SAFECO Auto Insurance Reviews

After a couple days, I went with a different provider. SAFECO withheld $300 as an early termination penalty that they said the state of NC would impose on me unless I show auto coverage from another insurer for May 12 - 16. After a conference call between myself, SimplyIOA, and SAFECO, they (SAFECO) agreed to refund the $300 with the understanding that the state of NC may impose a penalty for the 3 day gap and it would be on me to handle that. In a few days, I received a check from SAFECO...for $10. I followed up with Carlos at SAFECO, and he confirmed the $300 refund should be coming.

Shortly after this conversation, Carlos ** sent an email now stating that my current coverage would have to be dated May 12th. Reconnecting with Carlos has not been possible and emails to him concerning this have gone unanswered. I called back to SAFECO today to follow up and spoke to Rob W of "the gold team". Knowing that SAFECO records the calls, and that so much time had already gone into covering the details of this issue, I asked that the earlier conversations be reviewed to confirm SAFECO's earlier statements about fully rounding me. They refuse to look into this and stated they will not refund the $300 even though they created this situation by initiating the combo policy and retracting mid-stream.

During the claims process, I had to formally request an inspector to come out. Only then did Safeco send a third-party inspector, who barely glanced at my vehicle, spoke to no one onsite, and left without addressing any of the specific damage or evidence provided. They never visited the site of the accident and completely disregarded the statements and video evidence that directly contradicted their denial. When I followed up, they refused to confirm receiving any of the evidence.

I was also passed from one adjuster to another, with crucial people conveniently left off communications, creating confusion and dragging out the process. This is classic bad faith behavior from an insurance company that knows pursuing a $5,000 claim isn’t worth the cost of legal action. Safeco has effectively left me to cover these damages out of pocket, knowing that hiring an attorney would likely cost more than the claim itself.

I’ve filed a complaint with the Oregon State Insurance Commission, but that doesn’t change the fact that Safeco Insurance - A Liberty Mutual Company clearly does not stand by its customers. If you’re looking for an insurance provider that actually honors its policyholders, do yourself a favor — avoid Safeco and look elsewhere. Don’t learn the hard way like I did.

The local business they sent to us was completely disappointing, and SafeCo did nothing to help us. They were hardly responsive, did not alleviate any of our concerns, and we still don't have a few items from the claim done that we were promised. The SafeCo agent we were assigned was Paul **. The local business they had do work showed up randomly and did not communicate with us at all. They left a mess of our yard and driveway, leaving nails and trash everywhere, left our gate open, and even broke our brand new fence gate with nothing done about that. The roof looked terrible when it was completed, did not look professional at all. Trying to get ahold of anyone to address our concerns has been the most difficult process ever. It is now 6+ months later, and we have not had some of the work done that was promised. We would not recommend SafeCoo to anyone looking for good quality insurance.

If you apply the brakes, they ding you for hard braking. I think anyone who drives on a highway or in any kind of traffic would be hard-pressed to earn a score good enough to maintain the 10% discount, let alone save even more. To be a "safe driver" according to Safeco, you will need to run red lights to avoid braking because risking getting t-boned is apparently safer than braking faster than 8 mph per second. Maybe if you live out in the country and can drive 20 mph on empty roads you could score well.

There's also a lot of documentation that the first handful of trips you take set your score, and it doesn't matter how well you drive after that, it can't improve. However, if you drive immaculately for 89 days and then have to brake hard to avoid an accident, your score will plummet. You could also be a Safeco customer for 50 years and you will never again have the opportunity to use their app and show that you improved your driving habits. Also, the app kept failing to record my trips, and I had to call Safeco to reset it every few days.

Anyway, my score earned less than the "10% discount" they offered to bring me in the door. According to Safeco's scoring system, the fact that I haven't been in an accident since 2004 must be a minor miracle. Now they're charging me the pro-rated difference of my policy at "a lower discount" than the initial "10%." How is that different in practice than a penalty fee for what the insurance company calls unsafe driving habits? The base rate of their premium is basically being called a "10% discount," and they will charge you up to 10% more than that in penalties for what they consider unsafe driving on your initial term. I'm sure their legal department came up with the discount language scam to ensure they can get away with it. But I think it's deceptive business practices, even if their lawyers found a loophole to make it legal.

They set a lower premium rate to lure in and also tease that you could save even more with the driving app, and then you wind up paying more than their competitors for so-called unsafe driving. I would advise anyone to avoid Safeco at all costs unless you want to be graded as a crappy driver and charged additional fees labeled as "reduced discounts."