Hoodwinking invertebrates by offering TOO easy of an experience. - Progressive Group - Auto
21 May 2008Good but not cheap - Progressive Group - Auto I had Progressive Auto insurance from September 2002 through February 2003. I found that actually getting the insu...
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HISTORY
We had been Progressive Auto customers for two of our cars for nearly a year. We switched to Progressive from Farmers after getting a better quote when we purchased our new Dodge Charger R/T last fall. This was done, of course, by trying out their online quote system.
Two years, and I like it!
They do make taking your money as easy as possible, and the website is great. The truly bored must love going online, tweaking their policy, and printing out duplicate insurance cards. Anyhow, you pay the money, they take the money and its easy.
GOD and my Hemi
After only three months I had my first claim, as a piece of a building loading dock blew off during a windstorm and landed on the hood of the Dodge. I guess GOD was upset about my overuse of the HEMI in a time of purported global warming. Anyhow, it put a BIG ding in the top of passenger side fender, cut across the hood, and finished its ruinous path over the drivers side fender, leaving the car totally drivable yet equally appalling.
The Process
I started the repair process by getting my own estimates from two separate body shops. Both independent shops quoted me $2400, give or take $100. It turns out none of this legwork was necessary. When you file a claim with Progressive, they send a claims agent to your car! They whip out their laptop, pull up a visual breakout of your car and decide what gets replaced, repaired or repainted. The process took about 45 minutes and they hand you an estimate, and a check for the difference between your deductible and their total amount.
A Thousand Bucks Less
Their total bid was $1251, so she printed out and handed me a check for $751 and the now useless bid. She told me to take it to Progressive, which of course, negated my other bids. I asked her if the bid included real Mopar parts, and she said yes. I asked her if I could use my own shop, and she said yes, but you have to pay the difference out of pocket, then file for the money with Progressive. I didn’t much care for this part of the transaction, because by doing this, the force you to use their shop. Both in theory and by law you can choose who does your car repair. They push this back directly onto your cash flow, and you would be stuck waiting to be reimbursed for the difference. Its a very legal way for them to force most people to use their shops.
Rental Car Reimbursement
As we carry rental car reimbursement insurance on this policy, we almost went through the rental car agency that Progressive provides on location. We have a $30 a day limit on the rental car. This gets me a much smaller car than the car I’m dropping off, so I decline and go with Dollar. A Dodge Charger rented thru Dollar was $156 for the week, and Enterprise had the same car at $260. Neither had a Hemi, so the planet gets a one week reprieve from my right foot. *note that since this all has occurred, I have filed for the reimbursement, but have not seen a check yet. I’m giving them a full month before I complain. Updates to follow*
The Drop-Off - Sleeping Baby Free
Progressive now has drop off points when you get your car repaired, and if you rent a car from their “chosen” provider, this process must be very simple. They choose your body shop, so why not your rental car as well? I’ve seen the goofy ad with the sleeping baby, but they said bringing an actual baby along wasn’t a requirement. The process seemed easy enough, but in Columbus, this was a 45 minute drive from my house. Too bad they don’t come to you like they did to see the car. As I said earlier, I declined the onsite car rental and went with Dollar at the airport. On a sidenote, Dollar didn’t have my Charger in stock so they upgrade me to a luxury car (Chrysler 300) at the same price, but alas, still no Hemi.
The First Pick-Up
After six days, I received a call telling me my car was ready for pickup. I scheduled an appointment for the following day, and it took two of us. We dropped off the rental car on the way, and took our second car to get the first. I’m not sure if anyone looked at the repair job before I was called, but I could see the poor repair job when I pulled in from 40 feet out. It looked as if they’d painted the panels, then put them back on the car. I told them this was unacceptable, and that someone should have had the judgement to determine the paint job was terrible. I wasted 2 hours, and had to go re-rent a car for another five days. A huge waste of my time and my money.
The Body Shop
After the paint job failure, I decided to take stronger precautions and called Progressive and find out who was actually repairing the car. I was surprised as the body shop they used was halfway around the beltway, 20 miles out. I called them and they were very nice, and told me that Progressive gives them a total budget, and that that budget allowed for repairs, but they were not able to “blend” the paint into the doors or front of the car. Since I rejected it, they now had to do it properly, which means they had to re-paint the whole front end, and blend the paint into the doors and roof-line. AND they don’t get to charge Progressive for the new repair, according to the manager.
The Second Pick-Up
I called ahead, and progressive set up a time. This time I had to ask if anyone had looked at the car for repair accuracy. They said it looked good. The manager of Progressive met me for the second exchange, and the car looks like it was painted correctly, although I did have to clean up some dry overspray on my chrome and my engine cover. Not a big deal, but again, no eye for detail.
Aggressiveness Pays
I’m not sure what percentage of the population buckles under when faced with sub-par service. Progressive clearly makes money by getting body shops to repair cars at a heavily discounted rate. The difference between Progressive and 3C was $1000. As they handle the rental car, the drop off and the repair, it does make it easier on the customer- but it also allows Progressive to try to force sub-par repairs onto their customers. Because it is so easy to just allow them to handle everything, it is then easier to accept a mediocre repair. Don’t let them do this to you. If you had to pay for the repair out-of-pocket, you’d expect perfection. Just because they make it easy on you, don’t make it easy on them. Your premiums pay for good service.
Bundled Insurance and Invertebrates
Ultimately it wasn’t this experience that made me cancel Progressive, but their lack of homeowners insurance in my area. A bundled deal from a more regional company allowed me to lower my overall auto cost by another 20%. If Progressive gets competitive with homeowners bundling in the future, I would use them again. However, if you are an invertebrate, and have a hard time saying “NO” at the right times, be leery when you do have to get a repair.
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