"Yeah, talking with Geico customer service reps is great exercise. It works my gluts!"

try Ameriprise, they have the best rates.

Small claims?

If you paid, that makes it a valid contract.
Sue them for the difference, lawyer fees, and to have the original contract reinstated.
Maybe just a well written letter from a lawyer is all you need.

I am an insurance agent and I see this all the time. Geico is notorious for the bait and switch, I can't tell you how many of my clients called me claiming geico gave them such a low rate. After telling them to get it in writing, magically there is either a rate revision or the quote can no longer be found....

I haven't personally had any problems with State Farm. I pay around $105/month for a 2007 VW GTI four-door stickering at about $31K, no accidents or tickets. The car has ABS and DRLs (just in case you get discounts for those still).

@Buran: Oh, and my caps are 100/300/100 (K), deductibles are 250 comp, 500 collision.

Glad you didn't get in trouble. Driving a car without insurance is ILLEGAL in many states, including mine (MO).

OMG they ripped me off.

The initial CSR is not an underwriter. Yes they make a quote and sign you up. But sometimes poor risks like the complainer are not going to get a great rate. The complainer could have had a pretty serious accident or citation for the 'minor parking lot incident' ,but the MVR came back bad, or the insurance history report shows a huge pay out. Heck, it could be recorded completly different.
Looks like the insurance is trying to work with you. You can go sign up for insurance anywhere you want, but they still need to charge a resonable premium for the increased risk.

And HOW THE HECK IS THIS BAIT AND SWITCH?

x2 the author of this article, progressive.com is the way to go, stay away from sleezurance err e-surance ;)

sorry to double post but I will tell you exactly what happened. Your original quote was without your accident, he didnt enter it into the quote. To write the policy a Motor Veh Report is run, it found your accident and raised the rate.

Now the agent already gave you the cheaper rate and doesnt know what to do, so he lied to you and gave you the higher rate (with the higher down payment I might add).

Then what is sounds like he did is in a REALLY bad way of attempting to correct his mistake he post-dated your policy a month. The only reason would be that possibly your accident would then be 3 years old and no longer a factor in the rate. but he got caught with that as well.

if this was Geico direct you should be able to get them to honor the quote, if it was an agent then you will have a tougher battle. Technically whatever the agent offers the company has to follow through with because of the agent's "apparent authority" even if he just made a number up off the top of his head, but that can be very difficult resolve.

You do have the ability to go through the agents E & O insurance (errors and Omissions) for any screw up he made.

x2 to the author of this article, progressive.com is the way to go. Stay away from Sleezurance err-- e-surance. ;) (if this appears twice sorry, didn't seem comment appear after I hit submit)

If the OP would like to roll out the big guns, I have two suggestions:

1) State insurance commissioner.
2) State Attorney General.

File a complaint with either or both; this is exactly the sort of thing those offices are around for.

Ripping off customers is so easy a caveman could do it.

Pretty much the same thing happened to me with Allstate once. Got one rate off the website, signed up and a day or two later I get a call that my rate will be much higher. Never mind they had my complete record already. No explanation or anything.

@JiminyChristmas: State insurance commissions are USELESS.

@Lucky225: And progressive isn't a hell of a lot better. I'd recommend Amica. Their rates are about 1/4 of progressive and geico for me.

I had a six month policy with basic coverage with geico and progressive on my single car. When I switched to Amica following the advice of a coworker, I was able to get full coverage on my car, my fiancee's car, and on a twelve month policy for about half the price of geico and progressive.

Almost the same thing happened to me with GMAC. Quoted me $850 a year, and after I said "I'll take it" the cost suddenly became over $1500! At least they told me before I signed on the dotted line. Needless to say I didn't take it.

Geico is overpriced and lies. I had coverage for over 5 years and not once did I get any reduction, even with a good driing record. This past year I switched to AARP/Hartford and got better coverage for a year for about what I paid GEICO for six months. And three months later I'm still waiting for my refunc from GEICO.

@Lucky225: Stay away from Sleezurance

I stopped selling car insurance years ago ;)

I am going to add my voice to the chorus and switch to progressive. I doubt that AAA-Midatlantic (my current insurance co), exists in your area but there may be a Florida equivalent.

@joeblevins: She was offered, and bought, the insurance at one rate, and after they took her money, changed the rates.

Second Ameriprise through Costco.

I´ve no comment on the story itself ´cause I haven´t read it yet, but please if that image is going to be used again please fix the spelling of "inaccurate".

I've had GEICO for almost 15 years, and never had a problem with them. Agents have always been nothing but professional.
It sucks that it all went down like that for her, but I'm having trouble understanding this part:
Finally he comes back and said "Because of the 2005 claim, the system was changing to a higher rate, so I fixed it, so we can keep you guys at the same rate I just quoted you".

What does the "I fixed it" part mean? Did he make the accident suddenly disappear?

This is Florida. Charlie Crist is not afraid to lay down the law to insurance companies. I would call the AG and file a complaint.

Is insurance in FL really that high? We have a few cars insured through State Farm and the highest premium is for my wife's Corolla and that's with $250 deductible and comprehensive insurance and we pay a little under $400 every 6 months. Granted, we have a few other cars under the policy and homeowners insurance so we get discounts for that but still, ~$200/month is the lowest they could find?

insurance is the biggest scam ever.

Unless there were a ton of disclaimers in the first guy's spiel, the insurance company must honor their misquote. State and federal laws are pretty clear on this. Even if there were a ton of disclaimers, you still have a case.

I'd call, talk to a manager, and insist they honor the original quote. Threaten to take it to the department of insurance. If they don't comply, do so.

They will only have to honor their misquote for one policy term, so you may want to shop around otherwise.

I work for an insurance company, and was formerly a licensed agent. The law is pretty definite on this sort of thing.

I, personally, would never go through an insurance company where I don't have a real agent. I'm with the Farm, and have been very happy. I work for another company, and our agents do a good job, too.

I never noticed it before, but it the screen capture from the commercial, "innacurate" is spelled inaccurately. Yout think people would spellcheck commercial copy...

Also, if you have given them money - that's all you need for verification that you've accepted the offered contract. Once money changes hands, the contract is valid. The signature is extraneous at that point.

Also look to bundling your insurance packages if you own a home. I have had good luck with State Farm rate wise with a bundled Homeowners/car/umbrella policies.

For those of your with any sort of assets, really think about an umbrella policy. Not much money for a lot of protection.

I had Geico car insurance for 7 years, until I purchased a new car in 2006. When I called them to switch the cars on the policy, they increased the rate 350%. I have a pristine driving record, no claims, my new car was inexpensive and paid for, and I lived in a low-crime area. I contacted a couple friends who live in the area and had Geico, and they had much lower rates than my new quote. One friend had an umbrella policy for his orthodontics practice and was paying less for that than Geico wanted for my car.

Geico insisted I was a "preferred customer," but would only lower the rate about $200/year, still more than 3X what I was paying before. I paid for 1 month, just long enough to find another company, but for mysterious reasons, Geico took my money and immediately canceled my insurance without telling me. Now I have non-Geico insurance.

I've been thinking about this lately, and it seems whenever Warren Buffett/ Berkshire Hathaway get their mitts on a company, it turns to greed and high prices and less service--there was a time several years ago when Geico was great to do business with. See's Candy has had the same sorts of problems, although they only doubled, not tripled their prices. I just heard on the news this a.m. that Buffett is after Wrigley (candy).

@aphexbr: Beat me to the punch

@PeteCarrollInACage: "You'd" also think I would check comments on a site before clicking submit, but you'd be wrong there.

I do not even know if Geico or Progressive serve NJ yet, but I would not venture to them anyway. We have AIG and with full coverage on a 2003 TrailBlazer and a 2003 Silverado we pay under $1800.00 for the year. I was happy with State Farm a few years ago, but they kicked us over to MetLife because they were going to leave the state.

tried to get a quote from geico once. wanted me to submit my ssn. screw that.

prehaps the op had derogatory information on her credit history. geico wants your credit history to determine your "true" policy risk (at least that's what geico said).

so basically i was told that you can have a perfect driving record, but some minor problems in your credit file & they just (seemingly) arbitrarily jack up your rates.

I too have had GREAT luck with State Farm and have heard other stories of shady practices from friends who used Geic... BUT, she should think about another way to "sign" her post.."Ana l"

also, the op mentioned a "minor parking lot accident." need to see the mvr to be sure. what if the op dinged a corvette? or a fancy mercedes? the payout could have been huge.

My partner and I have been with Geico for a year (2 car policy). During that period we have one claim for vandalism, and two for not at-fault accidents (we let geico pay and then have them pursue the claim against the insurance of the drivers at fault). Our premium has gone down since that.

They have given us superior service.

@PeteCarrollInACage: I'm pretty sure the caption on the screen capture of the ad was added by the Consumerist editor.

Progressive was pretty expensive the last time I was shopping for insurance. I did much better with Liberty Mutual, and they have had really good customer service the times I've had to call them.

I had to use a relatives address in order to save $2000 a year on 2 cars full coverage (due to making payments still).

First, when you sign an application for insurance it says that all rates are conditional on the applicant being eligible for the rate quoted. It's not a bait and switch, and it's not a contract until the insurance company accepts it. What you see here is just incompetent people doing the quoting.

I was an insurance agent for many years and I hated it when I made a mistake on a rate. It didn't happen often, but it did happen occasionally. Not only is it not law that insurers have to meet the rate quoted, if there's an error it's against the law for them to do so. Insurance rates are filed with the state, and insurers are not at liberty to give someone a lower rate because of an error. I always explained the reason for the error (sometimes theirs, sometimes mine) so it was fully understood. Sometimes the person took the higher-rated policy, and sometimes they didn't want to and then I helped them get their old policy back (why I ALWAYS told people not to cancel their old policy until the new one was issued), or I did what I could to help them find coverage elsewhere.

Because Geico's business is run only over the phone and computer you see many more not-well-trained agents. I always recommend insuring with a company that has local agents, where there's more accountability and you can create relationships.

Remember that rates come in lower than quoted, too. You don't hear about it because no one writes to Consumerist to complain. And that happens a lot, too.

I useto work for GEICO and actually was part of the team who wrote the New Policy system they use today and I also do have their insurance.

I have a feeling their is more to this story that she is telling us. Buying insurance is not like buying goods in a store. Insurance companies are providing protection for themselves and you in case something happens. No insurance broker would give you a quote withought doing a background check on claims you have made. All phone claims are estimates based on the information you provide them but when they do a background check if they find something else then the quote is invalid and they reserver the right to give you a new quote.

THIS IS THE CASE WITH ALL INSURANCE COMPANIES INCLUDING PROGRESSIVE ETC....

My guess is she did not provide all the information on the 2005 accident and underwritting discovered more. A $400 (every 6 months) increase in premium for a parking lot nitch is EXCESSIVE!! So obviously there is more to this story than is being told.

I think I'll just stick with USAA. They may or may not be the cheapest (probably not), but I never have issues with them. Adding/changing vehicles, etc...takes all of two minutes and their reps are generally very nice to deal with.

Of course, we'll see what happens next year when my oldest daughter starts driving...(the thought alone makes me shutter).

@bufftbone: I'm pretty sure that's insurance fraud and if you get in an accident and they catch you they can discontinue your coverage.

Shopping around can be effective. My Allstate agent invited me in for a review of my insurance coverages (auto, home, life) about six months ago. I went to the meeting with my current coverage information and auto quotes from other places. Progressive's price was half of Allstate for the exact same coverage. The agent tried to talk me out of moving citing all of the risks of being a new insurance customer somewhere. Seeing me unmoved, he asked for a few days to try to keep my business.

A week later my Allstate rate was magically cut in half.

Also as an aside, Geico was the most expensive of all of the insurance options I checked. More than double my current rate and I've never had an auto claim or poor credit.

@r081984: Sorry, but the world doesn't work that way. Their lawyers are better than your lawyers. If you make it worth your time, they will smite you with the law.