As a Louisiana agent, I just could not let this article go by without a response. Terry Lisotta, if you are listening, how can you testify with a straight face that Citizens could handle the onslaught of business that an Allstate withdrawal would create???
Even now, 9 months after the Katrin/Rita fiasco, the service situation at Citizens is still a NIGHTMARE at best — only slightly better than it was last Ocotber. I testify, not via rumor but from actual experience.
A week does not pass that we don\’t receive a handful of unsolicted and erroneous endrosements for our Citizen\’s policies. Whenever we try to call, we spend HOURS ON HOLD (literally) waiting for a live person. I have personally waited on hold for over 4 hours to speak to someone. When an issue is too complicated to resolve immediately, we are promised a return call. It NEVER comes.
The really amusing part of trying to call took place a month or so ago when Citizens tried a new way of answering phones. Instead of an automated answering system, they assigned a live person to answer phones. After dialing 20-30 times sequentially with speed dial and getting busy signals, you would finally get through. The operator would answer and tell you that all the lines to which she could transfer the call were full. I was instructed to continue calling her back until there happened to be an open line at the moment when I was the lucky person to get through in between the busy signals. I hung up and went to the corner to buy a lottery ticket. The odds had to be better!!!
If you want to see an exercise in WASTE, take a look at Citizens. Their computer system is spontaneously generating return premium refunds to customers that exceed the premium on the policy. Nobody at Citizens seems to care. When the refund check is generated, agent\’s commission is being debited. We end up owing unearned commissions in excess of what was paid to us to begin with. To top it off, the policy is still in force! Go figure.
The newest iteration of the direct bill system at Citizens is deceptive at best. Customers receive a bill for renewal of the current term policy. Then when they pay it, Citizens applies the money to the prior term for unbilled premiums that had bee deferred due to special Hurricane Rules. That\’s fine, except they then cancel the current term because the amount credited is less than the billed amount. It is just a matter of time before the lawsuits are flying over just the one practice alone.
As an agent, if ever there was time to cut our losses and run, this is it. We are so frustrated that we have given up trying get corrections made or salvage our commissions. I could dedicate two full time people to dealing with Citizens issues and still get nothing accomplished.
If the Governor or the Legislature thinks Citizens is the answer to ANY PROBLEM that might arise in the marketplace in the near future, then they are living in fantasy land.
So again, I ask, \”Terry Lisotta, are you listening?\”
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As a Louisiana agent, I just could not let this article go by without a response. Terry Lisotta, if you are listening, how can you testify with a straight face that Citizens could handle the onslaught of business that an Allstate withdrawal would create???
Even now, 9 months after the Katrin/Rita fiasco, the service situation at Citizens is still a NIGHTMARE at best — only slightly better than it was last Ocotber. I testify, not via rumor but from actual experience.
A week does not pass that we don\’t receive a handful of unsolicted and erroneous endrosements for our Citizen\’s policies. Whenever we try to call, we spend HOURS ON HOLD (literally) waiting for a live person. I have personally waited on hold for over 4 hours to speak to someone. When an issue is too complicated to resolve immediately, we are promised a return call. It NEVER comes.
The really amusing part of trying to call took place a month or so ago when Citizens tried a new way of answering phones. Instead of an automated answering system, they assigned a live person to answer phones. After dialing 20-30 times sequentially with speed dial and getting busy signals, you would finally get through. The operator would answer and tell you that all the lines to which she could transfer the call were full. I was instructed to continue calling her back until there happened to be an open line at the moment when I was the lucky person to get through in between the busy signals. I hung up and went to the corner to buy a lottery ticket. The odds had to be better!!!
If you want to see an exercise in WASTE, take a look at Citizens. Their computer system is spontaneously generating return premium refunds to customers that exceed the premium on the policy. Nobody at Citizens seems to care. When the refund check is generated, agent\’s commission is being debited. We end up owing unearned commissions in excess of what was paid to us to begin with. To top it off, the policy is still in force! Go figure.
The newest iteration of the direct bill system at Citizens is deceptive at best. Customers receive a bill for renewal of the current term policy. Then when they pay it, Citizens applies the money to the prior term for unbilled premiums that had bee deferred due to special Hurricane Rules. That\’s fine, except they then cancel the current term because the amount credited is less than the billed amount. It is just a matter of time before the lawsuits are flying over just the one practice alone.
As an agent, if ever there was time to cut our losses and run, this is it. We are so frustrated that we have given up trying get corrections made or salvage our commissions. I could dedicate two full time people to dealing with Citizens issues and still get nothing accomplished.
If the Governor or the Legislature thinks Citizens is the answer to ANY PROBLEM that might arise in the marketplace in the near future, then they are living in fantasy land.
So again, I ask, \”Terry Lisotta, are you listening?\”