Posted on 08/14/2012 9:57:45 AM PDT by surfer
Edited on 08/14/2012 10:00:28 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
I’ve been sending out some impertinent tweets about Progressive Insurance lately, but I haven’t explained how they pissed me off. So I will do that here as succinctly as possible. There’s a general understanding that says, “insurance companies— oh they’re awful,” but since Progressive turned their **** hose on my late sister and my parents, I’ve learned some things that really surprised me.
I’ll try to cleave to the facts. On June 19, 2010, my sister was driving in Baltimore when her car was struck by another car and she was killed. The other driver had run a red light and hit my sister as she crossed the intersection on the green light.
Now, I don’t discount the possibility that Katie was at fault in the accident, but it never really looked that way. The only witness who gave a statement on the day said that Katie had the light, etc. The totality of the evidence left some room for argument, but that will be the case any time there’s a catastrophic car accident that doesn’t happen underneath an array of video cameras.
One indication that the case was pretty open-and-shut was that the other guy’s insurance company looked at the situation and settled with my sister’s estate basically immediately. Now, because the other driver was underinsured, that payment didn’t amount to much, but my sister carried a policy with Progressive against the possibility of an accident with an underinsured driver. So Progressive was now on the hook for the difference between the other guy’s insurance and the value of Katie’s policy.
At which point we learned the first surprising thing about Progressive: Carrying Progressive insurance and getting into an accident does not entitle you to the value of your insurance policy. It just pisses off Progressive’s lawyers. Here I address you, Prospective Progressive Insurance Customer: someday when you have your accident, I promise that there will be enough wiggle room for Progressive’s bottomless stack of in-house attorneys to make a court case out of it and to hammer at that court case until you or your surviving loved ones run out of money.
Which is what Progressive decided to do to my family. In hopes that a jury would hang or decide that the accident was her fault, they refused to pay the policy to my sister’s estate.
Out of a sense of honor, and out of a sense of the cost of my sister’s outstanding student loans, my folks opted to try to go after the money through legal channels. At which point they learned another delightful thing. In Maryland, you may not sue an insurance company when they refuse to fork over your money. Instead, what they had to do was sue the guy who killed my sister, establish his negligence in court, and then leverage that decision to force Progressive to pay the policy.
Now my parents don’t harbor much venom for the guy who killed my sister. It was an accident, and kicking that guy around won’t bring Katie back. But kicking that guy around was the only way to get Progressive to pay. So they filed a civil suit against the other driver in hopes that, rather than going to court, Progressive would settle. Progressive did not. Progressive made a series of offers (never higher than 1/3 the amount they owe) and then let it go to a trial.
At the trial, the guy who killed my sister was defended by Progressive’s legal team.
If you are insured by Progressive, and they owe you money, they will defend your killer in court in order to not pay you your policy.
The trial was a real shitshow for my parents, and I did not love it either. As it happens, the jury did find that the other driver was negligent, which, if justice or decency are priorities for Progressive, will result in them finally honoring Katie’s policy. At this point, I hope you’ll forgive me if I wait for it to actually happen.
Don’t buy insurance from Progressive. Not only will you be paying the salaries of people who put my family through the wringer (really a smaller wringer that Progressive attached to the main wringer of my sister’s death), but also when the chips are down, your money will have bought you nothing but a kick in the face.
A manager at their claims office even had the nerve to ask me if my daughter was listed as a driver on my policy through another company! She was trying to intimidate me by hinting that she might notify my insurance company that my daughter was driving my car. I then advised her that since my daughter doesn't live with me and was over 18, she doesn't need to be on my policy. Bottom line, Progressive and its employees are evil!
Uninsured Motorist coverage (UIM) is normally sold in two forms: UIM Bodily Injury and UIM Property Damage. Some companies offer what is called Combined Single Limit (CSL) where the limit is available for either BI or PD. Limits for UIMBI can be upwards of $1M and more if there is an Umbrella Liability policy which has UIMBI limits available/selected. UIM should always be purchased at the same limit as the Liability coverage you maintain on your policy. Most states do not put small sublimits on UIMBI.
In September USAA will send me my 50 year decal. I won’t put it on my car but have been a very happy camper with them. A few claims (on Lightning and Hail damage in Colorado)were handled quickly and professionally. I agree, if you qualify, switch!
Just saw this on The Blaze.
Peter Lewis is a Soros type. That’s all that needs to be said. What else would you expect from “progressive” insurance.
Thanks for that info...unfortunately my state does not allow such coverage.
The chairman of Progressive Insurance is also a Marxist rat named Peter B. Lewis. The only entity I can find Joel Hyatt linked into besides his il-legal services firm is Al Gore’s Current TV network. I could be wrong and he and his father in law may somehow be involved in PI (would not surprise me in the least) but was unable to find any overt links. If you can direct me to something that shows this I’d be interested.
Same here. Two months ago I had the first accident I have ever had. I was backing out of a parking place and I tapped the passenger side front finder of a car that was behind me. No damage to my Ford F-150 bumper. But the plastic bumper of the other car was dented. This was in a parking lot but the city police were called - no tickets were issued but it was good that the policewoman filled out an incident report and gave copies to both of us. I contacted State Farm and they assigned me to what they called team 22. A team member called me later that day and I was told they would take care of everything. I would not have to pay any kind of detectable and that the other driver would be supplied a rental car while their car’s bumper was fixed.
I have not heard a word from State Farm or the other car owner since. I assume everything was taken care of as they said they would do. This was better service than I expected. I have two vehicles and a house insured with them.
I concur entirely with that. I’ve been insured by USAA from 1966, now for a total of 46 years, starting with when I got my first car. They’ve been 100% great and give terrific discounts to long term members.
My Ins. agent gave me a Progressive policy for my motorcycle. I canceled it immediately.
My future Son In-law was insured with Progressive and one Sunday morning he gets a text on his phone that Progressive was canceling his insurance as of the previous Friday.
He immediately contacted another Ins company and actually got a much lower rate. The policy was in force the very next day.
My future SIL had not received a ticket, nor had he been in an accident.
Thanks to Progressive’s retro active cancellation of his policy, NY slapped him $75 for driving without insurance from Friday to Sunday.
Seems the communists at Progressive and in my NY State government have a nice little scam going on to increase revenue.
A lot of crony capitalism going on in our government.
Turns out the comedian was wrong, Progressive did not pay for a lawyer to represent the other person in the accident, and they’re honoring the verdict of the case.
I would never do business with Progressive. First, I hate the word “Progressive”. Next, I can’t stand their stupid commercials. And I can’t stand Flo. Any company whose commercials are based on identify or feelings rather than stated facts does not have anything worthwhile to say about their product anyway; that’s most of them.
I have raised 4 teenaged children with State Farm. My second daughter had 5 accidents (minor) with State Farm.
Never had a problem getting them to pay.
Where did you read that?
Not a big deal. I live about a half hour’s drive from Progressive’s HQ, had a couple friends who at one time worked in their IT department (had a very informal tour of part of the facility years ago) and tend to follow news about them. Have been a satisfied Allstate customer for a very long time, but even if I were shopping Progressive is the very last company I’d choose.
I’m changing to someone else as we speak and I really don’t care if it’s higher. Progressive blows.
Most insurance companies play that game knowing their wallets are bigger than yours in hiring lawyers. I went round and round with State Farm for years for never paying off on two small claims, adding on or forgetting to add on items to my policy that just happened to fall in their favor and for putting the teens onto the higher priced vehicle. After taking over my grandparents’ estate, I found out they’d been charged for ridiculous items such as a non-existant fireplace. State Farm laughed, yes literally laughed, but wouldn’t reimurse us.
Sorry for your sister.
Finally dropped it in June. Went with Grange and saved 50%. Went from $129.00 a month to $67.00 with the same coverage. Can’t beat that!
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