My dad, Mike Tomars, was employed by Progressive Insurance for 16
years.To say that he was “employed” by them doesn’t accurately describe
his time with the company. He never missed a day of work since 1996. He
regularly received “exceeds expectations” on his performance
evaluations, which again doesn’t do justice to the time and energy he
put into that company. Employees like my dad are the reason Progressive
Insurance is so successful. As a child, and even well into adulthood,
I witnessed his unrelenting work ethic and selfless dedication to a
company that allowed him to raise me as a single father and put food on
the table and shelter over my head. My dad wasn’t simply employed by
Progressive, he gave 16 years of his life to that company.
In January 2010, my dad was in a terrible car accident while on the
job, driving a Progressive owned vehicle. In the accident, he sustained
a very serious brain injury which left him permanently disabled and no
longer able to work. The at fault driver’s insurance company paid their
policy limits to my dad without making any excuses, just like an
insurance company is supposed to do. That’s what they’re meant for,
right? That’s the whole point of having insurance. Providing coverage
is what insurance companies get paid to do. A huge chunk of that money
went to pay back workers compensation for my dad’s hospital bills, brain
therapy bills etc…, and to his attorney.“ From the time of the accident until August 2012 Progressive
stood by my dad, perhaps their most loyal and hard working employee.
Then without warning Progressive filed a motion with the court saying
they didn’t have any coverage for my dad’s car accident. For 2 years
they acknowledged that they had 1 million dollars in under-insured
motorist coverage, but when it came time to pay they began a sickening
series of under-handed attempts to avoid accountability.
First Progressive tried to bring the case to Ohio (where the company’s
is headquarters are located), because Ohio state law would allow them to
not provide any under-insured motorist coverage. THE ACCIDENT DIDN’T
HAPPEN IN OHIO, IT HAPPENED IN MINNESOTA! What the hell Progressive?
Why are your attorneys trying to apply Ohio state laws to an accident
that happened in Minnesota? That has to be the most shameless, sleazy,
and ridiculous way to try and slither out of honoring one of one of your
own policy’s that’s meant to cover one of your own employees who for 16
years dedicated his life to your company, and greatly contributed to
your success. It doesn’t end here, it gets better, or should I say
worse 🙁

In August of 2012 they claimed that the woman in policy services (who
works for Progressive) had sent copies of the wrong declarations page
and policy covering the vehicle my dad was driving to my dad’s attorney,
and they denied that the vehicle my dad was driving (which was owned by
Progressive, garaged and licensed in Minnesota) had any such coverage.
When the woman was asked if she was aware of this during her deposition,
she swore under oath that she prided herself in her work and that by
certifying/notarizing the declarations sheet, she was certifying that
they were indeed true and accurate copies of the policy covering the
vehicle my dad was driving, and that she was certain she hadn’t made any
mistakes. My dad’s attorney also obtained depositions from a couple of
the people in underwriting who wrote the policy covering the vehicle my
dad was driving, and under oath they did confirm they intended to have
the
cars of their fleet comply with the laws of the state of Minnesota that
they were garaged and driven in and that they intended there to be 1
million in coverage. So, that would mean they would be obligated to
provide 1 million in underinsured motorist coverage to my dad but, now
they say we didn’t mean it we don’t owe him anything……

Only Progressive’s lawyers deny that there was any coverage on the
vehicle my dad was driving, while their own employes whose job it is to
write these policies swear under oath that the vehicle has coverage, and
provide
notarized documentation as evidence. Is it not obvious (and disgusting)
what Progressive is trying to do here? But if you think they treat
their employees poorly, they treat their customers even worse. In 2010
Katie Fisher was in a car accident in Maryland where she was struck and
killed at and intersection by a car that ran a red light. The insurance
company for the at fault driver quickly paid their insurance limits to
Katie’s family. But because the
at fault driver was under-insured,
that didn’t amount to much. So it fell to Progressive to cover the
difference between the other guy’s insurance and the value of Katie’s
policy. As you might expect, Progressive searched for ways to avoid
this. Progressive sent their own lawyers to defend the driver
responsible for Katie’s death in an attempt to find Katie at fault for
the accident, so they wouldn’t have to pay her family. I’ll give you a
moment to think about that.
Here’s a quote from her brother, Matt
Fisher, who wrote this on his tumblr blog about how poorly Progressive
was treating his family:

“Carrying Progressive insurance and getting into an accident does
not entitle you to the value of your insurance policy. It just pisses
off Progressive’s lawyers. Here I address you, Prospective
Progressive Insurance Customer: someday when you have your accident, I
promise that there will be enough wiggle room for Progressive’s
bottomless stack of in-house attorneys to make a court case out of it
and to hammer at that court case until you or your surviving loved ones
run out of money.”

If your still reading this, thanks for hanging in there. I know it’s a
lot. What I would like you to do is like this post and re-blog it as
much as possible to spread awareness of Progressive’s disgusting
behavior so that they will be held accountable for their actions. And so
my dad, Mike Tomars, can get what he rightfully deserves after working
hard his entire life. Thanks!
-Anthony Tomars