I'm shopping around for a new auto insurance plan because the one that I have seems to just creep up every single year. I feel like starting over with a new company might help me start over again with a lower introductory rate. Plus, I see that green gecko on the TV all of the time, so I figure that it's worth a shot to see what GEICO can offer me. However, I'm not the most tech-savvy and I have a few special circumstances that an agent might be better able to handle. For that reason, I decided to give them a phone call to talk about a policy and a quote.
Going in, I had no idea how long I was going to end up on hold. I know that GEICO offers all types of policies for millions of people across the States, so I knew it was very possible that I may be on hold for a while. In the end, I was probably on hold for about ten minutes, which wasn't horrible, but it took me at least that long to navigate through their directory to get to their hold line. That part was annoying because the directory tree is extensive.
When I first called, an automated assistant greeted me by saying, "Thank you for calling GEICO. Your call may be recorded for quality purposes. How can I help you today?" I replied, "Sign up for a new policy," and then it said, "You’re calling about a new policy right?" Once I said yes, it questioned me again, "Okay, what type of policy are you calling about? You can say things like homeowners or auto, or list them all."
I replied that I needed an auto insurance policy and then one by one it requested a lot of information from me including my birthday, ten-digit phone number, and the zip code where I wanted to ensure my vehicle. It then asked me if I had an auto policy in the last six months and whether my spouse was active military or not. Each of these questions I had to respond to so it takes time to work your way through all of it.
Then it reminded me of the privacy policy and noted that I could see it online, and I thought I was going to get to the hold line, but not yet. Instead, it asked me, "If you own your home press 1, otherwise press 1." I chose one and then it said, "For a quote to bundle your home and auto press 1, otherwise press 2.
I pressed two and finally, the phone rang, but a second later the voice assistant was back and it told me, "We apologize for the wait. To skip the line, you can go to Geico.com. Otherwise, please stay on the line and we will be with you shortly." Finally, the wait music started. It did take about ten minutes but at this point, I was just glad to be in the queue. It was poppy elevator music and I did get to someone who spoke clear English so the rest of the process went fairly smoothly.