AFLAC repeatedly refuses to pay benefits and lies to cheat you out of it Columbus Georgia

Karen:

I am the agent you mention in your complaint. I want to help you receive the money you are entitled to, however, let me address some of the things you said:

1. On the Vision Care plan that you mentioned, I am glad you received the $35 dollars for your eye exam. You are indeed entitled to $50 back for your contact lenses if you chose Option one (I'm assuming you did; I am answering this while on vacation so I don't have your records in front of me.) Aflac does require a copy of the bill for your contact lenses. As I said to you, if you would please fax the bill to ME directly, I will handle this myself. It appears from your letter here that you faxed it to Aflac directly instead of to my office. If this is incorrect, please let me know, but to my knowledge, I never received a fax from you. I don't want to post my fax number here, but I will call you tomorrow when I get back to make sure you have the right number.

2. Regarding the $60 Wellness benefit you said you never received. The only plan Aflac sells that pays a $60 wellness benefit for a physical is the Accident Plan, which you did not sign up for.

It is very important to read over the policies you recieve so that you understand what is covered and what is not.

3. Aflac is not a 'scam' company. I take my job very seriously, and consider myself to be a highly ethical person, and I would never represent a company that misrepresented itself or cheated a consumer in any way. If you will read the most recent A.M Best Report, you will see that Aflac has one of the highest ratios of paid claims in the industry. We've been in business over 50 years, and have literally millions of policyholders.

Aflac pays all valid claims, but does require the proper paperwork. I know it can be frustrating when things don't go smoothly; but I can assure you that only happens a small percentage of the time. It's a shame that the people reading this only hear about the infrequent instances where someone hasn't submitted proper paperwork, or where the claims dept. misplaces something (and I'm the first to admit that this does happen occasionally. Companies do make mistakes, we're only human, but in no way are we trying to take your money and deny you the benefits you are entitled to.)

Reading your complain upset me greatly, because I've seen Aflac help people out hundreds of times and provide the cash benefits they need when they have medical misfortunes. I would hate to think that someone would fail to sign up for benefits they might desparately need in the future on the basis of a complaint that can be resolved, and should be. Again, I am very sorry you had a negative experience in filing your claim for the $50 for the contact lenses. Please know that I will do everything in my power to make sure this is paid promptly. I will contact you tomorrow.

R. Folkers
Aflac District Coordinator
Rhode Island

Karen,

Privacy issues don't permit me to go into any details, but I did want to report that I have been able to resolve your initial problems. Again, I don't want anyone reading this to think that Aflac is a 'scam' company that 'cheats' people and 'refuses to pay benefits.' Nothing could be further from the truth. This is a well respected insurance company that pays all valid claims.

Occasionally, policyholders do hit bumps in the road, and that's where it's important to have a good agent who will address any wrinkles and get it smoothed out.

I'm constantly amazed at how quickly people get angry, jump to conclusions, and immediately think they've been 'had.'

So easy to go on a website and print inflammatory and incorrect accusations--anyways, I'm glad that we are solving your problems, and I wish you luck in the future.

R. Folkers
Aflac District Coordinator

I am also an AFLAC District Sales Coordinator and know Ms. Folkers well - she is an honest, hard working, ethical individual who would not mis-represent a policy to convince someone to purchase something.

Not only does AFLAC pay valid claims, they pay them quickly, because with many of our policies people need the money urgently.

As her rebuttle said - there are times that errors occur, and at times the proper paperwork is not submitted, that is why you have a local representative and if that representative does not respond (which is rare), each state has its own organization in addition to AFLAC's Corporate Headquarters.

I am writing because like Robin, I have seen our products save the lives and finances of countless individuals and families.

Jeff Sock
AFLAC District Sales Coordinator
Cranston, Rhode Island

I found this Googling "cancel my aflac" just cuz I was curious. Not bad, Ladies and Gentlemen 45 misunderstandings out of 50 million policyowners?

I'm a Texas Aflac agent for 8 years now, top 5 in the the SW territory last year. Not due to sales but to service. I have 2500 policyowners in my file cabinet... I can't take care of 'em all. Thank God Aflac CAN and DOES!

I am not sure what is happening in Columbus GA, where most of these comments about AFLAC seem to originate from, however in Michigan, where I am an Independent Agent representing AFLAC & several other Health cos, I have never seen a problem like anything described with claims. WE have about a 4 day turnaround time for claims, and have never had any trouble with paperwork being re-faxed. Especially wellness claims, as mentioned, we remind people of these at open enrollment, as a lot of them forget to claim it, and I have filed several at once even, NO-ONE has ever had a problem or complaint. They are now offered online as well to expedite the claim. I would have to ask why the customer is filing their own claim, faxing and refaxing, waiting on letters for replies. This customer should be able to call their agent, tell them they have a claim, the agent will ask "what kind" just to verify what type of form, (this is another question, where did they get their claim form, online? If they used the wrong one, that would account for some confusion, as there are several, and separate ones just for 'wellness' claims, & different ones for different 'wellness' claims as several types of policies have this benefit.) & then they would fax the form to the insured, with instructions to fax it back to THE AGENT, who in turn files it for them. The agent can then check on this claim if you do not recieve anything in a timely manner, and if it is a matter of re-faxing, the agent will either do so, or advise them it is there already, either way, if all documents are received the 1st time, you as the insured will never know about it. The agent would handle all of that for you, and unlike speaking with the insured, the agent and claim person have online tools that can help them get it resolved. A insured should never have to do all of that for themselves, or get to the point of frustration that they are at now. This is the agents fault, unless it is not a true payable claim, and even then, the agent should have been involved. I have never heard of any complaints from any agent or insured about how long it takes to get payment on a claim, or filing claims. Always a smooth process with happy, thankful customers, who are so glad that they did have a policy to help them in a crisis.....We emphasize servicing our accounts here, and if you truly have had such bad experiences, you should be contacting AFLAC corporate so they can investigate the matter, and make sure the Regional Sales Coord's , District Sales Coord's, and all agents are effectively servicing their accounts. We do care about our customers, and we are in this business to help them when they need it, not to make them angry.