A few facts first: My name is Michael
My old insurer wasTravelers
My new insurer is AllState
I live in the state ofNorth Carolina
What happened:
My wife and I had beeninsured with Travelers for the past few years with a home and auto policy. Around the first of December, we received arenewal notice that stated our new policies would go into effect on December 29th. The problem with this is thatTravelers was increasing our rates even though we had zero claims or ticketsever as their customer. Since we werenot happy about the rate increase, we decided to shop around. On December 12th, wepurchased home and auto insurance from All State. All States rates were much lower thanTravelers while providing the same amount of coverage. We called our Travelers agent the nextmorning and stated that we wanted to cancel our home policy effectiveimmediately, but leave our auto policy in place until December 29th. This is extremely important as North Carolinarequires continuous auto coverage. MyAll State policy was set to begin at 12:01 am on December 30. A few days later we received a letter fromTravelers stating that our home policy was cancelled as of December 12and our auto policy would cancel as of December 29. At this point everything seemed kosher.
Around the last week ofJanuary, both my wife and I received letters from the North Carolina DMVstating that we had a lapse in auto coverage, and that we needed to prove tothe DMV that this was not the case. Theletter stated that our auto policy was cancelled as of December 12. Obviously this was a mistake as Travelers wasnot supposed to cancel our policy until December 29. The penalty for a lapse in coverage is eithera $50 civil fine for each person or suspension of your vehicle tags for 30days. I responded to the DMV with awritten note that they were mistaken. Along with my note, I included a copy of my Travelers policy, my new AllState policy, and the letter we received from Travelers stating that our autopolicy would cancel on December 29. Idid not hear back from the DMV until the second week of February.
I received a responsefrom the DMV on February 8th.in the response from the DMV, they stated that what I sent to them wasnot sufficient to prove I did not have a lapse in coverage. They stated that if I did not provide themwith an FS-1 form by 5 pm on February 9th, the tags on both my carand my wifes car would be suspended for 30 days. Alternatively, we could both pay a $50 civilfine to avoid having our tags cancelled. As I had no idea what an FS-1 form was, I immediately called Travelerscustomer service number. I explained thesituation to the customer service rep that answered my call. I ended up getting transferred to anotherdept. The next person I spoke to couldnot help me either. All total, I spentnearly an hour on hold while being bounced around to different representatives. I finally got tired of waiting, so I decidedto try again on the morning of the 9th.
On the morning of the 9th, I first went to my new All State agents office to see if he could helpme. He did all that he could, but toldme that it would have to be Travelers that provided me with the FS-1 form. After leaving my All State agents office, Ithen called my former agent at Travelers and explained the situation. She did not know what to do, but said shewould try to help me if I could come to her office. On the way to the Travelers office, I calledthe DMV and spoke to a customer service rep about this situation. The woman I spoke to at the DMV was extremelyrude, even going so far as to accuse me of shirking my responsibility to stayinsured. She continuously interrupted mewhen I tried to explain the situation. Ieventually just hung up as I was nearing the Travelers office.
Once at the Travelersoffice, I spent nearly 3 hours with my former agent trying to get thissituation resolved. Her words were thatthis was 100% Travelers fault, and that they would do whatever they could tohelp me out. I explained to her that ifshe could not get the situation resolved by 3:30 pm, that I would be forced topay the fine as I could not risk having my tags cancelled. Travelers was unable to resolve the situationthat day so at 3:35 pm I paid the fine via the DMVs website. When I asked my former agent how I could getTravelers to reimburse me for this money, she said her office would go to batfor me and that she would be in contact with me soon.
I never heard back frommy former agent even after leaving her messages on her voice mail. On February 25th, I contactedTravelers customer advocacy group in Glenn Falls, NY. I spoke to two women in that office fornearly an hour explaining the entire situation. One Travelers rep stated that she would look into the situation and getback to me the next week. This lady didcontact me the following Wednesday. Shestated that Travelers would issue a new policy for the time period of12/12 to 12/29, but the catch is that they would have to bill me $68to cover this time period. She said thatTravelers would not reimburse me for the $100 fine that I paid. I was very enraged byTravelers not reimbursing me for the fine I paid and also trying to bill me forthe remainder of the policy. As such, Ifiled complaints with both the Better Business Bureau and the North CarolinaDepartment of Insurance. The BetterBusiness Bureau complaint was a complete waste of time. The person that answered the complaint atTravelers admitted they made a mistake, but that I still owed them the $68 forthe reinstatement of my policy. He againreiterated that Travelers would not reimburse me for the fine, but that I couldcontact the North Carolina DMV and request repayment of the fine as Travelers hadissued the FS-1 form. The complaint withthe North Carolina DMV did bring about some additional infuriatinginformation. I found out that Travelersdid issue me a refund of $42 when they mistakenly cancelled my autopolicy. However, when I received thatmoney I assumed it was for the home policy which was supposed to cancel a fewdays early. When asked why they were nowtrying to charge me $70 ($68 plus a late fee) for the reinstated policy insteadof $42, all Travelers could say is that they made another mistake and that Istill owe them $42.
Where do I stand now:
To sum up, as of 5/13, I still do not haveresolution to this matter. I haverequested reimbursement of the fine from the North Carolina DMV per Travelersinstructions, but have not heard back from them yet. I am still being billed by Travelers for themoney they say I owe them. As you canprobably guess, I will never ever do business with Travelers again. The easy thing wouldve been for them toadmit they made a mistake and offer to take care of this situation. However, they have continually skirted theirresponsibility time and again. Bottom line: If you are thinking ofdoing business with Travelers, stay away. Stay far away.
0 comments