Complaint Review: Wilfredo Martinez -State Farm Insurance Waxhaw NC 28173

  I am not one to take the time and effort in writing something like this, but when I feel so strongly about an injustice, morally and ethically such as my issue, I feel it is imperative that I inform the consumer in the hopes that they can avoid the same issue. I have lived in NC for the last 7 years and when I moved here we had secured insurance with Erie for both our home and auto. No issues here. Erie is a great insurance agency. However, over the last last 2 years, rates on both had been inching up and up. As expected, we know this happens in the insurance industry due to national catastrophes, etc. However, after the last renewal and increase my wife and I decided it may be time to go out on the marketplace and see if we could shop for insurance and lower our rates. We contacted the local office for State Farm ( Wilfredo Martinez, State Farm Insurance, 203 N. Broome St., Suite C, Waxhaw, NC 28173. I discussed with Ms. Eilleen Torres ( office manager ) our insurance needs and we were on the phone for some time summing up the details....how many drivers, ages, driving record, cars, etc. She quoted me a 6 month rate of $955.60. I accepted it and submitted a binder of $250.18. Please note that only $159.27 went to auto the remaining balance went to my homeowners policy. This dispute is not with the homeowner’s policy. The binder was paid on July 16, 2014 and the auto policy was to go into effect on 12:01AM, July 20th. Fifteen days later I received a letter from some review agency that works for State Farm saying my coverage and my quote would not be honored. In fact the letter lacked even the least bit of etiquette. I never received a letter like this in my life and I have been driving for over 40 years. I showed it to my wife and she about panic because as a lay person it seemed to indicate we had no insurance and they weren't honoring any coverage. We went into panic mode and called Ms. Torres the next day and told her what we received. She was even surprised by the letter. Let me insert something here. The letter indicated that if I want a full report on the review I would have to pay $100.00 for it, but it did indicate that the reason was because my daughter and my son had not been driving for 5 years. That is actually incorrect my daughter has been driving for 6 years ( no accidents, tickets ) and my son yes, was only driving for 4 ( no accidents, tickets ). Eilleen Torres new this when we were working up the quote. When I called her the next day about the letter I asked her "did I not supply you with this information when we discussed this" and she said "yes, you did"? She also added I plugged that information into the computer and came up with the rate I quoted you. I don't know why they changed it

Now here is where it gets interesting. I asked her what does this mean am I driving with no coverage. She advised me I am covered, but I will have to pay $160.00 more and my son will be dropped down to a Tier II level with reduced coverage. It also affected my homeowner’s coverage because now I had a $2500 deductible instead of $1000. She tried to explain that, but it made no sense to me. I told Ms. Torres this is not acceptable and please cancel my insurance effective that midnight. This would have taken effect on Aug. 6th. Therefore, I had 17 days of coverage. I asked her would I be prorated and get a refund for the difference I wasn't covered for and she said "yes". I waited, and waited, and waited for a check to come in the mail. I did the math and I should have received a check for approximately $70.00. When I didn't receive one I called Ms. Torres again and she advised me that I was short charged and would not receive a refund.  I didn't even know what "short charge" meant since she never advised me of this when I cancelled and I asked her where does it say that? She told me to read my policy. I told her I never got one. Which I never did and she was surprised by that. I was never informed of this verbally or in writing. I asked her for literature that shows this. I came to the office and she printed it out. It's in the "A Consumer's Guide to Automobile Insurance from your NC Department of Insurance”. Now here is my dispute, on page 15 it sates, Pro-Rata Cancellation...”this type of calculation is used when the company cancels your policy. It will generate your refund, without any penalty for canceling during the policy period". Short Rate Cancellation...”this type of cancellation may be used when the policy is cancelled by you or by a premium finance company. It will generate your refund minus a penalty for canceling during the policy period. The penalty amount varies according to the total premium and the amount of time left in the policy period". State Farm cancelled my policy, I didn’t. By not honoring what their representative in Waxhaw quoted which was accurate and complete meant they cancelled the policy. Let me ask you something, if this was you and you had called back and Ms. Torres told you it was going to cost $1000.00 more to be insured with State Farm, would you do it? This was nothing short of extortion. I cannot say with any certainty if this was a mistake by Wilfredo Martinez State Farm Insurance or just an indiscriminate policy that State Farm decided to apply, but I want to forewarn others of this potential pitfall and make an informed decision on where and who should supply your next insurance needs. By the way, I did secure auto insurance with Geico and now have better coverage then my original quote and $100.00 cheaper.