Mercury Insurance

We switched back to Geico after this. Here is the story, as told to Mercury: On Friday, June 18, 2021, some time after 6:00 pm, our insured 2007 Volkswagen Passat broke down (engine trouble) on Highway 101 North in Humboldt County, California at Mile 127, in the Prairie Creek Redwoods National Park. We were over 300 miles from home. We pulled over directly in front of a mileage sign which said we were 15 miles south of Klamath, California, which was our intended destination. The area is rural with very little phone or internet reception. The shoulder was very narrow, and cars were passing us at 70 miles per hour only inches away. After a number of attempted calls which would not go through, we were able to contact Jamie at the roadside assistance number at 6:44 pm. We were surprised that she did not have access to any policy or benefits information, so she could not tell us how much towing coverage we had, or whether our roadside assistance would pay for a hotel, or a rental car, or anything else. Our phone reception was very weak and we had no access to the internet. Jamie sent us a link at 7:08 pm to try to get our coordinates. We received the text, but could not open the link since we had no internet connection. She took down our basic information, including the color of the car. I very clearly told Jamie that we were 15 miles south of Klamath, California on Highway 101 northbound. The call took 23 minutes, but before anything could be accomplished, we lost our connection. Our calls, from both of our phones, continued dropping after this. At 7:28 pm, Jamie left a voicemail in which she stated incorrectly that we were 150 miles south of Klamath, not 15. Since we did not have enough signal to call back, we called 911 at 7:29 pm. The 911 operator patched us through to Mercury's number. A claims representative named Blake was on the call, and stayed on the line while roadside assistance was again contacted. There were apparently no notes in the system about our emergency, so the representative asked us all the same questions we had already answered, which was quite time-consuming and unwelcome considering our phones had limited battery power and the calls, once dropped, could not reliably be returned. Neither the claims rep, nor the roadside assistance rep, was able to answer any of our basic coverage questions about rental cars, coverage for a hotel or how many miles Mercury would cover for towing. While we were on the line through 911, US Park Rangers stopped to check on us. The rangers advised that if we were still at the same spot in an hour, they would contact the California Highway Patrol to help us. The 911 call dropped after 50 minutes on the line. By then, we were exhausted and frustrated, and had gotten nowhere despite being stranded for more than two hours. Just then, CHP Officer Jimenez stopped to check on us. He said we could sleep in the car on the spot, but recommended we drive the car across the freeway, to a runaway truck ramp. Officer Jimenez followed us across the freeway to make sure we made it. We spent the night sleeping in the car alongside the runaway ramp. Luckily, there were no runaway trucks that night. Had there been, our car would have been sprayed with gravel, if not hit by a tractor-trailer truck. The next morning, we drained what was left of the car battery to charge phones for another round of calls. We slept well enough, but had almost no food with us, and only a small amount of water. In order to get any phone reception, we had to walk up the steep hill to the top of the runaway truck ramp. Once there, my wife called the Mercury number again. By then, we had been stranded for more than fourteen hours. Despite this, the roadside assistance representative had no information concerning our situation. Because of this, we had to spend precious time again giving her all the information she required. She was not satisfied with all the information we gave her concerning our location, although we gave her the mile marker, the number of miles to Klamath, and our location at a runaway truck ramp. She kept demanding more facts which we didn't have. She sent us the useless text link again. She seemed to be reading from a script, and did not seem to hear my wife when she offered specific information or suggestions. We were very clear with the rep that she would not be able to call us back if we lost the connection. My wife was on the phone with her for another 34 minutes, until about 9:20 am. Nothing was accomplished in that phone call either, except that the rep said we had coverage for 200 miles of towing. She said she would have to call us back, and was reminded that this would probably be impossible. While my wife  was on the phone with your rep, I contacted my friend who runs a transportation company. Right away, he offered to bring a car carrier and pick us up--a distance of 300 miles or more. I accepted, and we advised the Mercury rep that we would solve our own problems. Adams Transportation's invoice is attached. Your roadside assistance reps seemed unconcerned about our situation. They did not seem to sense any urgency, or take responsibility for getting us prompt help. They offered no empathy, no personality, no helpful suggestions and had almost no information about what our roadside assistance would cover. The whole experience was extremely disappointing. I am reevaluating my car insurance needs. I was with Geico from 1998 until I joined Mercury in 2017. I used Geico's emergency road service on several occasions for my older vehicles. Their reps had all my policy information at hand, were unfailingly friendly and helpful, and handled my emergency needs promptly. With no help from you, and no thanks to you, we are home safe and our car is in the shop. My wife and I are shocked and dismayed at the poor service received from you in our hour of need. I cannot imagine worse service in an emergency.

Worst insurance ever had, I suffered vandalism in my home they didn't cover damage, went I charged to other insurance I found they reported as claim so I pay higher price the person was very rude.

I was dealing with Mercury after my car was hit by one of their policyholders. Myrna West out of the Bridgewater office is extremely nasty and has NO people skills! It’s been 3 weeks no payment or rental car as of yet! Shameful part is I had never heard of Mercury insurance and was looking to get a quote after all was done. BTW so was my daughter. Now because of Myrna they lost two potential customers. I tried to call in and talk to a supervisor and that was not successful either! Mercury should be embarrassed by the Customer Service given out in NJ! I would never use and discourage anyone from using them !!