I walked in this morning and waiting for me was a letter from my former insurance agent… I canceled with him for the following reasons in order of occurrence:

1. In order to sign the lease, I was FORCED to sign with this jerk. My Landlord would not let me have the keys until this policy was written up. I’ve been overpaying by $500-$800 per year going on year 4… but I felt that I had to stay with this agent because my landlord said so.
2. I was late with the payments all the time which were $120. That’s with an $11 “monthly service charge”. I would use online payments to make things easier but somehow, they were always late. There weren’t any fees but once in a while (I think 2 times now), my policy would “lapse” because it was late and they would have to write up a new policy. I guess it was a pain for the agents, but they did it and didn’t tell me about it.
3. I received a refund check saying I was completely dropped from this insurance company, due to another late payment. In order to be re-instated, I would have to sign up all over again which would entail another 1 year commitment. I was month-to-month at this point, which made me want to shop around for insurance.
4. called around… got quotes as little as 1/3 of the price I was paying. I decided to go with a name that was familiar “insurance yyyy” and I am still saving a ton. So, now I’m making half the payment with twice the coverage (1 mill vs 500K liability and now I get twice the coverage on loss of product). (footnote, my lease claims I need 1,000,000 in coverage… jackass (landlord’s friend) only covered me for 500,000) AND because the annual insurance premium is less than 1/2 of the quote from the first agent, I was able to pay for the year up front. I did a happy dance.

Another thing I should mention, this guy’s business is a few door down from me :(

Here’s the letter I sent to my now FORMER ins. agent… I slipped it under his door after work:

My company…
my street address, city state and zip
(555)555-55555 phone ∙ (555)555-5555 fax

March 24, 2006

xxxxxx Insurance

Attn: big mr. insurance guy
his address
city, state zip
(555) 555-5555 phone
(555) 555-5555 fax

RE: my policy and account #

big mr. insurance guy,

Due to the closure of our account with xxxxxx Insurance, we decided to get quotes from a few other insurance companies. Other new insurance yyyy has a great rate that we can pay in 2 semi-annual payments. By only having two payments we feel more confident that these payments would be on time avoiding the cancellation of our account and the reminders and paperwork associated.

Be advised that effective immediately we’ve been instructed to ask you to send new insurance guy, our new account representative at yyyy insurance, a three-year loss experience record for the above Business Policy. Assembly Bill (AB1180) which became law effective January 1, 2002 requires insurance carriers upon request from the insured (or agent of record where authorized by the insured) to provide a premium and loss history report within 10 business days.

Please provide this information directly to:

New shiney insurance agent
his address
city, state. zip
You may FAX the information to him at: 555-555-5555 or email to: new insurance
guy@xxxinsurance.com

Thank you for all your help,

me!

To which he replied:

you,

Further to your letter dated march 24, 2006 and dropped in my office on march 29 2006, I will order the request loss runs in due time.

For your information, I’m very well aware of the governing laws regarding AB1190. I deal with this issue on a daily basis and certainly do not need a reminder especially from a person who is late in her premium payments most of the time. Furthermore, unlike some desperate insurance agents/brokers, I do not use AB1180 as a selling tool to gain new accounts. Just like everyone else, you are entitled to choose your insurance carrier and account representative.

As far as I am concerned, I have dealt with you in a matter that a professional agent should, I would have preferred if you had done the same.

Sincerely, dick von dickenburg
agent, ins xxxx group of companies.

So, I go into his office, waving the letter and here’s how it went:

me: me
ass: him

me: “was this letter really necessary?”

ass: “well you choose to insult me by sending me that letter with a law that I am very aware of. This is my job and I’ve done it (whatever) number of years. That was very insulting of you to do that!”

me: “I wasn’t aware that it was insulting to you! I wrote that letter with a paragraph the new insurance company asked me to cut and paste into it. If I really wanted to insult you I would have come up with something better than that! I had no idea that was an insult!”

ass: “well if you would have just come down and said dick von dickhead I need this, I would have printed it out for you right away! (something about how they conned me into signing…)”

me: “well, where I come from we do everything on paper so I wasn’t sure if that was the way to handle it. I’m getting twice the coverage for half the price and I thought re-instating my policy for the third time would be a pain for you guys… I thought I would be doing you a favor (I know, that was passive aggressive)”

ass: something about people come and go but he would appreciate it if I would have come and talked to him about it… but he’s turning red now

keep in mind this whole time he won’t make eye contact with me, his sister is sitting behind me 5 feet away and she has said nothing. I don’t remember the entire conversation because I came back and wanted to cry and I’m still shaking. He’s been sweet as pie (and I’ve been friendly with his sister, wife and kids) up until this point and you know what, I feel LUCKY that I got out when I did because what if something happened with a claim and I had to work with him?!?! eeeek!

So, long story short I’ve got a running list of people who dislike me in this building:

Shop spaces, from left to right…
1. they like me, I’m a customer of theirs…
2. he thinks I’m a slacker, he defends his turf/parking and will come yell at me any time he thinks my customers are in his way. He was once quoted as saying “Oh, I thought you might be an art student… just look at that piece of crap you drive”
3. they have no problems with me… sweet as can be
4. old insurance agents, they will no longer speak to me
5. they… well… take in my boxes if I’m late or not here and when I go to pick them up I get a lecture on being tardy (and past concerns on going out of business because they never see people in here) … I said something nasty under my breath and I’m sure they think I’m a spoiled brat.
6. that’s me!
7. me, too!
8. she’s in-cahoots with the insurance people. they aren’t related but they are in the same business and they conveniently have the largest network cable and some other cable running from her shop to their shop and it bows right in front of 2 of my windows in the back creating a lovely eyesore… especially in the back of the building near the parking.
9. love them
10-11. don’t really talk to them, but they are super nice minus their bad parking habits.
okay, so 4 out of 11 ain’t bad for the building I suppose…

And commence happy attitude… now…

the sister/partner of the old ins. agent usually strolls by and waves at me… she just ran by with her arms clutched to visit the ugly cable lady.

So, my chances of eviction at the end of our lease is now 30% greater! I COULD take them all to court but I don’t have a leg to stand on.

I’m asking you, dear reader, to send nasty, festering thoughts towards them… a simple cold and flu, loss of business, relocation would be AWESOME. But most of all… I don’t want to get screwed at the end of this because I did the right thing. Did I do the right thing?