California Personal Injury and Insurance Blog

Progressive Insurance Disgusts me

This is one of those stories that I wish I did not have to read. However, once I read it, I had to share it with you.

Progressive Insurance's CEO is sorry for spying on a couple IN CHURCH! What? In church? Now, that's bad. But wait.......as Ron Popeil would say, there's more:

"The detectives talked their way into a private support group where members discussed abortions, sexual orientation and drug addiction, and taped the sessions, the newspaper said."

I have over a decade in this business, including as an adjuster and handling "questionable" or fraudulent SIU claims. I have sat in parking lots and watched people who were limping suddenly stop limping. I have watched people fake injuries. I have watched people turn in receipts for stolen property dated AFTER they claimed the item was stolen. However, not once have I ever joined a church to investigate someone. Not once have I recorded private sessions with people.

This is absolutely disgusting. There should be immediate and strong condemnation of this action from the insurance industry. Oh, and Glenn Renwick and the people in charge of the claims operations at Progressive should resign immediately.

What can you do? Cancel your Progressive policy. Want more of an incentive? I am going to donate $1 to my wife's breast cancer walk for every person who emails me or leaves a comment here cancelling their Progressive policy.

Why do they want a statement so soon?

Have you ever wondered why the insurance company wants a recorded statement so soon after an auto accident? They say it is all about customer service. But, is it?

Nope. Not by a long shot. Why do they want a recorded statement so soon after an accident? Because they want you to say that you are not in any pain. They want you to tell them that you do not hurt. That way, if you develop pain 24 to 48 hours later, they will tell you that it cannot be accident related because you already told them that you were not in pain.

The problem is that all doctors will agree that you can develop pain up to a week to two weeks after the impact. So the recorded statement that you gave 24 hours after the accident is not medically relevant, but the adjuster will make a big deal out of it.

Just another reason not to give a recorded statement!

How did they do that?

A Boston man pled guilty in a glass eating scheme.  Apparently, he and his wife were going to different establishments, eating glass, and then making insurance claims.

How do people like this get caught? It really is quite easy. When you file an insurance claim, you go into the ISO Claims Index. They put in as much information as they have. If you file a subsequent claim, the insurance company then can pull all of your prior claims. They see a pattern and suddenly the Department of Insurance is called for an investigation.

Really, it is a bad idea to file false insurance claims.

Want a good laugh?

And it is at the expense of lawyers? You can read The Party of the First Part.  This website is from author Adam Freedman. A bit about him: Adam Freedman is the author of the “Legal Lingo” column for the New York Law Journal Magazine.  He also blogs at The Huffington Post and thepartyofthefirstpart.blogspot.com.  Please visit the book’s website at www.partyofthefirstpart.com and nominate the worst example of legalese that you have come across to the first annual Golden Gobbledygook Award!

And a bit about the website: The debate over Plain vs. Precision English rages on in courtrooms, boardrooms, and, yes, even bedrooms. In The Party of the First Part, Adam Freedman explores the origins of legalese, interprets archaic phrasing (witnesseth!), explains obscure and oddly named laws, and disputes the notion that lawyers are any smarter than the rest of us when judged solely on their briefs. (A brief, by the way, is never so.)

This is some of the funniest writing you will see. And it is all true.

In honor of The Party of the First Part, I want to see examples of bad insurance adjuster writing. I know it is out there -it is the reason I wrote an article on writing for insurance adjusters. Send me your examples!

I can save how much?

I got a letter in the mail from a major insurer telling me that I can save $338 on my auto insurance. WOO HOO! For me, that is about 33% off what I currently spend to insure 2 cars.

Oh wait. The fine print says that this insurer, in California, is giving me the comparisons based on a 40 year old married female in Atlanta, GA driving a 2006 Toyota Corolla.

Hmmmmmm.........what might be wrong with this? Lets see:

• I am not 40;
• I am not female;
• I don't live in Atlanta;
• I don't drive a Corolla.

Amazingly, the insurer knows where I live but they don't give me any comparisons based on my location. They even customized it to give me warnings about driving in Elk Grove. But, they couldn't bother to give me a comparison based on my city?

This is the problem with auto insurance ads that want to compare prices. They give you comparisons that do not make sense. You need to shop around for yourself.