MCE Insurance - Must Con Everyone

SuperTed

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Just to warn you at the start, there is “probably” going to be some swearing in this post. So if you don’t like that stop reading now. On the other hand if you are, or are going to be, looking for vehicle insurance - keep reading.
MCE Insurance, while I am sure they are nice people individually, as a company they are...um...a bunch of shits.
At the end of September I bought a rather nice Suzuki DRZ400sm. I looked at a comparison website for insurance and got what looked like a reasonable quote from MCE Insurance. But when I actually tried to get the insurance the MCE website showed me a blank page for 15 minutes and I abandoned the whole thing and went to someone else.
However, I then found that MCE had taken the £135.40 premium anyway. And they had taken it TWICE! So I phoned them to say I didn’t need their insurance give me the money back. I pointed out that the premium had been taken twice and the rather supercilious man on the phone said: “If (if?) it’s been taken twice it will be refunded automatically”. That phone call took almost 45 minutes, mostly on hold. Being fair the premium was refunded the next day. The second payment though, well.....
A week later I phoned them again. They tell you that the phone number is for the customer services. It‘s Not. After going through the number for this, that, and whatever else it is you don’t want, being on hold for 35 minutes waiting for someone, anyone, to actually talk to you a complete dimwit in the call centre asks a lot of pointless questions, decides you need to talk to customer services, and puts you on hold for Another 20 minutes. Finally talk to the people I needed in the first place who agree that the premium was taken twice and that it will be refunded within a week. Or not...
Two weeks later I had to phone them again. This call started with being on hold for 55 MINUTES! Then having an equally pointless conversation with an even more stupid feckwit than the first one. The transfer to customer services took another 15 minutes. During this conversation I was told that it would take extra time to give me a refund “due to COVID-19 and so many people working from home“... What?? I told the woman that this was crap, my wife is the only person out of 22 still in her office and it doesn’t take them 3 weeks to Not do something. She definitely got the message that I was not happy. Having been on the phone for almost an hour and a quarter I ended up putting the phone down on her.
I finally got the money back on Friday. Four Weeks after Not taking out insurance with them. While trying to get a direct contact number for the customer services I had a look round the MCE website. The customer feedback pages are very revealing. No-one, and I really mean, NO-ONE has a good comment about them. One guy has been waiting for a year for them to pay his claim despite his car being taken by them months ago. I could go on at more length but I will simply say:
it doesn’t matter how cheap the quote is Never get insurance from MCE Insurance. They really are a bunch of shits.
 
Others love ‘em. Funny old world and they support British Superbikes, so they must be well biker friendly.
 
Write them a recorded letter then speak to your bank.
 
Have a look on Facebook for a page about them.utter con artists
 
Or say nothing, ring your bank and report two fraudulent transactions. Money back in the account
 
The very fact that they appear at or near the top of most comparison sites with a £1,500 mandatory excess may be sharp business practice, but it hardly inspires confidence. All insurance companies can be capable of terrible service, but given that no-one seems to allow you do anything online (eBike were pretty much the only company that gave you the facility to do mid term adjustments online, for example, until they got hacked), they live or die on their phone system. So being almost impossible to get hold of doesn’t sound good.
 
I was with MCE for years.
Last year they sent me my renewal notice, I phoned them and told them that the quote was far too expensive so I would be shopping around, the guy put me on hold and then came back with a new amount £150.00 less than the amount they quoted, just like that.
I stayed with them for one more year, this year's quote was much the same, I said I'll be shopping around this time after I told them it was too expensive and they then offered a £50.00 reduction.
Why can't they just offer a decent honest premium up front instead of all the bullshit .
I'm now in the process of trying to get my proof of no claims bonus from them for my new insurance broker, it's like pulling teeth.
Can't get through by phone, multiple emails ignored. I used to be able to just walk into their head office to sort stuff out and it was so easy, since moving to their new smaller premises you can't walk in off the street anymore to talk to someone.
 
Frustrating isn't it?
I'm a call centre chimp and I get verbally abused 8 hours a day, 5 days a week for stuff like this going wrong with me having zero ability to resolve it I imagine it's the same for the 'complete dimwit' at MCE.


I reckon you've done the right thing though (apart from putting the phone down on the call centre chimp you were speaking to, who will have been delighted that you ended the 'difficult conversation' they were having to endure) in letting other people know of the poor level of customer service offered by MCE.
Thanx for the heads up, I have 2 bikes in need of insurance and will certainly bear this sorry tale in mind when deciding which company to go with.
 
I'm no big fan of motor insurance like any other, but been with MCE for a few years.

Is the excess insanely high? Yes. I know that in advance when buying the policy.
I have to admit, the guys on the call centre have been more than good. I never had any major issues, but seemed like they knew what they spoke about.
I got fees (change of address) waived twice. Also, I really couldn't care about having to pay 40 quid for admin fees maybe once every 2 years really.

Touching wood:
Good friend was with MCE. Got his (new) bike nicked.
Got paid all that was due in decent time. He provided all the paperwork, they didn't try anything funny.
 
I'm now in the process of trying to get my proof of no claims bonus from them for my new insurance broker, it's like pulling teeth.

Most insurers will accept a copy of your renewal notice as it usually states the amount of years of no claims you have accrued.
 
I was with MCE for years.
Last year they sent me my renewal notice, I phoned them and told them that the quote was far too expensive so I would be shopping around, the guy put me on hold and then came back with a new amount £150.00 less than the amount they quoted, just like that.
I stayed with them for one more year, this year's quote was much the same, I said I'll be shopping around this time after I told them it was too expensive and they then offered a £50.00 reduction.
Why can't they just offer a decent honest premium up front instead of all the bullshit .
I'm now in the process of trying to get my proof of no claims bonus from them for my new insurance broker, it's like pulling teeth.
Can't get through by phone, multiple emails ignored. I used to be able to just walk into their head office to sort stuff out and it was so easy, since moving to their new smaller premises you can't walk in off the street anymore to talk to someone.

My understanding is that the law is being changed and that existing customers must be offered the same deal as new customers.

I suspect that all that will happen is that new customers will pay more.
 
Gazza: login into your MCE portal, download your Policy Documentt and it is towards the end:

ncb_mce.png
 
Just noticed this...

If there is one thing that pisses me off about insurance is that they are sticklers to the smallest detail, then, the policy document is generally very sloppy.

I have 3 bikes, one of which doesn't have pillion cover because it is a single seater.

My policy document :D :

pillion.png


Pretty sure if I ring them up they'll say it is correctly marked in their records... but then you are provided an incorrect document.
I've had this with every insurer/broker I've been with.
 
Most insurers will accept a copy of your renewal notice as it usually states the amount of years of no claims you have accrued.

Gazza: login into your MCE portal, download your Policy Documentt and it is towards the end:

ncb_mce.png
yes I know this but they never uploaded this year's info so I couldn't download it, I sent off last year's saying how much I had then but they wanted an up to date one.
Anyway saga over it arrived today by email. Just 10 days after my policy expired which I guess wasn't too bad though they said they'd send it out the day after it expired.
 


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