Dear Florida Insurance Commissioner,
My name is Cristian Sturek and I reside in one of Miami’s suburbs, Doral. I moved to Florida from California 7 years ago, and I absolutely love this state – the people and the incredible weather! My family immigrated to the United States from Romania when I was 14 year old, I finished High School outside of Los Angeles, joined the United States Marine Corps and was Honorably discharged after serving 4 years on Active Duty. In the last 19 years, I’ve worked really hard and have a successful career in Information Technology.
I’ve been a good citizen and as requested by LAW, I have carried a full insurance policy (comprehensive and collision) all the way to my time in the Marine Corps (1996 or so). For the last 12 years I have leased a new car every 3 years, taken the car back to the dealer, signed a new lease, drove the car home, and updated my insurance to reflect the change in vehicles. My life couldn’t have been better until about a month ago…
The problems first started with the dealership. When I told them that we would lease the car on my wife’s company (with her as the cosigner), we were erroneously instructed to get a quote for a “commercial policy”. My wife runs a Marketing and Public Relations company, why would we need a commercial policy? I ended up selecting “Other Business” while trying to get a quote from the Geico.com website, and somehow we were provided a commercial insurance quote. The dealership providing the erroneous insurance information is Porsche West Broward. I should have trusted my experience dealing with leases instead of listening to them…
We went to sign the new lease on the Sunday prior to Memorial Day. Instead of driving the car home, going to the Geico.com website and simply swapping out the prior 2014 Porsche Cayenne with the new 2017 Porsche Cayenne (yes, the same make and model), I was unable to purchase the “commercial policy” that I had a quote for because Geico does not work on Sundays. First thing on Tuesday morning I was to make the call!
Sadly, Tuesday at 7 AM on her way to work my wife crashed the SUV. Of course, Geico would no longer honor the commercial quote, but no problem – I went ahead and using their website, replaced the old SUV with the new SUV on the existing policy.
After I filed the Claim with Geico, we’ve had nothing but problems. I ASK YOU KINDLY, WHY DO I PAY INSURANCE FOR? WHY HAVE I SPENT ABOUT 50K IN INSURANCE FOR MY AUTOMOBILES, if the one time I have an issue and need something from them, Geico goes silent?
– I was informed that since I did not replace the cars on the policy, there was a “review” of the policy. What kind of review?
– I requested numerous times updates on this complete BS of a “review” and never once have I heard from anyone, although the policy has reflected the new car on it 2 days after the accident occurred
– I waited 3 weeks since the accident for the car to finally be taken to the repair shop
– I am still without a car and probably will be without a car for another 2-3 weeks until the repairs are made
HOW LONG DOES AN INSURANCE COMPANY HAVE TO PROCESS A CLAIM? BETTER YET, HOW LONG SHOULD A CLIENT WAIT TO GET AN ANSWER ON THEIR STATUS? ARE CLIENTS REQUIRED TO NOT LEAVE THE DEALER LOT PRIOR TO THEIR INSURANCE POLICY REFLECTING THE NEW CAR?
Insurance companies such as Geico are scammers and completely dishonest. I hope you investigate this particular claim, and enforce companies such as Geico to be transparent with their client. Nothing is more frustrating than waiting to hear something instead of getting the car fixed. Dealerships should NOT be providing erroneous insurance information to clients, and there should be penalties for their actions.
I hope others don’t have to go through what my family and I have so far. Shame on Geico, shame on Porsche West Broward.
