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Allstate Floridan twists that knife just a little bit more

By
Industry Observer with No longer practicing real estate as of 2008.

I was reading a story this morning in the Herald Tribune about how a Florida resident, Carl Taylor was contacted on a Saturday evening at dinner time from Allstate Floridian with a phone call letting him know that they were dropping him in November.

"I was so livid I could hardly stand it," said the Sarasota retiree. Why are they calling me on a Saturday to tell me that?  He cannot believe he learned about it with a phone call at dinner time on the weekend.  That's tactless, he said."

"The agents thought the clients would feel better if they got a call from a person rather than just a letter," said Chris Parsons, Taylor's local agent. "We're trying to make it as customer friendly as possible."

Trying to make is as customer friendly as possible?  HA!  So you pick the weekend when you KNOW someone will be home and pick the dinner hour of all times during the day to call one of your customers to inform them you are dropping them?  Tactless is right.  Why don't they just twist that knife is these people's back just a little bit more?

Thousands of people are paying out their a$$ for homeowners insurance here in Florida and then to get cancelled on top of that?  And on a weekend at the dinner hour? 

The senior citizens are the one's suffering the most.  My grandparents were dropped from Allstate earlier this year and were faced with having to get insurance through Citizens which ended up to be more than double what they were paying before.  How do these insurance companies think these people on fixed incomes can afford to pay for homeowners insurance?  I've heard countless numbers of stories from elderly people that can't afford to carry insurance, so they go without and pray that nothing ever happens.

"Taylor, who called state regulators to complain about Allstate, says he will take his homeowners and automobile coverage to another insurer."

"It may cost me more in the beginning," he said, "but just to show them, I'm not going to give them one last penny of my money because of the way they treated me."

I also currently have my automobile insurance through Allstate and have been with them for the last 14 years, and I can tell you that come July when it renews, I'm switching companies.  I don't care if it costs me more money to switch either, these bloody people aren't getting anymore of my money!

Comments(3)

Terry Haugen STAGE it RIGHT! 321-956-2495
Stage it Right! - Melbourne, FL

Hi Becky.  Well they can drop policies because governor Crist's big edict that companies cannot drop policies is only good if the company does not drop rates state wide.  So Allstate dropped their rates a whopping 5% then cancelled almost 200,000 policies.  Two words, Liberty Mutual, for great rates.

Terry Haugen - STAGE it RIGHT!

May 23, 2007 03:42 PM
Anonymous
Skip Jones

Good morning Beck. There's a part of this story that I honesty do not understand. What time of day would have been appropriate to call? You and the original author both made a big deal about calling when they knew they would reach Mr. Taylor. Would the story be completely different if they called at 10am on Tuesday? This puzzles me. (Not to mention, who really is eating dinner at 5:15). To me personally, it would make no difference. Bad news is bad news. 

I agree in general that home insurance in Florida is a train wreck. 

  Skip

May 23, 2007 11:06 PM
#2
Becky Troutt
No longer practicing real estate as of 2008. - Bradenton, FL

Terry for the heads up on Liberty Mutual.

Skip, there really is no good time of day to call with that kind of news.  However, I know a lot of elderly people have the same routine everyday.  Well at least my grandparents do.  They eat breakfast, lunch & dinner at the same time nearly everyday.  And yes, between 5 & 6 is the dinner hour.  I guess when I hear these sorts of stories, I can feel for these folks.  I know how hard it is for my grandparents living on a fixed income, and then have to pay what they are paying now for insurance is ridiculous.  They are now paying $2,400 a year for a villa in Sun City.  They were paying about $1,100 before.

I wonder what kind of response they've had from calling people instead of just mailing a letter.  I bet they don't get very positive response and probably a bunch of expletives!

Are you in good hands with Allstate?

May 24, 2007 12:09 AM