Alan Chan – State Farm Insurance Agent

I’ve been with Alan for a couple years and just made my first claim recently (the real test to see if you get what you pay for).
The only agent I really dealt with in the office is Victor Bull. He was nothing but helpful when I was choosing a policy. So he was my first call when I saw that somebody STOLE MY BATTERY from my 2010 Prius.
Victor basically handled everything. And this was not a normal claim since it was an issue body shops can’t fix (went to the dealer). Any time I had a question I just called or emailed him and he got right back to me. He told me exactly what to do, gave me a status update, or just took care of the issue directly.
Ended up being $ 9000 of damage since they cut electrical cables and pretty much tore up the car to get the battery out. I felt ok about paying my $ 500 deductible because the service was perfect.
Alan definitely has quality people working for him. When it comes time for me to gets homeowner’s insurance or life insurance I know Victor Bull is my guy.

Our family has been insured with Alan Chan for over 30 years, and we’re very happy with the service and rates.
The staff is always friendly and helpful. Sally, our representative, is very customer-​focused and provides great service.
All claim-​related matters are resolved expeditiously.
We wouldn’t dream of being insured by anyone else!

I think I’ve had Alan and his dad as my insurance providers since I passed my driver’s exam, That’s over 30 years! I now have them covering all my home, property and auto needs.
Other than a fender bender when I was in college, i’ve never really had any major issues til the other day.
Last year I lightly tapped another car that unfortunately was driven by a personal injury lawyer. There was no visible damage to either car but a year later he claimed back problems and lost wages totaling $ 8k and took me to small claims court.
Fortunately Alan and his team were there to take more photos, help prepare me for the court date and provide a well documented brief. I was pretty sure that the plaintiff was asking for too much and wanted to settle for a middle ground, but I was still uncertain about the system, and it was my word against that of a powerful attorney.
The days up to the court date I was constantly in touch with the State Farm claims representative, Michelle King. She and a colleague were there to help me the day of the trial which was just nice to have from a comforting standpoint. Like the commercial says, «Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.»
Michelle knew the process and stood with me at the table in front of the judge. she and Alan had coached me through it all. The attorney (plaintiff) went first grossly exaggerating his injuries caused by a small bumper tap. Michelle just gave me a knowing look to let me know we were in charge and it was his burden of proof.
I went next and spoke for about 10 minutes and handed over the rest of the analysis to Michelle. Despite her youthful looks, she was in charge and stated facts that shot questions and holes in the plaintiffs argument and also allowed me to elaborate on other mistakes by the plaintiff.
After a few more questions from the judge, we were dismissed. Both Michelle and Brad from State Farm thought it went well. I couldn’t tell. I thought for sure he’d get something for his medication and doctor’s check up bill. (State Farm had offered to pay for that but he had rejected).
In the end the ruling was posted online yesterday and that guy didn’t get a single penny!!!
Thanks State Farm!
Ps — I have met Jake from State Farm and Alan and Michelle don’t sound hideous and don’t wear khakis.

I wanted to write about outstanding service that I have received from Alan Chan’s office over the last 7 years. Ever since I have lived in San Francisco, I have been under Alan’s care, and he has provided world-​class service and knowledge.
Alan always worked with me and coached me throughout many different ups and downs that I had with my car. He always had a tremendous amount of patience as I would usually have many questions for my evolving «car-​life».
As I had gone through many different situations — different moving violations, a few fender-​benders, moving out of the country, moving my car to the East Bay — Alan has been knowledgeable and supportive throughout the entire process.
The key quality he embodies is: service.
I am moving out of the state of California and therefore will unfortunately not be able to work with Alan any longer. I just hope that I can find an agent who is ½ as friendly, supportive, and knowledgeable as Alan.

I’ve never posted to Unilocal before, but based on the outstanding experience I’ve had with State Farm after switching over from Allstate, I decided to post this review.
Firstly, prior to switching over to State Farm, my experience at Allstate was pretty bad. I was a longtime and happy Progressive auto insurance customer and used Travelers to insure a rental property I own. Travelers stopped writing landlord’s policies in the state I own in, and Progressive doesn’t offer landlord’s policies at all, so I went to Allstate. Allstate’s premiums were sky high and their service was terrible. I was rear-​ended by another driver while idling at a stop-​light (no-​fault of mine), and Allstate’s service handling my claim (their own customer) was so bad that I had to work directly with the at-​fault driver’s insurance (Farmers) to get my situation handled properly. The Allstate people I was working with called me a few times to apologize, but did nothing to actually help the situation. The best help they had was to suggest I work directly with Farmers. The final straw was when I changed job locations and stopped driving to work and started taking mass transit. Getting Allstate to update my policy and recognize that I was no longer commuting to work was like pulling teeth, and I was still paying their sky high premiums as if I was a commuter while my car was sitting in the garage for weeks at a time.
I bought a second home, got engaged, needed ring insurance, life insurance, etc, and was definitely not going to expand my business with Allstate. I did a fair amount of research and found that State Farm was highly recommended and in particular Alan Chan’s agency in San Francisco. Matthew Machado was assigned to me, and it was off to the races.
It is rare that I get to work with someone in my professional career or personal life that completely ‘nails it’ the way that Matthew did in handling my insurance needs. I went with several policies for our two homes, our autos, an engagement ring, etc. From the start, Matthew listened carefully to all of my needs, and was very responsive, knowledgeable, thorough, and helpful. Any questions that I had, Matthew provided thorough responses very quickly. On top of that, he lowered our costs versus Allstate. When we did run into a few challenges with some of the coverages down the road, Matthew took the time to call me up, explain things in great detail, and went the extra mile to straighten things out as best he could.
I highly recommend Matthew and Alan at State Farm, and look forward to expanding my business with them in the future.

I have been working with Alan and his talented team for almost 5 years now. I recently contacted Alan to see if I could switch my plan to a lower mileage plan as I tend not to drive much during the year. I was happy to hear there were options to lower my rate and Victor, a member of Alan’s team was able to set up some face-​to-​face time for me to come into their new office and look at my current plan and how we could save me some money. Victor was tremendously helpful in going through my plan, and I was able to adjust it to fit my current needs. Alan came in and said hi, and thanked me for my business for all these years. It’s nice to be recognized as a loyal customer and to work with familiar faces any time I need help with State Farm. I feel comfortable contacting Alan or Victor, or really anyone in their office if I have any questions. Their office is in a convenient location for me which is another plus. The friendly attitude and helpfulness will keep me loyal to these guys for many years to come!

I’ve been with Alan since I moved to San Francisco in 2007. This review is long overdue, but I’ve always been very pleased with the services he and his office provides. The staff there is very responsive and respond to any questions I have in a timely manner.
Most recently I worked with his office to help secure event insurance for my upcoming wedding. I’ve never secured event insurance before, but he and his staff helped me understand what is needed and more importantly went above and beyond to find the most economical solution to getting this paperwork done. They spent time looking into my existing policies with them to figure out a solution, so I wouldn’t have to pay more for this out of pocket. It meant a lot that they went the extra mile and I can’t thank him enough for this. It just speaks to the level of service he and his office provides and I highly recommend him to anyone looking for an insurance agent.

I needed to find a new insurance agency for auto, condo unit and HOA policies. Matthew Machado is awesome. He contacted me right away and spent a lot of time explaining the procces and reasons why certain paperwork was needed. His approach was to make sure I made an informed decision about coverage rather than to pressure me into switching to his agency or electing excessive coverage. Thanks, Matthew and Alan!

I started working with Alan’s office when I needed new insurance after moving to SF over a year ago. His staff were helpful, the enrollment process was super easy, and I saved money over my previous competitors policy.
The real kicker was when I got cut off on my motorcycle last month and dropped my bike. Alan spoke with my directly and was genuinely concerned for my wellbeing. Since there was no direct collision it was a he-​said-​he-​said scenario but Alan helped me navigate the situation and was extremely supportive and helpful. He clearly outlined my options and the next steps we could take to get the best result.
It was extremely reassuring to know that he had my back and was there to help guide me through the process. It made a stressful situation much easier to handle and I really appreciate it. In the end the other guys insurance covered everything in full and my bike will be as good as new.
With that kind of personal attention, service, and support I’ll be sticking with Alan and his team for a long time.

I have been working with Alan for as long as I can remember. I first signed up with State Farm over 10 years ago to put a renters insurance policy in place, and as my life evolved so did my needs, and my husband and I now have homeowners, business, car, and life insurance with Alan and State Farm.
What has been great about working with Alan is that he is very hands on. He checks in and meets with us regularly to understand our needs as our lives change through the years, and feels more like a friend than just an insurance agent. Luckily I haven’t had many reasons to call him! However, I finally did have my first claim, and it has been a very easy process where Alan has personally reached out to me on multiple occasions to make sure I understood the steps that were needed to take and has made it as easy as possible to submit and resolve the situation. I highly recommend Alan and his team.

Alan and his staff (and before Alan, his dad George) have been my insurance brokers for more than 30 years. I wouldn’t stay with a broker for over three decades if I wasn’t satisfied. Alan has handled my auto, renter’s and, later, homeowner policies. Each time I got personalized attention. Alan always listens to your insurance needs and makes the best recommendations for your personal situation without overselling you insurance you don’t need. You couldn’t find a better broker.

I’ve had the pleasure of working with Alan and his office for nearly two decades. We met in the ‘90s when I needed car insurance, and since then Alan has helped me with homeowner’s, life, personal liability, and disability insurance. He’s great about checking in from time to time to update our policies (raise the coverage on our homeowner’s as building costs and land values have increased, increasing our life insurance after having (more) kids, etc.) without ever trying to oversell us with insurance we didn’t need. When we’ve needed to use our insurance, Alan has gone to bat for us with State Farm (unlike my former insurance broker who left me at the mercy of a horrific Farmer’s insurance adjuster).
Alan always takes calls when he’s in the office and returns email and voice mail messages right away. His staff is helpful and quickly provides us with duplicate insurance cards or copies of our policies when we need them.
Alan and his team have always provided us with the service and products we need — I only wish more businesses were like his!

We have (had) been clients of this office for the past three years. I had a great experience with State Farm when I lived in Seattle but in SF, not so much. After making repeated requests to go paperless (and being assured that we had) we continued to receive at least three pieces of mail from them per week. After we married, I had to call on three occasions to ask that my last name be updated on our account. Each time I was assured it had been, and yet every piece of mail showed my maiden name. Not to mention we would receive new Insurance Cards constantly. When our credit card on file expired, we were not notified for two months and the office was not sure if we were covered during that time.
When I called about some trouble I was having with the website to update our mileage info, the person on the other end legit responded, «We don’t really know how to use the website, you’ll have to call the 1 – 800 number». Seriously. Since we cancelled our policy, we have received at least 5 pieces of mail from them (in two weeks), and an email asking if we’d like them to bulk up our renter’s insurance. I’m not sure how much more clear we can be with them, but it’s strange (and obnoxious) the amount of contact we’re still receiving. Do not recommend.

My husband and I have several policies with Alan Chan, and he has been our agent for 9 years. I have always been impressed with Alan’s professionalism and ability to give us great advice on how to lower our rates. He has come to our home in Mountain View and reviewed our policies and put together a plan on how to save money, with some action steps and time lines. We were really impressed. When we had to make a claim due to storm damage, it was done quickly professionally and fairly. More importantly every time I call into the office for something the staff is amazing. No matter how difficult my request is, they are on it and get me what I need or resolve the issue quickly, but more importantly effortlessly. I am surprised by the one negative review, as that is not the office I know and have been with for the last 9 years.

When you have to do something as horrible as dealing with an insurance company, it’s great to have someone like Alan helping you do it. We’ve been with him for something like seven years and he’s always been incredibly responsive, straight foward, helpful, and very much on our side.
And on top of all the business of it, he’s just a really nice guy who genuinely cares.

Stay away from Alan Chan and his team. Stay far far away.
I made the unfortunate decision two years ago to use Alan based on his great Unilocal reviews. While I’ve never needed the coverage purchased, the process of dealing with his office has been miserable.
In the last two years I’ve been accidentally overcharged by $ 500 (they did refund the money after I initiated a charge back with Visa), they «forgot» to finalize the paperwork for my engagement ring insurance for 3 months, and now I keep trying to get my wifes last name changed on our insurance but no matter how many times I talk with a representative and am assured it’s «done» it’s never actually updated in their system.
Do you want to work really really hard for your renters insurance and not feel totally confident it’ll be there when you need it? If so Alan’s your man.

Alan Chan’s office is a stellar insurance group. They are very responsive and caring and help tremendously answering questions regarding all types of policies. Recently we had a claim and worked with Victor Bull on getting the claim resolved. Victor was extremely helpful, contacted various groups within State Farm to get status reports, and helped ease any of our concerns. We recently set up revised policies for Auto, a Personal Umbrella policy and Personal Articles Policies with Victor. It was an absoutle pleasure working with him to get everything set up. I highly recommend this agency. My family has been with them for decades.

I have done a lot of research on rates and State Farm had the lowest rates for my cars, life insurance and rental insurance. Not only do they have the best rates but they consistently have great customer service. They have a quick response time on all the questions that I have and were very patient. I was in a small fender bender years ago and the process was smooth and easy. Leslie Coquilla is my agent there and she and the entire staff are wonderful. Thanks State Farm!

We have been clients of Alan and before that — his Dad — for 25 plus years. Well there was a brief spurt where I tried to save money and went with a no name/​no office insurance (Wawanesa) that was based in San Diego. MISTAKE!!! I had been rear-​ended on the Highway 101 by an uninsured motorist and had severe pain running down my legs such that I needed chiropractic care. After about 7 weeks of chiropractic visits, Wawanesa started threatening that they weren’t going to reimburse me and insinuating that I was faking the pain.
Well, after a year of that nonsense, I crawled back to Alan and State Farm very appreciatively and have always had Alan as my advocate. We’ve had fender benders over the years — times when we were or weren’t at fault. It always went smoothly. Thanks to Alan and Shirley, his long-​time staff person.
I know State Farm isn’t the cheapest — but I’ve learned first hand that you get what you pay for.

I have been a long time client of Alan’s and cannot recommend both he and his staff highly enough.
We were recently unfortunate enough to have a flood in our home. We were very concerned the insurance company would try to avoid paying any costs they could. Thanks to Alan — and, in all fairness, State Farm in general — this was absolutely not the case. They treated us right. Period.
Alan is always ready to help with questions or concerns, patiently explaining options and never pushing. If service and a fair price are what you’re after, give Alan and his team a call. You will not be disappointed.