I have been a State Farm customer for over 17 years and switched to John's office because my original agent was over 25 miles away, John's office was just down the street. State farm has thousands of agents, the reason we pick one is to have an advocate, not just someone who signs you up and just collects his/her commission.
I thought the staff was a little rude, slightly unprofessional, but John seemed to have his act together so I figured I would deal with him and wound up transferring my home owners and automotive insurance, and added my girlfriend’s car to my policies.
My girlfriend had an accident last year, and while the main office handled the claim ok, there were some problems. John's office did not follow up to see if there were issues, we had to handle them ourselves. So much for doing little more than just collecting the commissions John.
The tipping point for me is
-last year someone broke one of my car windows. I did not have glass coverage and had to pay the money out of pocket. So I called John's office and got quotes. I decided against insuring both cars, but requested glass coverage for my car. This took three phone calls to his office. Sure enough the next month my monthly payment went up. I thought State Farm had me covered.
When I decided to review my expenses this year, and was shopping other insurance companies, I reviewed the policies and found I did not have glass coverage! I scheduled a meeting, took time off work. And met with John.
Talking to John about this first he verified I did not have the glass coverage and then he offered to get me a quote. I was more concerned about that I thought I was already paying for the glass coverage, I wanted to know what was going on with my policy, if I wasn’t paying for glass, what was I paying for? Asking John to verify what I had been paying, when the rates went up and he told me that rates going up after I requested additional coverage was ‘a coincidence’ and condescendingly said ‘Price of bread, milk, rent goes up all the time’ like I am clueless about living in America! Also, said it was lucky my car windows didn’t get broken and then I’d have to deal with that.. Gee thanks!
I know I was paying 32 a month when I bought the policy, am paying 40 a month now. 8 bucks a month is not a lot on its own, but that’s almost 100 a year, and when I get my six month renewals I check the increase, so I am an informed consumer. I guess my major malfunction was that I did not verify I had the glass coverage in my policy after John’s office told me I had it, and after I was paying more each month..
With John refusing to do more than say I did not have the coverage, and what a coincidence it was, but would not look into what caused the ‘coincidence’ he then suggested I find another agent (which I will be glad to do)
I guess I am glad that there are some satisfied State Farm customers using John's office. State Farm does have low priced insurance. Altho I know a couple of people who switched FROM John to another State Farm agent and saved hundreds! If you know a State Farm agent who does more than just collect the commission let me know, I am looking for a new agent, ASAP!
more