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Oregon collision repair shops say that State Farm and several smaller Northwest-based auto insurers continue to be among the best at taking care of their customers after an accident – and that Progressive, Allstate, Safeco and Farmers Insurance are among the worst.
That was the finding of a new survey conducted by the Northwest Automotive Trades Association (NATA).
“Collision repair shops on a daily basis see how various insurance companies take care of Oregon drivers after an accident, so we felt it was worthwhile to ask how they rate the various insurers,” said Barbara Crest, executive director of NATA. “We believe their views will be helpful to insurance companies and consumers.”
About 650 collision repair shops throughout the state received the survey, which asked them to grade the Top 22 auto insurers in the state in terms of how well each company’s “policies, attitude and payment practices ensure quality repairs and customer service for Oregon motorists.”
This is the third time the association has conducted such a survey since 2004, allowing for some comparisons of how shops’ views of insurers have changed. Crest pointed to a number of items of interest in the findings of the latest survey:
• State Farm held on to the top spot, receiving an overall grade of B+, a drop from the A-it received in the two earlier surveys. That decline may be tied to changes the insurer has made this past year to its direct repair program (DRP) including requiring a participating shop to offer State Farm any discounts it offers any other insurer. The insurer also has slashed the number of shops participating in the program by about 44 percent nationally, although the cuts vary market-to-market. The percentage of shops that responded to the Oregon survey that said they participate in the State Farm program dropped by about 10 percent between the 2006 and 2008 surveys.
• In addition to State Farm, three Northwest insurers – North Pacific/Liberty Northwest, Oregon Mutual and Mutual of Enumclaw – were again the only three to receive grades of B- or higher, keeping them in the top four each time the survey has been conducted.
• Four companies received below-average overall grades of D+ or lower. These
companies were Farmers, Allstate, Progressive and Safeco.
• The other 14 auto insurers on the survey – including Hartford, Liberty Mutual, USAA, American Family, California Casualty and Nationwide – received overall grades of between C+ and C-.
• In most cases, the grades given a particular insurer from shops involved in that insurer’s DRP were higher than those given by shops that are not part of that insurer’s program. This was particularly true with Progressive, GEICO, USAA, AIG, whose DRP shops gave them grades of B- or better while non-DRP shops gave these same insurers grades of C- or lower (a D- in the case of Progressive). But even Farmers “Circle of Dependabilty” shops and Nationwide’s “Blue Ribbon” shops gave those insurers only average grades of C.
• California Casualty, American Family, AIG and GEICO received slightly higher grades in the 2008 survey compared to the 2006 survey. Country Companies is the only insurer to improve in each of the last two surveys, moving from a C- in 2004 to a C in 2006 and to a C+ this year.
• Allstate showed the largest decline in grade and ranking compared to 2006, when it was about in the middle of the pack with a grade of C. This year, shops gave Allstate a grade of D+, dropping it to the second-to-last spot in the rankings.
• Safeco, which received a grade of C in 2004, has since remained near the bottom of the rankings in the two most recent surveys with a grade of D+.
• Progressive improved slightly from a D- in the last survey to a D this year, but remained at the bottom of the rankings. Only Progressive and Farmers have ranked in the bottom four among insurers in all three NATA surveys.
“Collision repairers say the insurers receiving the highest grades – which includes both larger and smaller insurance companies – do the best job of taking care of Oregon drivers after an accident,” Crest said. “We hope consumers will take these ratings into account when choosing an auto insurer, and that insurers that received lower grades will work to improve their performance.”
More than 100 shops from 48 Oregon communities responded to the survey. These shops had an average of 11 employees and have combined total sales of an estimated $144 million.
Insurer Report Card
What grade do Oregon collision repair shops give auto insurers in terms of how their “policies, attitude and payment practices ensure quality repairs and customer service for Oregon motorists.”
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