Liberty Mutual: “You only pay for what WE NEED.”

Background.

In December 2024, I received my renewal notices from Liberty Mutual, who handled my automobile and renters insurance policies. I was very unhappy with their skyrocketing premium rates, as well as their “the dog ate your homework” excuses for jacking up those rates.

I’m not paying for your commercials any more, Liberty Mutual.

So I cut them loose, and signed up with an independent insurance provider who found me a great policy with full coverage, at only one-third the price of my annual Liberty Mutual gouge. I told Liberty Mutual to cancel my coverages, and my new insurance company sent paperwork regarding same to Liberty Mutual.

That’s what you do. You follow these steps to transfer your insurance coverage. And then all is good.

Until yesterday.

Yesterday I received an auto-renewal notice from Liberty Mutual regarding my renters’ policy.

A renters’ policy that should have been cancelled LAST YEAR.

Are you serious? What are you running here, a timeshare operation?

I called Liberty Mutual. And after fifteen frustrating minutes of navigating their automated phone maze, I finally reached what I thought was a living, breathing human. Or at least he sorta sounded like one, because it was more like me talking to someone who had to read off of a pre-prepared script of “If customer says A, read 1. If customer says B, read 2.”

“I cancelled all your policies with me last December.”

“We don’t have any paperwork stating you cancelled. And if we don’t have the documentation, then you’re still with our policy. We’re expecting your payment to renew your renters’ policy soon. Thank you for contacting Liberty Mutual.” (click)

Oh, we’re going to do that now?

Trust me. We’re five steps away from emu-cide.

Another call to Liberty Mutual. Another run through the phone jail. Another customer support person.

“Well, Mr. Miller, since you CLAIM to have cancelled your policy back in December, the fact that you’re calling us today means that we can’t cancel your policy because it’s 30 days past the time you claimed you cancelled it.”

Say what? What kind of Liberty-Biberty-Babble are you spouting here?

“If you DID cancel your policy, you need to contact your current policy holder and have them send over documentation. Then we’ll take five to seven business days to review it, and if we feel that it is accurate, then we can cancel your policy retroactive to your claimed date of cancellation.”

Yep. Typical corporate horseshit. If you want something done from a corporation, they have to take X to XXX “business days” to do anything, while if they want you to pay them for something, you have to jump up, genuflect three times, and pay within 15 minutes, or your email will get spammed with nastygrams.

I can’t deal with this.

So I contacted my current independent insurance broker. And let me say this. My independent insurance broker looked over her original notes when I opened the policies, and found the original documentation of cancellation – along with the dates that she sent this information to Liberty Mutual. In other words, my independent insurance agent did everything by the book, to the letter and on the point. And even with all that, Liberty Mutual cancelled the auto policy I held with them – but somehow didn’t cancel the renters’ policy. Which meant I was paying for TWO coverages at once.

Look, I have some expensive cameras and some precious treasures in my home, but that doesn’t mean I need TWO insurance policies to cover damage or loss. That’s some serious Fred MacMurray / Barbara Stanwyck “Double Indemnity” vibes right there.

A few minutes later, my independent insurance agent re-e-mailed Liberty Mutual with the cancellation information, and carbon-copied me on the correspondence.

Now I have to wait five to seven “business days” for Liberty Mutual to get their emu-head out of the sand and take care of things.

Ugh.

And you KNOW this is my future garden of millstones. Corporations sending me “terms of service changes” and “updates to our user agreement” notices where they either charge me extra for something I currently get for free, or remove services that I count on for their products. It’s the endemic “streamflation” charged by all those streaming video services, where you either pay the same rate and get commercial interruptions, or you pay additional bumps to keep what you have.

That kind of stuff.

Or my health insurance company now suddenly saying to me, “We don’t offer health insurance for this part of your body any more.” Because, yeah, you need a separate rider for vision coverage or dental coverage, because Heaven forbid you actually use your eyes or your teeth for something like, oh I don’t know, SEEING OR CHEWING?

So until Liberty Mutual finally figures out that I’m no longer one of their customers, and that I left their company A FREAKIN’ YEAR AGO, and they refund the money claimed for the coverage I never requested …

I’m just going to speculate that this whole mess was one of two things.

1. Liberty Mutual goofed up and didn’t cancel when they should have, and now that it’s brought to their attention, they will rectify their mistake.
2. Liberty Mutual knew damn well that I cancelled, and they just said, “Nah, pay us anyway.”

Yeah. All of that. So let’s see if this gets straightened out IN MY LIFETIME.

Cue the goony Liberty Mutual jingle.

Liberty, Liberty, Liberty …

Liberty …