ComplaintsforHerb Beers Insurance

• Initial Complaint

  08/08/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have concerns as to weather I was covered with my vehicle insurance. I was told I was dropped because my payment was late. I paid my cost of insurance on the first of every month with receipts to prove it. I was told it was due to the mail being late due to Covid issues. What concerned me the most was when they decided to start the coverage back up and the girl ask me for the *** # and the license plate number. She should have had that information on her computer and I brought that up to her and she said she could get it but she didn&#**;t want to "dig it up", her words exactly. I have receipts for the months I paid for the coverage. When I told her I was going to the H363137**3238313831H, she was very concerned and said I shouldn&#**;t do that. I have issues about weather I was covered and they were still taking my money.

  Business response

  10/16/2023

  ********************** coverage was written through the *********** Pool, T.A.I.P.A., ***** Automobile Insurance ***************** (taipa.org, phone ************) With them, everything is through the mail. The agent has to mail in the application with check to ******, and they assign you to a company. In ********************** case, he was assigned to Geico. Once assigned, the company will send you the policy packet with billing schedule. There is no website access due to the fact that we are not producers with Geico or any companies used through TAIPA. As agents we are producers with TAIPA, therefore it is a third party access, i.e. mail or pay with a credit card over the phone. 

      I wrote ****************** through TAIPA due to the fact that his van is registered as an "incomplete chassy". Most personal auto companies will not write an incomplete chassy. Since the ************** requires we all carry liability insurance, they have to have a place to insure risks that are difficult to cover or people that are uninsurable due to driving records. When writing someone through TAIPA I stress to them that everything must go through the mail and must be received by the company before due date. They will not reinstate a policy. If the payment is not received by the due date, it must be re-written. It is a requirement that the ********** each payment within 24 hours of payment or we will be removed from the producer list for TAIPA. Because of the mail issue, ALL payments are mailed the same day as they are made in my office.

  ****************** always came into the office and paid cash. He is correct when saying he paid at the beginning of each month, though his bill was not due for another ten or twelve days later. He is also correct that he has all his receipts showing the dates of payment. As I explained to him several times, I have the carbon copy of the receipts as well. Each time I would call to check the status of Geico receiving the payment, it was taking around 3 or more weeks to be received and entered. I questioned many time the timely length for payments to be uploaded. They would tell me the day the payment was received, and each time it was almost 20 days later. The **************** Representatives each said that the mail time has taken an extra-long time since Covid. 

      As I explained to ****************** several times, there has been no errors on his part or mine. He paid his bill each month in ample time, and it was sent out and documented that same day. The problem lies in the time of mailing and a system that does not have an online manor for the agent to upload a payment. 

  His policy did cancel due to payment not being received before the due date. Again, he paid in the beginning of the month and I have documented mailing dates showing the payment was mailed at Mail Box and More in Orange, the same day. The company sent him back the full amount of his payment and the check was cashed. 

  At that time he wanted to start the insurance up again. I stressed to ****************** that the only market I have for his van is through TAIPA, and we would be dealing with the same issue all over again. I suggested that he shop around for a different carrier that *** be able to write his van through a personal auto market directly. He ended up calling me back and wanted to place the coverage going through TAIPA once again. I explained that we would be dealing with the same problem but that I would write him again since I know incomplete chassy vehicles are almost uninsurable through a regular personal auto market. Since all correspondence is paperwork, mailed to and from the company, his policy information is not available online or on my computer. It is kept in a filing cabinet at the agency.  At the time that we were discussing him going back through TAIPA, I was out of the office and working remotely from my laptop. As a courtesy, I told him I could have the application ready for him in the morning so he could come in and sign without a wait. I needed his vin number since I was not able to access his paper file at the time, being that I was not in the office. I explained this to ****************** and said that I couldn't "dig it up" at this time. If I had known my choice of word would upset him, I would have waited until he came in the following morning to start the application process, which takes about ***** minutes, instead of trying to expedite his wait time. 

      Once the policy was re-written, it was once again assigned to Geico. The policy was once again cancelled for late payment. When Geico received the payment and the policy had already cancelled, they returned his money in its entirety.

   

  As far as the conversation went involving him going to the BBB, I told him that if he was going to file a complaint, he should file it with ***** Department of Insurance on the insurance company. I explained that no one had done anything wrong to be complained on to the BBB or TDI, but if he filed a complaint with TDI, they would investigate the matter. Perhaps it would address the problem with mailing payments, have them look into a different system as far as getting payments to the insurance companies that TAIPA assigns.

  1. ****************** paid his bill in what should be plenty of time for ******** to receive it. I have each payment copy documented that they were all mailed out the day he paid them. 2.The insurance company has document of ************* when they received the payments. And on the two payments that arrived after the policy cancelled, they have records of full payment being returned to ******************. 3.The common denominator in all this, is that of the mailing time. 

   

  Thank you,
  

  ****** Beers *******
  Geaux LSU!
  
  Herb Beers Insurance
  *********** E.
  ******, ** 77630
  ************

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