My story:

I've got an '04 Mazda RX-8 with ~22,000 miles on it (and I'm a neat-freak, so its VERRRY clean).

A few days ago, I noticed someone had swiped my bumber with their vehicle...

I reported it because I wanted my insurance (Progressive) to fix it.

Well, I take it to the body shop (of course, they REALLLY insisted I take it to one of their "recommended" shops because they'll give me a "life-time" warranty, yadda-yadda..big freakin deal) of my choice. I know they are good, and I trust them.

Well, first, the guy there says..uhh.. Progressive 'eh? You're going to have problems... but I'll work with you.

Hmm.. I'm thinkin-- I've never had a problem with Statefarm; anything that's happened in the past was taken care of perfectly.

But, alas, he was right-- Progressive has the "opinion" that a vehicle thats over 1yr old (mind you, Mine is 2years old, and 'was' spotless)... So its a "USED" (yes, he said USED) vehicle, and that because its "USED" it isn't subject to receiving the same QUALITY of parts.

What does this mean? They want to put a USED bumper on my car. He REFUSED to put a new one on, unless >I< paid the difference.

Now-- in the end, I got this worked out by DECLINING to get a rental car, and in-turn they used that "money" to get me a NEW bumper instead of putting on a used one.

Sure, I will end up with what the vehicle should have had in the FIRST place, but I'm giving up a rental car to do it.

To me, thats TOTALLY unacceptable, and TOTAL crap.

A car thats less than 2 years old, and has 20k miles on it, should NOT get sub-standard parts/equipment.

Once the vehicle is fixed and paid for, I am dropping Progressive-- as I'm SURE if I had a real accident or loss, they are set out to screw me. Luckily I found out how they work on something pretty minor.

I just wanted to pass the word out about how I was treated (or rather, the lack of service and quality) from them.

I hope someone learns from my mistake in choosing them as my insurance company.

 

hmm, thanks for the heads up?

 

Guess that's the catch to saving all that money on their insurance in the first place... Kind of why I was wary of going with AIG this time around. Had Allstate in the past, and they were GREAT at taking care of everything. Hopefully I won't have any issues with the new company... Thanks for the post, though!

 

well i'm stuck with progressive for a while, due to my recent not-so-clean driving record. all other companies i got quotes from are at least 3-400 dollars more than what i pay progressive now... guess i'll just make sure i don't bump into anyone then

 

It's real good thing you didn't get your BUMPER damaged. That would looked a whole lot worse.

In any case, I'm surprised they didn't try to just repair the damage instead of replacing the bumper cover.

 

wow that sucks, ive never had a problem with progressive yet(knocks on wood). i had a hit and run about a month ago, when someone hit my car and took off while i was asleep, damage was $2500, i ended up only paying $500 for the deductable and my insurance rate didnt go up. I bought my car used and that was never brought up during any part of it. They were actually extremely helpful to me. It sucks that i had to pay $500 out of my pocket but it was better then $2500 cause i couldnt afford that. I was out of a car for about a week, i didnt get a free rental car but i got a discount at enterprise for $17 a day with free insurance. considering i have a pretty bad driving record it wasnt to bad.

 

I've had pretty good luck with Progressive.
My Miata got hit TWICE in as many weeks (the story on the second hit is HERE), and they didn't flich.
Paid it out, got it fixed right and then subrogated the $250 deductibles to the at-fault driver's insurance. I got a check for the deductibles in short order with no hit to my rates.

The only bad part of the story is that when I sold the Miata and dropped it from my insurance, the reduction was only slightly less than the multicar discount that I lost on that policy. I ended up only saving $40 a month by completely eliminating a car.
Add to that the $20 a month rate hike that they tacked on when I moved to the apartment I am renting while I settle on my new house (only 6 miles south of where I lived before) and I would have been better off keeping the car on my policy even though I didn't own it anymore!

Still better than my experience with Allstate - who dropped me the day after I posted a claim after someone hit my car with a brick. They wouldn't settle up and basically said I should sue them.
I did and broke even, but it was a headache.

 

I've never had any problems with Progressive. After 2 not at fault claims, one of which totalled almost $4000 after some *** sideswiped the car in a parking lot and left, I couldn't be happier with Progressive. I chose my own bodyshop without a whimper out of them, and when the shop found more damage and had to replace the rear door, Progressive just rogered up with another check. All of this without a penny more for premiums. Best insurance company I've ever had. Significantly better than my dealings with State Farm and Nationwide.

 

One of the best decisions I ever made was cancelling my State Farm insurance.

 

So what insurance should we get? i have aaa right now .. but i feel that their rates may be high... and i don't really like dealing with them that much...


i was thinking about progressive.. guess not anymore

 

triple A is expensive but sure saved my *** a few times. I'm not even insure by triple A but since my girlfriend is and she was with me at the time of my incident with my truck it was towed 35 miles FREE. And i'm not even a triple a customer. Now thats benefits.

 

I'd add adrian Flux to the same list.... I won't deal with them again.

Moff

 

We saved huge when we switched to SF from Geico. I got into a minor fender bender and they took care of it no problem.

 

I'll never use Geico. They cancelled my wife's insurance several years ago without informing her.

We use State Farm, and actually get a better rate than what Progressive quoted us. Of course, we have a homeowner's policy with them as well, so we get that discount.

 

I use Metlife. When my MX-6 was totalled by an idiot, they were great. When I dumped my brand new motorcycle (hit a patch of sand still on the road from winter), they fixed it up completely good as new. I don't imagine they're the cheapest around (I haven't checked) but they've always done well with me, so I stick with them.

 

I've used AIG for the last 7+ years and they have been nothing but great. My wife's car was hit 4 times (twice hit and run while parked on the street and twice at other driver's fault) and my old Porsche once (hit and run in a parking lot - pretty serious damage). They paid up each time for quality repair work in a timely fashion and since they were all not our fault there was no increase in premium. I also have my home and umbrella insurance policies with them. We haven't been able to find a better rate from a quality carrier either.