Insurance Rates

Dear Farmers Insurance Group:

This note is to inform you that I will not be renewing my auto insurance policy with you, effective February 7, 2012.

The bill I recently received, for my six-month renewal, is $649.70. As I spent some time trying to wrap my head around this number, I did the math and discovered this is exactly 25% more than my previous bill. I did not understand at all how this could possibly be correct, so I called, and you indicated the rate increase was due to the fact that I had had a claim in 2010 and it (the consequences of the accident) had finally caught up with me. (Or words to that effect...)

Now, the claim I had in early 2010 (almost two full years ago!) was for a small fender-bender in my parking lot at work, and, yes, it was entirely my fault. However, my recollection is that this is the first claim I have ever had as a Farmers customer where the fault was mine. Yes, I have had comprehensive-coverage claims for cracked windshields and vandalized tires. And, yes, I once had a car totaled out, back in the 1980s, in the middle of the night (while I was upstairs in my house, sleeping) by a hit-and-run driver. BUT: I have not had an accident that was my fault since I’ve been insured by Farmers … and 

I started with you back in 1978.

Further, in all that time, I believe I have had only one moving violation: a speeding ticket in Lane County, Oregon, sometime in the late 1990s.

During our initial phone conversation about this rate increase, you offered to reduce my coverage limits so we could bring my premium payment into line with what it had been (up until now). At first, that seemed to be the way to go … but, really, I don’t WANT reduced coverage. I really desire some consideration as a long-standing Farmers customer, and to be assessed no penalty for having had one, yes one, accident in 34 years of continuous coverage (in Corvallis, Oregon; Bloomington, Indiana; Eugene, Oregon; Portland, Oregon; Roseburg, Oregon; and now, Larkspur, California).

But, after yet another consultation with you, Famers doesn’t seem to be able to offer me such consideration. I have now shopped around and AAA has written me a policy for the level of coverage I currently have with Farmers, for slightly less than I had paying with you. My new AAA policy is effective February 7 so you will not be receiving another premium payment from me for auto insurance. (My renter’s insurance will remain with Farmers, though I will be looking for other companies to ultimately fulfill that need as well.)

The question I leave you with is: am I not the kind of responsible person you WANT to be insuring?

Most respectfully yours,

TechnoMonk

Haiti

It hurts my eyes; it hurts my heart. It just simply hurts: watching even a small portion of the television coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti.

Last night, for example, CBS’s 60 Minutes had, as its lead story, a description of the 82nd Airborne Division’s efforts to rescue, feed and protect the victims. Included in the piece was the work of some physicians, from Doctors Without Borders, who were amputating limbs with rusty, unsterilized hacksaws – the only “surgical instruments” they had available. We also saw video of some of the thousands of bodies that were being scooped up and put into dump trucks in order to be transported away for burial in mass graves.

The scope of this disaster is unimaginable. I can look and listen, but I cannot comprehend. We’ve seen the tragedies of the Indonesian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina but, somehow, this feels like it’s in an entirely different universe of terrible.

I feel helpless, despairing, depressed. All I can do is send money. Which I did once. Then did again. I have given to Doctors Without Borders, but there are several organizations trying to help. There’s a list of them on the NBC website.

Roseburg Recycling

Dear Roseburg,

Yes, I know: I’m the new guy and maybe I should wait awhile before I offer you any specific suggestions about how to make this a better place. But I guess I just can’t help myself! Here’s my idea for the day.

Recycling. We can do better.

This is what I mean…

When I first moved into these apartments in mid-July, you’ll recall that I noted the dearth of recycling bins available. I was sure I was missing something. I mean, yes, I found the recycling bins; it’s just that there appeared to be only a very, very few, very, very small, garbage-can-size containers available to handle the recycling for about 150 apartments! How could that be?

Well, I found out. When I was at the Douglas County Fair last month, I had the opportunity to chat with the county employee who handles the local recycling. He let me know that the apartment complex is within the law (by basically doing the minimum allowable). Apparently they are obligated to provide a way to recycle, it’s just that there are no specifications regarding the scope or seriousness of the effort.

So, this is legal. Wow, too bad. I asked: so, how about if I want to recycle items on my own that aren’t accommodated by the inadequate apartment-complex bins? Where do I go, and how do I do that?

I knew there were a couple of recycling “centers” around town. I had found one of them when I wanted to recycle the newsprint packing-material from my move; this was a small, unattended facility in a parking lot, and I had stuffed the material into the bin marked “newspaper” there. I was somewhat mystified by the very modest nature of this place, but it handled what I needed it to at the time. I kept wondering where “recycling central” was, though. Surely, in this day and age, a city the size of Roseburg had more ambition than I was discovering!

However, I found out at the fair, not only was my path of discovery on track, but that it was really worse than I had imagined. For example, all recycling items need to be carefully sorted here (we’re still separating brown glass from green, for example), and then physically carted to one of the recycling places. Which, only a very small percentage of us here in Roseburg, or in Douglas County, actually do. There is no curbside recycling, with intermingling of items to be recycled. (Portland! I miss you!)