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Admitted long story here, but on topic so you may be interested.
I recently switched to BMW Performance Insurance by Liberty Mutual from GEICO. While the OEM parts replacement was a slight factor, the main reason by far: price. A near second? Principle. Explanation:
I had been a GEICO customer since 1998 (15 years), including auto (2 cars, both BMWs) and homeowner's. After receiving a direct mail piece from the BMW CCA (not Liberty, and not BMW NA), out of curiosity I requested a quote. Liberty was well south of GEICO on the auto policy.
Not wanting to switch, I called GEICO and explained, asking if they could match and stating that if they couldn't, I was switching. GEICO couldn't come close. I was pretty shocked, to be honest, especially after my years of being a customer.
So, as a result, I switched. Then I called GEICO to cancel both my auto and homeowner's. Once I got to the person responsible for cancellations, well low and behold, suddenly GEICO offered me a competitive price because of a 'new pricing model especially for Illinois". This after I clearly stated (in fact, twice, over two phone calls to two separate reps) that if GEICO could not at least match Liberty's pricing, that I was absolutely going to cancel and switch. This smacks of AOL, crappy credit card co's, and all around big corporation/poor customer service, and really wasn't the experience I expected from GEICO. When I became a customer, and over the years, their service has always been outstanding - in my experience, no longer. Although they could come close to Liberty's quote in the end, I cancelled anyway based on this.
So far, experience with Liberty has been terrific. My rep is a local person (office is walkable from my house) and any time I've called they've been nice, helpful, relatable and professional. I'll happily give my money to a company that does business the way I'd expect my company to operate, vs the experience I had with GEICO in the end.
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