Geico Insurance is probably best known for its animated spokes-lizard with a British accent. But to Richard and Cindy Taubman, the Geico gecko has lately come to symbolize bafflement more than bonhomie.
The Taubmans' frustrating tale began Oct. 31, when Richard Taubman got into a car crash near his Melrose Park home. Taubman was driving his Toyota Avalon when it was rear-ended by a small Mitsubishi SUV.
No one was hurt, thankfully, and nothing unusual happened after the crash. As Taubman remembers that Saturday afternoon, he was stopped at an intersection on Ashbourne Road, signaling for a left turn. "Then, all of a sudden, bang, I get hit."
Taubman says the young man driving the SUV said he had skidded on wet leaves, a common hazard in leafy Cheltenham Township. They exchanged insurance information, learning that both were covered by Geico.
The bafflement began later, when a simple insurance claim took an odd twist.
Taubman had assumed that Geico would pay his claim quickly, especially after the estimate showed a modest $715 worth of damage. But the word from Geico's examiner was that his claim was delayed.
The reason: Geico had tried repeatedly to contact the other driver and his parents, owners of the SUV. But so far, nobody had responded.
Ultimately, Geico told Taubman that his only option was to invoke his own collision coverage, with its $500 deductible. The examiner and her supervisor told him that all his information - including the other driver's name, license number, and insurance policy number - didn't really matter because the other driver hadn't acknowledged responsibility.
How could Taubman have gotten the information except from the other driver? The Geico supervisor suggested that Taubman, who is 73 and semiretired, might be an identity thief.
"She said, 'Mr. Taubman, we understand your situation. We know you have his license number and insurance,' " Taubman recalls. " 'But we cannot pay a claim on their policy unless we hear from them.' "
Dodging responsibility
To Taubman, Geico's refusal to hold the other driver responsible was astonishing, and I had to agree.
He asks, "Can it really be that easy to evade responsibility for an accident?" Also worth exploring is the question of whether Taubman could have helped his own situation by doing anything differently.
One nagging concern for Taubman was whether he should have called the police from the scene. He chose not to because the accident seemed minor, and says an officer told him later that police would have been unlikely to respond, anyway.
Taubman says, too, that Geico's examiners told him a report wouldn't have mattered. "They said, 'Even if you have a police report, and even if you have 12 witnesses, we need to talk to the insured.' "
In both cases, it seems likely that Taubman was misled.
Cheltenham Police Chief John J. Norris says he recommends that people call police when a crash occurs. Although an accident without injuries or a disabled vehicle is not considered formally reportable under Pennsylvania rules, the officer would file a shorter "incident report," based on statements from each driver and witness.
And even if Taubman had visited the police station later that day, Norris says, he could have filled out a PennDot "Driver's Accident Report" to mail to the state.
Would such a document really have mattered?
It might have, despite what Taubman was told, says Geico spokesman Terry Mannion.
"If there's a police report on file, that at least verifies that something happened," Mannion says.
Help from the state
There's another avenue available to a driver like Taubman: filing a complaint with the state Insurance Department.
Rosanne Placey, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Insurance Department, says the department's Bureau of Consumer Services fielded more than 17,000 complaints and inquiries last year. Wrongful denials are a common reason consumers call.
"Absent a consumer reaching out to us, the consumer would not know if their claim was improperly denied," Placey says.
To contact Consumer Services, call 1-877-881-6388, or visit www.insurance.pa.gov.
In New Jersey, contact the Claims Ombudsman by calling 1-800-446-7467.
If you doubt that having an outside party involved can help, consider what happened Friday after I contacted Geico to ask about Taubman's complaint, and Mannion agreed to look into it.
Mannion called back several hours later to explain why Geico was in the right - and also why it planned to address the problem, anyway, by paying for Taubman's repairs and working harder to hold the other driver responsible.
Mannion said Geico had made 18 phone calls and sent nine letters to the other driver and his parents - including one by certified mail. He said its latest plan was to send an investigator in person.
"We followed the letter of the law and the contracts and all that," Mannion told me. "But we also recognized that Mr. Taubman is a valued customer, too."
Personally, I'd bet that clever lizard would have figured it out sooner.