someones progressive insurance rant

[realmess]

i came across this a little while ago while surfing the web. i have no idea whether it is true or not but the thought of this being true is just plain terrible.

My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court

I’ve been sending out some impertinent tweets about Progressive Insurance lately, but I haven’t explained how they pissed me off. So I will do that here as succinctly as possible. There’s a general understanding that says, “insurance companies— oh they’re awful,” but since Progressive turned their **** hose on my late sister and my parents, I’ve learned some things that really surprised me.

I’ll try to cleave to the facts. On June 19, 2010, my sister was driving in Baltimore when her car was struck by another car and she was killed. The other driver had run a red light and hit my sister as she crossed the intersection on the green light.

Now, I don’t discount the possibility that Katie was at fault in the accident, but it never really looked that way. The only witness who gave a statement on the day said that Katie had the light, etc. The totality of the evidence left some room for argument, but that will be the case any time there’s a catastrophic car accident that doesn’t happen underneath an array of video cameras.

One indication that the case was pretty open-and-shut was that the other guy’s insurance company looked at the situation and settled with my sister’s estate basically immediately. Now, because the other driver was underinsured, that payment didn’t amount to much, but my sister carried a policy with Progressive against the possibility of an accident with an underinsured driver. So Progressive was now on the hook for the difference between the other guy’s insurance and the value of Katie’s policy.

At which point we learned the first surprising thing about Progressive: Carrying Progressive insurance and getting into an accident does not entitle you to the value of your insurance policy. It just pisses off Progressive’s lawyers. Here I address you, Prospective Progressive Insurance Customer: someday when you have your accident, I promise that there will be enough wiggle room for Progressive’s bottomless stack of in-house attorneys to make a court case out of it and to hammer at that court case until you or your surviving loved ones run out of money.

Which is what Progressive decided to do to my family. In hopes that a jury would hang or decide that the accident was her fault, they refused to pay the policy to my sister’s estate.

Out of a sense of honor, and out of a sense of the cost of my sister’s outstanding student loans, my folks opted to try to go after the money through legal channels. At which point they learned another delightful thing. In Maryland, you may not sue an insurance company when they refuse to fork over your money. Instead, what they had to do was sue the guy who killed my sister, establish his negligence in court, and then leverage that decision to force Progressive to pay the policy.

Now my parents don’t harbor much venom for the guy who killed my sister. It was an accident, and kicking that guy around won’t bring Katie back. But kicking that guy around was the only way to get Progressive to pay. So they filed a civil suit against the other driver in hopes that, rather than going to court, Progressive would settle. Progressive did not. Progressive made a series of offers (never higher than 1/3 the amount they owe) and then let it go to a trial.

At the trial, the guy who killed my sister was defended by Progressive’s legal team.

If you are insured by Progressive, and they owe you money, they will defend your killer in court in order to not pay you your policy.

The trial was a real shitshow for my parents, and I did not love it either. As it happens, the jury did find that the other driver was negligent, which, if justice or decency were priorities for Progressive, will result in them finally honoring Katie’s policy. At this point, I hope you’ll forgive me if I wait for it to actually happen.

Don’t buy insurance from Progressive. Not only will you be paying the salaries of people who put my family through the wringer (really a smaller wringer that Progressive attached to the main wringer of my sister’s death), but also when the chips are down, your money will have bought you nothing but a kick in the face.

http://mattfisher.tumblr.com/post/29...-to-defend-her

[Old Lemon]

dam, i hope this is fake cause i have progressive and i live in maryland

[realmess]

yeah man me too. i dont happen to live there but **** if progressive is truly that screwed then they are trying to screw people everywhere.

[Old Lemon]

well i laid my bike down and they gave me 2500 bux. 500 for new boots that got a little scuffed because they said they are trying to reward riders who wear safety gear. so far ive had a good experience with them

[Gorilla25]

yeah. i hope this is fake too..i have Progressive and I just paid for another year term last month.

[Gorilla25]

Originally Posted by Old Lemon

they said they are trying to reward riders who wear safety gear. so far ive had a good experience with them

I hope that is true for Hawaii policy owners too.

[Old Lemon]

Originally Posted by Gorilla25

I hope that is true for Hawaii policy owners too.

just make sure you tell the guy who checks out the damages that some of your gear got scratched or whatever. i showed him the scuffs on my bike from when i flew off and he asked to look at the boots and then pooped me out another 500 even when i said i wasnt going to get new boots lol

[Gorilla25]

Just read this thing on Reddit. heres a quote from someone that works as a personal injury lawyer

If you're looking for consumer advice, here's what I can offer: stay away from the following carriers: State Farm, Allstate, Geico, Progressive, Farmers Insurance, and American Family. I repeat: STAY AWAY.

A good rule of thumb is this - the more money they spend on marketing, the more screwed you will be when the time comes to collect on your policy.

Here's some of the good ones: the Hartford, USAA, Farm Bureau, and Country Insurance. (If you have USAA or can get them, it's a no brainer. USAA has some of the best customer service, most reasonable claims professionals, and usually values claims correctly).

Also this is pertaining to Auto insurance. I wonder if the same holds true for motorcycle insurance. Of the "Good ones" mentioned, none have motorcycle insurance....

[Old Lemon]

i have USAA but they dont do motorcycles, so they partnered with progressive :/

[Gorilla25]

Originally Posted by Old Lemon

i have USAA but they dont do motorcycles, so they partnered with progressive :/

When I actually get a car, i'll choose one of those better ones..i can't qualify for USAA. so...USAA partnered with Progressive for motorcycle insurance? is it OK to assume they aren't totally full of sh!t when it comes to motorcycles then?

[Old Lemon]

ive only had one experience with them so far and it was a pretty good one. although my insurance did go up 40% but that was to be expected. I think my healthcare is covering my medical stuff because i only got a dislocated shoulder so it wasnt that bad. Now if someone else was involved my my accident that might be a different story but i really have no idea how different it might be

[aShifty]

thats real sad.

not as sad but still sad, i have progressive... liability

[Jiggles]

A personal injury lawyer would have solved all their problems with this, and for that reason I don't believe it.

[userjh160]

Originally Posted by Old Lemon

ive only had one experience with them so far and it was a pretty good one. although my insurance did go up 40% but that was to be expected. I think my healthcare is covering my medical stuff because i only got a dislocated shoulder so it wasnt that bad. Now if someone else was involved my my accident that might be a different story but i really have no idea how different it might be

OMG you had one accident and your insurance went up 40%? I had an accident with Geico and they did not raise our premiums, they said we were "allowed" 1 ****-up every 5 years and if I didn't have anymore within the 5 year period we were ok. We do have Progressive for our bikes since Geico wanted way too much money.

[Old Lemon]

i think its kinda understandable. i got my bike when i was 19, first bike, and the accident happened about 9 months later. im sure someone with more experience wont have their premiums go up by such a large number

[EvilPooMonkey]

Originally Posted by Gorilla25

Just read this thing on Reddit. heres a quote from someone that works as a personal injury lawyer




Also this is pertaining to Auto insurance. I wonder if the same holds true for motorcycle insurance. Of the "Good ones" mentioned, none have motorcycle insurance....

farmers bureau has been pretty awesome to me. when i first got my 2 fiddy i called the stay away group first becuz i never really put much thot into it. they all turned me down because they said i needed to have a separate account for my main car and that a motorcycle would have to have its own jew the motonoob for money blah blah blah. i called farm bureau and they were like yeah we can hook you up, we can even put it all on one account and save you some money. and i have 3 points on my license. one comes off in january and the guy was like meh i'll just take them all off if you have a no points added before then. normally they forgive one pointers but he's forgiving two just to bring my premium down. i give farm bureau three thumbs up.

[GeneJunkie]

Sadly that story is true.
http://online.wsj.com/article/APe0f7...73ab6e653.html

Also there was a recent news report about a woman being denied coverage by her insurance company, Liberty Mutual
http://www.wfsb.com/story/19276696/woman

[CZroe]

Here's a rant about your rant:

Link to original page on YouTube.