What company does your car insurance policy come from? If it comes from Progressive Insurance, you might want to consider changing companies. Progressive treated the family of a woman who died in a car accident, (through no fault of her own), without compassion. Matt Fisher’s story will break your heart. This could happen to you.
Matt Fisher is the brother of a woman named Katie. He wrote a blog that described the ordeal that Progressive Insurance put his family through after Katie was killed in an automobile accident. The fault was with the other driver, who ran a red light before hitting Katie. Katie had a policy with Progressive that was designed to protect her against the possibility of an accident with an underinsured driver.
The other driver was underinsured. His insurer settled with Katie’s estate immediately. Progressive was supposed to pay for the difference between the other driver’s insurance and the policy that Katie purchased.
Instead, Progressive refused to pay out. In Maryland, a person cannot sue an insurance company when they refuse to pay out on a claim (no matter what the reason is). This left Matt’s family with little option except to sue the other driver. Progressive insurance offered the family a series of offers in the hopes that the family wouldn’t take the case to trial. The amount offered by Progressive insurance was way too low.
What Progressive insurance did next is unforgivable. The insurer sent a lawyer to defend the other driver. Matt’s blog traveled around the internet, and, as expected, people were upset about the horrible treatment that Progressive gave to a grieving family. It certainly appears that Progressive would do anything at all to avoid having to pay a legitimate claim for a customer who purchased one of their insurance policies.
Progressive has a Twitter account that shows an image of their “spokesperson” Flo. The company sent out a series of identical tweets regarding this situation. They have been called “robo-tweets” and they emphasize the soulless nature of the Progressive Insurance company. The tweets all read:
“This is a tragic case and our sympathies go out to Mr. Fisher and his family for the pain they’ve had to endure. We fully investigated this claim and relevant background, and feel we properly handled the claim within our contractual obligations”.
After the internet collectively expressed their ire at Progressive’s choice of actions, and after many have cancelled their auto insurance policies with the company, Progressive is attempting to paint a different picture. The insurer now claims that they “did not serve as the attorney for the defendant” in the court case.
Those of you who currently have a policy with Progressive Insurance might want to think long and hard about this situation. Can you trust Progressive to actually honor the policy you, or your family member, purchased if an accident occurs?
Image by anyjazz65 on Flickr