Deanna Grove acted unethically, unprofessionally, without authorization and significantly affected…read moremy insurance coverage, protection, costs, and credit.
Having been a client of Barker Uerlings Insurance, Corvallis, Oregon, for more than 20 years, I had been exceptionally pleased with the service from my original agent who, unfortunately died. I was then shifted to another agent, Vickie Carpenter, who provided less than acceptable service and attention. I requested another agent and was changed to Deanna Grove a couple of years ago. She has never made any attempt to meet with me, view my properties, or review my insurance other than argue and try to push additional insurance policies without any knowledge or understanding of my needs.
Recently, she arbitrarily took action affecting my policies, protection, liability and costs by changing the my policy and coverage on a property I own jointly with my son. We have had the exact same policy and coverage on this property for over 16 years and there was no reason to make a change, immediate or otherwise, without even an attempt at a phone call or email. She acted on erroneous information and did not bother to confirm, discuss options, or consider alternatives. She simply changed our coverage, costs, and policies and left us and our property without appropriate insurance and increased costs. Even though my son (and joint owner home owner and occupant) was also her client for his auto coverage, she did not make any attempt to contact him to discuss his options or notify him his home and belongings were no longer insured.
Late last year, I requested a review of my coverages, options, and other companies to consider. She put me off until closer to the renewal date in February but still did not act until I again requested a review in January. She then sent me a curt email saying she had reviewed other companies and MetLife offered the best rates without giving me even the names of the other companies or comparison coverages. When I asked for that information I found numerous errors on the requests for quotes she had submitted reflecting her lack of attention to details and incompetence. Between her delays and her being unavailable, the MetLife policy automatically renewed and was paid through escrow. To continue my coverage, I made payments for the auto portions.
When I discovered there were claims on my account that were not mine Ms Grove only wanted to argue instead of research and correct the errors. In 20 years, I have carried multiple home, income properties, autos, and business policies and only had one minor auto claim that was my fault. Premiums have always been paid in a timely manner. I have not been a problem client.
We were not willing to continue to deal with Ms Grove and had to find another agent who was authorized to represent MetLife. I had been pleased with MetLife and had no reason to change companies but found it impossible to find another agent willing to deal with MetLife especially after the annual commissions were already paid to Ms. Grove. MetLife would not deal with us directly. We ended up changing agents and companies resulting in lapse in coverages, duplicate payments, delayed refunds, higher costs, inspections, providing documentation to correct errors on my accounts, appeals, and hours and hours of frustrations over the last 5 months.
None of this was necessary and certainly not without an opportunity to discuss options in a reasonable timeline before any changes were made. Our new coverage is costing us each approximately $500 more a year for comparable coverages. Changing companies is now reflected in our insurance history and resulted in credit inquiries and notations on our credit reports. The time spent to resolve was overwhelming and frustrating.
Deanna Grove acted without authorization, without authority, and without ethics.
