I have never written a bad review in my life, but my experience was nothing but horrible with this insurance agency. Please keep in mind, I needed insurance for my first ever business, so I decided that an experienced agency like AA Lares would be the smart move. I don't know anything about insurance, so I trusted them to make sure my insurance was sound, I was getting the best rate, and there would be no surprises. Oh... where to begin. Upon signing my first polices, I noticed the names were off, and there were being written to my personal names, not my LLC's name. I was told this was normal and totally ok. I was told I needed 3 policies; General Liability, Worker's Comp (which I was told I needed, come to find out it's not even required in CA if the owner is the only employee, $2,000 down the drain...), and my commercial auto. In the coming months, the nightmare of my policies would be revealed to me.
#1 - I got into a small fender bender, and went to use my auto insurance. Turns out that they entered my VIN incorrectly on the policy. This delayed the claim about 4 weeks to a month.
#2 - (The big one) When closing out my worker's compensation insurance, they perform an audit. I came to learn this audit will reflect your TRUE premium, and the premium provided to the at the opening of the policy is just an estimate. I guess it was a very rough estimate, because my policy doubled. I now owe $1300 MORE on top of my original premium, for a insurance policy I was told I needed, but DIDN'T EVEN NEED. Although AA Lares won't seem to admit it, they made an error. At the opening of my policy, when giving me a quote for the policy's premium, they asked what I expected my payroll to be for year one. I told them. Turns out in CA there is a minimum payroll required for Worker's Compensation, the minimum was double what I said I would make, hence the premium increase. I should've been informed immediately, "there is a payroll minimum, and if you enter that number, you'll owe double at the end of the policy". I wasn't told that. So much for trusting the experts! When the bill was emailed to me, I called my insurance agent. She told me this was a mistake on the insurance's part, and she's going to fix it. I get a notice about 2 months after she said "shes going to fix it", that it's about to be sent to collections. I call again, and she tells me "it will NOT be sent to collections, you DO NOT need to pay it. I am working on it." It got sent to collections. 4 months later.... I call the office and asked for a manager. She personally tells me she'll work on it. About 2 weeks later, she calls me and let's me know, that there was no wrong doing on their part, and they can't help me further! Amazing. So now I'm out $1300 for a policy I didn't even need, and it's been in collections for 3 months because I was told not to pay it. Hoping it doesn't effect my credit. What a nightmare. That's where our relationship ended. I was told that's all they could do, and I'm on my own.
Please keep in mind, during the 1 year relationship I had with AA Lares, they we're a complete nightmare to get ahold of. I'm not sure if it was my dedicated agent or the office in general, but I was was always told "I'd be called right back, the agent is on lunch", and then was almost NEVER called back. This happened at least 4-5 times. I had to call multiple times a day to get ahold of my agent.
What's weird is this office has a ton of great reviews. I was fooled by them. read more
