Farmers Auto Insurance Reviews

How does this come about your say. Well gather round and I shall tell ye the tale. I move in early 2023 and try to contact AAA, who I initially contacted to get insurance, to advise them of this to update my policy. The AAA rep is after all prominently listed on the Farmers/Foremost portal (when I can get access to it). But he informs me to inform them. Farmers or Foremost? I have no clue, as I once had access to an online portal through Farmers, until I got a cryptic message and didn’t. I think it’s been transferred to a Foremost portal (who is Foremost? No one has explained anything), which I accessed once I think?? I manage to log in and inform them of the move. Okey dokey they say. They quote me a slightly higher rate. Righty ho I say. I log out. I print out my shiny new insurance card. I don’t check my bank account which is linked to AutoPay (my fatal error). I just assume all is well.

I get a few emails from them saying “Billing documents available” and I go, well alrighty, that is how they tell me they’re doing AutoPay, leastways that’s how it’s always been in the past. I continue my prudent driving habits until I need to share my auto ins card and decide to give pay my old portal friends a visit. Oh no. Oh NO.

I call a Farmers lady who tells me I haven’t had insurance since 02/03/23 and... how did I not know? I tell her I never got any notices? She says, "yes you did?" I said they all looked like the generic autopay notices. Also what is Foremost? She says, "They were giving you insurance actually. Farmers is just the name on your card. But you could have logged into both portals." I say, "You are very nice but actually, no I very much could not." I say, "I am an adult in 2023 and have tons of things on Autopay. I did not check my bank statement for the roughly $50/month charge. Yes, I should have done this. I did not. Adulting fail. However, your systems are also BADLY designed."

She is clearly preparing to take this to her boss (She cares! She's a darling!) and says, "If this were a month or so late I could have done something." But then she starts going on about how she has to Demonstrate that I haven't known and Gather evidence and I'm like, "Lady you seem nice but I need to go get me some actual insurance. And given I've been derelict for over half a year now, I'm not going to find anything worthwhile from your reputable establishment, so kindly I must take my leave kthanksbye."

Have I mentioned the charge that caused me to lose insurance back on 02/03/23 (again despite the fact that I also was able to print out a card good 02/03/23 that very day)? THREE. DOLLARS. THAT was the rub and it couldn’t go through on Autopay because Reasons and they sent me a notice about it to my email (I opted into paperless billing like a fool) and it looked just like their notices saying hey we’re doing the Autopay thing and have I mentioned their portal was a nightmare.

Anyway, I am still ultimately the one responsible to carry auto insurance (which I have consistently done since licensed and driving a vehicle) and had I had an accident, my ignorance here would not have been an excuse. Very much aware of this and not proud. Easily the biggest adulting fault of my 30s, or the second biggest after marrying my ex. (Are you happy, Foremost/Farmers/AAA? You are being compared to highly unfortunate ex-spousal units. NOT A GOOD LOOK.)

So TLDR, PLEASE stay away from these people if you a) want to know who you actually are getting your insurance from; b) want a vaguely 21st-century billing and payment experience; c) want the space-time continuum to make some sort of kind of sense. Again. Not saying this wasn't also a major fail on my part. It absolutely was. Over and out.

-April H

The first day after filing the claim I received an email telling me I would continue to get email and text updates regarding the condition and work being done on the car. However, this would be the only email (or communication) I would receive for the next 10 days. During this time, I would try calling my claims representative, Joshua ** to no avail. Over the course of 10 days, I would try to reach out to Joshua dozens of times, always to be greeted by his monotone voicemail. Additionally, when trying to reach his supervisor, the number would lead to a dead-end, with the same monotone voice on the other end of the line.

It was not until I called Farmer's help number and got on the line with a human being, almost two weeks later, that someone was able to tell me they'd reach out to Joshua to call me back. When he finally did, Joshua was flippant and dismissive, explaining he had never seen any of my calls, despite my many attempts (as well as the attempts from several other family members trying to get ahold of him). Additionally, he casually mentioned that the supervisor listed on his webpage was no longer his supervisor, meaning the number would lead to a dead number. The conversation also yielded little to no information about where in the process my car was.

During this whole ordeal trying to get ahold of this illusive claims agent, I would call the dealership to ask for updates, only for them to tell me they were ALSO having a hard time reaching my insurance agent. So essentially, for three weeks, I not only had no car (Joshua did nothing to help me get a rental, even after asking for his help on the phone) but my car was not being worked on and was just sitting at the dealership while Farmers twiddled their thumbs. Overall, Joshua ** was one of the most unprofessional, dismissive, and unhelpful people I had ever had the displeasure of talking to. The nightmare only ended roughly three weeks (and some change) later, when I received word from the dealership (once again, not Farmers) that my car was ready.

Essentially, the TL;DR of this story is that Farmers did nothing to communicate with me what was wrong with my car or how long it would take for it to be fixed. Every time I tried to reach out, I was met with a voicemail from Joshua, who I began to believe didn't actually even work at this company since he never answered his work phone during business hours. I am not looking forward to dealing with them in the future and will be looking for a different insurance company.

A month or so later, our policies were coming up for renewal and we received written notice of a fairly substantial price increase for both policies, even though we had filed no claims, and nothing else had changed in terms of location, coverage, or anything else. Since Farmers had not enlisted one of their agents to contact us and offer to help us through the transition to their company (something any company should do if they pride themselves on customer service), we called Farmers' main office to try to get help navigating the nuances of their policies, and possibly tailor our coverage more to our needs and lower our premiums. This is where the real fun began.

After navigating an automated phone tree that was frustrating at best, my wife was confident that she had found the proper choice and proceeded to be placed on hold for an extraordinary amount of time, because their "system" was having technical difficulties. Finally, a person speaking with a very thick foreign accent came on the line and attempted to help with my wife's questions, but in the end had no real answers. Again, a frustrating experience, which prompted us to look for a different company to handle our insurance needs.

We were successful in our search, and on the day that the new policies were in effect we called Farmers to cancel their policies - exactly two weeks before they were scheduled to lapse. The representative who my wife talked to about this was very helpful and much easier to understand than the first, and the cancelation seemed to go smoothly. There was no mention of any amounts to be refunded to us for the unused portion of the term of our policies, and although mildly disappointed, we accepted that this was just the way Farmers operates. We were happy to be moving on, and that our brief experience with Farmers was behind us - or so we thought. This was on April 28.

On June 28 we received two letters from the same collection agency - one regarding an amount due on the homeowners policy, the other for the auto policy. Keep in mind that when my wife called to cancel the policies, there was absolutely no mention of any amount that would be due. That was Problem #1. Problem #2 was that Farmers never contacted us to tell us that we owed them money, and why. Instead, they chose to wait a couple of months and hand the "debt" over to a collection agency. This is deplorable business practice.

We called the collection agency, whose representative was extremely helpful and knowledgeable. She informed us that the amounts due were for cancelation charges that are part of Farmers' business policy. This was news to us. Again, the representative who my wife talked to when canceling the policies didn't inform her of any fees, and the Farmers website certainly doesn't display this information where you might be able to find it.

We agreed to pay the fees, since they were owed; but current and prospective customers need to know about this "business" practice of Farmers Insurance. It, at best, borders on illegal, and is most definitely immoral. Neither my wife, nor I, have ever had any dealing with a collection agency. Our credit is impeccable, and the threat of a "bad debt" being reported to the credit bureaus can coerce people to pay fees or other charges that may not actually be due. Shame on Farmers Insurance. You can be sure that I will accurately and completely inform anyone who wants to know, about my experience with this company.

My renewals are due in 9 days. I've been calling for three weeks asking for new policies. I can't talk to a new policy salesperson since I have existing policies. I've been told multiple times that something would be done to expedite the policies. Since you can get a new policy normally in a few minutes, I'm not sure what Farmers' problem is other than they are having some massive IT issues because of the transition.

Toward the end, MetLife went downhill probably because they knew they were selling off the business and they hacked customer service. Farmers has not improved the situation, if anything, it has gotten much worse. I can't speak about claims because I haven't had any; however, they have had competitive rates through my wife's employer. Looking at some of the posts on this website and I wonder if I will be satisfied if we ever have a claim. Sales are driven by commission so nobody wants to help if they aren't making a buck and that includes local agents. I hope Farmers at some point distributes us to local agents and disbands this excuse they call on-line customer service for what were MetLife customers.