Unfortunately, our particular dealings with Coastal Insurance of Port Isabel, Texas, have been…read morestressful as well as time-consuming and could have potentially ruined our reputation with Progressive Insurance Company along with our credit rating.
In mid-May, we visited the Coastal office to pay our annual fee on an RV. The person we spoke with ran the routing number from a check and we went on our way. A week later, we received an e-mail stating insufficient funds. Initially, we thought our bank account had been hacked and cleared out. On checking, there had been no activity on the account, nor had Progressive made any attempt to withdraw funds.
The next morning, we returned to Coastal Insurance, and they again ran the routing number. At home, we realized they had charged us $20 more than the week before. I called Coastal; they told us it was an insufficient funds charge. When I stated our bank had not had any activity, the Coastal rep told us (after brief discussion with someone on her end) that she had input the numbers "correctly," and therefore it was up to us to deal with Progressive "on that."
During the three following weeks, I made calls to Progressive trying to resolve the issue. Their agents were nothing but extremely helpful. On the first call, they immediately removed the insufficient funds charge. We then received a cancellation notice from Coastal along with a $52 cancellation fee. After talking with Progressive, that charge was also removed. Still no bank activity, however. At this point, we still thought it must be a glitch with Progressive's end.
On a third call to Progressive, the agent and I finally figured out that Coastal Insurance had indeed input the routing and bank account numbers incorrectly. Problem solved.
After all this, we were still receiving cancellation notices from Coastal. In addition, mailings were informing us that a hold had been put on our ability to pay by check with Progressive (should we wish to reinstate our policy). At this point, I returned to Coastal's offices and asked to speak with the owner.
Her first response: "Why didn't you come to me?"
We had already made two trips to Coastal and placed a phone call in which her representative had told us to take care of it ourselves. I'm not sure what else we should have been required to do at the time as a customer.
My opinion is that the owner showed no real remorse for this incident and as a customer, I felt reprimanded.
We do have paperwork to back up this review, and Progressive has noted in our file that it was the agent at fault.
