My Surmise

On March 1st, a member of my family (who is a college student) was struck from behind by another driver. The other driver did not find it necessary to stop and just changed lanes and continued on their way. After stopping and calling the police, it was found that there was no damage to the car and no injuries. A police report was filed as a precaution, in case anyone became hurt or if damage to the car became evident later on. We also notified Geico, although we were not making any claim.

One month later on March 31st, we received a letter from Geico explaining that "as per our request" the vehicle involved in this accident was being moved to a new policy and the person driving when the accident occurred was being designated as the primary driver of this vehicle. Furthermore, the policy explains (incorrectly) that this vehicle is garaged out of state where the driver attends college. We did not contact Geico to make any such request and their changes to the primary driver and the location of the vehicle are both incorrect.

This change increases our premium by $2,600 per year!

As soon as I received this letter, I called Geico to try to understand what was going on. They insisted that someone called them on 3/28 and changed the policy. After a few minutes they determined that one of their adjusters made this change.

After speaking with the adjuster she told us that Geico is assuming that we are lying about the location of the vehicle and the primary driver. They were making this change for us. Our only option to appeal is to complete a survey that they will be sending us. We haven't received this yet, but I will be sure to post an update when we do.

What terrible customer service! Nothing like their commercial about a rear end collision. When we received this new policy, there should have been a letter explaining why this change was being made, not falsely claiming that this was done per our request.

I'm now looking for insurance elsewhere.

Gecko image © GEICO

Labels: Car Insurance, Geico

My favorite 5 commercials of Super Bowl 43:
1. Bud Light - Budget Cuts (above)
2. Cash4Gold.com - Feat. Ed McMahon and MC Hammer
3. Careerbuilder.com - It May be Time
4. Coca-Cola - Brand Managers
5. Doritos - Crystal Ball

I really liked the commercials this year.

A Bud Light commercial topped my list for the second year in a row and as one of the first ads, it started the game off with a good laugh.

I was pleasantly surprised with the Cash4Gold commercial. I first read about it on The Consumerist and expected it to be a total train reck. It was actually very funny. Though, I wouldn't recommend sending them your gold.

I was really surprised to see some companies advertising this year. I did not expect to see ads from Hulu and Teleflora. I found their participation very interesting.

I was slightly impressed with the 3D ads. They were pretty cool, but nothing epic.

I should also mention that the game was excellent as well.

Labels: Advertisements, Commercials, NBC, Super Bowl

Watch out when buying a Subway sub under the $5 footlong deal. The regular prices on most subs (at least in my local store) are no more than $5.50. $5.50 minus the $1 off coupons, which I almost always receive in the mail, equals a price better than this heavily promoted "deal." Buyer beware.

Photo by Flickr user jetalone

Labels: Advertisements, Subway