Complaint Review: GEICO

In January 2007 I was involved in an accident in Louisiana. My car was side swiped on the right side when a car located to the right hand side of me veered over to the left. I called out a police officer to report the incident.

When the officer arrived on the scene, he was quick to point out, from my license plate, that I was not from Louisiana. He also knew the girl that had hit me. The officer did not take a statement from me or from my father that was in the car with me. However, no ticket was issued. Fault could not be determined at time, according to the officer.

I quickly reported the incident to Geico. The representative that assisted me was very understanding. I spoke to her regarding the officers conduct. She advised me to take action against the police officer for the inappropriate way he handled the accident.

Two weeks later when the report became available, I picked it up. The report had a lot of erroneous information. A lot of the facts pertaining to the accident were incorrect. For example, wrong addresses, wrong description, etc. However, the best part was that the office was now claiming that I was at fault.

Once again I spoke to the claim representative at Geico. She advised me to sit down with the police officers boss and explain the situation. In taking her advice, I did just that; however, it did not prove to be helpful at all. All good advice from Geico and up to this point I had been satisfied.

Here is where the unsatisfaction and confusion comes in to play. Geico had me go to a local claims adjuster. He took pictures of my car and totaled up the value of the claim. I was given a check in a matter of minutes. Great! The pictures of the damage were then sent to another claims adjuster that would look at the pictures to determine fault.

About two months later, I receive a call from another claims adjuster for Geico. He indicated that Geico did not find me at fault and that they would be going after AllState for the full amount of my deductible. One month later, another call from the same claims adjuster. He indicated that the Louisiana arbitrating judge ruled that I was 80% at fault and the lady that hit me was 20% at fault and that I would be getting part of my deductible back.

The following month I received a renewal policy in the mail from Geico stating that a surcharge had been added to my account. After calling Geico to question the surcharge, I was told that I was now labeled a high-risk customer. All of the discounts on my account had been dropped and the additional surcharge had been added. The customer service representative told me that Geico had put a special note on my account that I was at fault for this accident. Nothing was noted regarding Geico not finding me at fault or the 80/20% ruling.

After calling and leaving a couple of messages for the claims adjuster he finally called me back. He stated to me that once Geico pays a claim and/or an arbitrating judge finds a person at fault their underwriters automatically label the customer as high-risk. It does not matter if Geico did not find the individual at fault. Further if a claim is made against Geico, Geico will either list a customer as high-risk and there was nothing I could do.

So now I must live with high rates for the next three years. Nice, I wish I would have know this about Geico before I got their low price insurance.

I have spoken to several ex-Geico insurance customers and they have all been very disgruntled with Geico. Make a claim, get in an accident at no fault to you, and you risk being dropped or being label high-risk at an additional surcharge. This was my first accident in all of my driving life (in my 30s) and my first claim.

My advise, dont get Geico Insurance!

Mary
New Orleans, Louisiana
U.S.A.

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