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Am I wrong or does State Farm Insurance sucketh?


polksalet
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How'd that happen?

 

 

:D um...keep in mind I was laying in a hospital bed pushing my morphine button. So I forget the exact explanation...but the book was $4100. But due to the shape of the car, low mileage for one, it was a 2000 model, so a 7 year old car with only 50,000 miles on it, whatever system he had, he valued the car at $7800. Minus the $500 deductible, had a check for $7300 the next week.

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USAA has been the choice for most military families for a long time. Good company, based in San Antonio. As far as Amica goes, they are small and regional so most are not aware of them; therefore USAA would get top honors of those companies of a large size. Makes sense, as their insureds tend to be a loyal group...

 

State Farm, Allstate and Farmers are typically 1-2-3 marketshare in most states for the large lines of auto and homeowners, so they get the most press for better or worse. They have the most exclusive agents, and have the most at stake when it comes to big disaster claims. Whole armies of lawyers on both sides have made careers of suing them and defending them, from individual suits and class action lawsuits.

 

There are 'X (company) sucks.com' sites for just about every large company in a given consumer industry out there. If you haven't already, Google your comapny's name + 'sucks' some time for an eye opener. For those interested, I have a little history of Farmers and the industry:

 

In the early 2000's, the Texas mold hysteria caused Farmers to lose over $1 billion in TX alone, in one year, due to having one of the most lenient forms for homeowner/renter water losses. Swinging from one ditch to the other, in order to preserve their ability to write new business in TX and elsewhere, they initiated a massive nationwide effort to exclude all mold from water damage, and were busy raising rates farther and faster than the competition.

 

Meanwhile, in auto, they also were busy 're-calibrating' how liability and physical damage claims handling was done, plus going to a 'predictive pricing model' based in large part on consumer credit scores. Leading the charge in many states in fighting for the right to use credit, although companies like Progressive and GEICO had been doing this for years, Farmers once again got its nose bloodied in court of public opinion and in the real courts.

 

All these concurrent moves resulted in bringing profitability back to good, and then to great (record setting) levels at the same time as customer complaints were setting records too, due to reduced coverages, non-renewals, higher rates and/or the use of credit. The whole industry was largely following suit, but it seemed Farmers was leading the way in high profile cases, and getting its nose bloodied in the process. It all peaked in 2003-2004, and Farmers ranked at or near the bottome in a lot of JD Power & Assoc. customer service polls. This is also when most of the anti-Farmers websites were started by insureds, claimiants, body shops, and sometimes, disillusioned agents.

 

Since 2004, Farmers has been busy reducing rates, changing some of its more harsh claims policies and widening coverages for the first time in a long time. The whole industry is doing the same thing during the prolonged 'soft market', but Farmers has more work to do than most to improve its reputation. On the flip side, Farmers has received many positive press notes for its claims handling during recent large loss events such as the Tahoe fires, tornados in the midwest, etc. What goes around comes around.

 

As someone here has already said, your dealings with your individual agent (and/or claims rep) has a lot to do with your perception of a company, so hopefully you have a good one. If not, change agents before changing companies to see if it helps, as having many years of tenure with a company can come in handy with respect to receiving 'mercy' for a first claim or traffic ticket (i.e. no rate raise), better discounts, etc.

 

Best of luck to all on this issue of dealing with claims. There are always many dollars and emotions involved.....

Edited by Coffeeman
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