Farmer’s Insurance Scam in DFW

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Farmer’s Insurance Scam in DFW

Posted on 11 November 2007 by DanielthePoet

Whether this is technically a scam or not, Farmer's Insurance has managed to screw over at least one family in the North Texas area.

Steve and Marian were looking to buy a house in the DFW metroplex. They found a nice home in Bedford and applied for a loan. During the process, Steve and Marian requested an insurance quote from Farmer's.

Before Steve and Marian could finalize the contract, someone else came in and bought it out from under them. They were disappointed, but chose to assume that God had better plans for them elsewhere.

Six months later, Steve received a call from a collection agency. "You owe Farmer's Insurance $200," they told him.

"For what?" Steve asked.

"For insurance payments you haven't made on your home in Bedford."

"But I don't have a home in Bedford."

"Yes you do."

"No, I don't."

"It says here that you do."

"I don't care what your paperwork says. I never purchased that home and I've been living in a different city."

"Well, all we know is that you owe us money."

"How do we resolve this?"

"Send us proof that you didn't buy that house."

"Do what?!?!? How exactly do I prove that I DIDN"T do something?"

"…."

"I can send you my current residence agreement, but that doesn't prove that I didn't buy a house in Bedford. Nothing will prove that I didn't buy that house in Bedford."

"…"

"I'm going to talk to Farmer's Insurance about this."

"Okay. Bye."

So that's what happened. Steve called a Farmer's Insurance branch several times. They claimed that only their main office in Austin or Houston could take the action necessary to solve this issue. After several weeks, Steve received another call from the collection agency. The issue has not been resolved to this point and Steve's credit is at risk because he can't prove that he DIDN'T purchase a home.

Seriously? How do you charge someone without their consent? This is wrong. Farmer's Insurance owes Steve some sort of compensation for threatening his credit for NO REASON. He was never a customer, which means they had no right to report him to a collection agency. He owes them no money, and if they damage his credit, they will owe him big time.

The moral of this story is apparently to never automatically trust any business. There may be some better organized home insurance companies in Dallas, Fort Worth, and surrounding areas, but you don't really know until you're on the wrong side of a mess.

Do you have any crazy stories about insurance companies? Or do you have an insurance agent that you would trust with your life? Let us know.

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4 Comments For This Post

John Says:
November 15th, 2007 at 5:38 pm
Hi there, I’m a farmers insurance agent and have been for some time. I’d like to make a comment on this if I may. The family should have filed suit againts the Mortgage company or the Real Estate agent for this as the contract had to come from somewhere other than the family. The farmers agent should also have done his job and contacted the family for signatures on the paperwork before anything can be filed with the department of insurance. Farmers cannot charge a customer that has not signed the Texas Home Application among about 23 other documents therefore the documents had to have been signed by the homeowner in question or someone forged the signatures. I have yet to see farmers approach a family for non-payment unless they have physical signatures on paperwork. If this is the first time and there is proof, my opinion will definitely change.
Farmers is a great company, allbeit, no company is perfect, I feel that they take care of my customers in the DFW area. If I find out that they do not, I will definitely go to bat for those families.
Steve Says:
November 15th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
I’m sorry to burst the bubble of the dedicated Farmer’s Insurance agent, but this did in fact happen to me and it was not the fault of the realtor or the loan company. I never signed any document with Farmer’s Insurance. I’m sure what they did was illegal. It probably happened because of shoddy procedures and no follow-up on the part of the agency office. I don’t believe it was intentional and probably does not happen often. However, I know it did happen one more time than it should have.
John Says:
November 18th, 2007 at 4:06 am
Agreed, it certainly should not have happened. Your agent none the less should have done the job, they didn’t. It does upset me to read about this, unfortunately some agents from all insurance companies only care about that almighty dollar. What happened to good old fashioned customer service?… Choose your agent wisely
sarah Says:
November 19th, 2007 at 12:33 pm
Daniel, Steve,
does this mean that John from Farmers is going to go to bat for you, as he said he would in the first comment response?

anything happen yet?