This is the third-consecutive year Progressive receives the lowest ranking on study measuring consumers’ ‘auto insurance purchase experience’
It’s official, but it’s not surprising: Consumers are definitely not thrilled with Progressive Insurance Company.
Progressive recently received a below average rating in the J.D. Power 2015 U.S. Insurance Shopping Study (Auto Insurance Purchase Experience), which ranks auto insurers based on “customer satisfaction with the auto insurance purchase experience …”
That’s three years in a row.
In J.D. Powers’s 2013 and 2014 U.S. Insurance Shopping studies, Progressive also scored below average ratings.
Progressive’s below average performances were marked by its “The rest” rating, which is J.D. Power’s lowest rating. “Among the best” is the highest rating. “Better than most” is the second highest. “About average” is third. And the lowest is the below average rating of “The rest.”
As an attorney, I’m not surprised by Progressive’s poor performance in the J.D. Powers studies.
I’ve practiced auto accident injury law in Michigan for 20 years, and I’ve personally seen some pretty egregious instances of how Progressive has treated my own clients during this time.
Some examples I’ve written about include:
- Progressive charges approximately 48% more to auto insurance to consumers with poor credit. For more information, please check out Michigan Auto Law’s blog post, “How do credit scores punish Detroit residents when paying for auto insurance?”
- Progressive charges more for auto insurance to low-income, but ‘safe,’ drivers than to higher-income, accident-prone drivers. For more information, please check out Michigan Auto Law’s blog post, “The poor pay more for car insurance than bad drivers.”
- Progressive charges higher auto insurance prices to drivers with less education and lower-status jobs. In its study, “Major Auto Insurers Charge Higher Rates To High School Graduates And Blue Collar Workers,” the Consumer Federation of America found that Progressive “charges a factory worker with a high school degree higher annual premiums than a plant supervisor with a college degree” by anywhere from 8% to 33%. To read more, take a look at the CFA study.
- Progressive ignored Michigan’s No Fault law by fabricating its own wage loss rules. For more information, take a look at Michigan Auto Law’s blog post, “Progressive demands ‘7 verifiable proofs’ to avoid paying legitimate claim.”
- To avoid paying “Underinsurance” benefits to the estate of a loyal Progressive customer who was killed in a crash, Progressive ‘defended’ the at-fault driver who killed Progressive’s insured. This is the case involving Progressive insured Kaitlynn Fisher’s estate, which her brother, comedian Matt Fisher, made infamous by publicly and justifiably blasting Progressive for its betrayal of his sister. For more information, please check out Michigan Auto Law’s blog post, “Progressive’s betrayal of woman after fatal car crash could happen to you.”
Watch out for Progressive.
In the meantime, stay tuned for our 2015 edition of the “Best And Worst Auto Insurance Companies,” which will be publishing Monday. Let’s see if Progressive makes the list…
