Our home and auto policies got moved to Sandy when our agent retired about 7 years ago. (Gah, it's been that long my complacency kept me here?) There was an immediate difference noted in the lack of service. We don't need to contact our agent frequently, but things do happen from time to time. Have to add a new licensed driver, add/change vehicles, buy a new camper trailer, windstorm damages our roof, etc. Every time we have needed something I have had to repeatedly follow up with multiple emails and often phone calls, with then validating on the SafeCo site to make sure the change was shown. The final straw was learning our son has still not been added on our policy, though he began driving in 2021. I requested the addition at that time. Shame on me for not immediately following up because they didn't add him. A year later, our son was gifted a car and I emailed to add it to our policy, realizing at that time that our son was still not a "rated driver" on our policy. I contacted Renee again to add him. In March, I checked and saw he still had not been added to our policy, so sent another follow up email and phone call. Renee assured me she would take care of it. No apology, just matter of fact. At that time I started doubling up on my requests, submitting the policy change requests through SafeCo's website too so I would have a confirmation receipt of the change request, AND emailing Renee.
Renee is the only one in 7 years I have ever communicated with. She is part-time, or at least, I have always had the impression she is part-time. Feels like the agency is run as a side hustle.
Now, two weeks ago, my son traded in said car for a newer vehicle, leading me to request a vehicle addition on the Safeco site - only to realize my son can't be a primary driver of said vehicle since he is still NOT ON OUR POLICY! So, weeks of emails back and forth, here we are today with receiving confirmation that our son has been added to our policy. When I spoke with Renee last week she said it was a technical issue and her submission hadn't gone through. However today she got back to us and confirmed this change had finally been made. Our son was added to the policy, and our rates changed - an additional $2200 to add our son, bringing our annual premium for 3 cars, 4 "rated drivers", to $6600. Renee said SafeCo was still the most competitive option.
Meanwhile I emailed a friend's agent at Country Companies on Friday, who today (Weds), has now enrolled us in a new home, auto, RV, and motorcycle policies effective today. No phone calls. Just a handful of emails with timely responses, three electronic signatures, and we are off! I have all my new policies and insurance cards in hand. Our homeowner's policy is going up $300/year, but we also doubled our coverage to keep up with replacement value. Our auto insurance is now $2500/year - from $4300. That's 3 cars, 4 drivers, two 25 and younger, an RV and a motorcycle. Just the cost of adding our son to the SafeCo policy was near the price of our complete auto policy with Countrywide. Dont want to overshadow this story with the cost savings because that's not the point. The point is after too many years of bad service, I have finally learned my lesson and taken our business elsewhere. Sandy Insurance never demonstrated they cared about our business. Time and time again I gave them the opportunity to earn my business but the ball kept landing at her feet. It was so much more work to manage my own policies through Sandy Insurance than it was to change to a better agent. I am sharing this to prevent others this headache and time spent trying to keep your business local. There are MANY local agents out there for you to choose from. Consider others.
To her credit, Renee did take the news gracefully. My email was detailed. Props to her for that, because I am pretty passionate. Not easy to take those kinds of bullets. It couldn't have been a surprise though. I wish all good things for these people and their business and hope the feedback does them good towards the future service of their other paying customers. read more
