Friday, August 15, 2014

State Farm Insurance - Horrible customer service for general liability insurance and much more expensive than Liberty Mutual for auto insurance

If you're considering getting general liability with State Farm, please read about my experience with State Farm before you get your policy.

I had a good relationship with State Farm until I was required by my employer to get general liability insurance. The insurance agent sold me the policy but NEVER INFORMED ME that (in contrast to my auto insurance with State Farm) my general liability insurance was (by default) an auto-renew policy. After the 12 months I did not need general liability insurance anymore, so I figured (like my auto insurance) it would expire, but guess what, it didn't expire! Next thing I know, I owe for one month for this auto-renewed policy. I called State Farm and explained to the customer service rep I did not want to renew it but I was told it was too late, and it was  "Only twenty dollars". My wife tried calling the insurance agent who sold us the policy about this, and he told her "Don't worry, I took care of it". However, we later found out that nothing "was taken care of". We still owed the one month that I never wanted! When my wife called John back, he told her "It was my responsibility to find out this policy was auto renew". Considering I have over 1 million things to do, this was outrageously poor customer service!

How about this? It was the responsibility of the Insurance Agent for State Farm who sold me the policy to inform me this policy was an auto-renew policy, in contrast to the auto-insurance I had with State Farm.

There is a happy ending though. For my auto coverage, I have since switched to Liberty Mutual, which insures me for auto coverage for over 25% less per year (my auto insurance policy with Liberty Mutual, for the same amount of coverage, is over $250 per year less expensive than my auto insurance policy was with State Farm). Also, I can save time and pay my entire year of auto insurance at one time, in contrast to State Farm, which required me to make two half-payments per year. 

I will recommend that everyone in my family drop their coverage with State Farm. After all, who would not want to save hundreds of dollars per policy?