Thu, 27 Jan 2005

Humans Replacing Computers

My auto insurance company, 21st Century Insurance, has had a nice web site for quite a while which would allow customers to update their policies online. Last year, for example, I removed my wife's comprehensive and collision insurance since her car isn't worth much compared to the premium.

Today, I got my renewal notification email. The 6-month premium for our two cars is about $900. I only drive my car about one day per week now, and since we live two blocks from my wife's school, she drives less frequently than that. Therefore, it wouldn't be a catastrophe if one of our cars were totalled and we only had one car. So I'm thinking of dropping comprehensive and collision on my car which is costing me about $700 per year.

The 21st Century website has a nice interface where you can add and remove coverage, change deductibles, etc. and it will show you how much your premium would change. After you save your changes, they send you and updated policy and bill you or refund the difference. Today, I clicked on the Change Coverage button and got the following javascript pop-up.

So I had to start up the Live Chat applet to ask Patrick about my policy change and register my displeasure with the recent changes to his company's web site.



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The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else. - Frederic Bastiat