Frustrations at my job

Ugh.


People have no loyalty these days. They also don't seem to understand certain things.


I work in the insurance industry (Auto, Home, Life, etc) in sales. I work for the largest home and auto insurance company in the US.

I understand in this age and time, loyalty doesn't mean as much as price. I do get that. If you can find insurance somewhere else cheaper, you're going to change. Me personally, it would have to be a lot, as service means more to me than dollars (to a certain extent).

This is where it frustrates me.

We have a customer, been with our office for about 20 years. He's had two VERY large homeowners claims in that 20 years. We have paid out over 154,000 to this guy. He's always polite when he calls, always comments on how nice we are, etc. Just a tick over 3 years ago, we paid out 120K on a house fire.

He calls in on Monday, is switching his insurance to another company. Total savings for the year (between his car and home combined): 124 bucks. That just drives me crazy. I'm not even the owner of this particular agency and I want to blow up on this guy. But it is what it is.


Another thing that bugs me: People complaining that their rates went up when they had an at fault accident. Had a lady call in today mad because her bill went up 8 bucks a month, and we totalled out her car (8400) 4 months ago. Essentially she'll pay 288 more over the 3 years she gets rated for the at fault accident, and we gave her 8400.

Ugh. Just one of those days. Had to vent.

 

I've been a Bengals and Reds fan my entire life. Ugh (seeing your sports stuff).

I'm about to leave State Farm to open up my own independent agency, and it almost kills me. I hate the thought of actually selling insurance for someone else. But the opportunity to have my own State Farm agency wasn't a reality, and the opportunity for this and to move back to where my wife is from was too much. Even with all of that, I probably won't move my personal stuff away from State Farm. They've always done me well. Makes me sick to even think about it.

My dad worked for the same place from age 18 until he passed away at age 48. My grandpa worked there from the time he got out of WWII until he retired. I've had the same cell phone provider for 11 years now, and the same TV provider for almost 10. Been banking with the same bank since I moved to Indy in 2003. Just how I was raised. If someone treats you good, you stick with them.

As far as the study of "people who switched save an avg of X%"...well duh. Why would someone switch if they weren't going to save money? I think I saw within the industry that only 5-6% of people who switch insurance actually spend more to do it.

If a company dumps on you...then yes, I get that. Outside of that, it just baffles me sometimes.

 

You're in NY and SF dropped you for being coastal?
that doesn't make much sense. Aside from pulling out of Florida, I've not heard of a lot of that.

 

I know a lot of major companies have pulled out of high risk areas (I feel bad for people who have to have homeowners insurance in Florida)...didn't realize that State Farm and other large companies weren't writing coastal areas on the northeast coast.

 

It's a shame you don't know how things work.

1. Insurance companies don't compare apples to apples. If you believe that, you're being incredibly naive

2. In the State of Indiana (and most states) captive agents (that is, non independent agents) can't just "Match" insurance rates because someone else is cheaper. And if you are indpendent and you can do that, I wouldn't switch to you if you could...because you should've been giving me the best rate from the get go. As a matter of fact, if an independent is found to have not been doing his due diligence to get the best rate prior, they can be fined and have their license removed. So it's not as cut and dry as you'd like to think it is. Too many laws and regulations and such (good things too).

3. There isn't one insurance company out there who won't raise your rates for a surchargable loss. That's just business. And in this guy's case, it wasn't even a rate increase...just another company who has it less (and there is always another company who has it less...maybe you should start shopping around).

You say every penny adds up. I say that a lot of companies will down right screw you on claims. I hope that 124 dollar savings is worth it when he has a large loss and they deny it.

I worked in litigation for insurance companies for a long time. That happens a LOT.

 

Good for you. I hope you never do.

That still doesn't change loyalty. Or common knowledge for that matter.

 

Bingo.

My favorite thing is when people say "well, I've been with X company for 15 years and never had a problem with them"

My first question is "Have you ever had a claim" and many of them will say "No"

So then I ask..."how do you know they'll do you right if you do?"


For the most part...especially auto losses...most companies will not try to screw you over these days because there is no benefit to do so. Most of the time there are multiple parties involved, witnesses, police reports...etc.

But the homeowners insurance business? Totally different. And State Farm isn't perfect either.

We had a guy switch to us here about a year back. Prior to switching he had a large water loss. Pipe burst in his wall, flooded his floor boards, etc. Didn't know it was leaking until about a week after it happened. His company denied the claim saying that he let the leak happen for a week and didn't mitigate the damage.

That doesn't fly with me at all.