Complaints

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• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/16/2023

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  UnresolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  We received notice in the mail our insurance for our cars was not being renewed. Vague reasons were given. At the time the policy was instated, my husband set up the policy to include a car driven by our ex son-in-law, who was deceased in August, 2022, in my name, without my consent. I called the agency, and said I did not agree with the policy including our son-in-law. Nothing was done. After our son-in-laws death, we paid off his car and sold it. We have proof of sale, and transfer of title. The agency hustled me into buying insurance from an associated company at an exorbitant price, and dubious coverage. We were told we had to use a wire transfer from our bank. Our bank refused the transfer, thankfully. My husband suffers from Parkinsons disease, and did at the time of setting up this insurance in my name. Im sure he was urged into this dubious policy at the time of its inception. I feel this was unethical, and the subsequent cancellation was unethical, without discussing at length with us the reasons.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/30/2023

  The Flowers have been customers of ours for a long time.  They had 3 vehicles on their policy and only 2 drivers listed.  There was a collision claim 01-22-2022.  There son-in-law was the driver.  He had a different address than the Flowers and our underwriting department at Farmers Insurance wanted either the vehicle ********* removed from the Flowers policy and written under the Son-in-law's name and address, or they needed to add the Son-in-law as a driver on their policy since the ******* was evidently titled in *********************** name. My staff emailed ******************* on 08-31-2022 asking her to either sign a driver exclusion or we need to write a policy on the son-in-law.  09-19-2022 ******************* called in and said the son-in-law had passed away a couple of weeks earlier and she wanted to make sure he wasn't on her policy.  *****, my staff person, asked her to send a copy of his death certificate or simply sign an exclusion form, excluding the son-in-law off the policy. She said she didn't want to sign an exclusion form and that it was going to be hard to get the death certificate.  We received neither.  A non-renewal letter went out 01-17-2023 stating the policy was being canceled for drivers that were not being rated for.  She states that the notice was vague, but she would have known exactly what that meant from our previous attempts to get this driver (son-in-law) sorted out.  She had 2 1/2 months from the time of the non-renewal letter to get us the death certificate or simply sign a driver exclusion on him, and she had 1 year to get it accomplished from the original time my office contacted her about it.  No one "hussled" her.  She called and wanted insurance again, effective 06-07-2023.  Their original policy had lapsed for more than 60 days.  Farmers will not let us reinstate a cancelled policy if it goes over 60 days.  We have to write it in another insurance company that Farmers owns called Bristol West Insurance company.  It is a totally legitimate company, for higher risk drivers or people that have not maintained current insurance.  The Flowers went without insurance for over 2 months, so they fall into the "not maintained current insurance" group.  Farmers makes them stay there for a 6 month renewal period, and if they have not had any lapsed during that time, they will write coverage back into the standard Farmers Policy.  Their bank should not have withheld funds, it is a completely legitimate insurance company.  I'm sorry, she is having problems, but it is all because of her not getting a death certificate to us or simply signing a form to exclude the son-in-law.  My office has made multiple contacts with her.  She is the one that dropped the ball. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/01/2023

  Complaint: 20193106
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  There was no conversation with me on the date listed, regarding our son-in-laws death. I have never had a conversation with anyone from their office regarding this matter until I called them after receiving a letter saying we were being non-renewed.  They did not know our son-in-law was deceased until last week when my daughter-in-law accompanied me to their office. She accompanied me because she was an insurance underwriter for 24 years before retiring last October. She is well versed in insurance policy. In addition, the phone number they have listed for us is our fax number.  We cannot get a death certificate because the ad litem attorney appointed by the court assigned to his case cannot locate relatives. Our son-in-law died under mysterious circumstances. We were notified by his friend and later, by the police when I called to verify the death. The policy was not written correctly in the beginning. My husband did not say he was living with us. The insurance company is responsible for writing a correct policy at the time of purchaseIng, and did not. In addition, I had emergency major surgery in mid January. My husband has Parkinsons disease, and had a sudden worsening of both physical symptoms and cognitive function at about that time. When I recovered from my surgery, I found bills, taxes, and other urgent matters were not being taken care of. Ive been trying to get up to date since then. 
  Regards,
  
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