H.Q. La – State Farm Insurance Agent

Ugh, where do I start. I have had State Farm auto insurance for over 10 years, and never had a problem until I moved here from California 3 years ago and needed to register with Oregon. Since this office was a block away from my apartment, I naturally went with them due to convenience. And ever since, I’ve had countless complications and headaches due to their lack of organization.
Literally, countless. I kept track up until about last year having had at least 15+ major and minor technicality problems. Really, no joke. When I switched states, they somehow, for whatever reason, decided to complicate my account and change my birth year so there were two of me in their system. Then after taking them up on their offer for paperless/“Green” billing and automatic payments through my debit card, I would receive a piece of mail from State Farm in some way, shape or form WEEKLY. Then some flukey thing happened on their end with taking down my payment information correctly for the automatic monthly payments, and they tried to ding me for a late charge of some sort. That was the worst headache of all, and then I had the brilliant idea of signing up for renters insurance, which of course only complicated matters further with inconsistent bills going up or down a few dollars every month without any warning.
THEN I bought a house and now have homeowner’s insurance. I accessed my account online last night to change my contact information to my new address, because of course they didn’t pick up on the fact that I bought a house when I removed renters insurance and added homeowner’s and bother to change it on their end. So I answer all of the security questions to change my address, the change doesn’t even show online and still wants to keep my apartment address. THEN I get a phone call from them today saying that I tried to change my address online and they wanted to verify that it was me. Well, duh. First of all, if you’re going to go through the trouble of verifying my address then forego the security questions online, and second of all, connect the dots to homeowner’s insurance coverage! As if someone would want to take my identity for auto and mortgage insurance. I know there are pretty crazy people out there, but out of all the things for concern, I was surprised they called me about that.
On top of that, I get home today to an email bill notification that looks like they’re still charging me for renters insurance because it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than my homeowner’s insurance. When I specifically told them at least 3 times over the phone MONTHS ago that I will no longer be renting because I OWN A HOME NOW. What part about that is so hard to understand. I’m fed up and frustrated with having to deal with this stupid minuscule unorganized issues that take way too much of my time and are entirely their fault. I would think twice before contacting this particular office. I wish I had better things to say, but this is the truth and I highly advise you to go elsewhere.

I’ve had HQ as my insurance agent for over 2 years for both my personal and business insurance. During that time he’s been a phenomenal agent and I’ve had nothing but great experiences with him personally. He is a go-​getter and will do whatever he can to find me discounts and make my experience easy. He has always treated me as a very valued customer and friend. I highly recommend him to anyone for any type of insurance needed.
Tristan Hamberg
Refined Painting Services

Oh where do I start.
After numerous of phone calls with H.Q. Promises which have been broken and lack of organization by the people who run this office. Im regretfully writing this review.
Where to start:
I left Portland to move to California and decided to part ways with State Farm due to a much higher quote. I notified the State Farm agent in CA that I no longer wanted to be a part off State Farm, I had also notified State Farm over the phone to their accounts team AND to H.Q. on the 13^th of June 2014
5 months down the road looking at my bank records, I had noticed a recurring payment from State Farm in total of $ 622.22 for the past 5 months.
Furiously I called the after hours accounts team and they told me H.Q. HAD received a note on the 13^th of June 2014 to cancel my insurance. They had not done so. Accounts team then canceled my policy with them, but advised me to contact H.Q. to get a refund for $ 622.22.
I contacted H. Q that very morning and was talked to Matt over the phone. Who just could not understand the situation and the amount of times I had asked to be connected with the man in charge led me to multiple phone calls spanning over hours JUST to get on the phone with H.Q. Matt sometimes telling me he’s connecting the phone, then merges the call with another angry customer in the same boat as me! I called back to be told by Matt that H.Q. is unavailable. No reason why, nor did he even try to sort out my urgent matter of a refund.
State Farm has the ability to take money from mine (and your) account anytime it wants too, but a billion dollar company does not have the ability to recognize its own mistakes and for the love of customer satisfaction cannot cut a check and express mail a refund out to me. But can only mail the check to me.
After hours with Matt proving like another useless insurance robot who does not understand the meaning of going above and beyond for a customer. H.Q. lands on the phone. This is the first time me talked to him. and I must say he’s a wonderful guy to talk too. H.Q. promised he will dig into the matter further and have a result on the coming Monday. I accepted as he was polite. He called me on Monday and told me the situation and I agreed to work with him. He promised me a check would be mailed out to my California address which he wrote down and I should get it in the matter of a week.
A week later and no result. I called up the office again with H.Q. obviously nowhere to be seen. Speaking to a very temperamental woman named Sorcha Holmes who again, had no care or regard of a customer, proceed to dictate the policies of State Farm. After some drama on the phone call, she went ahead and called accounts which told her that they sent it to the WRONG address. Accounts then offered to direct deposit the money to me. Which I really don’t understand why they didn’t do that in the first place?!
Sorcha then told me to email her my account details and promised that State Farm can direct deposit the money for Tuesday November 11^th 2014.
Following me emailing her and apologizing for her being in the middle of this situation, she then tries to SCHOOL me about business ethics:
«I just hope that when circumstances outside of your control cause an issue for a client of yours that they respond in a more gracious, and respectful manner to you than you have responded to me.»
Then following her creeping on my LinkedIn profile seeing what I do for a living. Which I believe is invasion of customer privacy if I’m not correct?
Tuesday is here, and guess what, no direct deposit and not even a follow up from the man who always seems to be busy driving Lamborghini’s (He told me this on the phone) Mr. H.Q. LA.
I will be taking this matter into the media, not to mention I have friends who work for State Farms social media channels.
I don’t recommend this agent, you’re just going to add more stress in your life.
Cheers

I have been using HQ La for home and business insurance for over 5 years and I am a very satisfied customer. HQ stopped by my office, looked up at the ceiling and said, «Oh, you have sprinklers! That will save you money!» He is always quick to get me what I need especially in critical times like curing a home purchase. He found a creative way to get my fire insurance issues cleared up with a simple phone call. He does yearly reviews to make sure my accounts are set up right. Highly recommend him for business and home insurance. I always say HQ stands for «high quality!» (0:

I have had to call my agent a few times in the last year, mostly with questions. Now I need to make a claim. 50% of the time you get the answering machine during business hours and have to wait for a call back. I’m switching agents.

I like their rates. They’re very helpful and accommodating. I’ve had State Farm in the past and was looking for an agent in N/​NE Portland.
The agent on N Williams seems to have no interest in taking on new policies, though I would have tried him given the closer proximity to my home. I had been with Farmers near my house, and the agent was super nice, but in a kind of slimy way, and always trying to sell me something. When I compared rates with State farm, the sliminess was confirmed.
No issues have come up yet that require the activation of this particular insurance safety net I’m purchasing, but so far, I’m very happy with service from H Q La.

It is deeply troubling that my insurance agent cannot keep client information correctly organized.
It is deeply troubling that my insurance agent employs aggressive salesmen and appointment setters who use questionable tactics.
When I can find a better company, I will switch as quickly as possible.
That’s the gist of it. The dirty details are that I am tired of phone calls at all hours, as late as 10pm at home, with hard upsells on insurance I don’t need. For example, I do not own a vehicle, ergo I do not need auto insurance. One salesman suggested I purchase auto insurance ahead of time the way that people are pre-​approved before they buy a house. In what world does that make sense?
My polite requests to not receive these calls, or at least for them to be at reasonable hours have gone unheeded. What’s worse is that I am receiving calls for pretty much anyone named «Brandon» in their database. They have my phone numbers attached to other clients’ files. And despite repeated attempts, they have been unable (or unwilling?) to correct this information. What else do they have wrong?
The absolute worst was an appointment setter insisting I had to come into their office because there was something wrong with my account. I hung up, called the office directly, determined that there was in fact no problem. The office staff didn’t seem to understand why the setter’s behavior troubled me, and continued to employ this person (I received more calls from her).
So, State Farm, if you’re reading this, do something about this guy because you’re losing a customer.