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Press Release
May 10, 2000

Allstate Insurance bags four victims with one computer glitch

If you see a woman and two girls aged 10 and 11 picketing an Allstate office, say hello and take one of the handouts telling their tale of woe. lt's quite a story--and one that many of us can relate to.

Staci Jackson of Harker Heights, Texas, her two young daughters, and the estate of the seller that Jackson purchased her home from last year face substantial losses because of a recurring computer glitch that management at Allstate Insurance Company has ignored for years.

In this private sale, which did not involve a mortgage lender, Ms. Jackson assumed sole responsibility for paying homeowners insurance.

For a long time, Allstate agents have been aware of a recurring problem: an Allstate property policy changing from insured pay to lender pay. Since the company won't take responsibility for correcting the computer programming, it's the agent's responsibility to catch those errors when they receive a copy of the statement sent to the homeowner.

Failing that, mortgage lenders know when they are billed by mistake and notify the homeowner. A private seller would certainly catch the error if they received an unexpected bill.

The problem was Ms Jackson's agent, SHAUN TERRY, had already made plans to take a job with Dell Computers and move out of town. Then the seller of the home died the month the bill was sent to her by mistake. It wasn't until the seller's son called Ms. Jackson in July 1999 that she even knew there was a problem.

In another confusing move, Allstate had requested the original premium payment not at the June 1998 closing, but two months later. Ms. Jackson paid for the entire year and was not expecting another bill until August of 1999.

None of this should have surprised Ms. Jackson because she had sent change of address forms to Allstate 7 or 8 times since moving to her new home. Bills for her auto insurance policy were still arriving at her home address instead of the post office box she asked them to use.

In the following months, Ms. Jackson endured another round of miscommunication, computer errors, partial refunds, and nasty notices in the mail. In a frustrating series of phone calls, Ms. Jackson found the agent's wife eager to tell her about the hardships involved in job changes and moving a family out of town and increasingly frustrated by Ms. Jacksons pleas for help. Again, Allstate's computer system was not cooperating, and it was impossible to get through to Underwriting by phone.

Finally, her agent surfaced long enough to tell her that Allstate was going to an automated system and was not reinstating any policies.

"Nonsense", said a supervisor in customer service at Allstate's California call center that Ms. Jackson spoke to the first week in September. Even if he didn't have the authority to reinstate that policy, the agent could have written another one. "Why didn't he write another policy?" was her question. She said she would address this question to the agent in the morning.

Now all of this would make for amusing dinner table talk once the issue was amicably resolved, but something else happened that soured the whole experience for good.

On September 9, 1999 Ms Jackson's house burned to the ground.

And what was Allstate's response to her attempt to file a claim for the loss of everything she owned?

According to Allstate claims adjuster Toni Watkins, this is another problem Allstate would rather not deal with.

The Jackson Family may be reached at:

Staci L. Jackson
P0 BOX 4252
Killeen, TX 76540-4252
Sjack707l@aol.com

 

After help from a lot of people, Allstate has done the right thing!

Staci's claim has been reviewed and was paid, as of 8-19-2000. Thank You Allstate! The President of Allstate Property and Casualty, personally ordered the investigation of Staci's claim.  In less than a week her claim was approved and Staci now has an Allstate check in her hands.  She hopes she and her children will be in their re-built home by Christmas.

In the words of Gary Weingardt, from the Allstate message board: 

by: Gary_LV (M/Las Vegas, NV)

8/20/00 7:42 pm Msg: 21980 of 21990

Don't kid your self, this was a team effort. Without everyone's input this resolution would have been impossible. Especially Barleycorn & cardwellmothershed without whose help her case would most assuredly have been in court for years. Special thanks to jbgjet whose idea it was to call Rick Cohen and last but not least jp5050zz, MasonDxn, pdbwinchester, nonobadponey and all the other Allstate employees who sent in advice. I'm sorry if I missed a few. The important issue here is that an Allstate policyholder and her children were almost homeless because of a flawed claims procedure. Ghost, this never should have happened in the first place. Policyholders should never slip through the fingers of the "Good Hands". Staci's is not an isolated case. Can this board forget all the bickering and suggest some procedures that would insure that Allstate's claim procedures are the best in the country. Rick Cohen,…. God Bless You, What you did was the boldest move in the history of Allstate. To the best of my knowledge, this was the first time anyone from HO ever got involved in the claims process. Although this case was only a first step, it was a GIANT one. Final word is that this claim was resolved because of the power of the Internet. "IS THIS THE INTERNET AT ITS BEST OR WHAT"

Staci received this message from Rick Cohen, President of Allstate Property and Casualty.

Ms. Jackson:

I'm glad things worked out.  They did because after a thorough investigation
it was the right thing to do...which is always the intent of our company.

Thanks for the card.  Good luck.

Rick Cohen

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