Dennis Keller – State Farm Insurance Agent

I have been a statefarm customer for years. I went to Dennis Keller to transfer 3 vehicles, a life insurance policy, an umbrella policy, and a renters policy from the west coast to Maine all to be paid out of the same bank account I had been using for years. I travel a lot for work and very rarely check my mail, and then only quickly. So I confess, my ultimate responsibility, that being said, that is also why I count on my insurance agent to be more than just my insurance sales-​man, I need someone that is going to be looking out for my best interest all the time. I need someone that I can call, tell them what I need and then be done with it. If there ever is a problem I need to be able to contact the agent, and then get the problem fixed ASAP.
Well, fail, fail and fail. The policies that I wanted transfered to Maine were all transfered, however, the payment method was set to «bill-​me» for everything except ONE of the three cars and the renters policy. So, I got bills like normal, and I got notifications of drafts pending like normal… all seeming kosher like the past 3 years I had been doing business with State Farm.
In the middle of one of my many trips for work, I get a call from a DK agent stating that I hadn’t been making payments for my UMBRELLA policy and that it was to be cancelled if I didn’t bring it up to date. I was shocked and told the DK agent that I should have the umbrella policy on auto-​pay, told her to fix it, and I gave her a CC to bring the policy up to date. I was a bit erked by this, and asked that Dennis Keller (himself-​I have never met him) give me a call. I received a call from a manager, but never Mr. Keller himself.
2 weeks later, I am back home and I go into the agency to speak to Mr. Keller about the SNAFU earlier and to add another vehicle to my policy… when I find out that not only did my umbrella policy get cancelled, but so did 2 of my 3 cars and my term-​life insurance policy. The agent made no mention of these other «details» when she had called earlier.
What was the nail in the coffin for me to steer people away from this agency was that they never took responsibility for their part of the SNAFU, nor was I ever able to speak to Mr. Keller.
Are there REALLY people out there that auto-​pay 1 of 3 cars and a renters policy but then mail a check in for 2 of 3 cars and their term life. Plus, it was already setup to all come out of the same bank account in my prior state… they were basically just changing my address.
So I asked them to «un-​screw» the mess, I was told that I would have to rewrite the auto-​policies as if I just came in the door (losing some long-​time customer discounts), I would have to pay my missed life insurance premiums (ridicules considering a claim obviously wasn’t being filed)…it was out of their hands because state-​farm was the one dictating the terms of the reinstatement.
Fine, I said let me talk to Dennis Keller, I want to know what he says.
I was only able to talk to a «manager», in my 6 months dealing with the Dennis Keller agency, I have never spoken to nor met the man. I’m not sure he really exists. I am pretty sure he doesn’t really «work» there.
I had to call my agent back in Washington to help me deal with state farm to unwind what Dennis Keller’s minions had done. Not surprisingly, after talking with state farm, Bruce (my old agent) was able to get almost everything put back to normal. The one car that could not be insured in Washington (physically located and registered in Maine) is now insured through a competitor.