Car insurance dilema...could use some advice on the situation...

[pulse8]

Here's the deal:

I sent in payment for my car insurance for October. Insurance company doesn't receive payment and cancels my policy. Unaware that my payment hasn't been received, when I get the letters regarding my cacellation, they coincide with when I normally get my payment so I just send them payment before I open the letter. Stupid on my part, I know, but there was nothing out of the ordinary with the way it looked or anything and I didn't think anything would be wrong and I don't always have time to sort through my mail.

I finally get a chance to sit down and open my mail and see that they cancelled the policy. I call my agent and they call the insurance company and they say it's too late to reinstate my policy so my agent says I have to get a new one and that they'll return the second payment I sent. If the other one turns up, they'll return it or I can cancel the check with my bank. Since I need insurance, I get a new policy from a different insurance company with my agent costing me $300 down that I pay by credit card.

This was 2 weeks ago and on Friday I got a letter saying that my former insurance company reinstated my policy after receiving my second payment. Agent calls them and they say it could've happened by someone thinking it was the first payment and in trying to cover their butt, they reinstated my policy. I can't cancel the policy I signed up for because I'll end up owing them money due to the cancellation fee. The insurance company won't take responisbility because they were going by what the insurance company said and they also say that since they discounted the brokerage fee, they won't refund that, either.

So basically, I'm stuck paying ~$300 for 2 weeks of car insurance. The only options I see is that I can get a friend who's a lawyer to write a letter to at least try and get my brokerage fee back from the agent and possibly take them to small claims court which hopefully they'll just give me the money back just to get me off their back. My other option is to reverse the charge with my insurance company. My main question is would this be an option with them? Would they be willing to let me do that based on my situation? I'll call them to find out more info, but wanted to see if anyone else had any ideas about my situation.

I know it's long, but thanks for reading.

 

[conjur]

Ouch.

I'd work like heck to get the old policy cancelled and stick w/the new. Otherwise, you're stuck with paying $300.

Next time, read your mail!



BTW, just got my new quote on a new car...$1380/year with $30/day rental car option. This is >$500/yr less than with Progressive and it's on a NEW car!

Liberty Mutual rocks

 

[pulse8]

Nevermind, I misread.

The old policy has a better coverage for less money than the new one so I'd like to keep that one.

 

[Daishiki]

1. the csr that the agent talked to provided the wrong information. ask your agent for the name of the csr that they talked with and you can argue with customer service about him/her. if they got lazy and used the co's automated system for an answer, i recommend a new agent.
2. the agent can't be held responsible unless they didn't clearly describe the situation to the csr.
3. cancel your old policy. if they can't handle your payments properly, forget them.
4. you probably won't get your broker fee back. you most likely signed a contract saying that it's non-refundable.
5. open your mail next time.

 

[waggy]

heh i bet next time you will read your mail eh?