Complaint Review: GEICO - Virginia Beach Virginia

What was the outcome of your situation? I've had a similar horror story working for GEICO where I too was wrongfully terminated. Since it is "at will" employment, they can do whatever they want to there and employees have no rights.

I worked at the Virginia Beach Office for 5 years. I worked downstairs and never had run-ins with Charles but heard some things. That does not mean that your firing was unjust. Now don't get me wrong I had many problems my first 2 years there with my then supervisor. But I kept doing my job, exceeding my goals, and making the proper complaints. Eventually I transferred to another department and this monster of a supervisor was moved into a position where she did not supervise anyone ever again, Thank God! There are crappy people at every job and with an office as big as the Virginia Beach one it is likely that horrible supervisors will slip through the cracks. I must say that in my opinion the HR department is wonderful and willing to help people however they can. I left GEICO after I gave birth to my daughter. I had a horrible pregnancy and used all my FMLA before she was even born. I was going to have a 2 month period after her birth that she nor I would have health insurance. I would be losing my GEICO benefits and my husband's insurance would not pick up until 2 months later. Well during that time I was without insurance (I was on my maternity leave but because I was not coming back and my FMLA was gone I was technically not an employee of GEICO anymore) my daughter became deathly ill at 6 weeks old and had to have major surgery. Through the grapevine, Sue in HR heard about her illness and called me to check on everything. She also informed me that she would keep me as an employee on an extended leave of absence so that I could still have my health benefits my daughter's medical benefits would be covered. So thank you to Sue Zuraf and Wendy Daniels at GEICO for helping me and caring enough to find a way to solve my dilemma. There are a few bad apples everywhere but if you are doing what you are supposed to do then you will never be in the wrong. -Oh and everyone there knows you have to be employed the day profit-sharing checks go out in order to receive yours!

I worked at the Virginia Beach Office for 5 years. I worked downstairs and never had run-ins with Charles but heard some things. That does not mean that your firing was unjust. Now don't get me wrong I had many problems my first 2 years there with my then supervisor. But I kept doing my job, exceeding my goals, and making the proper complaints. Eventually I transferred to another department and this monster of a supervisor was moved into a position where she did not supervise anyone ever again, Thank God! There are crappy people at every job and with an office as big as the Virginia Beach one it is likely that horrible supervisors will slip through the cracks. I must say that in my opinion the HR department is wonderful and willing to help people however they can. I left GEICO after I gave birth to my daughter. I had a horrible pregnancy and used all my FMLA before she was even born. I was going to have a 2 month period after her birth that she nor I would have health insurance. I would be losing my GEICO benefits and my husband's insurance would not pick up until 2 months later. Well during that time I was without insurance (I was on my maternity leave but because I was not coming back and my FMLA was gone I was technically not an employee of GEICO anymore) my daughter became deathly ill at 6 weeks old and had to have major surgery. Through the grapevine, Sue in HR heard about her illness and called me to check on everything. She also informed me that she would keep me as an employee on an extended leave of absence so that I could still have my health benefits my daughter's medical benefits would be covered. So thank you to Sue Zuraf and Wendy Daniels at GEICO for helping me and caring enough to find a way to solve my dilemma. There are a few bad apples everywhere but if you are doing what you are supposed to do then you will never be in the wrong. -Oh and everyone there knows you have to be employed the day profit-sharing checks go out in order to receive yours!

I worked at the Virginia Beach Office for 5 years. I worked downstairs and never had run-ins with Charles but heard some things. That does not mean that your firing was unjust. Now don't get me wrong I had many problems my first 2 years there with my then supervisor. But I kept doing my job, exceeding my goals, and making the proper complaints. Eventually I transferred to another department and this monster of a supervisor was moved into a position where she did not supervise anyone ever again, Thank God! There are crappy people at every job and with an office as big as the Virginia Beach one it is likely that horrible supervisors will slip through the cracks. I must say that in my opinion the HR department is wonderful and willing to help people however they can. I left GEICO after I gave birth to my daughter. I had a horrible pregnancy and used all my FMLA before she was even born. I was going to have a 2 month period after her birth that she nor I would have health insurance. I would be losing my GEICO benefits and my husband's insurance would not pick up until 2 months later. Well during that time I was without insurance (I was on my maternity leave but because I was not coming back and my FMLA was gone I was technically not an employee of GEICO anymore) my daughter became deathly ill at 6 weeks old and had to have major surgery. Through the grapevine, Sue in HR heard about her illness and called me to check on everything. She also informed me that she would keep me as an employee on an extended leave of absence so that I could still have my health benefits my daughter's medical benefits would be covered. So thank you to Sue Zuraf and Wendy Daniels at GEICO for helping me and caring enough to find a way to solve my dilemma. There are a few bad apples everywhere but if you are doing what you are supposed to do then you will never be in the wrong. -Oh and everyone there knows you have to be employed the day profit-sharing checks go out in order to receive yours!

Brian, it seems that you are leaving out a lot of the story. I work in Texas for GEICO and although there are frustrating moments, GEICO has been good to me in the five years I have worked for them. You made a comment about training. I know first hand how the training department works and it is very detailed. You have to be real with yourself and admit that you had some wrong doing in the matter. I strongly feel that GEICO doesn't fire people, people fire themselves. It seems your main issue is with your profit sharing check. You fired yourself from the company by not following guidelines, how can you honestly expect them to give you a profit sharing check. The check is not a guarantee or a promise; it is something the company does for its employees. You are not entitled to it under any circumstance. And if it is so bad then why are you concerned a manager reviewing your reinstatement. Life is too short to be miserable. If you hate your job then find another one. It's very simple.....

Robert are you the Robert 36 (Thought he was older - yes I remember the last name leaving it out here) that lived with a Brian?? Don't think you are just a little in house humor from a former employee. As far as Charles goes he did leave the company a long time a go, went to another company, I don't think mentioning his business is the moral thing to do even though I did not know or like the guy personally. Targeting - well in VA a company can fire you for any reason what so ever. They do deal with some crazy stuff and they have downsized many times from staffs of 400+ in certain departments to 180-160 can not recall the exact number. I know entire teams that are gone. The turnover is over 40% in most areas and that is not only from people moving on their own. But the same is true everywhere. Why (other than your pain) shout about them, or whine about someone in their full name. Look I still have some friends with the company, and there are also people that I will never regret not seeing again. But that is true no matter where you work in the World. I do not think they are an evil empire but boy I felt that way once when I was blinded with frustration on how they treated another prior employee, at a time when I was frustrated too. They would hire some smuck from outside who would turn around and do something very stupid and then they would have to fire them, all the while front line staff off all levels where not promoted. So I understand your feelings, but breath deep and move on. Now when you are on staff you are lead to believe this is not so, and that HR is on your side. But at no company are they ever on your side Brian. They work for the management dealing with you. Not the other way around. Yes you can play some games with them and make a small change here or there because they want to keep up appearances for others. But at the end of the day they will do what their business needs tell them to do. If that is fire you, or work you out the door, like any company they will do it. I hope you can move in and do not let the baggage follow you for too long. Suing them or taking this on would be a complete waste of time, and would only benefit an attorney should you ever win, which I do not have a clue how you would. They can roll out staff at anytime to swear to anything they want. So even if you had a case in fact you don't in the real World. I am not sure how long you worked for them in service, sorry it went bad, but man customer service jobs are dime a dozen in the area now. If that is what you want to do you can go online and find 20+ companies hiring this week. Some paying better! If them terming you is effecting you getting another job, go get a job anywhere work you but off then ask for a reference in 3-6 months. If your a good worker you will get one from any good Supervisor/Manager anywhere. Do not let anyone get you down. Do not let anyone ever make you feel taken advantage of, it is not worth it move on. I do wish you the best in life I am certain I have seen you doubt that I knew you.

I work for Geico in Virginia Beach also and have to agree that they can definately target people. Have you contacted the EEOC about this situation?

What you said here is sooooo true Geico is the worst company I have ever worked for !!!!!!!Management is very rude and nasty we also have the most vile HR manager in the world Gloryanne Holbook. That woman is pure evil but that's another story for another day! However I know for a fact that there are many sales agents at geico that sell a policy with false info just so the customer will by the policy such as a customer may request BI(Bodily Injury) for ex @ 100/300 and they will make it 25/50 or whatever the state mininum is for the customers particular state, or even worse put in a vin # for a different veh to make the price cheaper and the customer does not find out until they get their id card and binder.(In NYS this ca be a ightmare as the police and the dmv are very strict about id cards ad fines are huge.)and the sad thing is this happens all the time. Management also tells agents not to document calls when a customer calls in so if something happens we have no record the customer called in. That means customers can call and spend and hour on the phone re something with their policy and when they call back there is no record they had a called the first place. They do this so if there is a lawsuit they can't use geico records. !!!!!

To the last poster. Can you tell us GEICO's turn over rate? If they didn't care, then why was Charles investigated? Doesn't that say something about GEICO? Do you think there may be some bad apples like Charles in such a big business that some may slip through the cracks? Profit sharing checks are part of your salary or is it just something that GEICO does if they make a profit to help their employees? Can they stop that tomorrow and say we are not doing it? If they did, could you say it's part of my salary, you must give it to me? Can you post some cases where GEICO was force to give someone a profit sharing check? There are databases where you can search all court cases against people and companies and see the verdicts. I tend to think that if anyone was fired or left the company and did manage to get one, it would not have been a verdict from a court, but possible the company settling knowing it would be cheaper, but I do look forward to seeing one or even better, more than one case of that happening. I am seriously ignorant to all of this and it would really open my eyes. It seems to me like you are giving some false, inaccurate and contradicting information. You and I know that I could really pick apart your entire post, but that's not what I want to do. You are thinking one sided like many people do on Ripoff Report. You think because something is effecting you negatively, you are being ripped off. When in fact, you don't understand it and that is why it happened, or your just mad and will leave bits and pieces out to make the story seem totally not your fault. To the original poster, profit sharing checks are not part of your salary.

I worked with Brian and will confirm his story is true. Geico will do anything and everything for the almighty doller. They continue to write their own laws and will continue to loose at class action law suits. Charles has left the company after a investagation against him. He targeted white people for dismissal and promoted blacks that were not quailified. Geico treats employees as numbers not as humans. We are told to do as trained (which their training is very poor) One of my trainers could not even do simple spelling or math. They do discrimated on education and profession to determine their rates. Alas, more class action law suites. But they are not paying for the law suites won against them, we are as customers of Geico. It is passed on in our rates. I am still a employee of Geico and will be leaving soon as enough is enough with their abusive treatmeant of their employees. As far as profit checks go it is part of our salary package for the year completed prior to receipt. Many have gotten their checks but had to uptain a attorney to do so. They continue to force employees to work off the clock even though they lost that law suite. We are threated everyday with termination to control us. That is why Geico has such a high turn over. Average time with the company is two years. The sad thing is the employees really care about our customers, but management requires us to only take two minutes or less on a call. Again, to make their set numbers of pushing the customer through. If the call last longer then the require time it is counted against us. We are forced to repeat commericals with every call. ( Commericals are don't call us do it on the internet) With that time frame we are told more profit sharring for us. Again the dollar is more important than employees or their customers. So next time you call Geico remember we hate having to say the same thing over and over to you but we are being forced to say it. And sorry we don't always take the time to really help you but we can't. Our calls are taped and everything we enter on the computer is watched. We are qualified insurance agents and our treated worse than animals. I have been with the company over eight years and am sad with the way we have to rush our customers off the phone. You make think our service is great because we are polite but are we really helping you when you have to call back many times to get the help you need. Again we are told get them on and get them off.

...And that is probably why this happened to you. Too much anymmore,greed an fraud are hidden in these companies' operations and it needs overhauled. A close friend of ours is a Level 2 Underwriter for Erie Insurance and has been with them about 15 years; and stories she tells us of internal threats, harrassment, and increased workload burdens is making people ill and stressed out... And they are now outsourcing many previous steps and having what is deemed "scalpers" coming through at unannounced times literally scaring people they will lose their jobs if they do not perform more and mroe than they already have. Many cuts have been made, and despite our freinds education and many years, she is worried she will lsoe her job as it will be outsourced now as cost cutting event for the corp. board's interests mainly... My wife worked for State Farm and her father retired 27 years from Prudential, and the stories I have been told of the inner goings on makes me sick! it is one thing to act and talk and walk as a legitimate business; but to create regulations by lobbyists sate by state to allow legalized fraud to the Amercican consumer is WRONG!! Anyone who is brainwashed into believing they are doing a service to people are brainwashed little drones and have no integrity about their fellow neighbor or man... If these companies really were up and up, they could save the $Billion annually in various advertisements and pass those savings back to customers in manner of lower rates...

Brian, I can certainly empathise with you. I once too was let go by GEICO, in my case at the Fredericksburg office. However, there was no controversy for me as I just wasn't any good as a sales agent. I now assist people with labor laws for a living and your letter interested me. Now you know as I do with our courtrooms anyone can sue anyone. Winning is another story. But as far as labor laws are concerned a company can fire an employee without notice or reason. There's also no law about the managers relationship with another. But THERE ARE laws about discrimination. Call the EEOC to file a complaint. Profit sharing is more tricky and I remember the brown boxes going out the door at profit sharing time and I haven't read when you left in comparison to their check distribution. They are not required by the law ERISA, to create a pension plan, but are required to meet minimum standards is how this law reads. Call the Employee Benefits Security Administration at (press option 2) and see if they can help you or not. They MAY be able to help without you having to go to court. Of course you can certainly pursue those options as well. Good luck! CLICK here to see why Rip-off Report, as a matter of policy, deleted either a phone number, link or e-mail address from this Report.

I wish I could sue my company for a gift of money that is not part of my salary, is not promised to be given or written in any type of contract.

Well, now for the latest. Through the Grapevine (A spy in the HR dept. of Geico) I have heard that some of the employees were asked to come to HR and discuss ME it seems that Geico had some suits (agents from corporate office) down to discuss what a bad boy I am and then the employees were told they were not allowed to discuss this with anyone or they would be terminated. Sounds alot like threats and infringement of their free speech. I am still waiting for Geico to send me my profit sharing check and have been getting in touch with others that were improperly terminated in regards to a class action suit against Geico. It is amazing to me that a check that I worked to earn could end up costing the company millions, alas, it is their confidence that they will win like they did with the overtime suit ummmmmm wait, they lost that one didn't they. anyhoo I am in talks with a lawyer now and he is helping he get the names together of those interested in the suit so more later loyal readers.

Well the latest update is that the Virginia Employment Commission found that GEICO was wrong to have fired me and found no case of "gross misconduct" as GEICO claimed, I am still in the process of contacting a lawyer in regards to suing.

Well the day has come, tomorrow I will go into the office I worked in in Vabch and ask where my profit sharing check is, I worked all year for this and have been informed I will not get it since I was not working for the company the day the handed the checks out.