Complaint Review: Allstate Insurance Agency - Internet, Roanoke Virginia

I contacted my Allstate Agent at an Agency, here in Michigan to change my policy, because I purchased a new vehicle.  I told the lady on the phone that I was selling the car that was originally on the policy and it needed to be removed by the end of the week.  I then obtained a quote for my new vehicle that was to be added to the policy.  I was quoted at $670 for 6 months, or about $112 per month. I accepted to have a policy with them.

A month goes by and I get my first bill - the bill is for around $250.  I didn't look too much into it at the time, because I thought it was some sort of surcharge for removing my sold vehicle.

The second month comes around and it is still the same $250ish amount.  I jump online and check my policy and come to find out, my sold vehicle was never removed from the policy.  I called the Agency to demand an answer as to why the vehicle was never removed and the lady tells me this, "I see what happened... when we took your original car off the policy, it changed your status to an "inexperienced driver" because you are only 22. The policy would have been substantially higher if we were to take the car off the policy, rather than just leaving it on and you not paying the "inexperienced driver" rate."  I asked why I was not informed about this and she did not have an answer for me.  So, I was better off paying for a car that I didn't own, so I wouldn't be labeled as an "inexperienced driver."

I then sent an email to Allstate through the online email at Allstate.com.  It explained the entire story, mentioned above.  I then received a voicemail from a lady at the Allstate Corporation. I called her back a few days later and we discussed the matter.  She straight up told me, "well Mr. _______, we are sorry for this inconvenience, but it looks like you are going to have to pay that amount.  It's just that it would be frowned upon by the Government if we were to write this off."  I tried arguing against this a little longer stating things like, "you seriously think it is fair for me to pay insurance on a vehicle that someone else owns, because the Agency didn't want to tell me that my rate would increase by removing the vehicle?"  None of my ranting really worked. I could tell that she thinks in numbers and the outcome of things, rather than what the customer is going through.  At the end of the conversation, she told me that she would look into the matter with the Denoyelles Agency and see what happened.

She called me back a few days later explaining to me what I've already known; "So I see what happened, you went to remove a vehicle from your policy and add a new one, but they didn't remove it because your rate would have increased due to you then being considered an "inexperienced driver."  I thought in my head, "no sh*t."  She got to mentioning that this changes nothing and that I would still be required to pay in full. I straight up told her that I was not going to pay, because I was not to blame for the issue at hand.

I only had a couple of weeks left on my policy and I was already pissed off, so I let it cancel (the only poor choice I made).  The policy was canceled due to non-payment and I started receiving collection notices from the Credit Collection Services of Needham Heights in MA.

I called her to compromise with the payment and told her that I would pay the amount that I owed AFTER I knew about my policy having the sold vehicle on it.  She wrote a letter back to me describing that she obtained the pro-rata charge, figured by their "manual rating group" and that the charges removed from the $255, came out to be $5.62.  The time that I mentioned I would pay, would be between 3/6/10 to 3/22/10.

I wrote back to the Allstate representative explaining that it is basically insulting to take $5.62 off of what I owed.  What kind of pro-rata factors are they using over there?! I figured out the math myself and sent a return letter.

I've since received a collection notice explaining that I owe them $250.27 (has the $5.62 taken off).

They don't seem to get it - it's either compromise, or I don't pay.

Allstate will never see a penny from me again.