A Complaint from Roselle Park, NJ
August 4, 2008
Nicole of Roselle Park NJ made this complaint on July 31, 2008:
My husband and I leased a new car in March of 2008. We called a few insurance places before getting a great quote from Allstate. We were quoted a six month policy for a little over $700 a month. Needless to say, we were happy that we found Allstate. We agreed to the quote and waited for the first time customer package to arrive in the mail. It arrived, but with the wrong address. (We were lucky it got to us at all.) We emailed the agent we had been working with, and she said that she’d send another package to us with the right address. We received the second package, again with the wrong address. Now it’s only a few days before the package need to be completely and sent back to Allstate.We call Allstate again and speak to a different agent. She informs us that we need to complete the package and send it back before a certain date or we’ll lose the quote. They will fix the address problem once the paperwork is done. Fine, we do this. I sign up online for Allstate to view and pay bills. I check my account for a month before a payment is finally due. The quote and payments have now nearly tripled! Our quote went from $700 to nearly $1,900! We called Allstate and asked what the problem was. They said that we hadn’t submitted prior proof of insurance, which was never asked for in the bundle of initial documents sent to us. But, ok, we send them proof of prior insurance, 6 months worth, from Geico.
More time passes and we hear nothing about our payments. We call Allstate again. They now claim to need more proof of insurance. We sent them SEVEN years worth of insurance from Progressive, our insurance carrier before Geico. We expect that this will all be cleared up now. Well, I go online to check our status this past Sunday, July 27th, and I find that our policy had been CANCELLED since JULY 21! I was furious. We had been driving in an uninsured car for 6 days. There was no notice sent to us. As a matter of fact, on July 25th, we received a notice dated July 19th that we needed to get a visual inspection done (yet another hoop to jump through).
There was no warning that our policy would be canceled, and the agents we spoke to over the last 3 months had told us that they would work it all out. My husband and I, in good faith, had even paid Allstate three months of the payments that we were initially quoted — just to show that we were willing to stick around until they sorted this mess out, a mess that they created by not being specific enough on what they needed from us.
Despite a conference call made this week with Allstate, Geico, and Progressive, nothing has been resolved. Allstate claims to need proof of birthdate, which both previous insurances sent them — but apparently, it’s not the proper document. (What else do they need?) Allstate refuses to reinstate our policy and give us our original quote. We have done everything that they asked, but they keep finding more documents or information that they need to stall this process. Now our case is in review until Monday, August 4th. This makes an entire week without insurance and, therefore, no transportation.
