Complaint Review: State Farm Insurance

“Like a good neighbor State Farm is there” In my opinion at the time was a very true statement when Tonya Schneider was in charge of that local insurance agency. My family and I were happy customers for many many years until Tonya Snyder retired. About four months or so after Tonya Schneider retired Jared Diskin became the new agent. In my opinion I thought Jared was a nice knowledgeable guy who always offered me something to drink any time I came in the office to speak with him on any subjects. Jared also gave me his home cell phone to call if there was ever an insurance emergency.

Up to this point in my business relationship with state farm was like their motto” Like a good neighbor State Farm is there” Then about six months later I walk into the office and ask for Jared and one of the secretaries said he no longer works here and hasn’t been here for about a month!!! No phone calls no letters no emails no text nothing!!!! I then asked did he leave or did you terminate him? I couldn’t get an answer to that question which I understand since there could be some legal issues and matters that could arise. I then spoke with one of the district managers of State Farm who told me that they apologies for the uncertainty brought on by this issue. Towards the end of the call the district manager tried to sell me on the idea of being a State Farm agent which I declined. After the call I thought this is getting weird but I thought give them the benefit of the doubt. You have to remember the State Farm motto “Like a good neighbor State Farm is there”.

After about month I dealt with a new State Farm representative Kirk Glenn who I also thought at first was good representative. After about three months paying my bill in person at the State Farm office Kirk Glenn mentioned I could have an automatic payment plan attached to my checking account to make it more convenient so I wouldn’t have to go into the office, so I said O.K. I’ll do it. At that point in my opinion I had the State Farm company motto feeling “Like a good neighbor State Farm is there. For about three months everything is going through aok on the monthly payment plan attached to my checking account. Out of the blue I received in the mail in my opinion a startling, shocking, aggressive ultimatum IN BLOOD RED CALLED A CANCELLATION NOTICE NON PAYMENT OF PREMIUM.  The ultimatum stated that they have not received payment for my policy and that if I didn’t make an immediate payment they would cancel my coverage. On this document it clearly states THIS IS THE ONLY CANCELLATION NOTICE YOU WILL RECEIVE!. I had my payment plain attached to a checking account that had a minimum high four figures low five figure amount and didn’t have any other automatic payment deduction programs with any other companies. I never received a call to my home from my State Farm agent Kirk Glenn or anyone in his office on this issue even though he had my home phone number. I never received a call to my office phone from my State Farm agent Kirk Glenn or anyone in his office even though he had my office number. I never received an email from my State Farm agent Kirk Glenn or anyone in his office on this issue even though he had my email address. I never received a text from my agent Kirk Glenn or anyone in his office. In my opinion I can guess what the official State Farm legal boiler plate reaction would be Its not our company policy to try and have your State Farm representative contact you if something’s inaccurate with your State Farm Insurance account, well that’s speculation anyways. But personal feeling of State Farm after this letter is now turning to Like a bad neighbor State Farm don’t care!

 I then made a call to my insurance agent Kirk Glenn to find out what’s going on The Woman who answered the phone in broken english said she would try to help me on this issue. After explaining the entire situation to her giving her my account number and other verification data  this is the response she gave me” You have too many address “  I thought this is totally surreal ! it would be like going to a pizza parlor ordering a large pizza and receiving a pair of  wing tip shoes. Now I don’t care if a person is Asian, African, European, South American, Middle Eastern, or from Mars I am an equal opportunity insulter and refuse to discriminate due to race, gender, religion and whatever else. Remember the State Farm motto Like a good neighbor State Farm is there or is it in my opinion Like a bad neighbor State Farm don’t care!.

After receiving that highly sophisticated and technical response she placed me on hold for a long period of time and then transferred me to Kirk Glenn so I get his solution to my issue. I asked Kirk what was going on he said in a jovial voice “your bank cancelled the automatic check payment arrangement” My response is why would they do that? “Well I’m not sure but you otta givem a call” I asked “before I do that could I receive a letter on State Farm letter head stating that the potential cancellation of my policy was due to my bank freezing the automatic check payment arrangement” his reply was absolutely!. So then I call the branch manager of my bank asking about the automatic check payment arrangement and why she said that they didn’t freeze the automatic check payment arrangement at all what she did say is someone at State Farm changed two of account number digits that would cause the automatic check payment arrangement to be flagged for inaccuracies.  I asked them if I could receive a letter on my banks letterhead verifying this conversation she asked when I wanted to pick it up. My response was after I pick up the letter from State Farm and to pay off the unpaid amount on my policy.

 When I got over to my State Farm office I immediately wrote a check for the unpaid premium and handed it to the two receptionists to which they gave me receipt for the payment in full. About two minutes later Kirk Glenn came out of his office and handed me an envelope that was supposed to be an State Farm letter that stated it was my banks fault that the automatic check payment arrangement had been cancelled. Thinking that this could turn in to a major fiasco I didn’t want to open the letter in the office instead I waited until I got home and this is what I received ! It was the same letter I received in the mail. Now in my opinion I’m now thinking “Like a cheap liar State Farm is there”. After reading the same letter I received in the mail I called the main office of State Farm in the mid west of the United States. I got on the phone with an individual who works in the State Farm complaints department. I gave the representative of the complaints department a complete overview of the entire issue I had been dealing with from start to finish she was very polite and agreeable that what had happened didn’t make sense.

The representative then tried to get me to call back to the local State Farm office were I later found out is where this monstrous nightmare happened. The representative then gave me the number to the head of the State Farm automatic payment plan. After calling and speaking to one of the people in charge of the State Farm automatic payment plan representatives it took them about two days to research what happened it turned out that someone in the local State Farm insurance office that I had done business with had changed two digits in my account number that caused my bank to flag the payment request and ultimately reject it. I asked the representative of the automatic payment plan department to send me a letter to verify the information that she relayed to me over the phone of her findings on State Farm letter head which she did. If my State Farm representative would have been honest with me and tried to rectify the problem would I still do business with State Farm? Yes I would. Do I think State Farm Insurance is a bad company? No I don’t. I dealt with the wrong representative in the wrong office in this matter.  Things happen in business but the things that happened in my case could have been stopped very easily without this rip-off report being listed.