01-11-2023, 09:03 AM
EmptySea, you’re an articulate chap. I’m sure you can respond courteously to KiowaEagle’s opinions, particularly given your knowledge and experience as an independent agent. The consumer advice given in this country is to get quotes from different insurance companies every year. That advice extends to energy and other companies as well. I’d be particularly interested in your views on that.
How does being an independent agent work in the USA? Are you paid by your customers or by a commission from insurers?
Moving on, surely no insurance company would write a policy requiring it to pay out where a vehicle was being operated illegally—for example, by an unlicensed driver/rider. It seems to me the presumption behind the advice given to Gone is that, if one party to a joint vehicle policy broke the law by driving/riding a vehicle they were not licensed to operate, the insurer would have to pay out. Is that really the law in California? If it were, surely insurers would find a way to write policies that avoided the requirement?
In the days of cutting costs by removing expertise from systems and relying on people to interpret scripts on a computer screen, it is not a total surprise that an inexperienced call centre functionary might get something terribly wrong. That the story was maintained by the supervisor speaks of a more worrying problem. In an ideal world, I’d be hoping to Steve passed the information about Gone’s experience up the line so the first two could be retrained. Of course, in our increasingly punitive world, Steve may not do so because it may simply result in his colleagues’ employment being terminated. Let’s hope he has a quiet word with them.
How does being an independent agent work in the USA? Are you paid by your customers or by a commission from insurers?
Moving on, surely no insurance company would write a policy requiring it to pay out where a vehicle was being operated illegally—for example, by an unlicensed driver/rider. It seems to me the presumption behind the advice given to Gone is that, if one party to a joint vehicle policy broke the law by driving/riding a vehicle they were not licensed to operate, the insurer would have to pay out. Is that really the law in California? If it were, surely insurers would find a way to write policies that avoided the requirement?
In the days of cutting costs by removing expertise from systems and relying on people to interpret scripts on a computer screen, it is not a total surprise that an inexperienced call centre functionary might get something terribly wrong. That the story was maintained by the supervisor speaks of a more worrying problem. In an ideal world, I’d be hoping to Steve passed the information about Gone’s experience up the line so the first two could be retrained. Of course, in our increasingly punitive world, Steve may not do so because it may simply result in his colleagues’ employment being terminated. Let’s hope he has a quiet word with them.