Open Letter To State Farm

Claim Number: XXYYZZ
Date of incident: 02/XX/12
Team: 5X

1. Is it inappropriate / illegal for State Farm to assign liability in a claim with a no investigation into proportion of fault or any consideration to mitigating factors, given the state-adopted comparative negligence scheme of liability?

Examples of such activity include:
1) Not accepting any information about the incident, besides a verbal statement (diagrams, photographs)
2) Pre-determination of liability based on a generalized situation rather a subjective review of the facts of the case
3) Paying out the liability claim before an appeal of the decision is permitted

2. Is it improper / unfair / illegal for State Farm to institute time-consuming and biased policies and protocols for claim-handling, leaving policy-holder with no recourse besides appealing an adverse decision of liability?

3. Is it unfair / unreasonable / illegal for State Farm to deny policy holder access to records relating to State Farm's investigation and handling of the claim, such as photographs of the estimator?

4. Can State Farm abuse consumer privacy protection by refusing to:
- provide a basic cost-analysis of the repair estimation
- explain the process of estimation
- disclose general information such as standardized rates, pre-negotiated with the repair facility
- conduct more than one repair estimation
- provide local averages for similar repairs?

5. Is it improper / suspect / illegal for State Farm to engage in unscrupulous and exclusionary methods of claim-handling, given the bias inherent in the process: a repair estimate over the policy's deductible results in an increase in subsequent premiums paid by the policy-holder?

Examples of such activity include:
1) Concealing records, and refusing to provide information
2) Insufficient and unsatisfactory investigatory practices
3) Complete control and autonomy over all decisions related to settling the claim
4) Little to no follow/up or notification to keep policy-holder updated of developments (unless specifically requested)
5) Instituting time-consuming and laborious protocols of appeal
6) Generally refusing to cooperate with the policy-holder

6. In the event that a policy-holder is dissatisfied with State Farm's handling of a claim, what are the recourses available, with respect to:
1) The claim
2) State Farm's role in handling the claim?

7. Is it an acceptable costumer service practice, for a State Farm "Team Member" of a "team" assigned to investigating a claim, to be inconsiderate and argumentative and treat the policy-holder as an adversary, rather than a client?"

-x-

(End of Message - Will post a reply if I receive one)

What If?

Renewing faith, believing again... those are the stuff dreams are made of. Realizing that perhaps the errors of our ways haven't turned into irreversible mistakes... yet.

Facebook, Hulu, NBA, tabloids, drugs, dying polar bears, BPA-toxicity - what could be held accountable for the collective abandonment of our desire to engage in the process of overseeing our nation's return to being the beacon of freedom, prosperity and unprecedented possibility? Why is the pervasive apathy of the general populace so strong and hypnotic that it paralyzes us into a state of resigned submission to the world created around us, usurping in entirety our desire to change? 

Why have we lost our will to fight? Are we exhausted from the constant broken promises? Are we tired of the formulaic lies and deceit that are stuffed down our throat by production-line politicians that cyclicly break our hearts and perpetuate a system we have always, as a nation, never agreed with? 

No to WAR. 

Our parents made that pretty clear. Give the Vietnamese people their country back. Our parents protested, and we watched. Maybe we walked with them. We learnt how passion produces peace before we understood what those words meant. We felt it, and knew it was right. 

And we know these wars are wrong. No excuses. 

They will be fine without us. They lived before us, we tried to kill them, but they will recover, because that is what humans do. We stand up, dust off the dirt. Even through blood, sweat and tears; through loss, grief and death; we live. And we hope that someday, we will smile and laugh and believe again.

We destroy them, and then guiltily rebuild. 

We kill their children, don't apologize. give them guns and then wonder why they hate us.

We pollute their water, eviscerate their food supply and then drop granola bars from planes on their lands. 

We allow ourselves to be humiliated, and readily turn into drones that lay supinely on the floor, clutching on to the promise and delusional hope that is dangled  before us while our most fundamental liberties are violated. Fear is the best way to compel a group of sensible people to give up their rights, trading in safety for liberty. Think chains and shackles. Think Gitmo. Think National Defense Authorization Act. 

Watch this video

Now, remember that justice is indivisible, said MLK Jr. So are peace, freedom and liberty. The suffering we inflict on to others is not foreign, far away and distant. Tyrannical oppression based on preposterous notions that lead to impoverishment and death, in not one or two or ten but one hundred and thirty countries in the world. 130. Count to 130. It takes a while, doesn't it? 

The Constitution is our founding document and embodies our first principles of personal liberty, sound money and personal freedom. A return to those principles would truly mean substantive change, which will help us put the pieces of our shredded Constitution back together. 


We've drifted so far, drowned so deep in debt, lost so many of our rights, fought so many fruitless wars. If we don't rock the boat now, we're going to sink with it. We can't continue on this path as it bankrupts us financially, intellectually and morally - the culmination of which leads to the deprivation of what makes us human. 

All we are saying is

give 

peace 

a chance.