So I have been with them for around 40 years with home and auto. I have my house and 4 cars insured, but two were suspended for the winter.
Anyway, a few months ago I receive 2 separate refund checks from them in the mail. One was for 19 cents and I recall the other for about 15 cents. Mind you they spent much more to issue those. Fast forward to a month ago I get a notice that they are going to now cancel my policy because I owe them 19 cents!!!!
I call my agent and inform them how stupid it was and they said don't worry it will be caught and fixed. Well yesterday I get a notice that they ARE going to cancel the policy! I am so pissed right now that I am for the first time going to shop insurance if that is the way they are going to operate!

You have had them for forty years. Drop in and see your friendly agent. Don't leave until HE straightens out the mess. Besides you do not want to deal with the Emu or Wet Teddy Bears. Switching insurance can be costly.

I understand how irritating this is, but it's a chance to shop around and that may be a blessing in disguise.

I recently something similar happen with my insurance company. Long story short my insurance policy was cancelled (mostly their fault, but I didn't notice the error so I'm culpable too), but the very first indication I got that something was wrong and I was uninsured was a letter from a collection agency to my parents 6 months after the cancellation. I haven't been at that address in almost 20 years.

After a brief moment of terror that I had been running around without insurance for months and the negative implications that could have had on my life, I started calling every insurance company I could get ahold of on a Sunday night. To my suprise, every quote was cheaper than what I had been paying. I ended up with Progressive, and my auto+ renter's insurance premium is 1/3 of what my auto insurance alone had been previously.

*snort* AAA pulled the same number on me when I first bought our home. I'd been with them for years for cars, motorcycles, etc. I don't recall how it happened, but I'd been slightly short on the initial payment. It was less than a dime, if memory serves.

I called them up and asked "Are you nuts?!?! You cancelled my homeowner's insurance for less than a dime?!?!"

It was a blessing in disguise. I dumped them and went with somebody new. Better coverage for less money.

This is stupid because it is a poorly coded AR system. The insurance company I worked for 35 years ago was coded such that the system didn’t trigger a shortage unless it was more than two dollars. That caught the vast majority of mistaken amounts on payments.

I'd also file a formal complaint with my State Insurance Department, or whatever your state calls it.
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When our long-time State Farm agent retired, Corporate assigned our account to an incompetent agent who managed to somehow accidentally remove one of our rental houses from coverage. I figured it out the following spring when I was working on our income taxes. Fortunately we didn’t have a loss or claim during the months there was no coverage.

I quit using State Farm, who we’d been with for 20 years or so, and went to a multi-line agent who was able to insure us at lower cost with better coverage.

I quit using State Farm around 2012 when I lived in TX and they decided to try and increase my homeowners insurance 50%.

I called the agent and luckily I got a young honest kid who told me straight out "After settling all Hurricane Ike claims (2008), State Farm doesnt want to insure homes in coastal TX, and if they do it will be incredibly expensive". THis was their way of forcing me to take my business elsewhere.

Tried the emu for a while, they sucked, then eSurance (Allstate) but finally settled on Geico. Cost effective and good customer service for the most part. They have house (really Travelers) and car policies.

40 years with the same company and you're going to ditch them and start over with some different people because they made a mistake that could easily be fixed?

Throwing the baby out with the bath water

I'd be talking with the agent before dropping the boom on them over 19 cents and a clerical error.

I had State Farm for a number of years when I was younger. They told me I had a high premium because of my age (23 Years).

Then I moved into a 4 plex that was owned by a guy who sold insurance for another car insurance company. He gave me a quote that was 20% of what State Farm charged me for the exact same coverage.

There are some crooked people out there selling insurance.

Considering the size of the company, it was just a matter of one department not knowing what the other was doing....not that uncommon, in any business.

That's why there are insurance agents, they are there as your direct contact to the company. Give them a chance!

I, like you, used to use them for home, auto, and my bikes, for a long time. I got tired of their bullshit and switched to an insurance broker. 30 days before any policy renewal he's out there shopping my shit like a hooker on the street except it's only reputable and industry leading carriers. Really paid off this year. I have 4 policies and 3/4 went substantially down. What I have learned since switching is State Farm is obscenely overpriced.

quote:

Originally posted by Prefontaine:
I, like you, used to use them for home, auto, and my bikes, for a long time. I got tired of their bullshit and switched to an insurance broker. 30 days before any policy renewal he's out there shopping my shit like a hooker on the street except it's only reputable and industry leading carriers. Really paid off this year. I have 4 policies and 3/4 went substantially down. What I have learned since switching is State Farm is obscenely overpriced.

I deal with a broker as well, good friend who shops the heck out of my insurance every year, and always gets me the best deal with a reputable company. Insurance companies are only as good as your agent.

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:
40 years with the same company and you're going to ditch them and start over with some different people because they made a mistake that could easily be fixed?

Throwing the baby out with the bath water

I'd be talking with the agent before dropping the boom on them over 19 cents and a clerical error.

They sent a second cancelation notice AFTER he talked to his agent. They quit him -he didn't quit them.

Allstate did something similar to me, many years ago. Less than a dollar was involved.

quote:

Originally posted by triggertreat:

quote:

Originally posted by Pyker:
40 years with the same company and you're going to ditch them and start over with some different people because they made a mistake that could easily be fixed?

Throwing the baby out with the bath water

I'd be talking with the agent before dropping the boom on them over 19 cents and a clerical error.

They sent a second cancelation notice AFTER he talked to his agent. They quit him -he didn't quit them.

Yeah, I can read. thanks.

It's a mistake by the company. That's why you have an agent.

I had been with state farm since 2009 and in December 2019 I purchased a 2020 BMW R1250 GSA, called State Farm to add the bike to my police and drop the 2018 GS. Two months later I look at my policy and learn my new bike hasn't been added to my policy and the old bike hasn't been dropped so I've been riding for two months with no insurance. I go visit my agent, she promises to make the correction and a month later I still don't have my new GSA covered and a bike I haven't owned for 3 months is still on my policy. I contact my agent again, again they promise to get the mistake corrected and again they fail to add my new bike and drop the old bike so I drop state farm and go with Allstate. A week or so later my state farm agent sends me the updated policy and they added my 2020 GSA but dropped my Kawasaki H2SXSE instead of the 2018 GS. Fortunately I had already switched to Allstate, called state farm to remind them I canceled my policy, couldn't believe after 4 months the state farm agent couldn't simply add one motorcycle to the policy and drop the other. I had been with state farm for almost 10 years and hadn't been looking to switch until I encountered gross incompetence from my agent.

State Farm is a joke. Years ago, living in New Jersey, I was in partnership with an airplane. My partner had his home and autos insured with State Farm, and he arranged for coverage for our airplane.

A year or two later, I bought his interest in the airplane when I took a job in Puerto Rico. Flew the airplane down there. When the policy came up for renewal, State Farm informed me that they would only cover the airplane if I also had an auto policy with them.

"Fine," I wrote back. "Here's the information about our autos. Please issue the policy and bill me, I'll send you a check."

Their response was, "We do not write auto insurance in Puerto Rico."

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:


Their response was, "We do not write auto insurance in Puerto Rico."

I would go catatonic on the sheer stupidity of this.

I don't even know what to say. Your story keeps repeating itself in my head until it gets to the punchline "We do not write auto insurance in Puerto Rico." then i go over the story in my head.

It's like someone at their office goes, "Hey guys, I'm going to string this customer along and then POW! hit him with "we do not write auto insurance in Puerto Rico." Then they all have a good laugh.

quote:

Originally posted by Rey HRH:

I would go catatonic on the sheer stupidity of this.

I don't even know what to say. Your story keeps repeating itself in my head until it gets to the punchline "We do not write auto insurance in Puerto Rico." then i go over the story in my head.

It's like someone at their office goes, "Hey guys, I'm going to string this customer along and then POW! hit him with "we do not write auto insurance in Puerto Rico." Then they all have a good laugh.

Many of these insurance company idiotic actions are really blessings in disguise. They motivate customers to look at what alternatives are available.

In my case, AOPA* had a deal with a major aviation insurer that gave me a better policy at lower cost.

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*AOPA: Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, sort of like NRA but for flying instead of shooting.