Travelers Indemnity Company Trisure Corp - Raleigh, NC Don't ever try to cancel your policy. Travelers will screw your life up. Hartford, Connecticut

A few facts first: 

My name is Michael

My old insurer was Travelers

My new insurer is All State

I live in the state of North Carolina

What happened:
My wife and I had been insured with Travelers for the past few years with a home and auto policy.  Around the first of December, we received a renewal notice that stated our new policies would go into effect on December 29^th, 2009.  The problem with this is that Travelers was increasing our rates even though we had zero claims or tickets ever as their customer.  Since we were not happy about the rate increase, we decided to shop around.  On December 12^th, 2009, we purchased home and auto insurance from All State.  All States rates were much lower than Travelers while providing the same amount of coverage.  We called our Travelers agent the next morning and stated that we wanted to cancel our home policy effective immediately, but leave our auto policy in place until December 29^th.  This is extremely important as North Carolina requires continuous auto coverage.  My All State policy was set to begin at 12:01 am on December 30, 2009.  A few days later we received a letter from Travelers stating that our home policy was cancelled as of December 12, 2009 and our auto policy would cancel as of December 29, 2009.  At this point everything seemed kosher.

Around the last week of January, both my wife and I received letters from the North Carolina DMV stating that we had a lapse in auto coverage, and that we needed to prove to the DMV that this was not the case.  The letter stated that our auto policy was cancelled as of December 12, 2009.  Obviously this was a mistake as Travelers was not supposed to cancel our policy until December 29.  The penalty for a lapse in coverage is either a $50 civil fine for each person or suspension of your vehicle tags for 30 days.  I responded to the DMV with a written note that they were mistaken.  Along with my note, I included a copy of my Travelers policy, my new All State policy, and the letter we received from Travelers stating that our auto policy would cancel on December 29.  I did not hear back from the DMV until the second week of February.

I received a response from the DMV on February 8^th, 2010.  In the response from the DMV, they stated that what I sent to them was not sufficient to prove I did not have a lapse in coverage.  They stated that if I did not provide them with an FS-1 form by 5 pm on February 9^th, the tags on both my car and my wifes car would be suspended for 30 days.  Alternatively, we could both pay a $50 civil fine to avoid having our tags cancelled.  As I had no idea what an FS-1 form was, I immediately called Travelers customer service number.  I explained the situation to the customer service rep that answered my call.  I ended up getting transferred to another dept.  The next person I spoke to could not help me either.  All total, I spent nearly an hour on hold while being bounced around to different representatives.  I finally got tired of waiting, so I decided to try again on the morning of the 9^th.

On the morning of the 9^th, I first went to my new All State agents office to see if he could help me.  He did all that he could, but told me that it would have to be Travelers that provided me with the FS-1 form.  After leaving my All State agents office, I then called my former agent at Travelers and explained the situation.  She did not know what to do, but said she would try to help me if I could come to her office.  On the way to the Travelers office, I called the DMV and spoke to a customer service rep about this situation.  The woman I spoke to at the DMV was extremely rude, even going so far as to accuse me of shirking my responsibility to stay insured.  She continuously interrupted me when I tried to explain the situation.  I eventually just hung up as I was nearing the Travelers office.

Once at the Travelers office, I spent nearly 3 hours with my former agent trying to get this situation resolved.  Her words were that this was 100% Travelers fault, and that they would do whatever they could to help me out.  I explained to her that if she could not get the situation resolved by 3:30 pm, that I would be forced to pay the fine as I could not risk having my tags cancelled.  Travelers was unable to resolve the situation that day so at 3:35 pm I paid the fine via the DMVs website.  When I asked my former agent how I could get Travelers to reimburse me for this money, she said her office would go to bat for me and that she would be in contact with me soon.

I never heard back from my former agent even after leaving her messages on her voice mail.  On February 25^th, I contacted Travelers customer advocacy group in Glenn Falls, NY.  I spoke to two women in that office for nearly an hour explaining the entire situation.  One Travelers rep stated that she would look into the situation and get back to me the next week.  This lady did contact me the following Wednesday.  She stated that Travelers would issue a new policy for the time period of 12/12/2009 to 12/29/2009, but the catch is that they would have to bill me $68 to cover this time period.  She said that Travelers would not reimburse me for the $100 fine that I paid. 

 

I was very enraged by Travelers not reimbursing me for the fine I paid and also trying to bill me for the remainder of the policy.  As such, I filed complaints with both the Better Business Bureau and the North Carolina Department of Insurance.  The Better Business Bureau complaint was a complete waste of time.  The person that answered the complaint at Travelers admitted they made a mistake, but that I still owed them the $68 for the reinstatement of my policy.  He again reiterated that Travelers would not reimburse me for the fine, but that I could contact the North Carolina DMV and request repayment of the fine as Travelers had issued the FS-1 form.  The complaint with the North Carolina DMV did bring about some additional infuriating information.  I found out that Travelers did issue me a refund of $42 when they mistakenly cancelled my auto policy.  However, when I received that money I assumed it was for the home policy which was supposed to cancel a few days early.  When asked why they were now trying to charge me $70 ($68 plus a late fee) for the reinstated policy instead of $42, all Travelers could say is that they made another mistake and that I still owe them $42. 

 

Where do I stand now:

To sum up, as of 5/13/2010, I still do not have resolution to this matter.  I have requested reimbursement of the fine from the North Carolina DMV per Travelers instructions, but have not heard back from them yet.  I am still being billed by Travelers for the money they say I owe them.  As you can probably guess, I will never ever do business with Travelers again.  The easy thing wouldve been for them to admit they made a mistake and offer to take care of this situation.  However, they have continually skirted their responsibility time and again.  Bottom line: If you are thinking of doing business with Travelers, stay away.  Stay far away.