Geico kickbacks

[Allen Trent]

26 years of hard 7 day work weeks. Now I have cancellations at car dealerships & I never had the chance to speak with my client. You condone $50-$100 kickbacks? What about my customer? They get charged a cancellation, come up with an unnecessary down payment, lose credit for 6 months proof of prior, & pay more for the insurance? You sir are part of the problem if you agree to that. Are you really an owner? God help your customer base. Super Genius?

I dont condone, but it may fall under your states regulations that treat it no different than an agent buying warm or cold leads. A TV ad drumming up prospect interest & then being sold to an agent is done as is online ads & they are not licensed insurance people drumming up the interest.

Some states have laws against insurance being conducted in car dealerships, so maybe take that route of complaining. the other issue is that some of these entities paying the referral fees in money or gifts were not sending 1099s. this happens a lot by restoration or glass shops paying office staff to direct clients to them for claims. Many states have anti-steering laws that prohibit this and some agents & staff got in trouble with IRS for not claiming the income/gifts.

 

[whatyouwantfinally]

I have seen that often but uneducated (not school uneducated) consumers look at premium paid. How many dont have sufficient coverage to repair a vehicle with more than 50K, or their own 60K vehicle? They buy the least expensive policy available. Most Geico call centers spend less than 10 minutes from beginning of call to binding. We need to be proactive in order to protect our customers.

It also does wonders in terms of your customers looking at you as a trusted advisor vs a salesman.

Making it standard practice to make sure EVERY new customer understands what the coverages mean and what to watch out for when comparing quotes when you sign them up is huge.

A big % of the time they'll say "Thank you, no one has ever explained that to me before." It also makes them question what they hear from any agent who doesn't explain it (which is most). I've had customers who were cancelling and going with another agency ask me to look over the policy from the new agency to make sure all is well, even when the new agent was a relative of theirs.

 

[Scott Ashton]

Get it all the time. My customers call me 7 days. They know what they buy before they use it. I recap and followup. My concern is Geico gets a bs law past in Florida that no small agency can compete with and it's unenforceable. Now we get cancellations, because hey, what salesman doesn't want $50-$100 for putting the customer on the phone with the payor. I do EXACT business by the book. Alot of times this happens at night or weekends. And I'm still open!

 

[DayTimer]

Geico has been doing this for years. When I was in the car business I had every customer I sat with call the local Geico for a quote, whether they bought the car from me or not. And Geico paid for the lead whether that person switched to Geico or not. $25 per lead.

This wasn't a kick back. The Geico agent who managed the program clearly viewed this as a paid lead program. And imo, a pretty darn smart one at that.

About a year after Geico started doing this, another local independent agent came in and offered twice what Geico was offering for the lead. He never asked for the leads to be exclusive to him, so we'd have out customers call both agencies. Car salesmen were making $75/up whether they sold a car or not.

Then the dealer teamed up with Allstate and leased Allstate an on-site office and banned Geico and the local guy from coming onto dealer property to pay salespeople for the leads. So we would meet them once a week at a hot dog stand across the street and they'd pay us there.

FWIW, both Geico and the local agent 1099'd us. It wasn't "under the table." And since no purchase was necessary, it was most definitely not a kick back.

 

[Scott Ashton]

I appreciate all the feedback. It's a dirty business. Bottom line, the only way the small guys compete is to illegally "slide" a roadside. Not gonna do! It's terribly frustrating and does a disservice to the customer and the industry as a whole. Eventually, as you said, the dealer gets hammered with a complaint which wrecks it for anyone trying to do business the right way.

 

[DayTimer]

Bottom line, the only way the small guys compete is to illegally "slide" a roadside.

No idea what that means exactly. But why not just hustle?

 

[TRG1225]

26 years of hard 7 day work weeks. Now I have cancellations at car dealerships & I never had the chance to speak with my client. You condone $50-$100 kickbacks? What about my customer? They get charged a cancellation, come up with an unnecessary down payment, lose credit for 6 months proof of prior, & pay more for the insurance? You sir are part of the problem if you agree to that. Are you really an owner? God help your customer base. Super Genius?

Take a day. Matter of fact...take a week, bud. Sounds like you need it.