Return-Path: Received: from CMU-CS-K.ARPA by CMU-CS-A.ARPA; 7 Mar 85 16:14:19 EST Date: 7 Mar 1985 13:36-EST From: James.Wendorf@CMU-CS-K.ARPA To: Harry.Bovik@CMU-CS-K Subject: Car insurance summary Message-Id: <479068581/jww@CMU-CS-K> In-Reply-To: Harry.Bovik@CMU-CS-K's mail message of 7 Mar 1985 09:54:40-EST Resent-To: bovik@a Resent-From: Harry.Bovik@cmu-cs-k.arpa Resent-Date: Thursday, 7 March 1985 16:11:58 EST Here are the responses I recieved to my General Bboard post, requesting opinions about various car insurance companies and agents. First, let me repeat the message I posted: 26-Feb-85 14:39 James Wendorf@CMU-CS-K Car Insurance Does anyone have either good or bad opinions about Nationwide Insurance Co.? Their agent, Charles G. Blobner, has given us the best quote so far for car insurance. Any opinions on Allstate or Fireman's Fund would also be welcomed. ******************** From: Michael.Jones@CMU-CS-SPICE.ARPA Subject: Re: Car Insurance I have gotten the best price from State Farm, and liked the service Craig Evans has given me. He's in Squirrel Hill, and can be called at 422-1616 if you want to ask for a quote. ******************** From: David.Anderson@CMU-CS-K.ARPA Subject: Re: Car Insurance We've had a Nationwide homeowner's policy for a couple of years, and we're satisfied. We choose them because they were the cheapest. Of course, we haven't made any claims, but when we've called them with questions, etc., the office we deal with (not Blobner) has been helpful. --david ******************** From: Peter.Highnam@CMU-CS-IUS Subject: allstate Jim, Vijay Kapoor (344-9220) has been good in getting us reasonable rates for both car and house. We pay $126 per 6 months for an 'everything' policy, comprehensive , etc,etc.. - we have a '75 maverick. If you call him let hime know where you're calling from. Ptr. ******************** From: Michael.Fryd@CMU-CS-A Subject: Re: Car Insurance I have had bad expierences witrh both chuck blobner and nationwide. I got a nationwide policy from chuck. At the time I told chuck that I would only need the policy for a few months. A few months later I got a different policy from another agent (the policy was not nationwide). I called Chuck, and told him to cancel my Nationwide policy. He said he would handle it. A few weeks later I got a renewal notice and a bill from nationwide. I called chuck, and he said I shouldn't worry, he would take care of it. It turns out that Chuck never did anything. Nationwide thought I was simply ignoring their bills and sent a bill collector after me. It took me many weeks and many letters to clear things up. Chuck lied to me, he told me he would take care of things and then he didn't/ NationWide was very unresponsive when I tried to clear things up. I would reccomend going with another agent and company. -Michael Fryd ******************** From: Mike.Blackwell@CMU-RI-ROVER.ARPA Subject: Re: Car Insurance I have auto and apartment insurance with Nationwide through Chuck Blobner. I've never had to excercise it, but Nationwide seems like a reasonable company. Blobner is a little strange (if you call, his secratary will always say that he's not in, until you tell her you have an acccount, in which case, he'll talk to you). I haven't had any problems, and Blobner was willing to explain the no-fault changes to me, so I think they're a good deal. -m- ******************** From: Randy.Pausch@cmu-cs-zog.arpa Subject: Allstate bastards. Especially my agent, Dale Conally, who's lied to me on two separate occasions. R ******************** From: Ingemar.Hulthage@CMU-RI-ISL2.ARPA Subject: Re: Car Insurance I have nothing bad to say about Nationwide insurance they seem to be among the least expensive. However, I had a bad experience with Blobner, he gave me a low quote also but the insurance company started to charge more. I now have my insurance with Simon Insurance (412) 266-3320, they are not located in the close vicinity, but they gave me a realy low quote and have been very easy to deal with. Ingemar ******************** From: Alexander.Hauptmann@CMU-CS-G.ARPA Subject: Re: Car Insurance I have been insured with them for six months, because they also gave me the best deal around, by about 20$. The agent, or rather his assistants (at Mike Elko's on Murray Ave) had no hesitations about lying, when they filled out my application. I.e. they filled it out for me, telling me all the things I was supposed to be doing (drive < 8 k miles, dont drive to work, claim to have been insured in the last 30 days, etc). It seemed a little reckless at the time, and I'm not sure if it will ever bounce back on me. But since I haven't had a claim yet, and my car is not worth much anyway, I felt I could live with it, satisfying the minimal PA car insurance requirements. Alex. ******************** From: Marion.Kee@CMU-CS-CAD.ARPA Subject: Re: Car Insurance I don't know anything about Nationwide. Allstate has low rates, but God help you if you need to file a claim. They drag their feet. When I had a car, I drove it a LOT (100-mile round-trip commute) and I bought STate Farm. It was expensive but I knew I would have compensation right away, if anything happened. The only claim I needed to file was taken care of within 48 hours and with no hitches whatsoever. ******************** In the end we (Roli and Jim Wendorf) have gone with Allstate, even though it got mixed reviews from others. The price they are charging is quite reasonable, and the agent, Vijay Kapoor seems to be very good. He actually came to our apartment in order to write up the policy application. He explained all of the options very carefully and let us decide what we wanted, without trying to really "sell" any of them. He even took the time to answer some questions we had about life insurance, and to explain it in fairly general terms, again without pushing us to buy any (we haven't, yet). In summary, we think our agent is pretty good, but we will have to wait and see how Allstate responds if we ever have to file a claim. We should note that State Farm might have been our first choice, but Craig Evans never called us back, and we were in a hurry to get insurance.