ComplaintsforThe General Insurance

• Initial Complaint

  09/20/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I'm trying to cancel my auto policy with The General. I've called 12-15 times and I either cannot get through to a representative or I'm put on hold and it hangs up on me. I read online, you have to send them a letter, which I did around 9/10. I'm on disability and need to make sure I'm not charged again this month. I have a new policy starting on 9/24.

  

  Business response

  10/21/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 9, 2021/10/11) */ We have received your correspondence regarding the above referenced complaint. After receiving this complaint, we thoroughly reviewed Ms. *****’s policy and determined the cancellation of her policy has already been resolved as per her request. As a courtesy, On October 4, 2021, we followed up with a phone call to Ms. ***** and confirmed she did receive the Notice of Cancellation regarding the requested termination of her policy effective September 24, 2021. She was understanding and appreciative of the resolution. We sincerely appreciate Ms. ***** allowing us the opportunity to resolve her concerns. We apologize for any frustrations she may have experienced with any technical issues regarding our phone system. This matter has been forwarded to our IT Department for further review. We have not received any other complaints about our phone system at this time. Please contact me if you have any questions or need additional information or documentation regarding this complaint. Sincerely,

• Initial Complaint

  09/19/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  As of 8/6/2021 I was a General Insurance policyholder #********* for about 17 months. On Friday morning, 8/6/2021 I enrolled in and paid for a policy with another insurance agency at a lower rate. My new Insurance company said that I can go ahead and cancel my old policy. I called The General on Monday 8/9/2021 and cancelled my policy...effective 8/9/2021. The payment wasnt due til the 13th and it wouldnt lapse until 8/21st or 23rd. I went through the cancellation with an agent, stating my name, DOB, reason for cancelling etc. Then later I logged in to my account and it said cancelled for non-payment. I called twice about it and the rep said" Oh that'll change when the system updates. On Thursday, 9/16/21, I received a bill from their collection dept. saying that my policy lapsed and i owe them $67 and if i don't pay it'll be sent to a collection agency. How can this be when i cancelled before the due date. I don't owe them...if anything they owe me. Thanks

  

  Business response

  10/21/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/10/13) */ We have received your correspondence regarding the above referenced complaint. I have reviewed our files and offer the following response. On March 26, 2020, Ms. ****** applied online for an auto insurance policy with Permanent General Assurance Corporation for a policy period of twelve (12) months. She chose to pay the total premium due on an installment basis by making a down payment of $222.68 plus eleven (11) future installments due on the 13th of each month. During the application process, she requested the policy be set up as ‘paperless’; meaning, all documents would be sent to the email address on file while certain documents would be sent to both the email and mailing addresses on file. She also chose to receive text notifications regarding her policy to the phone number (***) ********. On March 26, 2021, Ms. ******’s policy renewed for an additional twelve (12) month term. On August 9, 2021, Ms. ****** called and provided her voice signature to cancel the policy effective August 9, 2021, per Insured’s Request, since she obtained other coverage with a different carrier. We requested the date her other coverage began as proof would be required to backdate the cancellation; however, she stated “just cancel today”. As such, we ran a quote and advised there would be an outstanding balanced owed in the amount of $67.00 after cancellation. She inquired as to why and was advised in the state of Florida if the policy is cancelled before the expiration date, the policy is cancelled on a short rate basis; meaning, the cancellation will be calculated with a 10% penalty for early policy termination. She agreed to the quote we provided, and the policy cancellation was completed. She was then issued a Notice of Cancellation and a final Notice of Lapse 2 affirming cancellation was due to Insured’s (her) Request. Later that same day, she emailed us to cancel her policy effective “8/9/2021”. When calculating the cancellation on Ms. ******’s policy, we followed our normal procedure and processed the cancellation on a short rate basis. The short rate cancellation is approved for use by the state of Florida and is a common practice in the insurance industry, as it allows us to recover certain acquisition costs. This is described in her policy jacket on page five (5), under section G. Refund of Premium that states, “2. If the cancellation is at “your” request, “we” will refund 90% of the pro rata unearned premium.” At the time of cancellation, she was properly charged for one hundred and thirty-six (136) days of coverage on the current policy term, all fully earned fees, and a Short Rate cancellation. As stated on the cancellation quote, we generated on August 9, 2021, we took the total premium and fees used for the days of coverage provided in the amount of $1,117.12 and subtracted the payments received in the amount of $1,050.12. This left an outstanding premium balance due of $67.00 for the days of coverage we provided: $1,117.12 - $1,050.12 = $67.00. On September 9, 2021, we emailed and mailed Ms. ****** an invoice from our Collections Department advising her outstanding balance of $67.00 was due immediately. This invoice also advised that if the balance remained unpaid “we then have no recourse other than to turn this debt over to a collection agency, which could negatively impact your credit rating”. We find that our cancellation process and premium calculations on Ms. ******’s policy were compliant and in accordance with Florida insurance regulations and our policy as filed and approved by the state. We can confirm her policy was cancelled per Insured’s (her) Request, not “non-payment”, as she stated in her complaint to your Department. As explained above, her policy was cancelled on a short rate basis and the outstanding balance owed remains valid for the days of coverage we provided and cannot be waived. Please contact me if you have any questions regarding this complaint. Sincerely

• Initial Complaint

  09/11/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  policy # ************* was a 12 month policy from 5/5/2020 to 5/5/2021 I was also enrolled in autopay so they automatically withdrew my payment from my account every month. Earlier this year in May I received an email stating if I wanted renew my policy to click on the email link. Personal reasons made it to where the State of Florida wouldn't let me renew my vehicle registration this year obviously because of liens. So I was under the assumption that I couldn't renew my insurance because I can't renew my registration so I didn't renew my insurance policy via email. However, because I was enrolled in autopay through the General Insurance they renewed my policy without my consent. So I sent them a few emails explaining that I was on a fixed income and I couldn't renew my vehicle registration and they renewed my policy automatically unbeknown to me without my approval. I never received a refund and made it very clear that I was going to report them to the Better Business Bureau.

  

  Business response

  10/12/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/10/05) */ We have received your correspondence regarding the above referenced complaint. I have reviewed our files and offer the following response. On May 5, 2020, Mr. ******** applied for an auto insurance policy online through Permanent General Assurance Corporation for a policy period of twelve (12) months. He chose to pay the premium due by making a down payment of $206.52 plus eleven (11) future installments due on the 5th of each month, via auto debit from his Mastercard ending in ****. He selected to receive text notifications to phone number (***) ******** and set the policy up as 'paperless'; meaning, all policy documents would be sent to the email address on file while certain documents would be sent to both the email and mailing addresses on file. Mr. ********'s Mastercard was auto debited on the 5th of each month as per our auto debit agreement on page five (5) of his application, that he signed electronically, stating "I, the above named customer, hereby authorize the Company to originate charges to my bank account or credit/debit card for all payments related to this application for insurance, endorsements or renewal of the same". On March 21, 2021, we mailed and emailed Mr. ******** an Auto Debit Notice - Renewal Offer that advised the following, "Because you are enrolled in Automatic Bank Draft, the Amount Due will be drafted as an Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) payment on the Draft Date." This offer further advised, "We will continue to automatically charge your credit card or bank account, as per our agreement. The down payment (Amount Due above) will be charged on the draft date listed above." The draft date listed on the Renewal Offer was May 5, 2021. 2 On April 30, 2021, we sent Mr. ******** a Renewal text notification to the phone number associated with his policy. On May 5, 2021, Mr. ********'s Mastercard ending in **** was auto debited in the amount of $149.37 to renew his policy for an additional twelve (12) month term to be effective May 5, 2021 through May 5, 2022. Please note, there was no contact via mail, phone, or email from Mr. ********, prior to this date, advising he did not want to renew his policy. On May 7, 2021, Mr. ******** called our Customer Service Department requesting to cancel his policy. As such, his policy was cancelled on a short rate basis effective May 7, 2021, per Insured's Request. After cancellation of his policy, there was an outstanding balance owed in the amount of $30.63. Later this same day, he began emailing us to dispute the outstanding balance owed after cancellation and requesting we refund his renewal down payment in full as it was "unfair" this policy auto renewed "unbeknownst to me" and "against my wishes". On May 18, 2021, we received a National Change of Address (NCOA) report, via the United States Postal Service (USPS), advising Mr. ********'s mailing address had recently been updated. As such, we followed our normal procedure by adding the following as his mailing address: ************************************* On June 3, 2021, we mailed and emailed Mr. ******** an invoice from our Collection Department advising the outstanding balance owed of $30.63 was due immediately. This invoice also advised that if the balance remained unpaid "we then have no recourse other than to turn this debt over to a collection agency, which could negatively impact your credit rating". On August 18, 2021, no payment having been received, Mr. ********'s balance of $30.63 was turned over to a collection agency for payment recovery, as stated in our previous invoice. After receiving this complaint from your Department, we have reviewed Mr. ********'s policy further and as an act of good faith we have flat cancelled (voided) his policy back to the renewal date of May 5, 2021, to waive the outstanding balance owed on his policy. We have also contacted our Accounting Department to remove his account from collections and refund his renewal down payment in the amount of $149.37 back to his Mastercard ending in ****; however, the Credit Card Company declined the refund so a refund check was issued, and he should receive it within three (3) to five (5) business days to the last known mailing address associated with this policy. We anticipate that our decision to honor his request will satisfy his complaint to your Department. Please contact me if you have any questions or need additional information or documentation regarding this complaint.

• Initial Complaint

  09/07/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  DOL: ********** Policy:** XXXXXXX Claim: XX-XXX-XXXXXX Email on policy- ***************@********* I totaled my vehicle on 07/03, it took them until 07/22 to total it out on their end. Since 8/11 I have been trying to cancel my insurance policy since I no longer need it. I was able to stop the auto-debit of the monthly premium but was told I needed to provide more information to get a prorated refund. I supplied the necessary information and have since been waiting to receive the refund. I have recently received a letter stating my policy was canceled due to nonpayment even though I have been trying to cancel it for almost a month now. The customer service representatives I have spoken to each time I call in have been helpful but state that they can't access the underwriting departments documents. The last woman I spoke with 9/1 said that my paperwork was pending review and that it usually only took 3-5 business days but she was not sure why it was taking mine so long.

  

  Business response

  10/12/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/10/05) */ We have received your correspondence regarding the above referenced complaint. I have reviewed our files and offer the following response. On April 24, 2021, Ms. ****** ******* applied online for an auto insurance policy with Permanent General Assurance Corporation for a policy period of twelve (12) months. She chose to pay the total premium due on an installment basis by making a down payment of $676.77 plus eleven (11) future installments due the 15th of each month via auto debit from her credit card account. This policy was to insure her and a 2011 **** Patriot. During the application process, she requested the policy be set up as 'paperless'; meaning, all documents would be sent to the email address on file while certain documents would be sent to both the email and mailing addresses on file. She also chose to receive text notifications regarding her policy to phone number (***) ********. On July 7, 2021, Ms. ****** ******* called to report a loss involving the 2011 **** Patriot and was assigned claim number *************. On July 22, 2021, our Claims Department determined the 2011 **** Patriot was a total loss and Ms. ****** ******* advised she would not be retaining the salvaged vehicle. As per our normal procedure, an internal notice of this loss was sent to our Underwriting Team for further review. On July 26, 2021, we emailed Ms. ****** ******* an auto debit invoice advising premium 2 payment of $649.44 would auto debit from her credit card on August 15, 2021. On July 29, 2021, our Underwriting Team emailed Ms. ****** ******* a letter advising we received notification from our Claims Department the 2011 **** Patriot was deemed a total loss and she was not retaining the salvaged vehicle. This letter also advised she would need to have a replacement vehicle added to the policy or provide a signed written statement requesting the cancellation of the policy since this was a single vehicle policy and our Company would be retaining the loss. On August 11, 2021, no response having been received to our prior letter, our Underwriting Team emailed Ms. ****** ******* an additional letter to advise we still needed the missing information or signatures to complete our request. This letter also advised to contact our Customer Service Department for further assistance if needed. Later this same day, Ms. ****** ******* called our office to have her policy removed from our Auto Debit program and to request the cancellation of her policy effective July 3, 2021, because the 2011 **** Patriot had been deemed a total loss as a result of claim number **************. She was advised to send in a signed written statement to our Underwriting Team requesting the back dated cancellation of her policy due to the total loss of the 2011 **** Patriot. The policy was then removed from our Auto Debit program and the call ended without any further action On August 16, 2021, we emailed and mailed Ms. ****** ******* a Notice of Cancellation advising her policy would terminate effective 12:01 AM on August 27, 2021, due to nonpayment of premium, if premium payment of $649.44 was not received. On this same day, Ms. ****** ******* called our office to advise she sent in a signed written statement to cancel her policy and wanted to know why the policy was still active. We informed her a blank document was received that only included her signature and she would need to send in a signed written statement that included a request to cancel her policy. Later this same day, our Underwriting Team emailed Ms. ****** ******* a letter requesting a signed, written statement to cancel the policy. She then called our office a second time to confirm the receipt of her signed written request to cancel her policy. We reconfirmed the only request received to date was the blank document with her signature and advised her to resend the signed written cancellation request and provided her the email address for our Underwriting Team. On August 20, 2021, Ms. ****** ******* called to confirm receipt of her signed written request to cancel her policy. We again advised the only request received to date was the insufficient blank document showing only her signature. As such, we re-instructed her to handwrite a signed, written statement to cancel and submit that document to our Underwriting Team for review and processing. On August 24, 2021, Ms. ****** ******* called our office to confirm the request to cancel her policy had been received. We advised the request had been received and it was forwarded to our Underwriting Team for further review. We also advised to allow one (1) to three (3) business days for the request to be processed. 3 On August 27, 2021, at 12:01 AM, no premium payment having been received, Ms. ****** *******'s policy terminated due to non-payment of premium. Later that same day, she called our office for a status update on the cancellation of her policy. We informed her the request was still pending review by our Underwriting Team and asked she allow an additional two (2) to three (3) business days for an update. On September 1, 2021, Ms. ****** ******* called our office for a status update on the cancellation of her policy. We informed her the request was still waiting to be reviewed by our Underwriting Team. On September 6, 2021, we emailed and mailed Ms. ****** ******* a Notice of Lapse confirming her policy was cancelled effective August 27, 2021, at 12:01 AM, due to nonpayment of premium. On this same day, we sent Ms. ****** ******* a Lapse notification text to the phone number enrolled in our text notification program. On September 7, 2021, our Underwriting Team reviewed Ms. ****** *******'s request to cancel her policy effective July 3, 2021. Upon their review it was determined the policy needed to be reinstated effective August 27, 2021 to rescind the non-payment cancellation described above and re-cancel effective July 4, 2021(date of loss plus one day), as per our normal procedure. We then emailed and mailed her a Notice of Cancellation confirming the policy cancellation was corrected to 12:01 AM on July 4, 2021, per Insured's Request. Following the updated cancellation of the policy there was a credit balance due to her in the amount of $415.48. On September 8, 2021, our Accounting Department refunded the credit balance of $415.48 back to Ms. ****** *******'s VISA card ending in ****. Upon the receipt of the complaint to your office we can affirm Ms. ****** ******* has been issued a refund in the amount of $415.48 as explained above. We can also affirm that our cancellation procedures and premium calculations on her policy were correct and in accordance with the insurance guidelines for the state of Florida and our normal policy procedures. We apologize for the processing delays with the cancellation of her policy and appreciate the opportunity to further review this matter. We anticipate the refund issued on September 8, 2021 resolves the issues described in her complaint Consumer Response /* (2000, 7, 2021/10/05) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) I was leery to accept The General's response because while they "technically" resolved it, I would not say it was handled well. For such a stressful time, they were not interested in making it any less stressful. My policy was canceled due to non-payment while I was in the process of trying to get it canceled. Every time I called after the original time, I was told there was a note in my file saying that the policy was pending cancellation. I was not going to continue to pay the premium for a policy I no longer needed while I was also trying to get them to refund me. I had not understood what had been required of me at first as far as the needed documentation to send in. I had, at that point, only received a letter stating that I had to mail in a request to cancel, which is when I decided to call. I had not realized the first email had not gone through correctly so only my signature was attached, until I called in. They did not follow up at all, even when I had been told by various customer service reps that they would. It was left completely up to me to me to call back and check to make sure everything had gone through and nothing else was needed. They have since refunded a small prorated amount, lower than I thought it would be since, according to their above response, the changed the cancellations date to July 4th, but on July 15th they had taken out the entire $649.44 premium. If the cancellation date had been changed, I had thought the refund would include the entirety of the July 15th payment, as well as, the prorated amount from the June 15th premium payment. On top of this, now I am dealing with the FLHSMV because in the last month, The General stated that I had not maintained insurance on the ****...that they had totaled out. I am hoping the with letter I mailed to FLHSMV declaring the **** a total loss and the date it was, a month before I canceled my policy, that this issue will be resolved without the $150 fee. I will not be using The General Insurance again and will be sure to never suggest that anyone else does.

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