Dear Sky Insurance

[audigex]

Is it worth wasting my time with getting a quote off you this year, or are you still hung up on my age?

Car: 2012 A3 TDI Black Edition Quattro 170bhp
Me: 23 year old Software Engineer, full time employed
Use: Social+Commuting (commute being a 5 mile drive to/from work)
Mileage: 14,000 miles

If not, do you fancy giving me a PM when you feel like taking me seriously?

Oh, and FYI I managed not to crash and die in a huge fireball in the last 12 months, so you would've made a nice little bit of profit by just beating my quote by £100 last year, when I was apparently so bad a risk that you wanted nearly the value of the car to insure me. I did spill a packet of peanuts down the cup holder, but I decided not to take that one through the insurance.

If it helps, I can send you a screenshot of the AA DriveSafe app, which tells me I'm in the lowest 3% of drivers likely to have an accident. Not that they want to insure me, either.

 

[skyinsurance]

Please drop me a PM with your surname and postcode so I can have a look at last year's record. Please also let me know your NCB level and if you vehicle is modified.

For what it is worth, we'll help as many Audi-Sport members as possible but our underwriting criteria is there and we have to abide by it.

Thanks

Ollie
Sky Insurance

Tel: 01707 642552

 

[audigex]

Wouldn't even give me a quote. If you're even vaguely young, don't waste your time even asking them for information - they just lump you in with every other under-25 and don't bother quoting you.

 

[skyinsurance]

Wouldn't even give me a quote. If you're even vaguely young, don't waste your time even asking them for information - they just lump you in with every other under-25 and don't bother quoting you.

Hi,

thanks for your feedback.

We have no problem with your age, our minimum age criteria for our car club scheme is to be aged 19 or over with a full 2 years driving experience. Feel free to post the reason why I am advising you you may be better off with another insurer (note - not a quotation refusal)that I have given you in a private message.

Thanks and regards

Ollie
Sky Insurance

Tel: 01707 642552

 

[audigex]

Apologies, it wasn't a quotation refusal - and in fairness to you I've not provided you with full information for a quote due to not wanting to hand out my postcode on an open forum (even PMs aren't particularly secure). I may, at some point, give you a ring just to give you a full, fair and open chance to show what you would have quoted me exactly - although I suspect I would be wasting both of our time.

Ollie actually told me that my car wasn't modified enough/performance enough - although I was explicitly told last year that it was due to my age/car cost, that's not the reason Ollie has said I would be better off elsewhere this year. I'm just getting a bit frustrated with a company sponsoring an Audi forum, but who either won't give me a reasonable (not even good, I was just looking for "within range") quote last year because my car is too powerful, and this year suggest that they won't be able to help much because my car isn't performance enough.

You say you're aiming at a target market of Audi owners etc - surely the point of this is that the type of person who is on this forum is the type who spends a lot of money on their car, and looks after it because of that? I look after my car mechanically and in terms of maintenance - I change my tyres well above the legal limit, for example, because I don't like to lose grip. I drive slowly to protect my paint from stone chips and because I don't want to smash up £30k worth of metal etc.

I thought that was the reason you were specialist insurers, because you recognize that there are people who don't fall into the little boxes of insurance companies, but it appears more to me that you take the same target markets and give a discount for car club membership in exchange for greater exposure within those car clubs, rather than any actual reasoning along the lines of car club members being less likely to make a claim.

Again, thanks for your time - and apologies for the areas (and I'm aware there is more than one) where I'm being unfair... I was just expecting you to be a little more discerning and, as a "specialist" company, consider the person more as an individual rather than just grouping based on slightly different criteria. Anyway, my car isn't performance enough for you, and I'm not particularly interested in working out which combination of my planned modifications - if any - would bring your quote to a competitive level. I hope you can understand my frustration, even if you can't do anything about it.

 

[skyinsurance]

Hi,

thanks for the clarification.

Last year the issue we had was that the combination of factors of your risk profile meant that we were never going to be competitive.

This time around, we have been invited to provide a quotation on a standard UK non-performance car. My PM reply to this was:

Hi ,

whilst we would be happy to provide a quotation, I feel that you will be better of with an insurer who deals with standard UK cars. At Sky Insurance, we prefer modified and performance vehicle insurance. As you have a standard UK car, you have a very competitive market to choose a product from.

Thanks and best wishes

Ollie
Sky Insurance



A further reply was sent after you queried this:

Hi,

no, the answer I have given you is the answer.

We are happy to provide a quotation for you, no problem at all with that but we specialise in modified and performance vehicle insurance, with respect, your vehicle does not fall into either category. There is no quotation refusal, I am simply advising you that you will be better of with an insurer who prefers standard UK car insurance.

We insure from age 19 and over so the age certainly isn't a problem. The issue is, because your car does not fit our profile, we cannot use our discounted scheme, we can only provide a 'screen rate'.

If you'd like a quotation from us, you are welcome, let me know your telephone number and I will call you personally.

Thanks

Ollie
Sky Insurance

 

[k1ano]

My take on this is ...

I was insured with sky for many years on other car forums and have had excellent service and support, and from Ollie personally - I had to make a no fault claim once and the legal protection and process worked really well for me.

Some years they are not competitive and that is a fact. What is excellent about sky (and other specialist insurers generally) is that you can literally have a modification list as long as your arm and they tend to insure you and rates which are often competative to standard cars - that is were the benefit is to me.

For a standard car, a performance one none-the-less, I can easily understand why they would not be competative and that is the advice given as far as I can see. Good on them for being honest I say. I am not currently insured with sky for either of my cars so am speaking from my experience rather than just sticking up for them out of loyalty. I would have no hesitation in going back to sky in future though.

To the OP, why not actually get the quote anyway ?

Martin

 

[audigex]

Because it's a 20minute phonecall and I wanted to get an idea of whether they thought they would be vaguely competitive. I admit it turned into something of a rant in parts

 

[coatesy]

Wouldn't even give me a quote. If you're even vaguely young, don't waste your time even asking them for information - they just lump you in with every other under-25 and don't bother quoting you.

This isn't true. I'm 22 drive a highly modified a3 and live in a high risk post code area.

They give me an awesome quote, 1500 quid fully comp like for like on mods and the cars insured for 4.5k.

So age isn't the problem here or at least it wasn't for me.

 

[audigex]

An apology

I know I've apologized above already for ranting and possibly being unfair, but that was for my tone/wording rather than this. I decided to at least go through Sky's quick quote online system, as it seemed particularly unfair to be ranting on without a fixed, accurate quote - no right to reply etc. So I just ran a quote and got this:

Using Our Quick Quote System, Your Preliminary Quote Is:

£1,526.40

​

I wasn't expecting it after last year, and after what Ollie has said, but that's, while still a fair amount more than my best quote, competitive. It's not good, but as I said above I wasn't looking for the best quote, I just wanted to know if they were in the ballpark. That's £150 more than my current insurer has offered me for a renewal, and about £300 more than my current best quote, but I have been unfair to Sky - even after telling me that they weren't the best for me, they've come back with a reasonable-if-not-amazing quote. As such, I apologize unreservedly to both Sky and Ollie. I've been a bit grumpy lately over the whole Insurance thing.

 

[jojo]

Audigex, apologies if this comes accross in a bad way, but you are not willing to make this 20 minute phone call, yet you are willing to waste your time to have a rant at this insurer on here.

I insure 4 cars bud, every year, I shop around for the best possible deal, and for what ever reason, there will always be ONE insurance company that give me the BEST quote, and I go with them. To all the other insurance companies I called, nevermind aye, your loss, just move on ***!

Just FYI, I was with AdrianFlux for the last 4 years or so in a row for my S3, they had always quote me a stupid amount for renewal, but shopping around, I went back with with my best quote, and they matched it to keep my business. This year though, no chance, I'm now insured with privilege on their ASN members scheme. AF couldn't even match the quote SKY gave me this year, but unfortunate for SKY, I got an even better quote.

I'm not going to lose sleep over it though, it's just the way things are with car insurance.

Shop around, and get the best quote, then feel EPIC!

 

[audigex]

No, you're entirely right and that's why I apologised. I've actually just spent 10 minutes or so on the phone with Ollie who has run me through a couple of quotes. The £1500 quote above isn't actually valid - so I'm not really sure why their site quotes it, I suspect it harks back to last year when they did include non-modified cars, or Ollie suggested it may be that it assumes the car is more performance than it is. As I said to him, however, performance is a relative term. Anyone in a Ferrari is in a performance car, but a 17 year old in a 140bhp Civic is pretty overpowered too.

Anyway, I got two actual quotes:
Stock car: £2000, which isn't even vaguely competitive (although as above, he did warn me beforehand that they aren't really trying to insure stock cars)
Modified (coilovers, alloys, a few interior/cosmetic mods): £1350.

So, as they declare, they're better for modified cars. Not quite as good as the best stock quote I've got, but £100-150 more than the best quote, for a modified vehicle, is pretty damn good. I have, as they say in the business, eaten my words.

 

[k1ano]

Good on you for reflecting and apologising.

It is also about the service and post claim support too - my experinece of Sky in both areas is good ...

Martin

 

[skyinsurance]

Hi,

thanks for popping back on clarifying this further.

I'm just heading into a meeting which is likely to last for the next couple of hours but I'll come back and post again to shed a little more light when I can.

It was a pleasure to speak to you and it was about time I picked up a phone and ran a quote through!

Kind regards

Ollie