Commerce and Industry Insurance Company

I was hit from behind on the expressway in stop and go traffic. Because traffic was slow neither myself nor the other driver were injured. My car however was badly damaged. Mapfre handled my claim quickly and professionally. I was able to drop off my car at a recommended body shop, pick up my rental and be on my way. The repair time was about 5 days. Everything was covered and I dropped off the rental to the body shop when my car was ready. The whole press was stress free

So after years of procrastinating, I took an hour to shop Clearsurance to check the market to see whether my car insurance rate was market competitive. Very long story short, I shopped quotes from Liberty Mutual, AARP Hartford, and Progressive. All three companies quoted me rates that amounted to at least 50% savings for the four vehicles insured in my family's household. I've been with Commerce Mapfre for almost ten years through a local agency, salt marsh Insurance and recently received a notification that my annual premiums would be going up to $6,000 annual. That prompted me to shop the market and I'm glad that I did. Liberty and AARP Hartford both came back with much better rates than Commerce Mapfre but Progressive beat them all and it was the most seamless online shopping experience. I was able to do it all online and pay through Apple Pay. The end result: $2,500 annual premium with the same, and even better bodily injury coverage (250k/500k vs. 100k/300k with Commerce). I'm actually stunned that an hour of my time, and switching to Progressive (and Hagerty for an older VW), resulted in $3,500 in savings. If you live in Massachusetts and use a local agent that has you with Commerce Mapfre, I would strongly suggest that you check the market to see what you can save. I feel as though Commerce Mapfre took advantage of my loyalty and there were no recent accidents or violations to justify an increase, never mind the outrageous $6,000 in annual premiums. Really I'm more disappointed in myself for not checking the market years ago knowing full well that agents get paid more commission the higher your premium but really don't feel like Saltmarsh did me right as a decade long customer. It's no wonder that progressive is eating everyone else's lunch in the car insurance market place (great prices, easy, straight through digital user experience = the Amazon of Car Insurance. Progressive has really created an easy button for car insurance.

Mapfre is the WORST. They operate unethically, lie, double talk, ignore emails, value cars in a vacuum. The WORST customer service I have ever seen. I was hit and the other driver was at fault. The other driver was insured by Mapfre too. What a [Redact Word]. They are so dishonest in their dealings. I was lied to repeatedly. For a month plus I’m told there is no police report so I finally call the officer and he tells me that the accident report was filed 2 days after the accident. I call Mapfre up and they still insist it’s still not available. Their tune changed quickly once I told them I had spoken with the officer and he was expecting a call from them. They can’t pay out anything because liability hasn’t been “established”. This is after one of a half dozen people I spoke to told me the other driver had already accepted responsibility in the first week and the police report was available to them (I assume they had it but it’s just a tactic to not pay). Then I’m told they can’t pay out until they finalize expenses. They were waiting on the medical bills for the guy that hit me to be finalized. What does that have to do with my loss? When it came time to value the car it was another mess. The original appraiser said $14k. Once the body shop spent 30 minutes on it went to $24k. They proceed to offer me about $10k less than what the car is worth. They arbitrarily decide that ALL the comps were in better condition than my car and dinged me against all their values with a flat “charge”. They didn’t see any of the comps. One of the comps had 2X the mileage yet was in better shape than mine. They wouldn’t explain that. They adjust your value downward at $0.282 / mile if you have more miles than the comp yet you only get $0.193 if your mileage is lower than the comp. How is that possible? Shouldn’t that be illegal? They “weight” the various ways they do the comps yet they don’t do it on a 100%. They had 155% in total weight and then brought it back down pushing even higher % to the lowest methodology. They make NO EFFORT to correctly value the car. My car had many options that don’t exists in the KBB or NADA tools so they don’t give you ANY value for them. Effectively they found an “equivalent” car that had an MSRP of $55k and said it was the same as mine that had an MSRP of $77k. They are very simple. They have a tool to “value” and they have no ability to use professional judgment and go outside the script and use some common sense. No amount of real world comps will convince them otherwise…..”I am robot….cannot think…must not think”…..”I do not care what these real listings say….there is no box on my forms to click for these options so you do not have them…..” I had to fight tooth and nail to get them to move up $6k then I finally get another weak response saying…”too bad…if you don’t like it spend more time, energy, stress and dollars and fight us through arbitration or take us to court”. I’ve been a customer for 18 years. I wasn’t even at fault. They were basically saying you should be thankful you are getting anything. I was also stranded on the side of a highway. Taxis were not allowed to pick you up. Uber wouldn’t pick me up. Car rental companies would not pick you up so I had a friend come and get me. He drove 7 hours. I paid him out of my pocket for his “mileage” and babysitter. Do you think Mapfre would cough up a $1? Hell no. You “don’t have a receipt” was all they could say. More talking from a script vs. being understanding/logical about a situation. They are all complete scumbags. If I’d taken a taxi/Uber/or car rental we would have paid out they said. I tried to explain how I couldn’t….and they couldn’t care less…I can almost see their snickers and smiles when they found another way to deny payment. They treat you with disdain. Calls go unanswered. Emails go unanswered. I’m certain if I didn’t do all the follow-up they never would have made an effort to close the claim. I can’t believe they are still allowed in the market.