Peter Best Insurance

[rbgosling]

Just had an awful experience with Peter Best Insurance - I’m fuming. I went for an online renewal quote, and was offered a reasonable £173. They called back to confirm details, and said I’d failed to disclose a fault claim. After much brain-wracking I recalled that, when a BMW swiped my door mirror off, and drove off, I did notify my insurance before deciding to fix it myself at my own cost - no claim submitted or paid. Anyway, this apparently more than doubled the price to over £350. I wasn’t best pleased, so I said I didn’t want to go ahead at that price. Fine, she said, we can cancel, that’ll be a £55 admin fee. WHAT???? You are going to charge me £55 for NOT taking out this policy???? That’s what got me fuming. I spent all afternoon arguing the case, by phone and online chat, the best they could offer was to reduce the fee to £30. But by this point it was the principle more than the money. They weren’t budging further, so now I’ve spent £30 on literally nothing. Needless to say, they will not be getting further custom from me - at any price.

[Dcplug]

Do not pay it.

They have provided no service or product, you are under no obligation to pay anything.

[rbgosling]

Do not pay it.

They have provided no service or product, you are under no obligation to pay anything.

Well, I already paid the originally quoted £173. So when they refunded that to me, they deducted the £30 admin fee. You can be damned sure that if the money was in my pocket right now, rather than theirs, there would be zero chance of them ever seeing it!!

[KevW]

Thanks for that info Richard. Imagine how that company would react if you were a customer trying to make a claim.

I've had very good service from Adrian Flux over the years

[rbgosling]

All sorted now. A member of a local classic club I belong to, who is also an insurance broker, sorted me out. £297 is a useful improvement on my renewal of £403 from ClassicLine, and service was a great deal better than Peter Best.

Howden Insurance - not a classic specialist, but a more old-school broker with real branches in real British towns staffed by real people who listen to your needs and put some effort into finding the right policy, rather than a computerised quote and/or an Indian call centre. And the price is still decent. If you want a quote call Lee Holmes on 01604 434130. (No personal interest here, just sharing the experience of being a much happier customer than I was a week ago after the above experience!).

[supraholic]

When the spring car shows start up again, strike up a conversation about classic car insurance with everyone who walks by your car and tell them. Make sure that £30 ultimately costs them thousands.

[AndyC]

Richard, go through the formal complaints process , don't woprry if tehy don't find in your favor but make it clear toyu'll take this all the way to the Financial Ombudsman Servuce. Generally sprking it costs a firm £50 just for FOS to receive a complaint but cists the customer nothing, so they looose $30 even if they "win" sp sometimes it's worth them making a "foodwill" gesture upto £50.

[Tanz]

I have just renewed my Elan M100 with Pete Best £173 but have yet to test them with a claim.
If you are a Club Lotus member, contact Alan Morgan. Pete Best are one of their chosen insurance company's and Alan is very good at sorting insurance disputes.

[Gracie]

My insurance renewal has just come in for my Excel SA £280, up from £214 last year with Footman James with agreed value and salvage retention, 5000 miles and the car is garaged. It's been with them for years, with a Club Lotus discount. My dilemma is that while it seems expensive, a significant claim a few years back (so much so that if I live to be a 100 at today's cost, they will never make any money from me) was dealt with brilliantly, and I guess the treatment of a claim is the acid test of value.

[rbgosling]

Yeah, I had a claim with Peter Best a LONG time ago (like 25 years or so). My MG BGT was hit from behind by an inattentive pizza delivery driver, damage didn't look bad (for the MG; the Corsa van was a mess!), but the chassis was bent so car was written off.

The issue came with the value. Agreed value policy, but I had only posted off the Agreed Value form a couple of days before the accident. The Agreed Value was agreed (probably by someone different in the organisation who wasn't yet aware of the claim), but then someone spotted that the date on the Agreed Value was after the accident. So, despite their own organisation agreeing that the car was worth what I said it was, they said the Agreed Value wasn't valid and tried to palm me off with a settlement of about half the value. They even tried to claim the photos had been taken long before.

I did eventually get them to cough up the full amount, but only after a couple of months of arguing (and continuing to drive the car, which still worked fine!).

So, on that front, I'd still say to avoid them. Should have known better than to try going back to them, really.

[bash]

I got some quotes from other classic brokers a few years ago and the issue with many was agreed value. I had a new valuation from club lotus, the most trusted source in my view, but some of them wouldn't accept it wanting to use thier own "expert". Trying to find out who said expert was and thier qualification to make expert values was not easy. Some just plain wouldn't tell you. As an example one companies expert on Lotus values was the mgb club. Draw your own conclusions there. So ever since I only use companies that accept club lotus valuations.

Bash
Definition of an expert;
An 'ex' is a has been, and a s 'pert' is a drip under pressure.

[AndrewWebber]

I've used FJ for 30+ years and although they are probably at the higher end pricewise the only claim I've made in the 90's when a overloaded large shelf in my garage collapsed onto the +2 was dealt with very fairly. Since then the 'racy mods' to that have been accepted and the 'mad one off V8 Europa' likewise, I consider at reasonable cost, even with, in my opinion, with a very high valuation from Hagerty in the flesh at their Bicester Heritage site.

The arrival of the standard Elite was I'm sure a relief to them!

Andy

[Ray-s]

Had the same experience as Richard a few years back on Sainsburys car park in Grantham backing out of a space not in the Lotus somebody doing the same opposite we backed into one another .Same as Richard not a lot of damage decided to repair myself other chap did the same so no fault but thinking I was doing the right thing and playing safe decided to tell insurance company (boob) apparently as soon as you report anything it goes on an insurance register and when you take out any car insurance you are supposed to declare it, it's a con by the companies to shove your price up. Will not get caught again...
Iv'e had classic insurance with Adrian Flux for about 10 years now and never had a problem price is usually around £140 - £150 ...