Utley man in insurance row with Sainsbury (From Keighley News)

Utley man in insurance row with Sainsbury

11:00am Tuesday 25th September 2012 in News Exclusive By Miran Rahman

l Clive Ferguson and his son Nathan, who have been left out-of-pocket

An Utley resident said a ‘simple’ car insurance purchase left him out of pocket without any policy.

Clive Ferguson, who lives off Greenhead Lane, said he allowed his 21-year-old son to use his debit card to buy the policy online from Sainsbury’s Car Insurance. Nathan Ferguson, who is a care worker, had wanted to insure his Subaru Impreza.

But Sainsbury’s said it never received the payment.

A spokesman for Sainsbury’s Car Insurance says it is investigating how the problem occurred and has offered Mr Ferguson £150 as an apology.

Mr Ferguson said the money was now back in his account.

Mr Ferguson, a self-employed spiritual healer, said his son began the process of buying a new car insurance policy on August 3. He said Nathan got a quote from Sainsbury’s Insurance and paid the required £285.14 online using his father’s Natwest debit card. However, no policy details or reference numbers were e-mailed back to him. The following day, Clive Ferguson said he phoned Sainsbury’s to find out what was wrong, only to be told that the company had not received the payment – but when he phoned Natwest his bank informed him the payment had been made.

He said: “I told Sainsbury’s their underwriters should, as a goodwill gesture, give us a note to cover the car’s insurance over the weekend while they find the money, but they wouldn’t do it. They said we’d have to pay them again.”

He said both he and his son ended up missing a day of work. He added he lost even more money due to the hours he has spent on the phone trying to resolve the issue.

He said on August 6 his son received a call from Sainsbury’s telling him he had accidentally paid the £285.14 to Admiral. Mr Ferguson said he rejected this explanation and provided the Keighley News with a signed document sent to him at his request from Natwest.

This states: “I can confirm our records indicate there is a pending card transaction made on August 3 of £285.14 to Sainsbury’s Car Insurance debiting your Current Plus account.”

A spokesman for Admiral said his company had no record of receiving an inadvertent payment from the Fergusons.

The Sainsbury’s spokesman said: “We are currently performing detailed system checks to establish why Mr Ferguson's son's online application wasn't fully completed. We have apologised to Mr Ferguson for the inconvenience.”