Automatic renewal of car insurance

When I reach the 30-day period before insurance expires, I begin to research best premium for the coming year. To start, I ask current insurer for the renewal price.  This year Admiral raised the premium from £811 approx. To a little over £1100.  Challenging it brought it down to £933 - but I said I wasn’t satisfied and would look around.  Finding a better premium via Confused.com (lower by over £200), I changed to this new insurer, and took out a policy on 12/11/2020 (current insurance expired 09/12/2020). A little after taking out the new cover, I received an email from Admiral stating a new premium of £933.18.  I replied to the email that I had found alternative cover and would not be renewing with them.  What I had failed to spot was that it was a “Do not reply” email, although it was not rejected by the Postmaster service.

Casually looking at my bank statement during Boxing Day, I noticed that Admiral had taken £933.18 on 14/12/2020.   I am annoyed, not only by my careless oversight of the “do not reply”, but also that Admiral would send a “do not reply” email when they intend to take money from a bank account unless the customer contacts them otherwise.  This is poor business practice as a non-serviced email should never be sent in such circumstances.  The volume of emails that get received daily (mine can be 50+ when you include spam and promotional ads from previous purchasing outlets), and a “do not reply” instruction can be easily missed.

After clearing the holiday period, Tuesday 29/12 will see me having to chase up Admiral for refund of the £933.18.