Progressive's rates are $419.. that's a hella discount over what I currently pay, and I'm honestly tempted to try them. I did speak to my Farmer's agent, and he suggested Bristol West, a newly-acquired Farmer's subsidiary. They have an extremely high complaint ratio (3.84), but I'm still considering them because the rate is good ($528) and I retain the same agent/services.



I'm hearing a lot of back and forth about Progressive on the interwebs- I'm not sure what to believe. Insight from this forum helps though, at least I have some idea of qualifications behind the review.

 

Also, has anyone had direct or secondhand experience with Esurance?

 

my dad has progressive, great service he likes them

 

i had allstate and then some local broker then back to allstate. loved having to go in and pay the policy but that was about it. im now with geico for a lil over a year, so far so good. my friend has geico and was involved in an accident and they seemed to work pretty good with him.

 

Was your bad experience as a customer? Can you generally describe what you didn't like?

 

Was this the extent of your trouble?

 

I struck (at about 65 mph) what looked to have been an alternator lying in the road. Ripped a hole in the tranny pan of my wife's '98 Olds Intrigue. An officer happened by and listened to my story. He helped get us a tow. We got fixed up and on our way.



A few days later, I called Progressive to see if it was worth filing a claim to cover the cost of repairs. Turns out with the deductible, it wasn't. We did not file a claim.



The next time we get a bill, it's much higher. Upon calling, we discover that the guy I talked to entered the incident on my record as an "At-fault Accident". Solely on the basis of our phone converstation, and in spite of the fact that there was no "accident report" and no claim. Needless to say, I was pissed.



I wrote a letter to the state commissioner of insurance protesting what they did. I later received a refund check from Progressive for the amount of the excess premium, but the incident remained on my record. I took my business elsewhere.

 

Hmmm... it's these kind of things that make me wonder if the company as a whole is the problem, or just the random hyper-inept claims rep.

 

GEICO is *** but they are cheap, their service is absolutely terrible all the way up the line and trust me I went up the whole food chain. Thats messed up with progressive, i got in a little at fault fender bender when we had progressive and they never even increased our premium. *******.

 

OMG STEVE!!