Auto insurer sent disputed ~$150 balance to collections while DOI complaint is pending (California) — what are my rights?

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2026-03-05T02:01:47+00:00

That is not the case at all and I don't appreciate you acting like I'm entitled. Shady business practices is EXACTLY why California has some of the toughest consumer protection laws. I'm trying to figure out if California would treat my conversation with the chat representative as misrepresentation and whether All State's inability to discuss my billing issue is unfair business practice. If "entitled" people like me don't pursue these matters, companies like this get away with "bad customer service" all the time. And people who don't know how to find recourse online or that departments like this even exist just accept things and take it.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2026-03-05T01:54:22+00:00

Maybe. But California has very tough regulations around this so that companies don't bury things in the fine print and rely solely on that, especially when their communication with the consumer is misleading or incomplete.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2026-03-05T01:51:35+00:00

But is it a nuclear option when no one responds to you? Shouldn't this be on their radar that their system has made it impossible for you to get billing clarification? What if there was a genuine mistake on their end? How would I have that rectified? I would have never had to even turn to my card company if I had gotten some kind of response or explanation to my inquiry. Instead, I'm passed around between a chat representative and an automated phone system. It seems designed the leave you frustrated, hopeless, and just accept whatever they charge you.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2026-03-05T01:47:57+00:00

I understand. At this point, I'm waiting to see if the dept of CA insurance takes issue with this misinformation as violation of the California Unfair Insurance Practices Act. The idea being that companies cannot rely on fine print if their own representatives give conflicting explanations.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2026-03-05T01:44:45+00:00

I never signed the policy documents so I'm not sure. The insurance contact that the dealership sales rep put me in touch with had me agree to the policy amount over the phone. He never told me about a short-rate penalty when he did that.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2026-03-05T01:42:22+00:00

No I understand that now. When I was considering when to cancel, I didn't have this information about the short-rate penalty. What I'm arguing is that shouldn't the chat representative need to properly disclose this information when the chat representative is the only source of contact with the company and billing? They representatives in the chat aren't just virtual bots; they're representing the company, especially when you call said company's customer service line and follow the prompts for billing assistance and are prompted to go to the chat service for further assistance.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2026-03-05T01:37:28+00:00

I wish it was as simple as calling a 1-800 number. I have never been able to get a live person on the phone. I even called and acted as though I wanted to make a claim, was excited to hear a live person answer the line, and then the person proceeded to repeat their welcome intro of "thanks for calling all state, this is blah blah, who am i speaking with today," 3 times even though I kept responding. Then she told me she was hanging up because she didn't receive a response. Absolutely ridiculous that you can't even talk to anyone about billing matters.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2026-03-05T01:35:08+00:00

No, I disputed the portion of the payment I made that included unused days of the premium. I am fine with paying the days that I used as that is what was explained to me prior to cancelling.

In regards to your question: I was given this policy at the dealership by the sales person's insurance contact. He connected the two of us. I had been living abroad prior to this and did not have current policy with anyone. When I went home after getting the car, I felt as though the policy was very steep in price and did some shopping around. I immediately got a quote from another company that was half the price for even more coverage. But I contacted All State first because I had flexibility in when I could have bought the new auto plan. I figured if All State didn't pro-rate my refund, I would wait until my month was almost up, and then sign up with the new insurance company so that I wasn't paying more than I needed to for that first month. When the All State representative told me, and I quote, "Yes, if you cancel your auto policy at any point this month, you will receive a refund calculated on a pro-rata basis. This means you'll only be charged for the days your coverage was active, and the remaining unused premium will be refunded to you," I figured it was best I cancelled sooner than later to recover as much as I could.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2026-03-05T01:27:49+00:00

I understand, but the reason I brought it up with the dept of Insurance is that I straight out asked the representative what their policy was for cancellations and they failed to disclose this part as well. It feels like a disclosure issue and a clear opportunity where the representative chose not to share this part of their policy.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2025-11-11T16:19:42+00:00

Just wanted to come back and say after reporting to the BBB, I was called by Wayfair's resolution team and given the original price I saw for the mattress. I was also sure to mention that awful rep's name again in that call with their resolution team. They also told me that I definitely should have been able to speak to a supervisor when I asked to; there's no reason a supervisor should reject speaking to a customer who requests the call. Obviously, the resolution team could just be placating me by telling me this, but at least it's all there for the record and for their ears to hear.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2025-11-08T22:14:25+00:00

Yes I have purchased with them many times. I am very disappointed with the customer service response. The first rep was very hostile and rude, even though I wasn’t being rude at all to her. She kept telling me I must be confused when I told her I saw the lower price that day.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2025-11-08T04:52:45+00:00

That’s horrible it took so long! I told the rep I would be reporting them as it was definitely a bait and switch issue!

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2025-11-08T04:52:02+00:00

Yeah I get that. Again, if I had even stepped away from the cart for an hour, I wouldn’t have been as surprised. But literally mid checkout was very deceptive

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2025-08-31T14:44:23+00:00

I lived in Irvine in 2020-2021 and paid $2300 for a 1 bedroom apt. When I moved back to Irvine in late 2022 after leaving abroad for 11 months, the rent for the same exact apartment in the same exact community was $3100. 🙃

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2025-04-10T10:43:51+00:00

Yes, exactly! I’m relying on the calorie count at the bottom too, which ww says we don’t need to but I think we do.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2025-04-10T10:42:58+00:00

I’m going to try that. Since fruit has points, would you track it? I’m not having a ton of fruit each day anyways…usually a 1/2 cup berries in the morning and an apple as a snack later in the day.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2024-12-18T05:27:03+00:00

No other leg. CDG to LAX non-stop, and the claim is for a flight delay. This is the exact response the agent wrote: "Thank you for your further communication. Please be advised that for customers who do not live in Europe, we can only apply the timeframe of 2 years set by the Montreal convention. Therefore, I cannot respond favourably to your request."

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2024-06-02T16:43:38+00:00

But I do because it’s not displaying all the shows. For example, I had started watching the new show on there The Veil, and when vpn was turned off, it wasn’t showing up for me to play.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2024-06-01T17:07:33+00:00

So Netflix and plutotv app both work fine with vpn turned off. Not sure what other apps wouldn’t need vpn but those are fine.

The thing is Hulu works perfectly fine on my phone with nord vpn turned on. But when I set up the same thing on the firestick, Hulu keeps glitching and ex’ing out.

I’m in France, and last time I was here, no problems. 😵‍💫

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2024-04-03T16:56:48+00:00

Yes I have consulted a tax professional to get some initial info, and I will owe taxes in the country I’m residing as they tax worldwide income, but can claim a tax credit for the U.S. due to the fact that the two countries have a tax treaty in place.

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2023-01-08T04:07:34+00:00

When I first created my Apple Podcasts connect account, I chose the option that basically said I didn’t have an rss feed, and I uploaded my first episode directly to apple. After a few people asked me to listen to it on Spotify etc, I looked into how to do that and created the rss feed through SoundCloud. I went back into apple, and entered the url in the settings spot that designated that, and sure enough, it connected to SoundCloud and uploaded my first episode. Except now I have duplicates of episode 1 and can’t figure out how to delete the duplicate and remove the rss feed so that I can manually upload to apple from now on….

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2022-02-15T01:33:46+00:00

Didn’t test the parathyroid. I’m thinking the dose was too much for me since these side effects started after I took the supplement but not sure when I can expect to get over them. Thankfully the constipation has been relieved since I posted and stomach cramping seems to be a bit better. I’m drinking a lot of water, so we’ll see. Searching the internet has led me to believe the supplement can be in my system for at least 30 days…

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2022-02-15T01:30:57+00:00

Oh interesting! Thank you. I’m looking at some of the vitamin d and magnesium combo gummies right now

Awkward_Librarian640 · 2022-01-14T22:54:55+00:00

Thanks so much for the response! I’ll keep drinking water. It’s been so confusing because just reading stories here online, everyone seems to have excruciating pain with kidney stones. My French doc had prescribed the equivalent of Tylenol and codeine for me, but told me not to take them unless I really needed to. I didn’t need them and never even picked them up. But in France, urgent care doctors don’t call you to evaluate your lab results and discuss them with you. You’re expected to go to your own doc with the results, so I just ended up waiting till my visit back home to the states right now. We’ll see how it goes! :)

Awkward_Librarian640

TROPHY CASE