We had Progressive Auto Insurance for three or four years, and it was a miserable experience. Every six months, instead of just sending a friendly notice saying it is time to renew, we would get a cancellation notice saying that unless we paid by such and such a time, our insurance would cancelled. The one time we had a claim, I ended up doing a bunch of the leg work myself, making phone calls, etc. This was stuff that I never had to do when I had a claim with Safeco, or with Allstate. When we bought our house, we insured it with Allstate. We looked at switching our auto insurance over, but I had to wait for a ticket to fall off. The ticket was due to fall off in October, and we were planning on switching. One of the other requirements was that we had been continuously insured for the previous year. Around June or July, we got a letter from the state of New York saying that because our insurance had lapsed, we he to turn in our plates, or be fined, or possibly go to jail. What the hell? I called the state, and they said our insurance had been cancelled 18 days earlier. What??? I called progressive, and was told our insurance had been cancelled due to non-payment. What? I talked to my wife, and we had never gotten a bill. We had not gotten a cancellation notice. We got nothing. Progressive claimed they sent us a couple things. WE NEVER GOT THEM! So now we were forced to resign with Progressive. We had to pay the state hundreds of dollars in fines. So instead of being able to switch over to Allstate in October, we had to wait one year from that point. So we got a big Screw You from Progressive. As soon as we could, we dumped Progressive. It was a horrible experience.
I’ve had the exact same experience regarding cancellation notices before billing notices with Progressive. I never had to file a claim (thankfully) but it got so bad I finally switched to Allstate (also my home owner’s insurer) and my Car insurance bill is now *half* what it was with progressive!
Comment by Mike — February 1, 2006 @ 4:10 pm
Being in the autobody repair business, I can attest to opinion that Progressive is a HORRIBLE insurance company. Their claims adjusters cut every corner possible to save them money and the care NOTHING about the quality or safety of a repair. Be forwarned. If you have them, dump them BEFORE you need service or you will be sorry.
Comment by Roger — May 9, 2006 @ 11:16 am
I also work in the repair industry. Regressive is the worst company around. If I’m ever in an accident I hope they don’t have Progressive insurance.
Comment by Brent — May 26, 2006 @ 4:41 pm
My mother was recenty involved in an accident that the police stated in the report that was NOT her fault but that of a driver insured by progressive insurance.
The adjuster has not even looked at our car (nearly a week) and does not have the brains to call the police department to get the drivers name and policy number.
I did get the report yesterday and left a message for the ajduster with the driver’s name and his progressive insurance policy number. I also left all the information this moron needed without having to look at the report so he could see that the driver that hit my mother had progressive. The adjuster even said he doubted that the driver that hit my mother had progressive!!!
In our first conversation (my mother had a concusion and the adjuster did not even suggest she go to the doctor and she was in no shape to talk to an adjuster-she did not even know me at first).
This adjuster fished around for my mother’s insurance information for collision on HER part!.
My mother has little insurance knowledge but I have an adjusters liscense I never used (long story) so I know how it works.
Progressive is planning to give us the run around until we file on her insurance under collison.
We have tried to work with this _____ but this guy is all black and white and wants to total a car that we have babyed for years and we can’t afford a new one. We will take aftermarket parts, sign an agreement oking it just as long as we can keep the car which neeeds about $2000.00 in repairs than the totaled amount.
And I am sure progressive will lowball us.
I did check the NADA value and the car because of its low milage but it is a 1998 model, has a book value of about $5000.00.
I doubt that this sh-tty company will give her this amount.
Probably $2000.00. And this adjuster said he used the NADA for prices.
Progressive sucks.
I want to subrogate back to Progressive since it was not my mother’s fault and she should not have it on her record or pay a deductable.
This comapny should spend less on it’s sute ads and more on treating people who are hit by their insureds and hire better employees.
Comment by Richard — June 15, 2006 @ 3:47 am
We have just had our first experience with Progressive. Our 6 foot privacy fence has been taken out by a motorist. He completed a police report, which includes his name and policy number. We have contacted Progressive now over three days and getting nothing but the run around. They have all of this guys information, but keep telling us that he might not have a valid policy. They also state that they cannot send out an adjuster until they speak with him to validate the claim. That’s funny we have spoke with him and he states he cannot get a hold of them and he needs to get his truck fixed. They tell me just to file on my home owner’s insurance and they can work it out, if he does have insurance. Looks like to me they just want to push it off and hope that I go away. They also stated that they had to wait for the police report and that takes 10-14 days. I said what snail mail. Have they not heard of a fax, I offered to fax them a copy. This is a fight that will continue, in the mean time I ma having to fix the fence at my cost or have my insurance fix it with my outof pocket decuctable and have them subrogate againts Progressive. What a headache
Comment by Carla — November 7, 2007 @ 11:15 pm
As a former Progressive employee (claims adjuster) it needs to be said that the job is extremely difficult. Remember that your claim is not the only claim they deal with. In fact, workloads are kept at an incredibly high level, more than can be managed. Police reports in New York take 6-8 weeks from the State, no joke. Not everybody in the world is cooperative with their investigations, either. Sometimes there are delays, and they cannot be avoided. Most of the posts here seem to be impatient people. Trust me people, I hate Progressive from an ex-employee standpoint. But also understand that adjusters are at the mercy of the company. I was simply a messenger of good and/or bad news to the customer, but customers acted like I was making up all the worst news that I could to save a buck or two. I never made commissions on claims. If that were the case, I would have left long before I did. Corporate looks at the $$$ and not at the customer, but it’s not the adjusters fault.
Comment by Jim — December 16, 2007 @ 11:12 pm
Last year I was hit broadside by a driver who was insured by Progressive. The driver ran a red light while speeding through an intersection and was ticketed for doing so. My vehicle sustained about 60% damage. That’s enough for my insurance company to have totaled the vehicle and payed it off. But not Progressive. Their standard is a ridiculous 80%.
My vehicle has been at either the body shop or the dealership now for nearly five months. The body shop and the dealership are at odds about exactly what is wrong with it. Progressive’s attitude about the whole thing has been ” hey we don’t repair vehicles, we just assess the damage and pay for the repairs”. As if they are not the ones who decided that the vehicle was repairable in the first place. And of course their employees are all thoroughly brainwashed to believe that the insurance companies are the real victims and people who file claims are a bunch of greedy ingrates. All this time they have had me driving rentals that are nowhere near the quality of my own vehicle.
They say that they will return your vehicle to the condition it was in before the accident but that is a load of BVLLSH!T. How long are you supposed to let them keep it until it’s returned to that condition? I think five months is plenty. Besides, I have had some estimates on trade ins that put my diminished value at over $6000 because of the accident.
I guess I have no choice but to let an attorney handle it. What a pain in the ass. Stay far far away from these
people and hope you never get hit by someone with this sorry excuse for an insurance company.
Comment by johnny — January 4, 2008 @ 2:21 am
Progressive sucks bad. The forum to complain about this garbage company is JobVent.Com, there are over 1,300 entries. The problem is that Progressive is manipulating JobVent to delete negative posts so the cumulative score doesn’t increase. We need to find a place where Progressive haters can congregate. The employees hate their own company so you can imagine how thwy will treat their customers.
Comment by Ken — January 14, 2008 @ 11:49 pm
Every insurance company will have bad claim opinions, that’s just a fact of doing business. Just Google “state farm claim” and see what pops up. They have a decent reputation, but you’ll find a slew of nasty claim situtations.
Comment by Cheap Car Insurance — January 23, 2008 @ 3:19 pm
I was hit but an idiot and the shop thats fixing it says it will take 9 days and progressive will only pay for 4 days for a rental, because “thats how long it should take” in their words so yea I would love and hope I get the chance to bury this company ( :
Comment by mike — January 31, 2008 @ 6:55 pm
You think that is bad
I had a new Lexus hit by a stolen van insured by Progressive
After delays with my insurer i called progressive
No insurance whatever
They knew that their insured car had “hit somehting”
But never asked or wanted any records of me calling - but sure knew how to figure out which adjustor had handled the claim on their car
The explanation was like out of 1984 > Mr X cannot be held responsible. If the people who stole their insured car robbed a bank then Mr. X can not be held liabile.
Amazing - people rob banks and go to jail for it. Not cars. Their car hit mine.
The most he could say was ” You have insurance”
Lol
Comment by Baby You Can Drive My Car to Work — February 8, 2008 @ 7:10 am
I am having a big problem with Progressive insurance as well. Someone they insure (with a suspended liscence) hit my car at an intersection and after taking my car to three body shops they still don’t want to get me a new car. Does anyone have an email for corporate because I want to cc some emails to various complaint departments, newspapers, radio stations, etc?
Comment by Gustavo — February 26, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
my wife and kids were in an auto accident. which flipped our 2007 jeep compass and totaled it.progressive paid it off within three days.we were $10,000 upsidedown on suv.we love progressive.thanks to our agent John Viteri.
Comment by patrick dale carpenter — April 14, 2008 @ 5:13 pm
Progressive Reality:
Here’s how they work; The adjusters who work for Progressive are worked like dogs. They are grossly underpaid as well. Progressives hiring practices take unexperienced people, send them to school and 6-8 weeks later, they are writing estimates from Progressives playbook. Most of their people are underqualified as well as overworked. They have a cap on how much they can write, usually around $2000.00. They have to get supervisor approval over that. Unless they are a senoir adjuster. Progressives “Concierge” program is a real scam. You drop your car off, they give you a rental and then your car gets pawned off to the lowest bidder. You never know who repairs your car. Shop porters hang around the Concierge centers like rats waiting for cheese! Everything is done thru Progressive. It takes the customer right out of the loop as to how the car is fixed and who is doing so. Progressive wants 55% of claims handled to go thru the Concierge service. It saves them big bucks, that’s why. People need to understand that insurance companies, in essence are no different than the Mafia! They strong arm people into taking there vehicles to their Pro shops. They do make it convenient to do so. If you dispute their way and use your own shop, they throw up so much red tape it literally forces you to do so. It’ll take 5 days to send an appraiser out, we can’t guarentee the work, we won’t pay downtime on the rental, blah, blah, blah… Insurance companies are not doing anyone any favors. Everything they do, every policy they have is initiated by money. Nothing is done for the customers sake, it’s how much can we save by doing this or that. Progressive has a 65% non-renewal rate on their policies. 6.5/10 Insureds do not renew with progressive. That is alarming! Progressive by the way, does not pay for corrosion protection. Meaning any welded part replaced on a vehicle needs seperate stages of refinishing to insure rust thru protection. They do not pay it. All other companies have seperate procedures they pay for. Aftermarket parts in most cases are substandard for fit as well as UV protection in plastic items such as chrome grilles & lamp lenses. Insurance companies don’t care, they are cheaper. They have been sued coast to coast for using them and in some cases they now have to ask permission to use them on a repair. Allstate does this. State Farm doesn’t use them at this time. It’s all about money. Geico is almost as bad as progressive. Their adjusters are more experienced however. Insurance companies are the enemy. I urge all to not get bullied by their insurance company. Stand up for your rights as a consumer. Insurance companies receive parts discounts from dealerships as well as paint material concessions. Why should they get the discount? This amounts to thousands of dollars a day nationwide. They can call it what they like, it’s a kickback!
Comment by John Burns — April 17, 2008 @ 12:42 pm
Its never easy dealing with almost every auto insurance company - not only Progressive
They sure know how to take your money / premiums but when it comes to a claim - watch out
The biggest joke is when a stolen van hits your vehicle - they have insurance , in that the car owner gets paid for their damaged vehicle . However the person who gets their car , truck or even has personal damage has no liability or coverage whatsoever from the “Progressive ” Auto Insurance Company
Comment by Agency Saper — May 11, 2008 @ 7:05 am
To the folks whose cars were hit by stolen vehicles - if your car was stolen and the thief caused damage to someone else’s property, do you think you or your insurance company would be held liable? Don’t think so. Just a thought.
Comment by Maire — May 15, 2008 @ 12:19 am
WOW….
IF A VEHICLE IS STOLEN, THE THE LIABILITY COVERAGE DOES NOT APPLY, READ YOUR POLICY!! SEE FOR YOURSELF… ITS UNDER *EXCLUSIONS*. THATS WHY YOUR NOT GETTING YOUR CAR PAID FOR IDIOT.
TO THE IDIOT WHO WASNT GIVEN A RENTAL OF “THE SAME QUALITY AS YOUR VEHICLE” - THEY OWE YOU COMPARABLE SIZE, NOT QUALITY. GET OVER YOURSELF, TAKE IT UP WITH THE RENTAL COMPANY.
AND FOR GODS SAKE… TO THE IDIOT WHO ONLY PAYS HIS BILL WHEN HE GETS A CANCEL NOTICE - YOU IDIOT!!! THAT IS YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO PAY AND ENSURE IT STAYS IN FORCE. ITS NOT CELL PHONE OR CABLE SERVICE… YOU MISS ONE PAYMENT AND THAT COVERAGE IS DONE.
Comment by GET A CLUE — July 16, 2008 @ 11:06 pm
Dude, we HAD to wait for a bill so we knew how much to pay. But progressive didn’t send a bill. They sent notices of impending cancellation if we didn’t pay by such and such a date. That apparently was their form of a bill. Very unfriendly! God forbid that single notice gets lost in the mail somewhere. Which is what might have happened the one time, and it cost us a crapload of money.
Allstate sends us a bill. Not a letter threatening cancellation. And the one time the bill got lost in the mail, they did a followup before our insurance lapsed!
Comment by Rob — July 18, 2008 @ 5:59 am
My son had this really nice Lincoln LS that was rear ended. It had a minor prior repair on a fender but looked beautiful prior to the collision. Progressive used this as an excuse not to repair the fender or the bumper cover, claiming that the earlier repair made it more susceptible to damage. It was total garbage. Whatever I saved going with Progressive I lost having to buy the parts myself on line and getting them to the collision shop. Stay away from Progressive!!
Comment by William S. Stern — July 20, 2008 @ 4:36 pm