State Farm agent...shop somewhere else if you don't like rates of deregulated companies.

[madfloridian]

Run time: 01:40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8PKXJyULZ4   Posted on YouTube: June 22, 2009 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: June 25, 2009 By DU Member: madfloridian Views on DU: 2933

 
Things are happening fast now about the new bill that would allow State Farm and a few other elite type companies to set their own rates while other companies' rates are regulated.

Charlie Crist vetoed the bill today, but odds are good the legislature will override his veto.

We have been with State Farm for 40 plus years, but tomorrow I call my credit union which has offered to help us do a search for a new agent. We have stuck around and waited, but the attitude now is getting to me.

The agent in this video says if you don't like the rates of the companies that are deregulated, then "shop somewhere else." Thanks, Kathy Fain, I think we finally just might do that. I wonder if that attitude is prevalent among agents right now? The agents and their staffs have a lot to lose if State Farm leaves.

It does not seem fitting for Ms Fain to sound so arrogant. There are approximately 800 agents and 4500 staffers with State Farm. It will be devastating if they leave.

Ms Fain is not our agent, but the tone just hit me so wrong.

Here is a summary of what happened today and a look at the bill.

Crist vetoes the so-called "State Farm" bill. GOP legislators vow override.

Gov. Charlie Crist has vetoed the “State Farm” bill, a bill that would have allowed large insurance companies to sell property insurance policies with unregulated rates.

In his veto message, Crist said the bill would benefit “a select group of property insurance companies” and allow them to “cherry-pick, or sell only to profitable policyholder risks” while “offloading their undesirable policyholders that are higher risk to their competitors and Citizens Property Insurance.”

He said the bill also contains no guarantees that the companies allowed to sell the non-regulated policies would stick around—they could still dump their policyholders and leave the state.

..."Rep. Bill Proctor and Sen. Mike Bennett, sponsors of the insurance rate deregulation bill (HB1171) vetoed earlier today by Gov. Charlie Crist, are among the many legislation supporters (AIF, Florida Chamber, to name some) who are issuing statements of "disappointment" in his decision.

But the joint statement issued by the lawmakers is significant in hinting at plans to seek a veto override. That would require a 2/3 vote by both chambers. During session the bill got yes votes from 85 percent of the Legislature.

State Farm arrogantly says they are pushing ahead with their plans to pull out.

"State Farm officials in the Winter Haven Regional Office indicated Wednesday they are going ahead with the plan to pull its property insurance business out of the state.

“Obviously we are greatly disappointed along with the majority of legislators, who approved the Consumer Choice Bill and the majority of Floridians that the governor chose to veto the bill,’’ said Michal Connolly, State Farm spokesperson.

“We will proceed with those plans to discontinue Florida property lines. We are in active negotiations with the Office of Insurance Regulation on our timeline,’’ she said"

We had tried to be practical and remain where we were if possible. But all of it today just hit me wrong.

Oh, and if you don't want to insure my house you don't get to insure my car.

[DJ13]

1. Insurance needs to be nationalized

Theres no reason for a profit motive in that business.

[madfloridian]

2. Note there is no mention of valued customers. Not a damn word.

All the people who have been with them for years are being treated just like that.

[tsuki]

14. We had all our insurance with State Farm. We'll be pulling all our

business, not just the house.

[EnviroBat]

27. Me too..

After the bending over I just got from them on a motorcycle accident. Original estimate was $3000.00. State Farm send their "adjuster" out to the shop. Subtract my $500 deductible, and I end up with a check for $1100.00. Thanks a bunch State Farm! I've been a loyal customer for 12 years now. I think I'll be shopping for another insurance company.

[wolfgangmo]

34. Get estimates and other evidence including a letter from your repair shop

And challenge their settlement.

If they balk then the next step is to take them to small claims court. If they don't show up, you win by default.

[ChiciB1]

19. I've Lived Here (Florida) For Too Many Years... I Had To Change My Insurance

too many times! It's SICK!! Good customers, not claims and we get NADA, only RATE HIKES and dropped like a hot potato!

[madfloridian]

20. We are calling tomorrow to see what we can find.

Yes, it is sick how they can treat us.

[ChiciB1]

25. Thank You "madfloridian" You Are SO GOOD At All Things Like Ths///

I applaud ALL of your good coverage and hard work!!

[madfloridian]

26. Well, we have waited until June because the office asked us to do so.

Then we get stuff like this.

Fed up.

[Jakes Progress]

31. You used to be clients.

Then you became customers. Now you are blips on a computer screen - revenue streams.

I think I remember that on the old Father Knows Best series, the wise Jim Anderson was an insurance agent. Don't think the image of a kind and caring insurance agent would fly very well today.

[jgraz]

18. I agree. This is part of a social safety net.

Nationalize all of these criminal protection rackets. I have no problem helping pay for everyone's housing or car insurance (up to a reasonable point). The private companies can hang around to insure the mansions and mercedes.

[HowHasItComeToThis]

3. MOYERS USED TO TALK ABOUT PRODUCERS AND PARASITES

[lindisfarne]

4. Property insurance along the coasts and in earthquake-prone areas is only going to get more expensiv

and harder to get. They're worried about global warming along the coast, both rising sea levels and hurricanes.
The Feds have got to stop people from rebuilding along the coasts. It will never happen, but in 50 years, many of those properties will be gone and others threatened.

Doesn't excuse the agent though.

[madfloridian]

5. Not all Florida is on the coast. Agents don't have to be arrogant.

Which is really my point when I posted the video.

Also let's take that further...keep people from building on any coast in the country. It is not just Florida.

[lindisfarne]

6. I never said it was just FL! And I did say the agent's behavior was inexcusable. Insurance companies

up their rates throughout a state to offset past/potential losses, if the state doesn't regulate them carefully (and I doubt FL does). It's not a state I'd want to have to deal with any kind of insurance in. Not great on consumer protections. Good for the current gov, though.

[madfloridian]

12. It's just so frustrating. Thing is...it's just happening here first.

It will soon happen all over as storms intensify.

[RandomThoughts]

24. If it happened in every state they couldn't do it.

They can't pull out of every state. StateFarm did the same thing in California when the Legislator tried to regulate car insurance, they threatened to pull out of the state completely.

What if they pulled out of every state. That is why insurance is a national issue, not a state issue.

[Jakes Progress]

32. Here in Texas, it wasn't the insurance losses,

but the free wheeling investments that the insurance companies made in real estate and energy that caused their financial problems. On a strictly profit and loss from insurance claims, the companies would be doing alright. So because they got their industry deregulated so they could play the market, their customers have to pay to make up the investment losses. All legal now thanks to the big business friendly Texas lege.

[WyLoochka]

41. It is the east and gulf coasts

that present the hazards. The west coast is not exposed to the same ramifications of submersion, hurricane effects etc due to climate change largely because of the way the continental tectonic plates are shifting westward up and over the plates of the Pacific Ocean (sea level developed areas are no where near as extensive on the west coast as the east) and the way hurricanes/cyclones move - the movement is generally west-northwest.

Insurers are, and have been, scrupulously watching, as required by law to maintain adequate reserves to pay potential claims, their amount of property exposure and pulling back from property coverage where over exposed all the way up to Maine for years. Florida being a sea level peninsula that is pretty much a bulls eye target for hurricanes is the number one most exposed state.

You are going to think I have a "bad attitude" - but this really is the "free market" at work and I have no argument with it in this case. Not being able to get affordable property insurance in an area exposed to growing threats from wind storms, tidal surges and hurricanes should be a clear message to people living in those areas. Move.

I will add, I do not think the federal government should provide the insurance for people who know climate change is happening and know they are living in an area that will be submerged. Insurance is not for risks that are going to happen with a fairly high degreee of certainty for everyone in one area. It's about spreading risk for things that may or may not happen at an occurrence rate of 30-40 percent.

Though the woman phrased it badly, it is true - if State Farm is to stay active in the property insurance market in FL - they need more money to build up the required reserves in order cover the claims that will occur.

Again, I will not support the federal government stepping in and spreading the insurance costs of Floridians who choose to remain in the number one exposed area to the rest of us.

This is why climate change is heartbreaking - millions and millions of people all over the globe will have to uproot and move somewhere else. Migration is the biggest challenge.

[Mojorabbit]

10. I live well inland and my policy is being canceled. nt

[lindisfarne]

11. It's happening in CA too. Before the home market collapsed, homeowners were advised to

line up property insurance before completing a home sales contract because many people were finding it difficult to get property insurance & banks wouldn't allow the mortgage without it. That was straight property insurance. Earthquake insurance was just expensive.

[trthnd4jstc]

7. I Wish There Were More Non-Profit, Mutual Insurance Companies.

Policy Holders are also Shareholders. Make The World A Better Place Now. Seek Excellence Always.

[CoffeeCat]

8. I'm not in Florida, but we do have State Farm...

...and I appreciate knowing what this company says and does.

We have been with State Farm for more than a decade and they have been very good to us. I'm sorry
to hear that they take this attitude.

Because seriously--with climate change impacting more than the coasts--it's only a matter of time before
we are all treated like the citizens of Florida.

Climate change will cause all sorts of damage along the coast--and will also produce stronger hurricanes, but
also the Midwest and Plains will be affected. There will be stronger and greater numbers of tornadoes. I'm
in Iowa, and in 1993 we had a "500 year flood"--and then again last year, in 2008 we had another "500-year flood".
Hellooooo?

The weather is going to continue to become more extreme.

Again, it is good to understand how SF is behaving toward our friends in Florida. These things matter.

[madfloridian]

15. Nice post, and you are so right.

We have been pleased with the two agents we have had over the 40 years. Now the arrogance and the greed appear to have taken over.

[Jakes Progress]

33. I've been with State Farm for 25 years,

same agent for 21. His office is fine, but one of the people there told me about ten years ago that they had separated the claims and agent relationship completely. Your agent has not pull with the company ability to help you. They are now just sales offices who have no say in the company - all that is done by the MBA whizzes and wall streeter wannabes.

[Mojorabbit]

9. That is just what my hubby told them

If they don't want to insure our house we will pull the rest of our policies too. I have been with them for almost fourty years with auto and we have been with them with homeowners for twenty plus years.It just amazes me. They have collected mega premiums over those years. We have till Jan to find another insurer for the house.

[madfloridian]

38. When I try to talk to the agent's office now, they just stonewall.

Time for change for sure.

[stlsaxman]

13. They dropped me because i made a claim followed a year later with a call about water damage...

which they called a "claim"... I just asked if i was covered and they called it a claim.

Fuck State Farm.

[provis99]

16. State Farm was the company that screwed up after Hurricane Katrina

they tried to deny claims to all their policy holders along the Mississippi coast after Katrina; unfortunately for them, one of the clients with State Farm who had his claim denied was Congressman Gene Taylor of Mississippi, who raised a big stink and forced them to backpedal. State Farm is the worst company in an insurance industry full of vicious crooks and thieves.

[madamesilverspurs]

17. A couple of decades ago

there was a flood in city in a neighboring state. A good friend of mine worked as an adjuster for State Farm, and they sent her to the area along with some others. She got to tell homeowners, some who'd carried policies for forty years, that they were shit out of luck. Afterwards, she took a few days off and thought about things. Then she went to her supervisor and turned in her resignation; she'd been with the company for about thirty years. She decided that being able to live with herself was more important than a paycheck from a company that would knowingly take money for worthless policies.

As a sidenote: State Farm is one of the larger employers in this area. So far, none of their people have shown up at any of our numerous and open-to-the-public healthcare meetings.

[Liberty Belle]

21. Sorry to hear this. We had 4 claims and State Farm was amazingly good to us.

All 4 perils -- wind, water, fire and theft. A couple were very large claims. Two were ones they could've weaseled out of, but didn't try.

In one case, we had a fire in a fuse box caused by a power surge. Their inspector found bad wiring in our box, but decided to pay up anyhow (the power company was really to blame for the surge, since our neighbors had one at the same time)

In another case, a burst water heater flooded 2 rooms downstairs. They offered to replace carpeting on all 3 stories of our home, much to my shock, telling us that the carpet was all connected and as long as there were no doorways, it was all covered.

There was a small wind claim years earlier on a prior house when a fence blew down.

The theft claim ($8,000) was big, and after that they did raise our deductible(understandably) but lowered it again after a few years with no claims.

I wonder if they're better in CA than elsewhere, or if we just got lucky?

[madfloridian]

22. We have not had problems. They are just up and leaving.

They show no feeling, no thought about all their customers. Just out of here.

[Liberal_Christian]

23. IT'S OFFICIAL. If this bill gets passed, I HATE democrats just as much as I hate republicans!!!!!

No single-payer
No regulation
No gun laws
More tax-cuts for wealthy
Low environmental standards

WITH DEMOCRATS LIKE THESE WHO NEEDS REPUBLICANS?!?!?!?

[Joe Chi Minh]

28. I don't really have too much of a clue about what this is about. But from what I read here,

the spokesperson has been most obliging by showing the company's colours in no uncertain fashion. That seems like a gift. To know what you're dealing with. It's good they're not slick enough to take a broader, more long-term view and show discretion.

It's the last thing I expect form American capitalism. Normally, where money is concerned, they show any amount of worldly wisdom and patience. What these nuts are doing is more my style of doing business. I remember raising my voice to a French woman at a translation agency there - then wondering why I didn't get any more work from them! Mind you it probably saved me from having a heart attack until a few years later.

It's wonderful to hear you getting you own back by not taking out your car insurance with them. It drives me mad that some big companies are regularly exposed by the newspapers, yet people here in the UK don't seem to have the savvy to boycott them, following all the name changes the companies make to conceal their original identity. And they get done again. I have refused overtures from them one way and another for decades, and that's not going to change. Indeed, I have happily cut off my nose to spite my face on occasions, figuratively shaking my fist at them: "THAT'LL LARN YOU!"

[MicaelS]

29. Farmers did this in Texas in 2002

https://www.alta.org/indynews/news.cfm?newsID=1639

[iscooterliberally]

30. I just bought my first home about 5 years ago.

I live in South Florida. There were NO private insurance companies available to me in 2004, so we had to go with Citizens. Our policy was quickly bought out by some company called Atlantic Preferred, but they went belly up as soon as Wilma hit us. We got the eye, so it was very bad. There was so much devastation. I hired my own public adjuster because Citizens really low balled our claim just to try to pay us off so we would leave them alone. You would think with the many years of premiums that State Farm has received they would be able to handle staying here anyway. Maybe part of this mess is because these insurance companies don't have the cash reserves to cover a catastrophe? Anyway, all this being said, I use State Farm for my 2 cars and 2 motorcycles. I had a really bad motorcycle accident late last year that kept me out of work for 7 weeks. State Farm took great care of me during that time, and really whenever I have made a claim. The only people in our area that have State Farm property insurance have had it for years. I didn't even know they ever offered it here. I spoke to one of my customers who lives in Alabama. He pays about 1 tenth of what I pay per year in property insurance to live in Birmingham. I'm thinking that property insurance and health insurance should be handled by the government instead. Oh and one word of advice, if you ever have to make a large homeowners claim no matter who is insuring you, get a public adjuster. They more than tripled the money I received from my claim and this is after I paid them their fee.

[santamargarita]

35. Never have and never will use State Farm - they can go fuck themselves...

along with the rest of these goddamn fascist pig corporations!

[Mugweed]

36. Go figure?

State Farm refused to convert our renters policy (that my wife had in place for almost 20 years, since she moved out at 19) to a home-owners policy...even though the policy itself said that it was designed to transition from renter to home-owner. We were told by agents repeatedly that despite the 2004 Florida hurricanes, this policy couldn't be refused. It was refused when we started the purchaseof a house. We dropped them completely (had auto also). Fuck the lying bastard assholes and the Republic party that supports them.

[Sailing]

37. I dumped State Farm 3 years ago...

When I found out how much they contributed to Republican PACs. No need for me to cut my own throat.

[1monster]

39. State Farm is closing the office from whom we've bought our car insurances for the last

thirty years in July.

They are consolidating all of their business from three agencies into one agency.

I guess it is time to shop elsewhere for my car insurance...

I've already hada to play musical insurance companies for my home insurance after being dumped by The Travelers after thirty years of doing business with them and my rates going from around $300 per year with a $250 deductible to $2,000 per year with a two percent deductible for wind damage and $1,000 for all other.

The next company charged $3,000 per year, ditto the deductibles of two percent and $1,000. Then they raised their rates to $3,500 and I screamed. My independent agent found another company with better coverage for $1,500 per year.

I'm just waiting to see what happens for next year especially if Gov. Crist's veto is over ridden. It gets a little old having to find a new home owners insurance company every year.

BTW, Bill Proctor was the legislator who sponsored this crappy piece of legislation. He was the president of the college I attened when I moved to Florida. He is the most arrogant bastard I've ever met and has always been that way. I could never figure out how he was able to walk around without triping over something... his nose is always that high up in the air. He treats his constituents who engage him with questions, suggestions, and criticisms like dirt. He belittles, puts down, and otherwise shows contempt toward them.

He received a group letter from a junior history class this past semester requesting that he support reinstating funding for the Florida public schools. He reply was so insulting that the students asked the teacher to publish it in the newspaper's op/ed page. I don't think he did, but Proctor would have deserved it if it had been published.

[snappyturtle]

40. Kick!

:kick:

[MasonJar]

42. Good advice. Now we need to get it out to as many as possible.