Progressive settles with insurance activist lobbying for call access law

Looks like Michael Trout’s story is going to have a happy ending, after all.

Trout called Progressive Casualty Insurance Company for an insurance quote, and was offered an $80 rider on a policy, which he was told would cover any accident involving an underinsured or uninsured motorists for up to $10,000.

Then he had an accident involving an uninsured motorist, and when he tried to get the company to honor its verbal offer, it turned him down. It also refused to grant him access to the taped phone conversation, which would have proven he was right.

I covered Trout’s campaign to introduce a law that would compel companies to release taped customer-service conversations in a post on my other site.

Yesterday, I got an update.

Trout writes,

I think the coverage you gave to my issue with progressive was instrumental in bringing them around to an appropriate settlement with me.

On Friday, the adjustor called and said she would really like to get this thing done. She said that at one point I had indicated I might be willing to settle for $7,500. I said, yes, that was a year ago, and that what I was inclined to accept now was the full term of my policy ($10,000).

She put me on hold, and I hung up. When she called back, she said she had approval to pay the full term. I said, I’m in the car right now, how soon can you cut my check? Thirty minutes later, I had it in hand.

Since I have a stack of letters from her for the last year ‘reiterating our offer of $3,500′ in response to my weekly emails demanding $10,000, and nothing else has changed except your coverage of my complaint — well, it obviously made a difference.

I’m thrilled to have helped with this. I still think a law that gives customers access to their calls is an interesting idea, and will be following Trout’s campaign to push for that legislation.

(Photo: Montauk/Flickr Creative Commons)

Tagged as: Claim, Insurance, Phone, Progressive, Settled