Complaints/Testimonials (continued!!)

The list of testimonials below could go on and on as you can see!  This is just the tip of the iceberg!  I will add to this list as time permits, I get dozens of email complaints about Farmers daily!  Don’t be a statistic, Avoid Farmers Insurance!

I was in an accident on the 16th of this month (December). A 16 year old did not yield the right of way to me when I was traveling at 35 MPH and called in the claim that night….they put it under my insurance policy after I had asked them to put it under the guilty parties who has you guessed it Farmers also. Needless to say, I changed the claim the next day and have been given the run around ever since. I was told that the person who was representing me was one person and it turned out to be false, that they were representing the other person! So far it is the 27th of December and my bank needs paid off by the 30th and they still have not assigned anyone to total loss for my car! They have not reimbursed me for the rental car (they were supposed to cover it) 200 dollars and a new car seat for my 2 year old who was also in the accident has not been reimbursed either. So far I am very unhappy. I had them since 1997 and will drop them soon. I did hire an attorney for the injuries that myself and my son incurred. I am so displeased with the way that they handled this. I am still without a car and can not afford to rent anymore. -via email 1/2005 Stephanie

Please include me story on your website as well. I was cut off by a driver in my office parking lot and smashed into a light pole. There was major front end damage. They agreed to pay that but now the engine doesn’t work - it locked up. They want ME to authorize and pay for a tear down of the engine to see if the lock up was due to the collision or mechanical failure/lack of maintenance. I am a lawyer, but not this type. So I have hired an insurance specialist attorney and am going after Farmer’s full force. Bad faith and all. I know you can get your attorneys’ fees and possibly punitive damages if you sue them and win. MY ADVICE: Get an attorney who specializes in dealing with auto insurance claims if you get in an accident and you don’t feel you are being treated fairly.  -via email 12/2004 Lisa A. Lehman

A client of Famers rear-ended us while we were @ a complete stop @ a red light.  This was over a year ago and they still refuse to pay us a fair amount for our car  (they say it’s totaled, but we’re still driving it.)  I’ve already sent back their 1st settlement check that I never agreed to!  They haven’t replaced my son’s carseat and the runaround is endless.  We’ve been through 3 Farmers adjusters so far and now their sicking their "hired" appraiser on us.  We’ve hired our own!  I can probably look forward to another year of @#!%*!  Their claims reps are uncouth, unprofessional, tackless and deceiving jerks!  If there’s ever a class action suit, please count me in!  Don’t believe anything Farmers says - they are completely unempathetic liars!   -via email 11/2004 Mary Cartales 

Hello there, 
I just recently had an accident in which I was not at fault. Both parties have Farmers Insurance, so it would seem it would be a very simple thing to settle the claim in-house so to speak. Well, after filing the claim the same day of the accident, it is nearly two weeks later and they have yet to send an adjustor to even look at my vehicle to let me know what the disposition of the case is. Each time I have tried to contact the agent representing the other party, I have to wait two days before I then have to place a call to her supervisor. Only then do I receive a call back from her. I am in the southern suburbs of Chicago. The agent I have been dealing with is Susan Wilson, her supervisor’s name is Sharita Barret. Once I was finally told that the claim would be payed out, I was told an adjustor would call me within 24 hours. Of course, that didn’t happen. I am still waiting and it is beyond 48 hours now. Apparently, Farmers uses a different calendar than the rest of the world. I am still battling with them, and believe I too will be seeking the advice of a lawyer. I do know this, once I purchase my new vehicle, the first thing I will be doing is changing carriers. Thanks for allowing me to vent. Now it’s time to get back on the phone to see if I can get anything accomplished with these morons.  -via email 10/2004 Jeff Ehlebracht

I have been dealing with A Farmer’s Insurance claim for almost a year now -where the previous owner is responsible for water damage claim. We were assured by the adjuster that everything would be taken care of - go ahead and close. We did. Her estimate was 3600.00 and the contractors was 15K! Big difference. And guess what? We are STILL going at it - but a small success was getting the 20 yr tenured adjuster fired! Sad part is, I know
she was just doing what she was told to!  One avenue of resolution you forgot to mention on your website was the power of the state insurance commission. I have had goodluck in WA State getting the fire built under their slimy butts! They lie in their response, but expecting that, I had more documentation than they did!  -via email 9/2004 Elaine Austin

My car was hit by a woman with Farmers Insurance. Fortunately my car was repaired, but I don’t beleive the company paid for it, the womans husband paid cash to have my car repaired so that his insurance would not be discontinued. The agent tho, told me all about the woman, how bad a driver she was, how she could not understand how the womans husband could stand her. She was constantly having accidents. This agent told me things about this driver that no agent should have revealed. I prsonally would never go through farmers insurance.  -via email 9/2004 LLFouts

Man o man, do I wish I had seen this a year earlier. I too have filed an insurance claim with Farmers. Yes, they did accept my premium each and every month...including the six months that they had my car and I had nothing to drive! Finally I quit paying them and they want to sue. Well, the accident which was a total loss happened on November 11, 2003 as of today I still have not received all my settlement.
Now to make matters much worse, while on vacation a couple of weeks ago a storm came thru and took out a couple of my trees and flooded my basement and I now have to deal with them on this matter! I worked in commercial insurance for twenty-three years and can tell you that I would not have kept my job if I were as half assed as they! I probably hate them as much as you. Can I send my testimonial? You won’t believe all that I’ve gone through with them. -via email 8/2004 Carla Potash

Farmers insurance company is no better in Texas than any where else in America. If I were asked to give the insurance group, world wide, an enema, I’d stick the tube in Farmer’s behind and stand back. They’re a bunch of jerks.
I bet the first question on a Farmers employment application is, "Can you lie to people and cheat them out of their hard earned property without blinking?" -via email 7/2004 Leroy & Stevie Stevens

I was skimming the internet reading up on Farmers Insurance and came across your page. So the truth is spoken finally!  I also was involved in a car accident. I have a fixed up 1999 Acura Integra with a front end conversion body kit that set me back about $6,000 for just the body kit alone.
I legally parked it on the street one afternoon to run inside and grab something. I was inside all of 3 minutes when I heard a huge commotion. A drunk Hispanic lady crashed into my car totaling it and had her arm taken off due to the impact of the crash. My car sat 10 feet in the street and her 4 runner rolled on to its side.
Her insurance carrier is Farmers. I called them and notified them of the damage and they took all their sweet time helping me with my car since I only had liability. It doesn’t matter what I had, it was HER fault for driving drunk and hitting a parked car. Finally, my car was taken to a body shop where it was deemed a "total loss." I disagree, I bought the car for $22,000 and added an additional $20,000 in accessories, body work, paint etc. That’s a toal of $42,000. I know things/items depreciate but come now. They wanted to cut me a check for $7,400. When to repair the vehicle would cost around $11,000. Do they seriously expect me to pay the additional $4,000?? They were very slow on sending me any money, over 2 months to be exact. And it wasn’t even for the right amount. I got the insurance commissioner involved but that wasn’t much help either. So my final recourse is to go to court and sue them. They told me they wouldn’t pay for my cars "extra accessories" since it didn’t add value to the car in THEIR opinion. But I know I could’ve sold it prior to the accident for at least $17,000. I even went to Autotrader.com and printed out my exact same car going for that much but that didn’t matter to them. Then I hired an appraiser who came up with a figure of around $13,500, but it didn’t seem to phase them either. I just want my car fixed back to it’s original state prior to May 12th, THAT’S ALL. I’m not looking to get rich of this whole ordeal or buy another car. This is the WORST insurance company I have ever dealt with in my life. They are extremely rude and not customer friendly. I will sue them and I will appeal if the decision is unreasonable for what I believe in. Who are they to say that my car did not appeal to the "general public"? How can they have their insured nearly total my car and not pay me what is fair? Fair is a not a word in their vocabulary apparently. I now have a $11,000 damaged car sitting at a body shop with a $7,400 check. I can’t fix the car with the amount they sent me nor can I buy another one that is comparable to the one I lost. Thanks to this lady’s negligence and Farmers unwillingness to be fair. I was even willing to settle and have myself fix the car, so they don’t have to worry about "hidden damages", but even then they will not be reasonable. A funny thing is their motto is "symbol of superior service." If that is superior, I don’t want to see inferior. 
Thanks for letting me vent. -via email 7/2004 Laura

WE ALSO HAVE BEEN VICTIMS OF FARMERS IN OKLA. OUR AGENT WAS KEN FRAZIER IN MUSKOGEE, AS EVERYONE KNOWS THIS AREA IS CALLED TORNADO ALLEY OUR ROOF LEAKS THEY SEND OUT SO CALLED INSPECTORS WHO SAY THEY SEE NO STORM DAMAGE, YET OUR CEILING HAS BEGAN TO LEAK WE HAVE BEEN WITH THEM FOR 10 YEARS AND NO CLAIM HAS BEEN SETTLED BY THEM ALWAYS SOME EXCUSE. PRESENTLY WE ARE IN THE MARKET FOR ANOTHER RELIABLE INSURANCE FARMERS IT’S IT.
-via email 6/2004 KENNETH THOMAS

I`m glad I found such tremendous numbers of people who have had bad experience with farmers, I thought I was all by myself.  I’m glad I’m not insured with farmers, never will I be, but on 04/01/2004 my car was ran into after a man insured with Farmers failed to yield right of way, It took Farmers until May to respond. My car was totaled and farmers with their dubious tricks is accepting 70% responsibility, they valued my car to be worth $6800 of which they want to pay $3100 the rest they claim will go to the fees that up to now i do not know what they are for. Farmers told me that I will not be responsible for the medical bills for injuries I sustained In the accident. After the accident I had to rent cars in order to go to and fro hospital cause my wife had a major surgery a couple of days after the accident and I had to go physical therapy. Due to non response and dubious characters I have been going through hell I almost lost my apartment due to non payments, I was able to pay other bills because I was spending all the money on car rentals. I explained my situation to the adjuster that I have to get another car if they can`t fix mine,I ended up acquiring next pay day loans which are consuming to much of the money I should have used for other purposes. I was left with no choice but to go ahead with court proceedings, I called Farmers and told them that I will not settle for less we will meet in court. -via email 6/2004 Charles Sessanga

Our boat insurance sent notice the first part of May 2004 that they wouldn’t renew due to a claim we had. We started looking for insurance and contacted a Mr. Frenzel in Plano Tx to get insurance from Farmers. First Farmers said we needed to haul our boat to inspect the bottom job. We asked at the time if we needed an Ultrasonic Test. to Make this short we paid on the insistence from Farmers
$467.05 first haul out
$570.00 surveyors fee
Then Farmers said we did need a UT. The surveyor said we needed a bottom job and other repair/upgrades. So trying to satisfy Farmers we had it hauled again and this cost us:
second haul and bottom job $4966.78 plus $300.00 for the UT
Then we had to effect repairs to the tune of $1,941.90. This was a total of $8,244.95. Feeling confident we would be issued a policy soon we called the Farmers agent a week after this info was submitted, to be informed that the underwriters refused coverage and said we would have to replate the bottom of the boat because the UT showed there were some 1/8" thickness on the boat rather than the 3/16’ original thickness. May I mention that all new steel boats now have only 1/8" thick steel hulls now. 
This has turned into a nightmare and we are pursuing insurance with other companies. My suggestions would be to avoid Farmers Insurance Company at all cost because it will cost you much more in the long run. All of this could have been avoided if Farmers had been up front with us in the beginning and told us they required a UT and then we could have gone from there. Farmers was almost barred in Texas from writing new policies. WE will try with Texas Insurance Board to follow thru with this attempt by filing complaints with them soon. Farmers has shown malice and fraud in leading us to believe they would insure us after affecting repairs. Replating the bottom of the boat would cost more than the whole boat and is totally unacceptable. -via email 6/2004 TxSeaGypsy\