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Flo is not so nice in person
13 years ago
When misguided public opinion honors what is despicable and despises what is honorable, punishes virtue and rewards vice, encourages what is harmful and discourages what is useful, applauds falsehood and smothers truth under indifference or insult, a nation turns its back on progress and can be restored only by the terrible lessons of catastrophe. – Frederic Bastiat
In the post, Matt detailed how his sister Katilyn was killed in Baltimore when she was struck by another driver who ran a red light when she was passing through an intersection. The driver’s insurance company settled with his sister’s estate, but because he was underinsured the payment “didn’t amount to much”, but his sister’s policy with Progressive covered her in the event of an accident with an underinsured driver. Progressive was supposed to cover the difference between the two policies.
But then things turned ugly.
Matt explained:
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.
Progressive refused to settle with his sister’s estate, and his family decided to take the company to court in order to secure the payment. But then they found out that in Maryland it is illegal to sue an insurance company when they refuse to pay. As a result, Matt’s parents were forced to take the driver who killed their daughter to civil court in order to prove negligence.
Progressive then did the unthinkable – rather than pay out the payment for the person they insured, they ended up defending her killer in court.
“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,” Matt wrote.
Matt’s parents ended up proving the driver’s negligence in court, and now Progressive should finally end up paying for the policy Katie has been paying for up until her death. And while he’s not sure how long it will take, he did come away with learning one thing: “Don’t buy insurance from Progressive.”
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.
But then things turned ugly.
Matt explained:
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.
Progressive refused to settle with his sister’s estate, and his family decided to take the company to court in order to secure the payment. But then they found out that in Maryland it is illegal to sue an insurance company when they refuse to pay. As a result, Matt’s parents were forced to take the driver who killed their daughter to civil court in order to prove negligence.
Progressive then did the unthinkable – rather than pay out the payment for the person they insured, they ended up defending her killer in court.
“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,” Matt wrote.
Matt’s parents ended up proving the driver’s negligence in court, and now Progressive should finally end up paying for the policy Katie has been paying for up until her death. And while he’s not sure how long it will take, he did come away with learning one thing: “Don’t buy insurance from Progressive.”
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.
This is business du jour. You really don't want to get seriously ill on almost any US health insurance program.
Insurance isn't about helping you - it's about making profits. Your loss is their liability. This is the core flaw in the entire insurance concept.
That's why as a Canadian, I find the entire health care debate in the US so surreal. Death panels? You have them NOW... they're run by the private insurance companies who pick and choose who gets treatment. Remove the profit motive (as we have up here) and suddenly the entire situation changes. Insurance becomes about paying for systems for everyone - to provide help when you need it.
I had a major car accident in BC, one of the provinces with government run auto insurance, and it was handled quickly and efficiently. No arguments. They worked out the book value of my car and paid me that plus a bit more - worked out to 25% of my car's original price on a 10 year old car. Offered to cover any medical costs over provincial health. And technically, I was at fault (I rearended a car under very bizarre circumstances involving two coyotes, a bunch of corgis and a guy who ran into the street after all of those)... And ICBC actually MAKES profits... so much that they keep having to reduce the premiums since they're not supposed to be making profit...
Insurance companies are in business to make money and each time we take out a policy (even if forced to do so, by law) we are betting against ourselves. This does not exonerate the insurance company from being responsible and paying on a policy that comes due. Unfortunately, Progressive is not alone in this. Most of the giant carriers are in bed with the devil.
I hope that the insurance company pays out every last cent that is owned to her family and that this becomes widely publicized in the mainstream media.