Stories and Submissions

Letters

Date: 14 May 2007

Dear Sir:
I am not sure what state you are in, so some of what I say may not apply to you.
     I am the Paralegal for an attorney who deals mainly with personal injury cases; unfortunately your experience with Farmers is not limited to any single insurance company. These actions are of common practice among ALL insurance companies, it is always a good idea to contact a lawyer if you have been in an accident, many insurance adjusters will manipulate and flat out lie to claimants. Allstate actually released an internal memo entitled “Fast or Fair Settlement”, essentially if you want to file a claim with Allstate you can either have it fast or fair, not both.
     I do not know if you are represented by counsel or not, but if you are and your State has an equivalent law, not only your wife has a suit for damages but you have a suit for what is called Loss of Consortium.
     I am truly sorry for the hardships you have had to endure and wish you the best of luck with your daughter.
C*****


Admin note: For what it's worth, my insurance carrier (AAA in California) has never jerked me around in this fashion. Mind you I know insurance companies are in business to make money, but they don't have to be as bad as Farmers about it. Also, as an aside, no lawyer would take this case because a) we laready talked to the insurance company and b) it was Farmers. That is specifically what we were told by a lawyer. He said anyone else they may consider taking the case in spite of "a", but with Farmers, forget it.
Date: 14 May 2007

Check this out.. HAHAH!!! I just sent him a link to your site and said nothing else... ;-)

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Farmers Insurance Opportunity- Las Vegas
Date: Sun, 13 May 2007 20:16:52 -0700
From: r*** j****
To: 'Rob B***'

Rob,
     I am a District Manager for Farmers Insurance Group looking for a successful, business-minded individual with a strong desire for personal growth, career fulfillment, and financial success. Farmers has recently begun developing new Agency business opportunities in the Las Vegas and surrounding areas.
        [blah blah blah, make money fast, recruiting blather]
If you are interested in opening your own Farmers Agency, call me directly at (702) ***-**** or email your resume to me at rj****@farmersagent.com. You may also apply online on my website at www.farmersagent.com/rj****/.

Best regards,
R**** J****
District Manager
Farmers Insurance Group

Admin note: Thank you for making my day, using this site (or this one. for that matter) is a great response if you don't want to work for them :-)
Date: 11 May 2007

To Whom It May Concern:

Congratulations on exercising your rights to FREE SPEECH. I am not only a proud twenty eight year veteran of the Farmers Organization, but an armed services veteran who helped you to maintain your rights to complain!

Isn’t this a great country?

 Rich Winters
District Manager
Farmers Insurance and Financial Services
Phone: 480.xxx.xxxx
Fax: 480.xxx.xxxx

Admin note: This arrived in a huge font (16 or so), but hey, thanks for the service Rich. Our armed service volunteers are the most important asset that our country has. Hats off to you for serving your country. I can only hope that you never get burned as other agents have. As I've noted to other agents who've e-mailed me "off the record" I really don't blame the agents so much as I blame the adjusters and corporate suits who run the company.

Date: 12 Apr 2007

Well, I've never been in an accident involving Farmer's (thankfully), but I did still get the shaft from them. When I was living at home (early 90s), my Mom had Farmer's. I had been driving my first car for a few months when it broke down. Not being particularly wealthy and living on a decent bus line as I did, I decided to sell the car for parts and get by without for awhile. The Farmer's agent told my Mom that I would have to surrender my license or else she would have to insure me on her car (now the only one in the family and which I wouldn't be driving). I was a kid and didn't know any better, so off to the DMV I went. When I explained the situation, they looked at me like I had a third eye but went ahead and did it anyway. Flash forward a couple of years when, like any twentysomething, I wanted a car again. I went to the DMV, stood in line, filled out the form, and all was well. I buy a car, a couple of months go by, no license. I go to the DMV, stand in line, and they tell me that it's "slow right now and I should have it in a few weeks. Next!" A few weeks later and still no license. I go back to the DMV a couple more times, each time I get the same story. Another year goes by and I've forgotten the whole thing, I just have the paper in my wallet. One day I manage to adjust someone's parking job with a company truck, and being a f***ing moron I take off. In court a couple of weeks later, I find out that not only am I in for a hit and run, but also for driving without a valid license! Turns out the system really couldn't deal with me surrendering my license and had never issued a new one. Once I explained they dropped the license charge but I've been advised that they probably would have gone easier on me about the h&r if I hadn't had two violations on the docket. Thanks, Farmers!
-J

Follow-up: Wow! What state was this in? I'd like to post your story, and since we all know how fast DMVs move I'd like to let everyone know what state to not surrender your license in. Thanks for the story,
-admin
This was in Minnesota.
-J

Date: 2 Apr 2007

Hi - I'm definitely sorry to hear your sorry. After reading your post and the other link stating how many complaints Farmers and their affiliates received, I have decided to not renew my Farmer's automobile insurance policy. In addition, I checked my state's insurance commissioner (Texas) and sure enough, Farmer receives a very high number of complaints. I will be looking at other insurance companies to renew my insurance. Thanks for sharing your story.

Admin note: Another person who's "seen the light" so to speak :-) This is all very encouraging!

Date: 23 Jan 2007

I was sorry to hear about the experience you had with Farmer's Insurance. We used them for 5 years and actually had 2 claims and they were always very good to us - the first, I was rear-ended by a guy who also had Farmer's, and they gave me a generous check within 4 days. The second time, a neighbor's drunken son was trying to throw rocks at his own truck (don't ask) and hit my car's hood causing $983 of damage. Again, check that same week. Perhaps I just had a good agent.

Anyhow, I can sympathise a bit, because though my rear-end accident had nothing to do with it, I've only ever been comfortable breastfeeding while lying down. I can sort of do it sitting, but it's much more difficult. I understand your wife's frustration in not being able to easily feed the baby while out, and in feeling trapped at home due to that.

Also, I wanted to comment on the desire for natural childbirth - I am sure she hears all the time that "it's a healthy baby that matters" and she shouldn't try to be a hero, or get a medal, by going drug-free. At least, that's what I heard from people. They act like you're a fool for wanting to avoid pain meds. I wanted to acknowledge that while a healthy baby is important, that does not mean that her feelings and her birth experience weren't important. I have been on that table and it's an incredibly vulnerable feeling and disappointing when things don't go as you hoped or expected. It sounds like you've been very supportive which is fantastic.

Anyway, here's hoping that Farmers bucks up and pays what they should. It's ridiculous that they haven't, especially since she was at 0 fault in the accident.

Emily

Admin note: Since writing this letter Emily has dropped Farmers (Yea!) and moved on to another carrier. She now spends about $45/month less for *more* coverage!

FarCry - Mollio