Recently, my husband told me that my status on facebook might lead people to think that life was a bummer and that I was not happy very often. Food for thought. With facebook we put one word or a small sentence to express what we are doing or feeling at that moment. Sometimes it can paint a distorted picture. Just for the record, life is good and I am happy but sometimes, like all of you, there are moments that I am disappointed, frustrated, sad, or angry. The status updates for the last month or so have reflected some of those times. The following is a story that has been so frustrating to me that I have updated my status reflecting my feelings. This has caused some of you to worry.
A couple of months ago, I was pulled over for speeding in Mendon. :( I knew I was and I had all my information ready when the policeman came to my car window. He looked at the insurance card and asked me if I had a updated card. I looked at it confused. Sure enough it had expired. I just figured that my new card hadn't come yet. He told me that he was going to have to impound my car because the state didn't had record of me having insurance. Then he went back to his car. What? We have always had insurance and we have been with Farm Bureau for 20+ years. We have had our monthy payment automatically withdrawn for as long as I can remember. I called my agent that very minute and the secretary told me that sometimes the state's records are behind and that I was probably fine. The officer then came back asking me if I had a preference on a towing company. I couldn't believe this was happening. I begged the policeman not to impound my car since I was a mile from my house and my car was full of groceries. He wouldn't listen and told me I would need to call someone to come and pick me up. He went back to his car to call the towing company. I called my insurance company again and the secretary told me that we actually didn't have insurance and a payment hadn't been withdrawn for two months. They had dropped all of our vehicles because of Reggie's driving record. Unbelievable. The ironic part of it all is our agent had contacted Phil quite a few times over the last 6 months about selling us life insurance and our vehicles being dropped from our policy never came up. Hmmm. We don't sit around wondering if we are insured. We just are. That is why we had it automatically withdrawn. It never crossed my mind that we wouldn't be insured. They told me that they mailed a letter informing us of the change. I found the letter which said "review at renewal". When I finally was able to talk with my agent, he wasn't even aware that we had been dropped. He just knew there was some changes. Are you kidding me? Isn't that why we have agents? So in summary, this is what it has cost me:
*Impounded Vehicle - $187
*MVD Fine - $30
*No Insurance Fine - $250 (normally $400 -waived $150 because I hadn't had a ticket in 3 years)
*DLD Fine - $30
*Mandatory Court Appearance (2 times)
*Suspension of driving privileges for 1 week
*Suspension of vehicle registration for 1 week
*Mandatory High Risk Insurance
Needless to say, Farm Bureau Insurance Company is not my friend. I would not recommend them to anyone. It has been such a frustrating experience. I wish they had cared about us as people not just some name on a paper that the underwriting department decides has one too many claims or has teenage drivers with tickets. Couldn't they have gone out of their way to make sure we knew that our vehicles were in danger of being dropped? An actual verbal conversation? We have switched companies now with our teenage drivers, high risk insurance and all.
