Rider Insurance, or How To Fail At Customer Service By Arguing Over $1.65

When Tara and I recently purchased our new [to us] motorcycle, we opted to be signed up at the dealership for insurance. We were quoted a price of $162 for a year of full liability coverage, and the salesman assured us that going with this company, Rider Insurance, was the way to go. He signed us up online for the policy, we paid our premium, and, thus, it began.

The policy was written with myself as the primary and Tara as a secondary rider. Within a week, I received two insurance cards, both in my name, and both with the same bike listed. They were identical, all the way down to the VIN. I called up Rider Insurance to ask why in the world I would need two cards, while Tara, however, would need none, and to experience what their website promises, "affordable motorcycle insurance and great service with no hassles."

Some informational background: Rider Insurance, based in Springfield, New Jersey, was founded in 1971 by Harry R. Bleiwise. A passionate motorcycle rider himself, he sought to bring the same atmosphere of friendship and loyalty to insurance. Since its founding, Rider has grown to service not only New Jersey, but Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia. While still serving as Chairman, Mr. Bleiwise now has his permanent address in Boca Raton, Florida.

The first person I spoke with was a gentleman by the name of Evans Bierre (or Pierre?). I explained my issue, only to find out that the real issue was not that I had two cards, but that I had been signed up for a policy with two bikes, both sharing the same VIN. How this could happen, I do not know.* He said he could go ahead and submit to have the second bike removed, and quoted me the change in price. I then asked about adding Tara as the secondary driver. He said that she was already on there, but that she wouldn't receive her own card. I asked if he could provide me with any documentation showing that she was, in fact, insured by this policy. He refused. Then he begrudgingly admitted that Tara need not be on my policy at all. It seems that as long as she and I live under the same roof, she is fully insured under my policy as long as I have given her my permission to ride the motorcycle. He resisted my urgings to go ahead and note my permanent permission. He said I would be receiving a reimbursement of $102.00, but he would need to submit one change today and the other the following day, so he would go ahead and give a call to confirm everything once he had finished all the changes.

This call remained calm, for the most part. He was hesitant to give me some of the information I was looking for, especially in regards to Tara already being covered by my sole coverage, but for the most part, it was fine.

The next day, I receive a voicemail from Evans stating that he has gone ahead and processed the changes, and I will be receiving a refund check in the amount of $73.35. This upset me. Now for some math!

If the base policy for Me, Tara, and the same bike twice equals $165 (including 10% multi-vehicle discount), then without the 10% discount we're at $180. Taking off one bike leaves the policy for the two of us at $90. Taking Tara away means that my policy should be roughly $45.

This is ignoring the fact that Tara is under 25, meaning insuring her is more expensive than insuring me. If we take that into consideration, then the premium drops even lower. Even pro-rating the week's worth of insurance Tara had had by that point totalled only about ninety-six cents.

And so I was understandably confused (and, admittedly, aggravated) at having to call back again. This time, calling during the 30 minutes I had for lunch, I spoke with Blanche. She was kind, and I was kind in return. I explained the situation, the assurance of $102, and that all I was looking for was a reimbursement of that amount. Blanche explained that the amount I was getting back was correct. After a great deal of pushing, she said she could go as high as $100.35. While closer to my goal, it was still short of what I had been promised. As she 'haggled' with me over how much of my money she would be willing to give back, I asked her for some hard figures, because, frankly, the math wasn't adding up. She quoted me a price of $60 for my policy alone, and Tara's at $135. That's not a mis-type. She said that the breakdown of our $160 combined policy was $60 for me and $135 for Tara. I refused to budge, becoming more and more aggitated as the call progressed from the thirty minutes I had allotted to me for lunch, and into the fifteen minutes I had allotted for my break later. Increasingly frustrated with the lack of answers and the fly-by-night mathematics being employed, I gave her three options:

1. Refund me the $102 originally promised.
2. Refund me the $135 quoted for Tara's policy.
3. Refund me the entire policy of $165.

Prior in the conversation she had told me that her supervisor, Tracey, was not available. I said let's go higher, but Yolanda, Tracey's supervisor, wasn't available. She tried to tell me that, because this policy began at the dealership, "I'm going to need to transfer you over to our Dealership group". I refused, explaining that I have nothing to do with the dealership and that my business with them ended when I drove my bike off of their lot. If Rider Insurance has an issue with the dealership, they can call them and request reimbursement for the the $1.65 they're now trying to withhold from me, but I refuse to go over all of this again. At this point though, in response to the ultimatem and the possibility of a cancelled policy, she said "Can I put you on hold and get a supervisor?" I agreed, but only on the terms that I be on hold for less than 2 minutes, having already spent upwards of 10 minutes on hold during this 40 minute conversation. After 5 minutes on hold, I terminated the call and called back. I don't remember who I got, but after demanding to be transferred to a supervisor and being on hold for an additional few minutes, I terminated the call again. Calling back again, I reached Evans. My buddy, my pal, the man who had started this mess of a customer service nightmare. The first words I told him were "Do not put me on hold or I will cancel my policy". I then explained that I was angry and frustrated with the company after spending far too much time on the phone with Blanche. In response, he said "Hold on" and put me on hold. When he came back, he argued that violating my wishes to not be put on hold was necessary to get the story from Blanche. I told him that he had quoted me $102.00, that I demanded one of the three options listed above, and that I wanted a response now. He said that Blanche had gone to run it past the supervisor in Dealership, Odalys, and that he would have her call me back with a response. I gave him Tara's number and my wish that she call Tara first (so Tara could either demand the full amount or implement the cancellation of our policy) and then call and leave a message for me.

I was fuming. An hour or so later I received a message from Odalys stating that I would be receiving the full $102.00 back and apologizing for any problems I had experienced. She had failed to call Tara first, but I let it slide.

And then I began the waiting game. Either Blanche or Evans had stated that it would take 3-4 weeks to receive my refund. So I waited. And waited. And waited.

Two days ago was four weeks.

Yesterday I called. I began by trying to reach Odalys, who had been so kind as to leave me a message before, but only got voicemail at her extension. I tried the main number and spoke with Kay, who haughtily told me that refunds actually take 30 to 45 days to process, but that mine *cheerfully* was ordered to be processed yesterday! She coughed, then contiued. That means it could go out today, tomorrow, or even Monday. I asked why it should take so long, especially given that it was their error. She coughed and snapped, "Will you hold on a minute? I have to get a drink of water" and put me on hold before I could reply. Upon her return, she said that it was just company policy. A manager could have fast-tracked it to go out sooner, but they didn't. In fact, she pointed out, the change wasn't even inputted into the system until the 10th, despite the assurance from Odalys on the 5th of November that I would be getting the $102.00 back. So I asked Kay for some names. She told me that the company is made up of two departments, Customer Service and Dealership. Kay, Blanche, and Evans (as well as Ianda, who I spoke with later) are all the ground-level employees for Customer Service. Tracey is a supervisor in Customer Service. Yolanda is the manager of Customer Service. Yolanda's equal on the Dealership side is Odalys. Above them is the director Diane Karpinski, and beyond her is the president Lauren Belfiore. The company is owned by Harry Bleiwise, but apparently he has little to do with the day-to-day operations. When I began asking for extensions and email addresses, Kay became nervous and said she would have to confer with a manager. Again, against my wishes, she put me on hold. This time, I hung up. I called back and reached Ianda (pronounced EE-anda), who I presumptuously mistook for Yolanda, thinking that I had finally, through some chance encounter with serendipity, reached a person of importance. She, too, refused to give me extensions or email addresses, putting me on hold. But this time there was music, so I decided to give it a chance. Lo and behold, a few minutes later, I had reached the mythical Odalys.

She recalled my situation and expressed some kindness regarding everything. I expressed the main points of my mission: to find the contact info of the people in charge, to find out how two bikes with the same VIN could be added to a single policy, and, of course, to get down to the rock bottom truth about what exactly was taking my refund so long to arrive. The refund had been ordered, she explained, pointing out that it was just company policy to wait 30-45 days. I failed to ask why it hadn't been deemed a top-priority, and she, understandably, failed to point out that rushing it could have ever been an option. She had no answer for the VIN problem either. She stated that it was just human error, and we all make mistakes sometimes. I responded that it seemed like it was human error on the side of the dealership, but that we had been assured at that time (as well as on the phone with Kay) that upon receipt of a policy via the internet, it would be looked at by an underwriter (who Kay had said could be individually identified). She stated that online policies were automatically entered into the system without any sort of perusal, and that no such fail-safes existed. As I tired of her ceaseless excuses and her annoying habit of changing the subject whenever presented with a question she couldn't/wouldn't answer, I focused back to trying to complete my "family tree" of the hierarchy of Rider Insurance. She refused to give me any email addresses or telephone extensions other than her own (odecicco@ridewithrider.com and *228), only going so far as to confirm the [what turned out to be a mis-] spelling of "Belfiore". She was hesitant to even give me her email address, later stating that she had broken company protocol by sharing it with me, although she then, confusingly, stated that company policy with regards to a complaint was to request the complaint in writing, either mailed or via e-mail. She said I could email her any complaints I had and that she would forward them along to the higher-ups. I pointed out that, due to this particular conversation and my dissatisfaction with the forseen results, the possibility existed that it would be critical of her as well, and asked her point-blank whether she would be editing my letter for content, or even grammar, before passing it on. She said "I can't say either way", refusing to guarantee that my complaint would reach her superiors unadulterated. I responded that I, understandably, was not comfortable with this scenario and that I would prefer to get in touch with them personally, without being forced to go through a biased middleman. She repeatedly refused, unconvincingly backtracking to say that she wouldn't edit my correspondence. I again expressed my discomfort and she refused any other options.

In the meantime, having grown bored with the unending back-and-forth and repeated circular arguments I was being forced into, I began checking out Facebook. On a whim I searched "Odalys DeCicco", finding who I can only assume was the person on the other end of the line. I told her that I was on there and asked if this was her picture, with the black hat and the silver necklace. She said she didn't remember what image she had chosen to serve as her image to general public. Feeling confident that I did have the correct person (based on her own admission of the uniqueness of her name, and later confirmed by her membership as a fan of the "Rider Insurance" Facebook page), I pointed out that her close-up photo had been cropped in such a way as to also showcase another female's cleavage directly behind her (image below). She said she was not comfortable with the turn the conversation had taken. I apologized and we ended the call shortly thereafter.

So here we are a month after we began. I'm still waiting for my refund. I've spent hours on the phone dealing with a company whose Customer Service Department is painfully ineffectual and doesn't even have a system for handling complaints. They refuse to allow contact to their upper management, fail to give consistent responses to questions, and seem to make up and subsequently break company rules to serve their own purposes. It's been terrible. I want to cancel my policy, but by considering how hard it has been to get them to give me a refund so far, I feel like trying to get the rest of my money back would be an effort in futility, so I shall simply carry my policy until it expires, maximizing on all opportunities to take advantage of the services offered. Perhaps they will even succeed in keeping me around by finding a way to make ammends for the hours of anger, frustration, and time wasted. But in keeping with Rider Insurance's philosophy of friendship and loyalty, I have taken what information (however correct or incorrect) I have received and I have compiled this [possibly] helpful little guide to recognizing and reaching your friendly Rider Insurance staff:

The email addresses other than Odalys' were guessed based on the format I found for other employees, [first initial][last name]@ridewithrider.com. There also seems to be a format for the phone extensions: 21x for the higher-ups, 22x for the Customer Service, and 24x for Dealership, although another employee mentioned that the organization isn't quite so rigid.

* This is a vehicle insurance company. Each policy is going to have, at the very least, a person and a vehicle. Doesn't it seem like the most basic rule of thumb for these policies would be "Don't allow either the same person nor the same vehicle to be listed twice". Example:

1. Person A with Vehicle X - OKAY!
2. Person A and Person A with Vehicle X - NO!
3. Person A with Vehicle X and Vehicle X - NO!

I understand that once you get to the point where you're insuring multiple people for the same vehicle (which apparently isn't necessary, either) or multiple vehicles to one person it can all get a little convoluted, but shouldn't there be some sort of fail-safe? "If [VIN] = [VIN]: Reject"?


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Sources:
* http://www.state.nj.us/dobi/division_insurance/solvency/finexam_rpt34509rider.pdf
* http://www.insurancenetworking.com/issues/2008_63/insurance_technology_business_analytics_data_management-12591-1.html?pg=2
* http://www.ridewithrider.com/