Allstate Insurance ripoff abused & mistreated Nationwide! U.S.A.

What ALLSTATE INSURANCE won't tell you--find out for yourself whether this is the truth!!!

I received policy renewal information via mail that was marked "not a bill." Showed the 6-month premium total. Next came the bill with same premium shown but no installment amount (after being an installment customer for five years).

This is the same company who, last year, refused to accept 1/6 as the initial payment as for 4 years before--then they wanted 1/3 down "because we have to ensure the premiums are paid up front, before you receive the coverage." (Changed without notifying customers until their bills arrived 3-4 weeks before first payment due.)

NOW HERE IS THE NEW RULE: If you have had more than one late payment or cancellation notice in the past 12 months, you are not QUALIFIED to have an installment plan. That's right, they want the whole EIGHTEEN HUNDRED BUCKS in THREE WEEKS---and never notified me of the rule "change...."

I called them to get the first payment amount to use for budgeting purposes and WHAMMO. Now here is the reason I had "more than one late payment:"

Last year in September, I paid TWO MONTHS premiums (which means I paid my entire premium before the two months they afforded me coverage).

Again, in November I paid a two-month premium, with the final installment being paid in January (2 months of premiums, paid before the insurance was ever in effect). Turns out MY interpretation of how to pay IN ADVANCE was "UNACCEPTABLE"--

They wanted the first 1/3 to be Payments #1 and #6---first and last, only they didn't tell me that. There was no information about how the payments would be applied...

I only got information by calling my agent, who didn't give sufficient explanation or I am dense (maybe a little about insurance matters but certainly not otherwise).

The thing is this: I now have three weeks to come up with $1800, and I won't even make that much in the next three weeks!

I confirmed with my agent that for the past six-month policy period, I have made every payment on time, in advance; I explained that this occurred as a result of learning there was a way to make payments by phone.

HOWEVER, ALLSTATE DID NOT PROVIDE ME WITH THAT INFORMATION----not in my bills or on their website. A friend did. Doesn't that ROT?

IF YOU DON'T HAVE SIX MONTHS OF INSURANCE PREMIUMS LYING AROUND WAITING FOR SOMEPLACE TO BE SPENT, then I suggest you take notice of this new, unwritten rule or start shopping for insurance.

The excuse is that "Allstate doesn't make money off homeowner or auto policies; there are too many claims and we end up losing money in Florida. Instead, we make money selling other types of insurance and by investing customer premiums in the stock market.

However, because the stock market is not doing well, we are losing money there as well, and so the only way to recoup it is to force customers to pay on time."

Okay, so Allstate can have money troubles, but I can't??? And they can change the rules without ever notifying their customers of same???????

Talk about unfair customer service practices, since insurance is mandatory in Florida (and probably everywhere else).

My dear agent says "there's nothing I can do about this--sorry. I have tried on behalf of other customers, but there is NOBODY at Allstate who can do anything about this--it was decided by the legal department."

I disagree: I don't think a company the size of Allstate, who is responsible for selling a product I am forced by law to utilize, should have carte blanche right to make changes WITHOUT EVER NOTIFYING THE CUSTOMERS IN ADVANCE. I pulled out my last three pieces of correspondence from Allstate and there was nary a word about this "new policy" anywhere.

I don't mind if Allstate makes policies to protect themselves from difficult times; it makes sense. What I do take exception to is there applying these "new policies" to what happened last year, without my having knowledge at that time that this new rule was going to go into effect and cause extreme financial hardship on my budget.

FYI, I have contacted the Florida Department of Insurance and hope they will be able to FORCE Allstate to do away with this ridiculous policy or, at very least, force them to provide customer notice in advance so customers have the option of juggling the budget to ensure compliance.

STOP MAKING UP THE RULES AS YOU GO ALONG, ALLSTATE!

And to you whiney creeps who say, "So you should pay your bills on time..." GO TO H@LL. I wish upon every one of you unsympathetic turds a 30% reduction in your household EARNED INCOME (not your bloody stock dividends for which you did absolutely nothing except sit back and make some poor fool work hard to put cash in your pocket).

You are the MINORITY, fools, not the majority; the majority of Americans are hard-working people who live week-to-week or close to it, and it's people like YOU who make getting by that much harder on the rest of us.

I work for every penny I get----with blood, sweat and tears....DO YOU? If not, don't bother replying because your opinions don't matter--you're not the working class anyway. Go vote for Bush and step off.

Jules
Orlando, Florida

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