The Brilliant Service of Admiral Car Insurance!

If I could scream and shout at these guys, I would. I have the top of the line Comprehensive Car Insurance from Admiral Group Plc that I sadly had to use this weekend. While on a trip to Wales?with family, our car tyre had a screw puncture through it quite literally in the middle of nowhere. That's where you think insurance is supposed to come in and they will help you and guide you and support you. Because you aren't paying upwards of ï¿¡1200 a year to do things yourself, right? WRONG! I gave them a call as soon as I was in a safe place, they told me that the minimum turnaround time to get someone there is 2 hours. Fine, if it solves the issue, I can live with it. However, despite explaining the issue very very clearly, the guy that came at around the 2 hour mark didn't have the tools or the spare to replace the tyre. So, we are back to square one of waiting another 2 hours for someone to FIND a spare and help us. Again, we are in the middle of nowhere, without food and water and limited network connectivity and we did tell this to the customer service. All they said was, "Oh, that's bad! I'm sorry you have to deal with it." How is that going to help anyone?

Anyway, after waiting upwards of 3.5hours, they said they can't find a replacement tyre, so they will have to get us a hire vehicle, tow this one, find someone to fix it in the morning and sort it out. Sounds simple enough? A BIG FAT NO! The hire company that Admiral Group Plc have a partnership with, Enterprise Car Sharing & Rental , ALSO has a turnaround time of 2hours. So they also won't entertain calls before 2 hours because they are 'looking' for a vehicle for us. We are now standing at 5hours stranded - no food, no water, nothing! It was at this point that we decided enough was enough, we are going to go find help ourselves. My brother ran to a nearby village, knocked a few doors, found a tyre inflator, we inflated the tyre to an extent that it would support a drive of 15mins to a bigger town where we could possibly seek some help/ shelter. That 15min drive on a motorway with a busted tyre was the scariest thing ever. But Admiral was nowhere in the picture, they didn't care in what condition you were.

Reaching the town, we parked in a 'safe' place, found ourselves some food and water, called Admiral multiple times with little to no support. They couldn't find a hire vehicle, they wouldn't help us with a taxi fare back to our hotel (which was 33miles away and would have cost us around ï¿¡150 one way and they expected us to come back to pick up our car in the morning, spending another ï¿¡150 of our own money). They offered to pay ï¿¡30 as a goodwill gesture! LOL. We asked them if they could help us with a hotel/ B&B cost and said if they do that, they won't be able to pay for anything else - so it's either a hire vehicle (which they couldn't arrange), taxi fare (which they would only pay ï¿¡30) or hotel (which is not covered in their plans). Mind you, I'm not looking at a Hilton at this point. We just wanted a place 4 of us could rest for a couple of hours. But Admiral Group Plc were not supportive at all. Oh and all this time, they still couldn't assure that they would be able to find us a replacement tyre in the morning, help with the replacement with Kwik Fit or anywhere else. It was always that we'll have to 'see' in the morning how it works out. We called up over 15 hotels, airbnbs, local B&Bs in the town and had NO availability whatsoever. So we were left with no option but to sleep in the car overnight. Thanks Admiral Group Plc ! I had visitors traveling to the UK, and this is the takeaway they have from the UK, from a supposed top notch insurance company in terms of their service, despite paying a hell lot of money for this, and NO COMPASSION at all! The only guy helpful was this support representative called Jack, who called us a couple of times to check and update us on the progress but either he was bound by Admiral's regulations or the allocation of ï¿¡30 that it wasn't very useful.

Slept in the car somehow because we were all so drained. In the morning at 9.45am, as soon as the first guy entered Kwik Fit, literally begged them to slot us for a replacement tyre, the first one they could find that was a match with the car's specification. They supported us through and through, let us use their restrooms, sorted the tyre quickly and perfectly, and sent us on our way.

The best part, in the morning, Admiral has completely forgotten about us. No follow ups in the morning, no checks around IF or WHEN did we find a replacement, are we even dead or alive, who cares? They've got their 1200 pounds at the beginning of the policy, they've just shrugged their shoulders and said Oh, this is what we could do, can't do much, sorry!

HORRIBLE SERVICE. Interesting thing is, my policy just started from 17/05 and had the trouble of using it on 25/05. So I've got a full year of dealing with these idiots.

Wouldn't wish such trouble on my worst enemy and have Admiral as their support (LOL!) partner. CLAP FOR YOURSELVES Admiral Group Plc !