Too purty to live in town.....

Wednesday 2/28/07

I hope that anyone who reads this doesn’t work for Allstate, because I’m fixen to go off about them bigtime. This is one of those deals that I just couldn’t let go of. Any other day, it probably wouldn’t have mattered, but today, I dug my heels in and was ready to fight.

I come home from work and check my mailbox. Inside is a letter to my 9-year-old son from Allstate. The letter included a “free quote card” and had a “safe driver code number” assigned to him, stating that “As a safe driver, blah blah blah, you can get quality insurance coverage for less.” All he had to do was call this toll free number.

So I call the number. This pubescent sounding male gets on the phone, and I ask him if he could look up and account by the “safe driver code number.” He asked me what the number was, and I told him. He then said, no, there was no such thing as a safe driver code number. I stated that he was, in fact, wrong, because he was assigned a safe driver code number and I wanted to know why. He said he didn’t know. I mentioned that him not knowing this detail does not provide a credible image of Allstate.

So, with an evil smile, I then asked him how a 9 year old boy in the FOURTH GRADE can have a safe driving record on their system, and if he understood that this made him look like an idiot. I further stated that my son was sent this advertisement that said he was a safe driver. He stated that it was “just a marketing campaign, and he had nothing to do with that. I stated that once again, he was wrong, because the advertisement has HIS phone number on it, so obviously, he DID have something to do with it.

Then I said that since it’s quite clear that he doesn’t really care, that I’d like my son’s information removed from the system because with this kind of error neither my son nor I would ever want to do business with Allstate. He said he’d take care of it and ended the call.

Now, you might think that would have been enough for me, but no, I still wasn’t satisfied. So, I go to Allstate.com, and found an “alert us” phone number. I call that number. They stated that I needed to call another number. So I called the number that they gave me. It was a fricken BILLING number. They give me a number for the corporate executive offices. I’m thinking, “ok! Now we’re getting somewhere!”

I call that number. I relate the entire story, and stated that I wanted to know how they got my son’s information, as I was concerned that someone may be trying to steal my son’s identity. I mentioned that the advertisement letter is signed by a vice president of marketing, and I gave her that person’s name and asked if that individual and title was fictitious, as part of their “advertising campaign,” or if that person actually existed. Once again, I reiterated that this misinformation on their system makes them look very stupid. She stated that she understood completely and took my contact information, and said she’d research it and let me know.

I’m not going to hold my breath waiting for a return call, but I do feel a little bit better. I have no idea what got over me to cause such a stink about something so minor, but it really had me spun me up. I think I need some chocolate now.