go to the FOS.

If you complaint to the FOS, E-car Insurance will be charged a case fee of £500 and it will cost you nothing apart from postage.

I think you should also contact the FSA, to notify them of serious failings in the administation of your Insurance. It would appear that this company is a shambles and needs a kick up the backside. I say this having seen numerous complaints on this and other forums.'

Here is a copy of the form they want me to fill out and send back to them. I sent back my documents, recorded delivery, because they cancelled my insurance. They first said they hadn't received it, so I sent proof of delivery with signature. They now say it's lost. Hee hee ... what a bunch of mugs we were to give them our money. Hope Watchdog has a field day with them, and the FSA. I also repost advice in red left by one blogger on what to do to complain about them, very interesting.

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LOST CERTIFICATE DECLARATION

eGroup Insurance

POLICYHOLDER’S NAME:

POLICY NUMBER:

REGISTRATION NUMBER/S:

EXPIRY DATE:

I/We hereby declare that the current Certificate of Motor Insurance in respect of the insured vehicle registration number: ________________ delivered to me/us by the insurer in accordance with statutory requirements has been lost/mislaid/destroyed.

I/We undertake to return the missing certificate if found prior to its expiry date.

I/We understand that in the event of my/our wishing to cancel, suspend or transfer the policy during the current period, I/We may be called upon to furnish a statutory Declaration relating to the loss or destruction of this certificate.

Signed­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­__________________­­­____ Date____________________

NAME______________________

Very professional looking eh???

THEY ARE BLATANTLY RIPPING PEOPLE OFF LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTER ..... DO NOT TOUCH THEM!!!!!

What a joke this company is i took out car insurance on 2nd sept and paid 394 pound depisit however after finding a cheaper quote i cancelled the policy on 19th sept and because i missed the 14 day cooling off period by 3 days my refund out of said deposit was 35 pound amongst the charges was a 40 pound direct debit setup fee which ive never had charged to me before in my life by anuy other conpany just for setting up a direct debit its absolutely outrageous never ever touch these rob dogs

TO ANY ONE HAVING TROUBLE WITH ECAR.................................................. IF YOU NEED TO RING 'ECAR' HERE IS THE GEOGRAPHICAL NUMBER FOR THE PREMIUM RATE LINE

01454 634810

hi ya,

thank you for that, i have sent an email to watchdog so hopefully they might take it up, my next step will be gaining some legal advice, i will keep it this forum updated on my progress !

xxxx

Hi again, Further to the phone number you stated on a previous message another number was also added which might be even cheaper its 0845 2190592 Good luck

just to add to my last thread, ecar have just phoned me to tell me that my policy will remain cancelled and that i owe them more money ! i cannot believe that they think they can get away with treating people like this, i told them that i would see them in court. i have found a number to contact them on which might be of use to some people as its much cheaper than their 0906 number, the number that might help is 01454634810

xxxx

hi ya,

thank you for your replies, i only passed my driving test on the 29th august, i took out my policy with ecar on 12th august on a provisional licence as i wanted more practice driving, i could not change my licence type fom a provisional licence to a full licence online so i phoned them the following day to change it, they told me that there would be nothing else to pay as i had already paid £428 for the year on my provisional, i asked the woman on the phone to double check that she had changed the years i had held my licence from 14yrs on my provisional to 0yrs on my full licence, she assured me that the details were correct and that i had nothing else to pay even though i told her that there should be a shortfall of about £300 for me to pay, two weeks later i got a letter saying that i had to pay £285.22 by 26th september, i called them again asking if i could pay the remainder in monthly instalments to which they said no but that a manager would contact me regarding the matter, a week later i phoned them again just to be told that it was being dealt with, three days later i recieved a letter saying that they would take off the administration fee of £33.11 and that i had until 6th october to pay the remainder of £252.11. i then recieved a letter from them on 3rd october saying that my policy had been cancelled on 26th september which means that i had been driving for a week without any insurance unbeknown to me, i phoned them again and they told me it has been handed on to the validations department, i have continuously phoned and emailed all the departments that i possibly can including the complaints department, i have already spent £70 on phone calls to them and thats not including the phone calls that i have made this week, i am really at my wits end with ecar as one of my daughters has numerous medical conditions and i need to use my car to get her to her hospital appointments which are weekly sometimes twice weekly, and also need my car to get to work, i have explained all of this to ecar and still nobody has contacted me even as a matter of courtesy to say they are dealing with it, it is causing me so much stress and hassle, i just dont know what to do next.

thanks again.xx

hi, I went to another insurance company before my policy with ecar actually expired and i was 100% honest with them and supplied a sample of e-mails that i had received from ecar. Within 30 mins my policy from my new company was sent to me including a receipt for payment via e-mail with details of the customer service offered INCLUDING AN 0800 PHONE NUMBER in case i have a problem. I think the real answer is to be totally up front with any new insurance company as there are so many databases for this and that it would be very foolish to "bend the truth" I can only wish you good luck and if possible can you keep me and this thread up to date.

You can take out Insurance elsewhere, as long as you answer all the questions and provide all info accurately.

Might be worth speaking to a local broker. If you have any no claims discount proof to be used, Ecar are technically the last Insurers, so should be from them. But if you explain the problems, they may be happy for you to use the proof from the company prior to Ecar.

If you are worried about the question as to whether you have had a policy cancelled, you don't need to be concerned by that. This is where the Insurers cancel due to non disclosure, fraud, too many claims and they write to you saying that they have cancelled and will not provide Insurance again. If everyone who had a policy cancelled due to mistakes with Ecar had to disclose cancellations, this would mean a lot of people phoning around in a panic.

hi ya,

i wanted to reply to you as i am ahving exactly the same problems with ecar, i have phoned them numerous times and have emailed them numerous times, but noone has got back to me, they have cancelled my policy without my knowledge i was driving for a week without any insurance, they are total scammers, i will also be taking them to the small claims court, surely if enough people take this to watchdog it will be taken up by them,

i really wish that i had read these reviews before i took out my insurance policy with them

could anybody tell me where i would stand if i now took out another insurance policy with another company please?

thanks.xx