State Farm: Excellent auto insurance

[Shaun @ Tru6]

I don't have State Farm, my local independent agent and Safety has always done well by me, especially the time a drunk bicyclist hit me, but just had a great experience worth mentioning...too often we only hear of crappy service, etc.

Two weeks ago I was hit from behind in traffic while in the 4Runner. I stopped at a yellow and she must have thought I was going to go through with her behind. Wasn't going fast, maybe 10-15 mph. When I got out of the truck, she was really mad at me, like it was my fault. She's gonna report me, blah blah blah. What a jerk. Casual inspection that night (dark, it was raining) didn't reveal any damage but we exchanged paperwork.

Got up the next day and saw very minor damage (bumper and plastic deck are new, few months old), and to be honest, what I saw, again only looked quickly, decided it wasn't worth reporting.

Well, she reported it to her carrier, State Farm, who sent out 2 letters to me stating they would give me a rental car and take care of any damage. I called them up and said it wasn't worth reporting, damage was too minimal to go through the hassle of rental car, getting it fixed, etc. just close the case.

The day after that I had to go over to the passenger side of the truck and noticed the side bumper was pushed in about 1 inch into the wheel arch, and up, and that there was a 4 inch very thin, hairline scrape in the rear bumper that was starting to rust. Didn't even notice it until it went from chrome to rust.

Called State Farm and told them of the damage, could they reopen the case. I fully expected them to say they couldn't and was OK with that, I really should have checked it out thoroughly before voluntarily closing it.

Instead they sent someone out on Wednesday, nice guy, took pics, asked about the accident and was on his way.

Got a check today to fix all damage (actually a lot more than I expected) and a list of qualified shops.

Class act in every way they dealt with the situation.

[gprsh924]

Good to hear about a positive experience with an insurance company.

I'm happy with State Farm. In April I was at Indiana University visiting my friends. My car was parked at their frat house and one afternoon we came outside and found a huge dent in the driver's side quarter panel. No scratches or anything else and the way the car was parked, it was impossible for it to have been hit by another car to cause the damage. The only possible explanation was that someone kicked the dent into the car. When I got back to Chicago, I called state farm, explained to them what happened and they told he to take it to a shop of my choosing and get an estimate. They coordinated with the shop and set everything up, I dropped my car off and picked it up a few days later. The put on new parts and resprayed the entire back end and blended part of the door. The paint is perfect on that are of the car, the rest has a bunch of clearcoat scratches, so it doesn't look perfect, but oh well, its a 16 year old car with rust on it. All I had to do was pay my $100 deductible on the $1100 worth of work. The whole process literally could not have been any more painless. I think they would have even set me up with a rental car for when it was in the shop, but I had no need as I just drove the 924S while the 525 was down.

[Oh Haha]

State Farm has been great for us. Our agent is located right down the street and always waves, no matter which vehicle we are in.

We have our life, house, and auto coverage with him. Any need for an insurance claim has been painless. We are fortunate to have found such a great agent.

[JavaBrewer]

Never had a problem with SF. Been with them for 20 years that included 1 totaled Land Rover and a couple minor accidents. Every instance they were fast in response and very fair.

[Noah930]

I've heard far more good stories regarding State Farm as opposed to the other way around. If I didn't have AAA, I'd probably look into SF for coverage.

I didn't even know SF insured in Massachusetts. I thought everyone had Commerce?

[Evans, Marv]

I had State Farm for 25+ years for all of my insurance. When I was ready to move out to the low mountain area in the east of the County where I now live, I asked my agent about fire/homeowner's insurance. He told me they didn't even insure anyone in that area because of the danger of fires. I was disappointed. I learned that turned out to be the case with a few companies. I ended up insuring with Farmer's in the end. The Farmer's agent said, "Sure, we write policies for that area every day." I had never dealt with the company before and went with them because I sort of felt I had to. I did have a claim later on, and was very satisfied with their service. The only bad thing was I lost my "claim free discount", and my premium went up. I don't have auto with them, so I can't comment on that.