Complaint Review: Direct General - Tampa Florida

Rude and uncooperative staff - Natasha Claudio, Ross Oaks, and Rosa Barreto Simpson. On Nov. 4 while driving back from an event in Montgomery Alabama, some animal darted out in front of me on interstate 85 at midnight. I continued driving not really thinking it damaged my car until 10 min. later I began to hear something dragging on the ground. Naturally, I thought it was the thing that I hit but instead it was my undercarriage that was knocked lose. I then proceeded to call Direct General. However, they were closed. So I called the following morning. I was assigned to Natasha Claudio who said she would record the call and do what she could to help. She then ask that I take the car to have it appraised. So I mentioned I would take it to Global Collision because it was a BMW and they only work on BMWs. When I took car there they proceeded to take photos. However, the photos failed to show the undercarriage dragging. Instead, I propped it underneath the bumper. She then proceeded to tell me after looking over the photos, she would have to classify this claim as a collision and my deductible would be changed from $150 (comp) to $750 (collision).

I was furious with this news as I stated several times, I hit an animal. She then got very loud and rude with me letting me know she wasn't changing her decision. I then asked the body shop to go ahead and make an appt to have it fixed and I would deal with the change in claims later. I just needed my car fixed before thanksgiving. However, the body shop didnt have any openings until Dec. 10. I therefore waited until then. When I took the car to have it repaired - Guess What - a dead animal along with other debris were all caught underneath my undercarriage. I have the photos to prove it from the body shop. it was VERY disgusting but Direct General insisted on proving the animal claim. Once they prove the claim, I began calling Rosa, Ross Oaks, and Natasha to have them change the claim back to a comp claim.

By then, I had started receiving mail from Direct stating my insurance had skyrocketed because of a "at fault" collision. Again, FURIOUS!!! I then called in Direct on Dec. 18th and spoke to a very pleasant person who stated she would get someone to look into this matter immediately as she tried connecting me with Natasha. In fact, in the month of having this claim, I've called Direct General 17 times with 8 of my calls handled. The other times were ALL voice mails to Rosa and Natasha with NO return calls. The person from Direct then got back on the phone mentioning she would escalate the matter with a Hadie. I then received a call from the body shop stating they had changed the claim back to a comp claim and approved the supplemental work.

So naturally, I was relieved UNTIL traveling home on Dec. 26. I called the body shop letting them know I was on my way to get my car. Dot, manager at Global Collision stated unless they received a check for the supplemental work they couldn't release the car. I then called Direct and asked where the check was and FINALLY was able to speak with Natasha who stated she never saw the supplement sent over by Juliette Lightner with Innovation but would look into the matter. She then proceeded to tell me once she approves it I would still need to pay the collision deductible. I clearly thought she was mistaken as I received confirmation they had changed it after receiving the photos of the animal underneath my car but as usual, she was very rude and abrupt with me to point of yelling. I was absolutely over Direct at that point and started researching attorneys who work on "bad faith" insurance companies claims because this is clearly bad faith on many levels. By the looks of the reviews on this site, I'm not the only one who's had a bad experience with Direct. Please train your reps as they are giving you a really bad name and it's only going to get worse: Natasha Claudio, Chandra Wofford, Ross Oaks, Rosa Baretto Simpson are ALL very unprofessional and RUDE. The only one who was able to assist me was Carol Smith.