Black Box Issues

Discussion in 'Off Topic Area' started by hewho, Aug 2, 2017.

  1. hewho

    hewho Valued Member

    TL;DR:
    My black box is falsely accusing me of speeding, leading to my policy being cancelled. If you have any experience of this, please let me know!

    Flowery Version:
    I had one of those telematic boxes on my car for insurance, through a company which shall remain nameless, but is large and reputable. All was going well, beautifully low prices, driving scores hovering in the 80-96/100 range, lovely! Last week I had a holiday to Scotland (It was lovely thanks, all sorts of weather, walking, climbing, and relaxing etc ;) ) and when I got back, I thought to myself 'Ah! I shall check my score online, see what it thought of my motorway journey'. On I logged, and was flabbergasted that my score had dropped into the 60's! I looked closer, and saw that I had been flagged for 'extreme speeding', going 101mph on the M6. Now I thought this was odd, although occasionally overtaking slow traffic, I doubt if I strayed over 80mph which is the boxes 15% allowance.

    The next day I phoned the helpline, and spoke to a charming young lady who assured me that 'As you didn't get an email straight away it's a computer glitch', and that it had been noted as such. Today, 2 days after that phone call, I had an email saying they would be cancelling my policy. I phoned again, and spoke to a man who just kept repeating that it was 'meticulously checked by a team of experts' and there was nothing he could do! Has anyone here had problems with a black box, and how did you sort it?
    Thanks all! :)

    I drive a 1L Skoda citigo, the top speed of which is roughly 107mph (I have read, not tested!). I had a passenger, and luggage, so I'm sceptical it would reach that sort of speed without me noticing.
     
  2. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    I'd imagine they get a hundred calls a week saying "I wasn't speeding!".

    Sounds like a tough situation. Perhaps look at the area you were speeding and see if therequired are any speed camera's there. If there are, and they didn't snap you, logically you couldn't have been speeding and the device is faulty. You could also video you doing a journey over ten minutes or so on the motorway and then get home and log on and see your speed. Prove that it's faulty.

    Good luck!
     
    hewho likes this.
  3. hewho

    hewho Valued Member

    Yeah it's tough, it did surprise me when the first call went so easily. The thing is the rest of the time there hasn't been a problem, and there's been a couple of motorways and a lot of A roads. The speed camera thing is a good idea, Cheers :)
     
  4. Pretty In Pink

    Pretty In Pink Moved on MAP 2017 Gold Award

    Well you need to phone them again and tell them that the first person to call said "it's probably a glitch". They record conversations right? If she admits it's liable to be wrong then you have a case.
     
    Mushroom likes this.
  5. axelb

    axelb Master of Office Chair Fu

    I always wondered how reliable these were, and this confirms my suspicion.

    I assume that the speed is determined by GPS, unless it's wired into your speedometer (which I doubt given your scenario).

    I have found in the past on my running GPS I occasion do 30mph bursts :D
    based on that it seems likely that the GPS has dropped and picked up.

    I expect if they have a "track" of where that happened you'd see a sharp drop in speed before or after the supposed 100+ mph section
     
  6. hewho

    hewho Valued Member

    I tried asking to see the graph, but they just kept mumbling about 'experts' looking for anomalies, looked for speed cameras, can't find any on that section. I am now cancelling my insurance, and moving to a different company. Slightly miffed, but I suppose they do have to trust the box rather than a phonecall saying 'Oh no, I didn't do it!' Cheers anyway :)
     
  7. hewho

    hewho Valued Member

    They very kindly offered to remove the box, for a fee of £90! I shall not be returning to this insurer!
     
  8. Rataca100

    Rataca100 Banned Banned

    Try getting one of those dash cameras which records speed and location to provide countering evidence. I wouldnt us e ablack box anyway, i am paranoid they would use it to track me if i needed tracking. XP Also, if tis a faulty box its probbly i dont know how much money to replace it.

    Just get countering evidence so they dont have a open and shut reason to cancel insurance.
     

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