Bought Bike on strength of Insurance (Misquote)

[crashley]

Legal chaps please help...

I was quoted by my insurer to insure a supersports bike, as a new rider - an amount a little over a grand. On the basis of this quote i've gone out and bought the desired bike (brand new Triumph Daytona). Since called back to get the bike insured, and been informed it was a mis-quote (they'd mistakenly put me as having held a licence for 12months), and that premium should be nearer 2.5k - and they refuse to honour original quote, and they don't have to as it wasn't in writing - although they admit it was their error.

Do i have a leg to stand on or am i left with a sodding great big bill to insure my new pride and joy?

Cheers
Ash

Edited by Garlick on Thursday 24th March 09:36

[Rawwr]

Get a quote from someone else. If it's a new bike, most of the jap manufacturers have subsidised schemes available.

[thinfourth2]

[paulrussell]

You're going to have to pay the £2.5k as internet prices aren't always correct.

[Mastodon2]

If you had the old quote saved on a quote generator you could probably have bought it and gotten away with it - they could still refuse you on the ground of their error, but they'd be biting a real PR bullet to do it. Since they managed to admit their mistake early they have pretty much cleaned their hands of it. Big bill potentially, or garage it and ride it next year?

Not what you'd want to hear I'd imagine, but the insurer will never come down on price now and if no other insurers will give you a good price you will just have to bite the bullet.

That insurance sounds crazy though - at 21 years old I got quotes on a Hayabusa (for fun, I have not got a bike licence yet), and if I had literally just passed my test I was still getting ballpark figures of £1200 per annum, which I thought was appalling, but seems like great value in comparison.

[Cotty]

paulrussell said:

You're going to have to pay the £2.5k as internet prices aren't always correct.

He didn't say it was an internet price and the "called back" bit makes me thing he called for a quote rather than doing it over the internet.

[crashley]

Indeed - to clarify - this was a telephone quote, and not just a fairly generic mulit-quote type thing.

[ambuletz]

Nothing you can do I'm afraid, even when you do take out a quote, they send you out forms to make sure all the details are correct. Yes, sucks I know. I go an insurance from a popular auto insurer that specializes in modded cars/young people, they quoted me £800, was so happy about it, called back the next day, but they fed the details in wrong, and in actuality their quote was more like £1800.

[Slade Alive]

All calls are recorded. Ask if they have recording. Carole Nash will. Insist they honour otherwise put it in writing demanding so. Reference recorded conversation. I might be wrong but I thought quotes offered by phone have to be honoured by law.

[NiceCupOfTea]

Slade Alive said:

All calls are recorded. Ask if they have recording. Carole Nash will. Insist they honour otherwise put it in writing demanding so. Reference recorded conversation. I might be wrong but I thought quotes offered by phone have to be honoured by law.

I imagine the conversation will have been "lost".

[K87]

Had the same happen to me with my mx5, got quotes with sky for 1080, and avviva for 650, these went up to 1300 and 990 when I went to take one out!

Luckily flux beat them both at 645!

[mrmr96]

thinfourth2 said:

Good 10,000th post. :-)

[ZOLLAR]

Slade Alive said:

All calls are recorded. Ask if they have recording. Carole Nash will. Insist they honour otherwise put it in writing demanding so. Reference recorded conversation. I might be wrong but I thought quotes offered by phone have to be honoured by law.

The insurer reserves the right to withdraw the quote, they can't be forced by law to accept a risk if the don't want to.

[H_Kan]

ZOLLAR said:

The insurer reserves the right to withdraw the quote, they can't be forced by law to accept a risk if the don't want to.

Surely if a quote is given and valid for 10 days or whatever then they should be obligated to honour it for that period.

When I purchased a car recently, it was on the basis that I knew I had a proper quote online for a price I was happy with. Nobody else was quoting anything half reasonable and as such, without this quote, I wouldn't have bought the car.

[Noger]

Even if a quote was an obligation to accept a risk, which it isn't, the insurer can cancel a contract at any time.

Carole Nash are a broker anyway, not an insurer. They gave the wrong information to the insurer, so it is entirely their fault not the insurer.

[MarJay]

Try MCE instead, they are generally cheaper for me than Carole Nash. Alternatively buy BikeTrader or MCN and phone EVERY insurance company in the back pages.

And take it easy on that 675.

[fareaster]

About 10 years ago I had a similar situation in Sydney, Australia. I was working there for year and wanted to buy a Honda Fireblade. Phoned up the insurance company recomended by the dealer, told them I had a UK license (which would be valid for a year) and got a quote which was acceptable. Bought myself a brand new Fireblade and then asked the same company to provide insurance, the premium was double the quote! I went slightly balistic over the phone when I was told that the reason for the hike was that I had a UK license as opposed to an Australian one, they accepted that I had told them I would be riding on a UK lincense at the time of the quote but said the mistake was down to an inexperienced employee who didn´t realise the implications of a UK license. Basically they refused to honour their original quote.
I went back to the dealer (a big Honda dealer in Sydney) who I knew were putting a lot of business through this insurance company and asked them to use their commercial muscle. They did and my premium was reduced to the original quote - good result. After that, though, I think they hated me and when it came to renew they refused under any circumstances to insure me - didn´t matter though, I was selling the Fireblade and moving to China!

[98elise]

ZOLLAR said:

Slade Alive said:

All calls are recorded. Ask if they have recording. Carole Nash will. Insist they honour otherwise put it in writing demanding so. Reference recorded conversation. I might be wrong but I thought quotes offered by phone have to be honoured by law.

The insurer reserves the right to withdraw the quote, they can't be forced by law to accept a risk if the don't want to.

They don't need to reserve the right to do that, no contract has been made until money has changed hands. Its no different to incorrect pricing in shops. Until you have actually paid for the goods/services they are under no obligation to sell to you.

Standard contract law unfortunately

[Slade Alive]

I recently renewed changing some circumstances to policy. Called back to accept, was told the quote was wrong in my favour but they'd have to honour it as they'd offered it. Go figure.

My understanding is quoted price is the same as displaying price. It has to be honoured. If they refuse to sell at quote maybe that's acceptable at risk of losing a customer, so is it they're not allowed to up the quote, just refuse to honour it?

As for the shop scenario. That's not my understanding. If goods on display are priced they're obligated to sell at that price are they not? I'm no expert but I do believe if I put £1995 on the screen, though had a brain fart when doing so and missed the one, I believe I'm obligated to sell for £995. The point about withdrawing from sale is an interesting one. I hadn't heard that. Perhaps my confusion is, I can't ask for £1995 from 'that' customer but can refuse to sell. Interesting.

[crashley]

Issue resolved: Carole Nash not honouring, however i have finally found someone that will cover the bike, albeit i'll have to keep outside at my property (and not in my locked garage around the corner!)

Cheers for all feedback guys.