Consumer not told she already has breakdown cover

Motor Insurance Breakdown cover

Katie complained to us as she was unhappy that she wasn’t told that she already had a policy when taking out a new policy over the phone.

What happened

Katie called a breakdown cover provider to take out a new policy. She later found out that she had a breakdown policy included with a warranty she’d been given when she purchased her car from new.

Katie informed the provider she was unhappy that it sold her the policy and made a complaint. The provider didn’t uphold Katie’s complaint – it didn’t think it had done anything wrong and followed the correct process. 

Katie wasn’t satisfied with the final response, so she referred her complaint to us. 

What we said

We asked Katie’s breakdown cover provider if they had access to the manufacturer’s customer information. They told us that they didn’t.

We told Katie that we didn’t think her provider had done anything wrong when selling her the policy as they couldn’t have known about her existing policy. However, as the policy Katie had purchased was identical to the one that was included with the warranty, we told her provider to refund half of the cost of the policy.