Re: Update: Georgia DOT and State Farm (long)

[16V Jason <jason@scirocco.org>]

And I'll third it.
I know a lot of people have had problems with State Farm.  The truth of the 
matter is that people will always have disagreements with their insurance 
companies... it's in the nature of the relationship.

I did have a problem with State Farm following an accident I had in 1994 
that was deemed "An Act of God" by the Florida DOT as there was an oil 
slick on the road and I smacked a curb because of it.  State Farm sent me 
an appeal sheet because I tried to fight the Accident Surcharge they gave 
me.  The sheet had 5 criterion listed; if you met any one of them, they 
would remove the surcharge.  I met 3 of the 5, and they still refused.

When I moved to PA, I got a new agent, and we immediately got along 
great.  I asked for his help in the matter, showing him the evidence I 
had.  He said he couldn't remove the discount, but would do everything he 
could to help.  I was supposed to have the surcharge for 3 years and then 
return to normal rates.  At the end of 3 years, instead of just removing 
the surcharge, he applied an accident-free discount.  With that, I "earned 
the money back" that I had spent on the discount.

So, the point is -- with a good agent who knows you by name when he/she 
sees you, State Farm can be a very fair company to deal with.

Jason



At 01:41 PM 9/17/2001 , Michael Abatzis wrote:
>i'll second that. i got my insurance cancelled in MA; my old company 
>cancelled it because they said the address on the check i sent them didn't 
>match the address they had for me on file (i had just moved)! so i had 
>been w/o insurance for 2months without realizing it. every co in GA wanted 
>to charge me ~$2000/yr because of the lapse in coverage. i had mentioned 
>to my (now current) state farm agent that i did all my work on my car. she 
>said "did you do anything in the last 2 months? do you have receipts?" 
>sure. so she said she'd tell the office that it hadn't been on the road 
>during that time. got me insurance for $900/yr. super friendly.
>-michael
>
>>If you didn't catch the beginning of my saga, I hit some NASTY screwed-up
>>pavement seams in a construction zone in Macon, GA. I was on the way home
>>from Brian's engine swap party in Atlanta a few weeks ago. Bent ALL FOUR of
>>my OZ wheels, knocked my alignment out, blew a strut bearing and cracked my
>>windshield...among other things!
>>
>>I sent off the paperwork to GA-DOT, but when they told me it would be at
>>least 30 days until they got back to me, I decided to bring in State Farm. I
>>wanted to avoid bringing in the insurance company for the usual reasons, but
>>couldn't risk that GA-DOT wouldn't own-up to the incident.
>>
>>Fortunately, Katie and I switched to State Farm just a few months ago from
>>Geico. We also put full comprehensive/collision coverage on the Scirocco,
>>which we didn't have before. I can now safely say that, not only did these
>>decisions pay off, but I think I may have found the best insurance company
>>out there!
>>
>>The initial estimate was at the State Farm place, but they couldn't assess
>>the suspension & wheel damage there, so they told me they would meet me at
>>the shop when I had the car re-aligned.
>>
>>This morning, Doug from State Farm met me and Steve from Cars & Concepts at
>>the shop. He looked over the car, talked to Steve a bit, and waited while
>>the car was hooked up to the alignment rack. Doug was SUPER-friendly,
>>commented on how clean my car was (glad I washed it yesterday!), and signed
>>off on EVERY repair estimate that Steve had given him, without any hassle at
>>all. With all the damage, including basically all the front suspension
>>components, windshield, alignment, replacing two wheels and repairing the
>>other two, the total came to over $2400. He even INCREASED a couple numbers
>>he thought were too low! I also mentioned that I have so far been
>>unsuccessful in finding two replacement wheels, and he told me to give them
>>a call if I have to replace all four.
>>
>>My agent also said that, if GA-DOT doesn't pay for the damages, they will
>>assign the "fault" to me since there is no one else to blame. However, as
>>long as things are good for the next year or two, my rates will go up $70 a
>>year at most for the next two years, and perhaps not at all. I can live with
>>that.
>>
>>The real good news is that the rear beam checked out OK on the alignment
>>rack. It looks like I have a bent control arm and bad wheel bearing in
>>addition to the other damage. At first, even I thought Steve's estimate to
>>be overkill when he started including stuff like wheel bearings, but it is
>>now looking like he knows what he's doing. My car will be back up to snuff
>>in no time!
>>
>>I heard a lot of good things about State Farm before we joined, and now I
>>have my own recommendation to add. They're awesome.
>>
>>It is starting to look like a good day...
>>
>>Neal
>>
>>
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>
>
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