A few facts first:
My name is Michael
My old insurer was
Travelers
My new insurer is All
State
I live in the state of
North Carolina
What happened:My wife and I had been
insured with Travelers for the past few years with a home and auto policy.
Around the first of December, we received a
renewal notice that stated our new policies would go into effect on December 29
th,
2009.
The problem with this is that
Travelers was increasing our rates even though we had zero claims or tickets
ever as their customer.
Since we were
not happy about the rate increase, we decided to shop around.
On December 12
th, 2009, we
purchased home and auto insurance from All State.
All States rates were much lower than
Travelers while providing the same amount of coverage.
We called our Travelers agent the next
morning and stated that we wanted to cancel our home policy effective
immediately, but leave our auto policy in place until December 29
th.
This is extremely important as North Carolina
requires continuous auto coverage.
My
All State policy was set to begin at 12:01 am on December 30, 2009.
A few days later we received a letter from
Travelers stating that our home policy was cancelled as of December 12, 2009
and our auto policy would cancel as of December 29, 2009.
At this point everything seemed kosher.
Around the last week of
January, both my wife and I received letters from the North Carolina DMV
stating that we had a lapse in auto coverage, and that we needed to prove to
the DMV that this was not the case. The
letter stated that our auto policy was cancelled as of December 12, 2009. Obviously this was a mistake as Travelers was
not supposed to cancel our policy until December 29. The penalty for a lapse in coverage is either
a $50 civil fine for each person or suspension of your vehicle tags for 30
days. I responded to the DMV with a
written note that they were mistaken.
Along with my note, I included a copy of my Travelers policy, my new All
State policy, and the letter we received from Travelers stating that our auto
policy would cancel on December 29. I
did not hear back from the DMV until the second week of February.
I received a response
from the DMV on February 8th, 2010.
In the response from the DMV, they stated that what I sent to them was
not sufficient to prove I did not have a lapse in coverage. They stated that if I did not provide them
with an FS-1 form by 5 pm on February 9th, the tags on both my car
and my wifes car would be suspended for 30 days. Alternatively, we could both pay a $50 civil
fine to avoid having our tags cancelled.
As I had no idea what an FS-1 form was, I immediately called Travelers
customer service number. I explained the
situation to the customer service rep that answered my call. I ended up getting transferred to another
dept. The next person I spoke to could
not help me either. All total, I spent
nearly an hour on hold while being bounced around to different representatives. I finally got tired of waiting, so I decided
to try again on the morning of the 9th.
On the morning of the 9
th,
I first went to my new All State agents office to see if he could help
me.
He did all that he could, but told
me that it would have to be Travelers that provided me with the FS-1 form.
After leaving my All State agents office, I
then called my former agent at Travelers and explained the situation.
She did not know what to do, but said she
would try to help me if I could come to her office.
On the way to the Travelers office, I called
the DMV and spoke to a customer service rep about this situation.
The woman I spoke to at the DMV was extremely
rude, even going so far as to accuse me of shirking my responsibility to stay
insured.
She continuously interrupted me
when I tried to explain the situation.
I
eventually just hung up as I was nearing the Travelers office.
Once at the Travelers
office, I spent nearly 3 hours with my former agent trying to get this
situation resolved. Her words were that
this was 100% Travelers fault, and that they would do whatever they could to
help me out. I explained to her that if
she could not get the situation resolved by 3:30 pm, that I would be forced to
pay the fine as I could not risk having my tags cancelled. Travelers was unable to resolve the situation
that day so at 3:35 pm I paid the fine via the DMVs website. When I asked my former agent how I could get
Travelers to reimburse me for this money, she said her office would go to bat
for me and that she would be in contact with me soon.
I never heard back from
my former agent even after leaving her messages on her voice mail.
On February 25
th, I contacted
Travelers customer advocacy group in Glenn Falls, NY.
I spoke to two women in that office for
nearly an hour explaining the entire situation.
One Travelers rep stated that she would look into the situation and get
back to me the next week.
This lady did
contact me the following Wednesday.
She
stated that Travelers would issue a new policy for the time period of
12/12/2009 to 12/29/2009, but the catch is that they would have to bill me $68
to cover this time period.
She said that
Travelers would not reimburse me for the $100 fine that I paid.
I was very enraged by
Travelers not reimbursing me for the fine I paid and also trying to bill me for
the remainder of the policy.
As such, I
filed complaints with both the Better Business Bureau and the North Carolina
Department of Insurance.
The Better
Business Bureau complaint was a complete waste of time.
The person that answered the complaint at
Travelers admitted they made a mistake, but that I still owed them the $68 for
the reinstatement of my policy.
He again
reiterated that Travelers would not reimburse me for the fine, but that I could
contact the North Carolina DMV and request repayment of the fine as Travelers had
issued the FS-1 form.
The complaint with
the North Carolina DMV did bring about some additional infuriating
information.
I found out that Travelers
did issue me a refund of $42 when they mistakenly cancelled my auto
policy.
However, when I received that
money I assumed it was for the home policy which was supposed to cancel a few
days early.
When asked why they were now
trying to charge me $70 ($68 plus a late fee) for the reinstated policy instead
of $42, all Travelers could say is that they made another mistake and that I
still owe them $42.
Where do I stand now:To sum up, as of 5/13/2010, I still do not have
resolution to this matter. I have
requested reimbursement of the fine from the North Carolina DMV per Travelers
instructions, but have not heard back from them yet. I am still being billed by Travelers for the
money they say I owe them. As you can
probably guess, I will never ever do business with Travelers again. The easy thing wouldve been for them to
admit they made a mistake and offer to take care of this situation. However, they have continually skirted their
responsibility time and again. Bottom line: If you are thinking of
doing business with Travelers, stay away.
Stay far away.