I will be laid off this coming May after 20+ years with Farmers. I have the same sentiments. A couple of us though is thinking of filing a class suit action. Is anyone out there familiar with this case?

July 10, 2008
Trial Lawyers Pick 10 Worst Insurance Companies
The American Association for Justice (formerly the Association of American Trial Lawyers or ATLA) has published its list of the top 10 worst insurance companies with the byline: "How They Raise Premiums, Deny Claims, and Refuse Insurance to Those Who Need It Most." See 10 Worst Insurers List

At the very top of the list is Allstate. “While Allstate publicly touts its ‘good hands’ approach, it has instead privately instructed its agents to employ a ‘boxing gloves’ strategy against its policyholders,” said American Association for Justice CEO Jon Haber. “Allstate ducks, bobs and weaves to avoid paying claims to increase its profits.”

FROM WEB SITE: [lawandinsurance.typepad.com]

GOOD INFO AGAINST FARMERS AND ALSO LIBERTY MUTUAL WHO IS THE TPA FOR THEIR SICK LEAVE/DISABILITY CARRIER.

I am the spouse of a current Farmer's employee. The company has been a nightmare the entire time the he has been employed there. It continues to worsen with no end in sight. The claim load is impossible to handle at well over 130 claims, most of the litigated. He has been 'audited' on several CURRENT files that pass with flying colors of 90-100% passing rate. Then the 'managers' choose files from as far back as 18 months and audit those as well. These are files from a time when the requirements were different and not based on the checklist in place today and they are graded on CURRENT requirements. Those files usually score in the 70-80% range bringing his CURRENT score down to a level where he is now on a 'plan of improvement'. It is a program of failure if you ask me. If I were to purchase stocks based on performance 18 months ago I would lose my savings. The scary part of this is that they are picking and choosing which particular employees they want to 'audit' and put on a 'plan' and then fire them. What I have heard from other employees as well is that once your on one of these 'plans' you never have the chance to get off and a deadline is never set. You are then no longer eligible for transfer or promotion and are on the chopping block to be fired WITHOUT any unemployment benefits. It's a very sneaky way to get around paying out benefits and a very underhanded way to treat your most valued asset.
And now Zurich is buying AIGs auto contracts. God help us.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest.
One more thing...why give your employees PO days if you won't let them use them without consequence? Just a question.

These actions are standard for Farmers. They know of no other way to treat their employees. They are corrupt unethical moron bastards. H/R is aware of these actions and support them wholeheartedly. You should name, names (of managers) on this site. At least it brings them out in the open (for everybody to see). Otherwise, they hide behind a cloak of anonymity. What your husband needs to do, is get the hell out of that shithole and move on. I realize, it's easier said than done but, something will come up eventually.

Farmers is the worst place anyone could go to work for today. The dm's lie and push you saying you can make money so fast and they do pay a salary sort of. My dm charged me for renting a space in his office which is where I have to start working. Since when should you pay to work somewhere!! Looking back I am such an idiot. The subsidy program is designed for you not to make it! I put in a life insurance policy to be issued and it took 35 days to go through. The last day it went through to hit my subsidy I checked Farmers system and it said it was issued. Great I made it! NOT REALLY! The next day it showed not issued I called in there was a mistake in Farmers system that delayed the issue. Farmers underwriters admitted being at fault and that it was issued on the correct day! However my Regional manager said that well i should have done one extra just in case! What if my goal is to issue 3 in three months then it is three not four! Farmers screwed me out of $6000 just on that alone! Don't get me started on being asked by my dm to forge a clients signature on a life insurance policy to get on the subsidy program! This place is corrupt! Please any new prospective agents, Please, For your own sake don't don't don't don't become a farmers agent! I can give you story after story of issues like this where farmers system is designed to screw you and your clients!

I know exactly what you are talking about. I am currently embroiled with a battle with a Claims Manager. 1/2 of our office has been fired or just plain quit rather than putting up with their bullshit. The atmosphere is chaotic, stressful and they keep promoting total idiots with no experience in Management positions. You are absolutely correct, once they target you, you are gone. And they do this for " Behavior" such as not being a rah rah cheerleader ready to kiss their ass. My colleagues are burned to a crisp with the work and then they give them more. Their training sucks which benefts no one. They change their procedures on a whim to screw the employees and the insureds at a whim. For example, the only pay for part of a roof that is damaged. What a load of crap and then when the Claim Adjuster gets a bad survey back with the customer clearly unhappy with the policy, not the Adjuster, who gets blamed? The Adjuster of course. At the local level, they have the absolute worst claim service possible. Hope your house burns down to the ground because that division is the only one that knows what the hell they are doing and will treat you right.

i worked for farmers in the help point in hillsboro oregon. it was hell. one thing they always do is change everyones work schedule, make them change teams and supervisors. i hated the work. the agents were always angry because farmers is such a crapy company.

I am a former Farmers agent from a presidents council DM. Everything I was told from day one was a flat out lie. They tell you that you are going to make it big and make all of this money and set your family up for life. When it came to signing my contract I asked questions about it and looking back I should have ran the other way. The answer I got was don't worry so much about it your going to be a rock star and this won't pertain to you. Well it did. I took off fast, got into the career program where I was consistently in the top 10% to 15% in the company for career agents. Everything that you hear from other people about fudging policies etc from other agents just so our district could win some promo that didn't effect anybody but our DM, is true. I also received my double blue vase and was very close to getting my crystal blue vase. After two years of doing this my wife had our first child. At first I continued to work the same way I did previously, be at the office at 7 and get home 9-10pm and work saturdays. I got sick and tired of not seeing my newborn baby that I backed off my hours and stopped producing at the level I was. So I get a surprise visit from my RDM telling me to get back to the old ways or leave, well here I am now writing this so I am sure you know what my decision was. Well now here I set after having poured my heart and soul into farmers and now I owe farmers $28,000. Not to mention I was spending close to $6,000 a month after the economy hit to keep my agency cranking like it was, and I did this for 4 months. Now I sit with no job, spent my savings, no money, and now farmers wants me to give them $28,000. Ughhhh sorry I don't have it, if I did maybe I would still have my agency. Now I am sitting here with a baby with no money and no job because where I live there are no jobs, not even Mcdonalds. I have to ask for help from friends and family just to keep food on the table, clothes on our backs, and roof over our head, and pay farmers. If anybody knows what I should do please post it. Thanks.

Yes, I was let go after over 20 years of employment with Farmers claims. Please email me your contact information,so we can talk. thanks Rod

I think i know who you are talking about. Our district office was named " Charlie's Abgels". As time went on, the males left or were terminated. He hired model like women and gave them " Books of business". one of them was only 6 months old in the business. I think that threw up a red flag and got him tho.