What a dick move by Progressive

[MIAdragon]

http://mattfisher.tumblr.com/post/29...-to-defend-her

**This did not happen to me or my family, just passing this BS along**

My Sister Paid Progressive Insurance to Defend Her Killer In Court

I’ve been sending out some impertinent tweets about Progressive Insurance lately, but I haven’t explained how they pissed me off. So I will do that here as succinctly as possible. There’s a general understanding that says, “insurance companies— oh they’re awful,” but since Progressive turned their shit hose on my late sister and my parents, I’ve learned some things that really surprised me.

I’ll try to cleave to the facts. On June 19, 2010, my sister was driving in Baltimore when her car was struck by another car and she was killed. The other driver had run a red light and hit my sister as she crossed the intersection on the green light.

Now, I don’t discount the possibility that Katie was at fault in the accident, but it never really looked that way. The only witness who gave a statement on the day said that Katie had the light, etc. The totality of the evidence left some room for argument, but that will be the case any time there’s a catastrophic car accident that doesn’t happen underneath an array of video cameras.

One indication that the case was pretty open-and-shut was that the other guy’s insurance company looked at the situation and settled with my sister’s estate basically immediately. Now, because the other driver was underinsured, that payment didn’t amount to much, but my sister carried a policy with Progressive against the possibility of an accident with an underinsured driver. So Progressive was now on the hook for the difference between the other guy’s insurance and the value of Katie’s policy.

At which point we learned the first surprising thing about Progressive: Carrying Progressive insurance and getting into an accident does not entitle you to the value of your insurance policy. It just pisses off Progressive’s lawyers. Here I address you, Prospective Progressive Insurance Customer: someday when you have your accident, I promise that there will be enough wiggle room for Progressive’s bottomless stack of in-house attorneys to make a court case out of it and to hammer at that court case until you or your surviving loved ones run out of money.

Which is what Progressive decided to do to my family. In hopes that a jury would hang or decide that the accident was her fault, they refused to pay the policy to my sister’s estate.

Out of a sense of honor, and out of a sense of the cost of my sister’s outstanding student loans, my folks opted to try to go after the money through legal channels. At which point they learned another delightful thing. In Maryland, you may not sue an insurance company when they refuse to fork over your money. Instead, what they had to do was sue the guy who killed my sister, establish his negligence in court, and then leverage that decision to force Progressive to pay the policy.

Now my parents don’t harbor much venom for the guy who killed my sister. It was an accident, and kicking that guy around won’t bring Katie back. But kicking that guy around was the only way to get Progressive to pay. So they filed a civil suit against the other driver in hopes that, rather than going to court, Progressive would settle. Progressive did not. Progressive made a series of offers (never higher than 1/3 the amount they owe) and then let it go to a trial.

At the trial, the guy who killed my sister was defended by Progressive’s legal team.

If you are insured by Progressive, and they owe you money, they will defend your killer in court in order to not pay you your policy.

The trial was a real shitshow for my parents, and I did not love it either. As it happens, the jury did find that the other driver was negligent, which, if justice or decency are priorities for Progressive, will result in them finally honoring Katie’s policy. At this point, I hope you’ll forgive me if I wait for it to actually happen.

Don’t buy insurance from Progressive. Not only will you be paying the salaries of people who put my family through the wringer (really a smaller wringer that Progressive attached to the main wringer of my sister’s death), but also when the chips are down, your money will have bought you nothing but a kick in the face.

Today (August 14) Progressive made an announcement about the case. This is my statement in response.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by stonedstooge

I think I'd be contacting the Insurance Regulation Board in your state to see about the legality of your sisters insurer representing the defendent. And sorry for your loss man. A person has to lose a sibling to know how it feels. Life's not fair

Its not his sister. He reposted some dude's blog without taking out the 1st-person narrative.

Progressive has every right to argue in court that her underinsured motorists coverage shouldn't pay out, if they think it was partially her fault and the other insurance company (which wasn't on the hook for hardly any money at all) isn't interested in doing anything about it.

[Just Passin' By]

Originally Posted by Brock

**** progressive.

This

[|Zach|]

It was pretty clear from the get go this isn't the family of the Chiefs Planet poster. lol

[FlaChief58]

I switched to Geico last month. $185 per month cheaper for the exact same coverage. **** Progressive and Flo

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by BIG_DADDY

Only you would come in and defend the nobility of of Progressive in a thread like this.

I replied to a dumb post claiming that Progressive would waste money on a trial even with 10 witnesses and video tape. Thats a silly, false statement on its face.

I have no love for Progressive, at all. They are a cut-rate no-frills insurer owned by stockholders, I'm just calling out obvious BS.

[MIAdragon]

Originally Posted by alnorth

Its not his sister. He reposted some dude's blog without taking out the 1st-person narrative.

Progressive has every right to argue in court that her underinsured motorists coverage shouldn't pay out, if they think it was partially her fault and the other insurance company (which wasn't on the hook for hardly any money at all) isn't interested in doing anything about it.

Should I have edited the guys story? I did throw up the disclaimer just a few posts in.

[MIAdragon]

Originally Posted by |Zach|

It was pretty clear from the get go this isn't the family of the Chiefs Planet poster. lol

[Saul Good]

Originally Posted by Brock

Progressive is the worst insurance company I've ever dealt with. I don't really give a shit about what you think is cool and hip. It was my misfortune to deal with them, and thankfully I won't ever have to do it again. From my experience they are chintzy and cheap and they don't make collecting money from them an easy experience even when you've bought every conceivable bell and whistle and it's perfectly clear they're supposed to. **** progressive.

This is true, but it doesn't make your previous statement true.

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by Brock

Progressive is the worst insurance company I've ever dealt with. I don't really give a shit about what you think is cool and hip. It was my misfortune to deal with them, and thankfully I won't ever have to do it again. From my experience they are chintzy and cheap and they don't make collecting money from them an easy experience even when you've bought every conceivable bell and whistle and it's perfectly clear they're supposed to. **** progressive.

FWIW, my experience with Progressive has been nothing short of incredible, even when they had no interest whatsoever in helping.

The latest - a few months ago someone backed into my wife's truck in a parking lot. The driver gave my wife false information - insurance that showed a current expiration, but in fact hadn't been in business for four years, bad phone number, etc. Well, we only carried liability on the truck. At that point, Progressive could have said, "You only carry liability, it's not our problem." They didn't do that. They went to work for three weeks trying to track down the driver based on vehicle description, an accurate VIN and name... and it worked. Then Progressive sent them a letter and a phone call telling them they're on the hook... long story short, after about two months, I drove to the lady's workplace and picked up a check for $1,600, and it was 100 percent thanks to work Progressive did that they were absolutely not obligated to do.

[JD10367]

I'm about to dump Progressive anyway (I need house insurance and am switching my auto to the same new company). This makes me feel good about doing it.

[alnorth]

Originally Posted by JD10367

I'm about to dump Progressive anyway (I need house insurance and am switching my auto to the same new company). This makes me feel good about doing it.

Go with a mutual company, they do not have to worry about paying dividends.

[Bump]

Originally Posted by Fire Me Boy!

FWIW, my experience with Progressive has been nothing short of incredible, even when they had no interest whatsoever in helping.

The latest - a few months ago someone backed into my wife's truck in a parking lot. The driver gave my wife false information - insurance that showed a current expiration, but in fact hadn't been in business for four years, bad phone number, etc. Well, we only carried liability on the truck. At that point, Progressive could have said, "You only carry liability, it's not our problem." They didn't do that. They went to work for three weeks trying to track down the driver based on vehicle description, an accurate VIN and name... and it worked. Then Progressive sent them a letter and a phone call telling them they're on the hook... long story short, after about two months, I drove to the lady's workplace and picked up a check for $1,600, and it was 100 percent thanks to work Progressive did that they were absolutely not obligated to do.

seriously?

[Fire Me Boy!]

Originally Posted by Bump

seriously?

Yep. I did misspeak there - they did in fact say, "You only carry liability, so there's really nothing we can do..." But then they said they'd do whatever they could to help us recoup what was owed from the individual that hit her. And they actually did. And it seriously took about six weeks, the entire time Progressive was calling us, emailing us and letting us know what they found out, starting with when they thought they had identified her current insurance carrier... which turned out to be the insurance of the guy that owned the car before the bitch that hit my wife, and due to an filing error at that place still listed the car under his policy.

[Baby Lee]

Originally Posted by Paniero

Progressive did nothing wrong. It's a defendant in MD's UM/UIM process. I know insurance law well, know that MD is second only to CA in the difficulty in insurance issues, and know people are ragIng over nothing in this case.

This

[plbrdude]

Originally Posted by MIAdragon

Should I have edited the guys story? I did throw up the disclaimer just a few posts in.

i don't know. if i could figure out it wasn't your sister i would think anyone else could.

i can understand progressive not wanting to pay on the claim. whether it's right or wrong is subject to opinion; but i would think if the defense in the case is coming from progressive then there has to be an issue there.