MAPFRE Insular review: Mapfre's Service SUcks 11

Mapfre's service sucks. I wasted well over 2 hours on the phone to them trying to renew a car insurance policy, most of that time listening to computerized messages or phones ringing unanswered.

I phoned Mapfre because my wife didn't receive a renewal notice from them for her insurance. But several times I was transferred to the voicemail of Carolina López (who I later learned is a Mapfre agent, although I didn't know that at the time). However, I was phoning the Mapfre number, [protected].

Although I left 3 messages on Carolina López's voicemail, she didn't phone me back.

So I tried the free Mapfre number, 1 888 9 MAPFRE, listened to a computer for a while, chose an option, and the phone rang, and rang and rang. Then it rang some more. This happened at least 5 times, and no one picked up the phone in Mapfre's offices.

About the 6th time I spoke to Dania, at Mapfre. It seems that Mapfre have a training school that they send their staff to so that they can learn how not to listen to customers. Instead of listening to me she continuously interrupted me and kept on talking, instead of trying to find out what the problem was and solve it.

Eventually I received 2 quotations from her by email with different coverage, but even giving her my email address wasn't easy, as it took 3 or 4 attempts before she read it back to me correctly. I tried to talk to her in English first and then in Spanish, hoping that her Spanish was better than her English, but there was still a communication problem.

Then I spoke to Dania's supervisor, Monica, and discovered that she had the same attitude which is taught at the Mapfre training school to learn how to be rude to customers. Remember this was a Mapfre supervisor. She checked our full address, which Dania hadn't bothered to, and discovered that Mapfre had sent the renewal notice (or so Monica claimed) to the wrong apartment number, but she told me it was the customer's job to check all details on the policy papers. As far as Monica was concerned, it wasn't the job of the Mapfre employee who arranged the policy to write it down correctly in the first place.

Monica asked me where my wife took out the insurance, and I told her in the Mapfre office where she was, at 5959 Blue Lagoon Drive, #400, Miami, FL33126. She told me this was impossible because Mapfre didn't have an office open to the public at that address. We disagreed about this for a few minutes until she admitted that they would sell insurance to someone who turned up there. So why argue about it, and make me even more annoyed?

In addition, Monica contradicted herself, saying at different times that the policy was with an agency and also directly with Mapfre. Even though the policy was taken out at Mapfre's office, it appears that they had then passed it on to their agency, Mapfre Intermediaries, which is the name on the policy papers, although Mapfre Intermediaries is at the same address as Mapfre, 5959 Blue Lagoon Drive, #400, Miami, FL33126.

Monica eventually said that she objected to the way I was talking to her, and ended the call without resolving my complaint.

Every time I spoke to a different Mapfre employee I was asked for the policy number - more than once by each person - but this was another unnecessary irritation, as each time the policy was found easily enough using just my wife's name.

After phoning Mapfre I phoned another agency, where my wife had bought insurance previously, and got straight through to a human being, who emailed me quotations within minutes. He didn't need any policy number and had my email address in his records, as Mapfre should have had, too, because I'd emailed them previously.

When I mentioned the problems that I'd had contacting Mapfre by phone, he told me that if my wife wanted she could have the insurance transferred from the Mapfre agency to his, which is what I was going to suggest to her.

But in the end this wasn't necessary, as he obtained a price of $739 with another insurance company, compared with Mapfre's $941, cheaper than Mapfre's price 6 months ago, and a saving of more than 21% on Mapfre's current price. So not only are Mapfre incompetent and rude to customers, they're also much more expensive than the competition.

I phoned Mapfre one last time to complain to someone more senior, and eventually by sheer persistence managed to speak to Ana Machado, assistant to Mapfre's executive vice president in Miami, Stefan Jenson, and told her about the problems that I'd experienced with Mapfre's incredibly bad service.

Up till now I've received neither an email nor a phone call from the Mapfre executive vice president, Stefan Jenson, or from his assistant, Ana Machado.

So it doesn't seem that customers' complains bother them too much at Mapfre.