The Saga Continues...or GEICO Exposed

If you haven't heard the incredible, heart-stopping tale of how we found our stolen car, click here: http://nerd-girlsromanticsandtime-travelers.blogspot.com/2011/08/series-of-bizarre-coincidences-or-how-i.html Now, for the truly hair-raising account of our dealings with GEICO: first of all, let me say that when we first called GEICO to report the car stolen, it was a Saturday. All we were able to do was to file the claim, not rent a replacement car, not talk to the agent or adjuster or whatever the hell they call those people, because they only work 9-5 Monday thru Friday (some of them, we later learned, only work til 4 or 4:30 and they all take long lunch breaks. Some of them don't come in til 10:00am. It's a hard life working for GEICO.) Their motto should be: "Disasters only happen during business hours."

Okay, so come Monday we supplied the police report number, got assigned our agent, the lovely and super-cranky Ms. Butler, and were able to get a rental car from Enterprise for $37 a day, though our coverage only provides for $30 a day. Then comes the moment two weeks later when we recover the stolen car, as spelled out at the above link. That too, occurred on a Saturday, so though we immediately reported it to GEICO, the car sat in the lot to which the police had it towed, with it's broken windows, the leather interior exposed to the elements, all that rainy weekend, and Monday, and Tuesday, and an entire 10 days beyond while GEICO got it together to send an inspector. Once this person finally made it over to the lot for his "inspection," he performed it from outside the fence and didn't even know, though we knew from inspecting the car ourselves when it was first in police possession, that the radio and GPS had been torn out. When we brought this up with the lovely Ms. Butler, she crossly denied the fact. She is one mean bee-awch. So much for friendly GEICO customer service.

Eventually the car got towed to the Honda dealership, somehow incurring a ticket along the way for which GEICO wants no responsibility, and then sat there for another 40 DAYS while GEICO screwed around giving estimates that were too low, sending inspectors that did not properly inspect, and taking their sweet time sending payments to cover the work. All this time, they rarely called to update us - we had to call to find out what was happening and whenever we dealt with Ms Butler, we were treated with impatience and rudeness. However, usually we had to talk to her boss or someone else in her office because she was out, or on vacation, or had left early or wasn't in yet.

Now, we're about to renew our rental car agreement beyond 60 days, not knowing if GEICO will cover it for the $30 a day, while we're already out the $420 dollars which is $7 X 60 days, and is probably not part of our $500 deductible - all because GEICO has screwed around so long and behaved so ineptly. We still don't have our car, obviously, though we could have easily had it at least two weeks ago, had GEICO been responsive, not constantly passing the buck, and paying more attention to customer service than defending their actions (Ms. Butler) and taking time off.

We used to like GEICO. Used to think they were responsive and friendly. Use to like the GEICO gecko and the cavemen, and the low premiums. Now we feel burned. And if we ever get our sweet car back, it will be with the sense that we didn't suffer enough just having our car stolen, GEICO had to compound the problem a hundred fold. Where's my English muffin with jam!?