Farmers Agents/21st Century

[txagt39]

If you are a Farmers agent do you know how the 21st Century deal works? You are forbidden to solicit an existing 21st Century auto client, ok sounds reasonable. Until...you understand that 21stCentury is ready, willing, and more than happy to steal your existing Farmers auto client. Farmers has no problem with 21st Century picking off your accounts, one by one with deceptive trade practices. Call them and get a quote for yourself, see what you get. Here's what I got. I called and they told me they were cheaper because they eliminate the middleman (the low life agent), then they give you prices based on the coverage you indicate you want. When it's considerably cheaper you go what the heck, right? Ok, keep following me... Today I got an email rehashing the coverage and price hounding me to write the account. Funny thing is what they show as coverage that was quoted is NOTHING like what I had asked for during the phone process. When I edited the quote to match what I asked for from the begining, their rates actually came up with was $75 for 6 month term higher than my Farmers policy.

So they totally misrepresented the coverage they were quoting, they are ready to steal your existing business with Farmers blessing, and they have Farmers brand smeared all over their phone greeting and email solicitations which I've now gotten 3 of since yesterday.

Now, here's the best of all. When the quote is not taken they will send it out as a Quote Not Taken to a Farmers agent to try to write the account. Keep in mind that I already disclosed to them that I am already with Farmers Insurance so when they send this Quote Not Taken lead to an agent, it will not be the same agent that already has the account in their book of business.

So if you are a Farmers agent you are fighting every competitor with a license to sell, you're fighting 21st Century which is a wholly owned subsidiary of your company who mandates loyalty to them and promises termination if you write outside business, and you have to contend with other Farmers agents contacting your existing customer...what is wrong with this picture????? If you doubt what I'm telling you, give it a try, call 21st Century at 800-493-9489 and taste the sales pitch they put on you, you can't wash it off with soap and water.

Then wait for your email, see if the coverage they quote you on paper matches what they quote you on the phone. Perhaps my quote was a fluke but one must wonder when there are very few ethics involved in this partnership.

Meanwhile, sit back and watch your PIF dwindle and with that so goes your opportunities for achievement clubs, profitability bonus, and contract value. I'm sure it's totally accidental.

 

[ewilkins]

Yep that is the new business modle

Hey Dizzy, I came across your answer when conducting a search on "21st Century." The agent I work for has provided me with 21st Century leads to work. Do you know anything about them? Apparently they are free for Farmers agents and producers. Have you worked them and if so, have you had any luck?

 

[xrac]

Why would anyone want to work for Farmers.

 

[PaperHanger]

A 21st Century Employee's Perspective

I used to work in the corp office for AIG Agency (Auto Ins) in the software dept.

AIG had already aquired 21st Century, they were absorbed into the AIG Direct Auto line of biz (not my division).

Then in the AIG downfall, we were aquired by Farmers, which then was absorbed by Zurich/21st Century, and bottom line, now MY division was label first 'Farmers' and then '21st Century' in the matter of a couple months.

I was told I would still technically be employeed by AIG until the end of 2009, but I was going to be laid off by then.

However, for about 3 months my department was placed under a 21st Century director based out of Woodland Hills CA, even though I was technically still an AIG NY employee.

They totally cut out overtime (about $25k of my salary), but since we were still doing software builds (after 7pm PST) which had me on the phone for 4 hours a night from 10pm - 1am EST about 2-3 nights a week, I still had to work the hours that used to give me all that OT.

My 21st director said "NO Overtime" so I couldn't work over 40hrs a week. So I just continued about my normal habbits until I reached 40hrs, then I packed up and left....be it Friday at noon, or the end of Thursday.

The Director found out about that, had a conf call and said "NO" we must come in late *the day after* a production push, we cannot keep accruing our hours until the end of the week.
BS#1.
(so I had to start working a bunch of 4 hr days in the office in the middle of the week, because of the production call the night before. We were very busy so I had to take my lunch at my desk to get all my work done in those 4 hrs.)

Then, one fine friday afternoon came, and I was asked to work on the weekend. I said sounds like OT was approved huh? No! Told me NOT to write the hours on my timesheet, and then "we'll see if there's 40 hrs of work for you next week, and make it up then"
BS#2.
(I promptly went to HR, they said no way you can't do that, so I didn't do it)

A few weeks later, another request for the exact same thing. I told them no, the week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, if I work over 40hrs it is federal law you pay me OT. I went to HR and told them for the 2nd time, and by the way, why didn't you look into my prior complaint, why is this director still doing this??

The next monday the HR director came by my desk, asked me into the 'team leads' office (who was a contractor anyway) and have a confrence call with the 21st century director. I assumed my AIG HR director was going to rip the 21st director a new a-hole, and I took with me printed copies of the AIG Employee Handbook, and Code of Conduct. (Remember, I am still technically employeed by AIG, the merger is not official)

I sat down and instead of my HR director laying into her, SHE began by saying "It's come to my attention that you are not taking you 1 hour for lunch....it is company policy that non-exempt salried employees must take 1 hr for lunch, required away from your desk, preferably completely off campus. In addition you get two 15min breaks. One has to be before lunch, the other after lunch...they cannot be combined with lunch to extend the lunch period, they cannot be combined with your arrival or departure, so you can't come in late or leave early. IF you go to the bathroom, that is counted as a 15 min break, even if it only takes 5 mins, you cannot take three 5 min bathroom breaks and count that as 1 break...blah blah blah...very very detailed etc...

So I cut her off, and asked "What page are you reading from?"

**GASP***What what whaaatttt????" she said.

"I am holding in my hands the AIG Employee Handbook, the AIG Code of Conduct, and a few other docs from the HR site about overtime and working after hours....what DOCUMENT and what PAGE are you READING from???"

GAAASSSSPPPPPP "I - AM - YOUR - DIRECTOR!!!!!!"

"Umm, ok...so what page are you reading from"

GAAAASSSSPPPP "THIS _ IS _ C_O_M_P_A_N_Y_ POLICY"

"I understand you say it is company policy....#1 Which Company's Policy and #2-where is it printed so I can read it, understand it, and ensure I do not violate it. I am still an AIG employee, I'm holding AIG documents, and I don't see ANY of what you are saying anywhere"

Then my AIG HR director actually tells me "It's state law, you must take 1 hour for lunch"

WTF? BS#infinity. "What LAW? What is the statute number? Is it a misdemenor or felony???"
He said he didn't know, but I could call the state department of labor.

I said I want him to send me the law, and for her to send me in writing this policy....and BTW what ever happened with my complaint, she asked me to work OT on the weekend and not record it...my HR director said he had not addressed this issue as of yet (go figure)

So after this meeting, I went to my desk, called GA DOL legal dept, confirmed that this was not GA law....emailed the HR director before he could get back to his desk.

Then I received an email from the 21st director which simply stated "Per our conversation, you must take 1 hour from lunch away from your desk" period.

So from then on, I arrived at work at 11am, went to lunch from 12-2pm, went to work out in the onsite gym from 3-4, and then left right after the team lead at about 4:30pm. I commited myself to NOT being in that damn place for more than 3 hours a day....and I also started being 'not available' for the production calls at night...I said if I can't get OT then let an exempt "Senior" person get on that call.

I found out that 21st in CA and AIG Direct in DE, those non-exempt OT employees had to email their manager 1)Upon arriving 2) taking a break 3) returning from break 4) going to lunch 5)return from lunch 6)go on next break 7)return from that break 8)upon leaving for the day.
R U Effing Kidding ME?!?!?! The company line was "we have to have a proceedure in place to prevent OT. But in fact, this was used to discredit employees on their annual reviews, for being 6 mins late here, and there....because all these emails had time/date stamps...

Then, the day before I was to be laid off, I had an outpatient surgury I had been putting off, sat on short term disability for 4 weeks...this extended my termination date as well as benefits, and thus money I could get from them. I also did not do 1 ounce of honest work for that entire time...there was alot of project estimates that I totally overestimated, which got all of the projects declined , I even pinged the HR Director once a week with an email "GA DOL said there is no law requireing an employee to take 1hr lunch...what is your responce?" and he never ever replied back..etc etc etc....I burned those bastards as much as I could before I left there.

My time with AIG was pretty good, and I actually wish I still worked there, they had 401k match, employee stock discount, PENSION!!! Not to mention a pretty good salary plus a very good OT $$$.

21st Century totally ruined it all...that place was pure evil, as black as pitch...it's not just their agents treated badly, it's also their employees....I would not recomend anyone to work their as an employee or agent....unless you're planning a really good burn...lol...



At my current software job, when i'm asked to work OT, I simply said "Sorry I can't, kids and all" and I go knock on some doors, sell a few policies....much better money, even if this place did pay OT.
That big "Thanks" and pat on the back dosn't pay my bills, jack...

 

[xrac]

Re: A 21st Century Employee's Perspective

I used to work in the corp office for AIG Agency (Auto Ins) in the software dept.

AIG had already aquired 21st Century, they were absorbed into the AIG Direct Auto line of biz (not my division).

Then in the AIG downfall, we were aquired by Farmers, which then was absorbed by Zurich/21st Century, and bottom line, now MY division was label first 'Farmers' and then '21st Century' in the matter of a couple months.

I was told I would still technically be employeed by AIG until the end of 2009, but I was going to be laid off by then.

However, for about 3 months my department was placed under a 21st Century director based out of Woodland Hills CA, even though I was technically still an AIG NY employee.

They totally cut out overtime (about $25k of my salary), but since we were still doing software builds (after 7pm PST) which had me on the phone for 4 hours a night from 10pm - 1am EST about 2-3 nights a week, I still had to work the hours that used to give me all that OT.

My 21st director said "NO Overtime" so I couldn't work over 40hrs a week. So I just continued about my normal habbits until I reached 40hrs, then I packed up and left....be it Friday at noon, or the end of Thursday.

The Director found out about that, had a conf call and said "NO" we must come in late *the day after* a production push, we cannot keep accruing our hours until the end of the week.
BS#1.
(so I had to start working a bunch of 4 hr days in the office in the middle of the week, because of the production call the night before. We were very busy so I had to take my lunch at my desk to get all my work done in those 4 hrs.)

Then, one fine friday afternoon came, and I was asked to work on the weekend. I said sounds like OT was approved huh? No! Told me NOT to write the hours on my timesheet, and then "we'll see if there's 40 hrs of work for you next week, and make it up then"
BS#2.
(I promptly went to HR, they said no way you can't do that, so I didn't do it)

A few weeks later, another request for the exact same thing. I told them no, the week begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, if I work over 40hrs it is federal law you pay me OT. I went to HR and told them for the 2nd time, and by the way, why didn't you look into my prior complaint, why is this director still doing this??

The next monday the HR director came by my desk, asked me into the 'team leads' office (who was a contractor anyway) and have a confrence call with the 21st century director. I assumed my AIG HR director was going to rip the 21st director a new a-hole, and I took with me printed copies of the AIG Employee Handbook, and Code of Conduct. (Remember, I am still technically employeed by AIG, the merger is not official)

I sat down and instead of my HR director laying into her, SHE began by saying "It's come to my attention that you are not taking you 1 hour for lunch....it is company policy that non-exempt salried employees must take 1 hr for lunch, required away from your desk, preferably completely off campus. In addition you get two 15min breaks. One has to be before lunch, the other after lunch...they cannot be combined with lunch to extend the lunch period, they cannot be combined with your arrival or departure, so you can't come in late or leave early. IF you go to the bathroom, that is counted as a 15 min break, even if it only takes 5 mins, you cannot take three 5 min bathroom breaks and count that as 1 break...blah blah blah...very very detailed etc...

So I cut her off, and asked "What page are you reading from?"

**GASP***What what whaaatttt????" she said.

"I am holding in my hands the AIG Employee Handbook, the AIG Code of Conduct, and a few other docs from the HR site about overtime and working after hours....what DOCUMENT and what PAGE are you READING from???"

GAAASSSSPPPPPP "I - AM - YOUR - DIRECTOR!!!!!!"

"Umm, ok...so what page are you reading from"

GAAAASSSSPPPP "THIS _ IS _ C_O_M_P_A_N_Y_ POLICY"

"I understand you say it is company policy....#1 Which Company's Policy and #2-where is it printed so I can read it, understand it, and ensure I do not violate it. I am still an AIG employee, I'm holding AIG documents, and I don't see ANY of what you are saying anywhere"

Then my AIG HR director actually tells me "It's state law, you must take 1 hour for lunch"

WTF? BS#infinity. "What LAW? What is the statute number? Is it a misdemenor or felony???"
He said he didn't know, but I could call the state department of labor.

I said I want him to send me the law, and for her to send me in writing this policy.

So after this meeting, I went to my desk, called GA DOL legal dept, confirmed that this was not GA law....emailed the HR director before he could get back to his desk.

Then I received an email from the 21st director which simply stated "Per our conversation, you must take 1 hour from lunch away from your desk" period.

So from then on, I arrived at work at 11am, went to lunch at 12-2pm, went to work out in the onsite gym from 3-4, and then left right after the team lead at about 4:30pm. I commited myself to NOT being in that damn place for more than 3 hours a day....and I also started being 'not available' for the production calls at night...I said if I can't get OT then let an exempt "Senior" person get on that call.

I found out that 21st in CA and AIG Direct in DE, those non-exempt OT employees had to email their manager 1)Upon arriving 2) taking a break 3) returning from break 4) going to lunch 5)return from lunch 6)go on next break 7)return from that break 8)upon leaving for the day.
R U Effing Kidding ME?!?!?! The company line was "we have to have a proceedure in place to prevent OT. But in fact, this was used to discredit employees on their annual reviews, for being 6 mins late here, and there....because all these emails had time/date stamps...

Then, the day before I was to be laid off, I had an outpatient surgury I had been putting off, sat on short term disability for 4 weeks...this extended my termination date as well as benefits, and thus money I could get from them. I also did not do 1 ounce of honest work for that entire time...there was alot of project estimates that I totally overestimated, which got all of the projects declined , I even pinged the HR Director once a week with an email "GA DOL said there is no law requireing an employee to take 1hr lunch...what is your responce?" and he never ever replied back..etc etc etc....I burned those bastards as much as I could before I left there.

My time with AIG was pretty good, and I actually wish I still worked there, they had 401k match, employee stock discount, PENSION!!! Not to mention a pretty good salary plus a very good OT $$$.

21st Century totally ruined it all...that place was pure evil, as black as pitch...it's not just their agents treated badly, it's also their employees....I would not recomend anyone to work their as an employee or agent....unless you're planning a really good burn...lol...

21st Century sounds like a scumbag outfit.

 

[ewilkins]

The agent I work for tried to explain them to me, but I don't honestly think he even knew that much about them. He just told me that they provided leads for Farmers. I found the whole thing strange to be honest with you. He mentioned that some of them are old and/or only filled out some sort of a form online. I honestly filled out one of those forms too a few years back. I probably had (and I'm not kidding here) about 8 agents call me within 30 minutes of filling out the form. I don't want to be "that guy."