Could Progressive Candidates Cure this Evil?
Don't sweat the small stuff, it is said. Well, what they never tell you is that the small stuff adds up.
So it was that I recently had to take it up the wazoo by a Geico representative who was hell bent on upping her commission.
Let's back up a little (no pun intended). When I first signed up with Geico, they told me that they would have to add my wife as the driver of the pick-up truck, a Ford F350 with oversized tires. The reason I so clearly remember this is that the thought that my wife would have the desire or even the ability to drive a big truck like that was, frankly, ludicrous. However, I felt I had no choice but to comply with their demands for when it comes to insurance companies and the like, it's always a case of "who's your daddy?" (Of course, they knew that my wife would probably not be driving the stick BMW).
Now, fast forward about 5 years at least. I get on the phone to add a third car--small, automatic--which my wife could use in an emergency (truthfully, I'm her chauffeur and I stupidly tried to tell that to Geico). Geico could have put my wife down as the driver of that car and I would have no story to tell but what the woman did was to claim (btw, as opposed to us, they can do all the "claiming" they want) that my wife had inadvertently been entered into the computer as living abroad and, therefore, lower previous billing was justified as she had no access to any of our vehicles. Now, as a result of the representative's long drawn-out fishing interview with me, the representative said she would have to add my wife as a driver at an increase in premium (about 120 bucks more per year). Now, as a big company, you would think that at some time during the 5 years, they would have asked me if my wife was now living with me--obviously, they never did either because I either had the misfortune of ending up with the smartest boss-man pleaser on the planet, this time around, or the company has previously failed to bring in a proper revenue and the CEO should be fired.
The cure to prevent this type of scam is to have the insurance companies provide you with all the criteria that went into your premium. But that could only happen with a Progressive like Bernie Sanders who is looking out for the little guy. These corrections would not ever take place with the likes of Hillary Clinton, and the Republican Wilde beasts only want to cross the river without another hidden mic Romney episode putting an end to their bigotry and greed.
Another way Geico could be a better company is to ask us to send it a picture of our odometers with every renewal. They would not do that now because they KNOW they would find that they had been overcharging people based on inflated yearly mileage submitted by people who do not want to calculate their true yearly mileage because of laziness or just wanting to get the whole interview process over with, or, let's be honest, thinking they were safely underestimating.
I have had no accidents (in over 40 years) and or traffic violations in the time I've been with Geico, yet I have to pay $1200 a year for the right to drive an average of 100 miles a year. That average is distributed amongst all three vehicles but Geico only allows a minimum of 100 miles per car. In percentages, I am now paying more than 50% higher premiums for the same mileage driven.
I may care about not going to war with Iran (I am not a psychopath, I have future memory) and I may empathize with the Cuban people but what really drives our stress levels is the small insults done at the hands of Goliaths like Geico.
So it was that I recently had to take it up the wazoo by a Geico representative who was hell bent on upping her commission.
Let's back up a little (no pun intended). When I first signed up with Geico, they told me that they would have to add my wife as the driver of the pick-up truck, a Ford F350 with oversized tires. The reason I so clearly remember this is that the thought that my wife would have the desire or even the ability to drive a big truck like that was, frankly, ludicrous. However, I felt I had no choice but to comply with their demands for when it comes to insurance companies and the like, it's always a case of "who's your daddy?" (Of course, they knew that my wife would probably not be driving the stick BMW).
Now, fast forward about 5 years at least. I get on the phone to add a third car--small, automatic--which my wife could use in an emergency (truthfully, I'm her chauffeur and I stupidly tried to tell that to Geico). Geico could have put my wife down as the driver of that car and I would have no story to tell but what the woman did was to claim (btw, as opposed to us, they can do all the "claiming" they want) that my wife had inadvertently been entered into the computer as living abroad and, therefore, lower previous billing was justified as she had no access to any of our vehicles. Now, as a result of the representative's long drawn-out fishing interview with me, the representative said she would have to add my wife as a driver at an increase in premium (about 120 bucks more per year). Now, as a big company, you would think that at some time during the 5 years, they would have asked me if my wife was now living with me--obviously, they never did either because I either had the misfortune of ending up with the smartest boss-man pleaser on the planet, this time around, or the company has previously failed to bring in a proper revenue and the CEO should be fired.
The cure to prevent this type of scam is to have the insurance companies provide you with all the criteria that went into your premium. But that could only happen with a Progressive like Bernie Sanders who is looking out for the little guy. These corrections would not ever take place with the likes of Hillary Clinton, and the Republican Wilde beasts only want to cross the river without another hidden mic Romney episode putting an end to their bigotry and greed.
Another way Geico could be a better company is to ask us to send it a picture of our odometers with every renewal. They would not do that now because they KNOW they would find that they had been overcharging people based on inflated yearly mileage submitted by people who do not want to calculate their true yearly mileage because of laziness or just wanting to get the whole interview process over with, or, let's be honest, thinking they were safely underestimating.
I have had no accidents (in over 40 years) and or traffic violations in the time I've been with Geico, yet I have to pay $1200 a year for the right to drive an average of 100 miles a year. That average is distributed amongst all three vehicles but Geico only allows a minimum of 100 miles per car. In percentages, I am now paying more than 50% higher premiums for the same mileage driven.
I may care about not going to war with Iran (I am not a psychopath, I have future memory) and I may empathize with the Cuban people but what really drives our stress levels is the small insults done at the hands of Goliaths like Geico.
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