My Complaint To Illinois Department of Insurance About GEICO Blackmailing[1] Me Has Apparently Been Resolved Now.
The other day I mentioned one of my complaints about GEICO to the Illinois Department of Insurance. Rather than to retype everything I will quote myself.
GEICO (again): Last year, I went to Springfield, and on my way back a rock struck my windshield and scratched it. GEICO sent Safelite out, assessed the damage, told me there was no repair, and it was a $0 No Fault Claim.
When I went shopping for Progressive Insurance, they told me I failed to report a claim of “$1,000 worth of glass damage” and they were upping my proposed premium by about $54.
I contacted GEICO, which refused to remove the false information that they reported to CLUE, and they told me to contact LexisNexis, which violated the FACT Act again.
Complaint to IDOI that GEICO as the supplier of false credit reporting information has refused to remove or amend it pending. They can absolutely delete it, they just refuse to. GEICO even told me that they don’t consider it in my quote with them, so I additionally complained that this seems to be a plot and a scheme to trap customers with GEICO with fictitious information reported to a credit bureau.
-Me
Today, I got a message on my voicemail from an “A.J.” at GEICO from a telephone number in the State of Georgia.
I called him back, and he said that GEICO Corporate has decided to file a correction with CLUE, LexisNexis, which has been blocking me from receiving my own reports so that I may dispute information which is not factual, not in the slightest little teensy weensy bit.
The correction that GEICO Corporate finally submitted (proving that they can if regulators start snooping) asks them to delete the incident since it was a zero dollar claim, and I have been informed that this will make it into the CLUE records between “a few days sometimes” and “no later than a month”.
The initial people I talked to at GEICO refused to remove it and, in fact, told me there was no mechanism to remove this false credit reporting data, without me using the dispute process. In other words, they not only lied, they told me to “go bother someone else”, essentially (to paraphrase).
I have not been impressed by GEICO. Every time they think you’re not looking, they do something else nasty to you and then you have to climb a hill to get them to knock it off.
And this isn’t even the first time.
Previously,
GEICO: During my April-October policy, they emailed me a “survey link” to update my annual mileage, under threat to increase it to 12,000, the “State average”, and bill me for it if I didn’t reply. I replied and said something like 5,000-6,999, which is true. GEICO raised my bill by about 10% and set my mileage at 12,000 anyway. I only caught it because I checked my policy (how many people do?) and found this. When I called to complain, GEICO acted like it was a mistake and refunded the difference.
Complaint to IDOI apparently was never acted upon and got lost in their move to “SalesForce Cloud”.
-Me
They’ve been losing money hand over fist in Illinois according to the news (the news aimed at investors) and have been jacking up premiums massively (20-25% in a single year sometimes!) but they also, looking at what they’ve done to me, basically openly break the law looking to drive your premiums up even further.
It’s very brazen, and I assume they usually get away with it due to people not paying attention and not knowing where to complain.
I will continue looking for another car insurance company when this deletion of the blackmail[1] propagates its way to my CLUE report.
I let A.J. have an earful about how GEICO’s actions are completely illegal under the Fair Credit Reporting Act of 1970 and are a federal crime. Furnishing false information to a credit bureau is, theoretically, a serious offense.
A 2015 study released by the Federal Trade Commission found that 23% of consumers identified inaccurate information in their credit reports.[6]
-Wikipedia
Sadly, Consumer Credit Reports often have errors, because there’s no penalty at all if the consumer fails to notice or take action.
And even if there is a penalty, the companies that smear you will make so much more jacking up your car insurance and loan interest rates that it simply doesn’t matter how many times the regulators fine them.
Furthermore, I’ve been monitoring /r/Geico on Reddit (via Gopher Proxy) and there’s been a lot of layoffs at GEICO and even more pissed off current employees due to what’s going on in there. This is not a happy crew. Does “Captain Bligh” sound familiar?
It sounds to me like there are severe organizational difficulties at the company and corrupt management that is seeking to turn a profit no matter what laws are in their way.
Of course, every car insurance company is like this to some extent. Your rates go up again because of the Kia Boys, rioting, natural disasters, and the ever popular “Don’t worry, it’s nothing you did. Rates are just going up in your area!”. It’s nice to know there’s not always a reason, just “Because fuck you.”
But GEICO is an extreme “bad egg”.
[1] “Blackmail” being how I am describing the situation whereas GEICO claimed that a $0 No-Fault Claim was an At-Fault Claim costing them $1,000.
I very much believe that this is so that you can’t get affordable rates elsewhere but “We don’t consider it in your GEICO premium.”, they told me on the phone. Hmm. It’s almost like they are hinting at, “Whoops. But don’t worry about it! You can always like, stay with GEICO!”
Oh boy, just what I always wanted.
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