Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
Like Scott, I firmly believe you must get to know your broker/agent and develop a good working relationship. You look after him and he'll look after you in return.
My dad told me when I first started driving, don't worry about which insurance company to use, find a good broker, stick with him and always treat him fair. While I don't know if you have brokers in the US, in Canada a broker is like a travel agent, he finds the best carrier, best packages, best prices and looks after all the details.
My broker suggested I put replacement value insurance on my house rather than depreciated value. The premium was about 30% more, but he assured me any major claim would justify the extra coverage. Well, I put the insurance on in 1975 and by 1996 had paid probably $15 to $20K in total premiums. Then we got hit by a bad hail storm, I called my broker and came right over, looked at the damage and asked if I had a favourite roofer and paint contractor. After all was said and done the final claim was close to $30K. If I had purchased depreciated value coverage I probably wouldn't have gotten anything because after 20 years the depreciated value of a roof and paint is pretty well zero.
I suspect a lot of the problems people are having with car claims are a result of trying to nickel and dime the coverage to reduce the premium. Then they get all upset when the insurance company doesn't buy the idea that your "old" car was somehow magically transformed into a "classic" when someone hit it.
As with everything else, you get what you pay for and there's no such thing as a free lunch.
Joined: Sun Oct 09 2005, 08:35PM
Location: Cleveland, Oh
Posts: 775
My parents had State Farm before I was born. When I was 16 I got insured on their cars by the same agent. When I got married my wife and I had all our car and home insurance with the same State Farm agent. Never a problem. Now the agents son is our agent and I NEVER had a PROBLEM with STATE FARM. I price check every once in a while but not worth switching. They have alway been easy to work with.
Same agent, same company for 36 yrs. My mother for almost 50 yrs now. Can't say enough good things about my situation. My daughter has tested the waters 3 times in 3 yrs. Her rates went up but it is justified. We are long time loyal customers and they treat us right. They have proven to be loyal to our family also. After what I have been reading here I feel good to have the coverage and support of my State Farm Agent.
I have had the most trouble when claiming the"other guys" insurance. That seems to be the time when I have more issues than ever!! Now I have had issues before with my own insurance coverage but most of the time it was worked out fairly easily. My brothers issue happened to be with an agent that we had used for nearly 40 years (mom, dad, g-ma, g-pa,and all 4 of us kids) the agent was now the daughter of the original but still the same agency.When his issue occurred the insurance co said they would cover the car no problem BUT the AGENT had to tell them that they (the agency ) had made a mistake. Now that just isn't gonna happen. So fast forward about 2 years the insurance co pulls all connections due to too many customer complaints about the BS from the agent. Serves that money grabbin ( insert expletive here ) right , Hope she goes broke!! !nana !nana !nana !nana !nana !nana
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
Its a little scary being forced to switch from the older generation who tend to look at the long term relationships, to the younger generation who seem to want everything "now". My long time broker retired and his son took over. Fortunately for me, his father taught him well.
Our first State Farm agent was border line, we came close to switching a couple times. Then he left and a new young gut came in. Luckily, he is the model of integrity! We found out we had a lot better coverage than we were told. The old agent was getting lazy. There were other policies he didn't know about that the young guy went and found for us!
The agent can make a huge difference, even with the same company. I have no doubt that the old agent wouldn't have lifted a finger to help with my Fury, but Matt went in guns a blazing and made sure I was HAPPY, not just covered.
Joined: Wed Jun 21 2006, 09:38PM
Location: OK
Posts: 899
That's another reason I dumped USAA was that the only way you could talk to them was to call their offices in San Antonio. My home and classic car insurance policies were through local agents with different companies. Having local reps made dealing with those companies MUCH easier. I switched from Allstate to another company after our local agent retired, and his replacement was a friggin' idiot. I am not married to any insurance company. The worst are the discount auto insurers that advertise on TV, like Geico and Progressive. I've known many people that both companies dropped after only one claim.