Any notice USAA customer service changes recently?

I've had USAA for a LONG time. Lately I've noticed that each time I call them it takes at least 20 minutes to get anything done. It seems they have some new "process" where their customer service rep goes over every coverage for every car -- every time you call.  I wind up spending a lot of time verifying information they already have before we ever get to the reason I called.

I wanted to have a conversation with my daughter to have a talk about her picking up her own insurance . I called USAA to quote the level of insurance I already have on that car on my policy for her with exact same coverage for someone her age.  I was told, "Sorry that's protected private information and your daughter will have to call to get that herself". OK. Can you give me a quote for a generic 22 year old woman with the same levels of coverage I already have on that car.  Same deal.  They couldn't help me with this.... ????

Bought a new car at the end of last month and added it to the insurance plan. Called to set it up initially, then had to call back because the dealer wanted the policy backdated to the day I bought the car rather than the day I picked it up (end of Nov). They faxed the proof of insurance to the dealer, I got a copy for the glove box, all is good, and I drove the car home.

Got the bill in the mail today and I notice the new car isn't on the policy. So I give them a call. Same deal, we spend at least a half an hour with their customer service rep going over the various details of the past. I really don't care what happened or why it isn't there - I just want to get on with making sure the new car is on the policy and I'm covered because I have a loan. She even read me the VIN, but the car wasn't on the policy???

Am I becoming a cranky old man or has their customer service tanked/changed for the worse? Anyone have similar issues with them? What is going on?

No, they are seriously berking up lately. Even worse is they sold their investment side to some venture capital hawks which is extra frustrating because my kid's 529s are with USAA.

Ask to speak with a supervisor the next time it happens and ask them why.  It may be a new policy it may be a way for them to see about selling you more insurance it may be some sort of CYA policy.

i waited on a couple of their year end corporate small national dinners.  they always seemed an upbeat customer centric bunch but that was several years ago. 

Don't get me started on WORST INSURANCE COMPANY IN THE WORLD:  USAA.

I switched to Geico after having USAA for like 8 years.

I got very worried when they started the heavy advertising and opened up the insurance to enlisted.  It worked great how it was, did they really NEED to expand?  I am suspicious they are now trying to pay off all those commercials. 

I have not had any issues with them and they seem to still have decent prices.

They used to give out rebates regularly because of low costs, not anymore.  Of course, I did just get an email that I will be getting a refund this year... of $5000!....  and no, I don’t pay that much in a year... so... issues apparently.

We’ll see if I get my $5000...

Never had an issue with them.  I was just on the phone with them not long ago and it was the same as it ever was.

in contrast to Dr Hess, I've had nothing but good experiences with them, including multiple cars getting fixed, 1 car getting totalled and close to $100k worth of hail damage fixed on my house.

I've not called them in a while, but they seem to call me every year to confirm my coverage. I have three insured cars and two drivers in the house. I list one car for 15k driven miles a year and the other two for 7.5k miles a year.

EVERY YEAR they call and ask if there is another driver in the household and to advise me that the average miles driven per year is 15k and do I want to change that on two of my cars? 

I recently received a mailing from their CEO apologizing for recent bouts of crappy customer service, and vowing to get tge company back on track.  Large increases in customer base coupled with having issues finding people to take open positions were cited as reasons for lapses in service.  Word is that on the financial side, Vanguard is having similar problems.

They've messed up my auto pay almost every other month for the last 5 months. Extremely frustrating

Brett_Murphy said:

...EVERY YEAR they call and ask if there is another driver in the household and to advise me that the average miles driven per year is 15k and do I want to change that on two of my cars? 

Yeah, they do the same for me.  Might be the cars because I have 5 with them, one non-op and two with very low mileage per year.  I guess that’s a bit unusual for them.

All my customer service has been good though. I made some changes earlier this year and it went very smooth.

In reply to aircooled :

Wow, a wide variety of experiences with them, but some common to what I'm seeing. I appreciate everyone's comments on this. 

interesting

I almost exclusively use the website to manage cars.  and I've had two experiences recently where I started coverage on a car, and it didn't "take"... and I didn't notice until I got a mailing from the state about lack of insurance verification for the car.  Similarly, after getting rid of the car, I'm pretty sure I went on to remove it, and discussed removing it with an agent, and 3mo later go to remove a second car and find that the first one is still on the policy

I've had a bunch of stuff to sort through this year, with the move, and cars and onelap... outside of the day-to-day family stuff.  So, it's possible i've screwed it up... but doing it twice, and seeing similar reports here leads me to be more weary on giving them that leeway in the future

I'll also note that in the DMV, the radio is positively littered with their ads... which does seem like an unwelcome development

OP, you do realize there's really no accurate way to get a quote for a "generic" 22 year old woman, because there is no such thing in the insurance world. 

In reply to einy :

I got the same mailing about a month ago.  Haven't had any issues, but haven't made any changes in almost 2 years and no claims.

I was also curious about the letter from the CEO, and the large uptick in advertising. I rolled over my funds recently to New York Life (my company) to self manage. 

We had USAA for 15 years now and I have noticed that they call us to check on cars much more and the calls take longer. I’ve not really ever shopped around pricing but for the most part we’ve had a good experience with a few accidents, that seems to be worth so extra money. I do know that at my favorite repair place in town the only people that can pay with a personal check are USAA clients. 

I own a mortgage company and we see lots of insurance quotes plus we do some shopping for our customers and USAA is always the most expensive there is.  We routinely save people $800 - $1,200 a year by switching them which lowers their house payment and makes it easier to qualify for a mortgage.

I've just had roofing people look at my house for some hail damage and one of the first questions they ask is if I have USAA.  It seems dealing with them on claims is so much work the roofers either jack up the price to cover the extra issues or simply refuse the job.

carguy123 said:

I own a mortgage company and we see lots of insurance quotes plus we do some shopping for our customers and USAA is always the most expensive there is.  We routinely save people $800 - $1,200 a year by switching them which lowers their house payment and makes it easier to qualify for a mortgage.

I've just had roofing people look at my house for some hail damage and one of the first questions they ask is if I have USAA.  It seems dealing with them on claims is so much work the roofers either jack up the price to cover the extra issues or simply refuse the job.

 

Who's your go-to insurer?

My go-to insurer depends upon the county the property is located in.  Rates are determined by the losses in each county so a heavily populated county will have higher rates than a less populated.

For instance State Farm is quite a bit more expensive in Dallas county than it is in Tarrant county (Ft. Worth).  I've found the more regional companies tend to be less expensive than the nationwide brand names.

In reply to carguy123 :

Lucky for us, I'm in Rockwall County just down the road from you!

I've invented a new rule that seems to be holding water:  the more an insurance company advertises the worse their service is.

Note:  I've worked in the industry for two decades for several of the major players.