Why you should hate GEICO

In the context of an auto accident claim, insurance companies typically use three and sometimes four tactics when dealing with a client.

Those tactics are delay, denial and defend. What I mean by that is when you as a client contact them as a potential claimant and you’re unrepresented by an attorney, they are going to find a reason to delay the payment for your bodily injury claim by saying they didn’t get your medical records or they didn’t get the last voicemail that you left.

A lot of people have a tendency to want to call as opposed to sending letters and that’s the biggest issue that I see or they deny your claim based on liability, essentially saying that for some reason, factually speaking, they did not think that their driver was at fault or they defend. By defend, I mean that you actually have gotten a lawyer and really without basis or without reason, they insist on whether it’s a value-driven decision or whether it’s a liability-driven decision.

They make you get an attorney and they defend the lawsuit as opposed to actually paying on legitimate claims. The fourth thing that I want to talk about and a tactic that I’m starting to see is what I like to call ignoring.

When you call and you attempt to make a claim with them, this is what you can look forward to when they offer you certain options.

Example:

[Upon calling the company, the customer service auto response recording answers]

One option is “further assistance” which is what I would like is to get a customer service rep on the phone.

[Customer service auto response recording continues]

When I press zero, it essentially restarts the entire process over again and I can never actually get a customer service representative on the phone. Let’s try it again.

[Customer service auto response recording continues]

I then dial zero.

[Customer service auto response recording continues]

Now just imagine being a claimant out there and all you want to do is talk to somebody so that you get your car fixed or a rental car or tell them how you’re hurt. Do you want the fax number? Let’s dial zero again.

[Customer service auto response recording continues]

This is a tactic that is being more and more commonly used by insurance companies and the reason why they’re doing it is they want you to give up on getting your car fixed and specifically your bodily injury claim. They don’t want you calling. They don’t want to pay it and they know that if you run into these road blocks and you get frustrated enough, there’s a decent possibility that you’re just going to walk away entirely and you’re not going to call me, which is exactly what you should be doing.

If you have any questions or need help don't hesitate to contact the Hartman Law Firm at 843-300-7600.