In a recent, documented incident, it took Mercury Insurance group adjusters more than three weeks to inspect a vehicle that was involved in a car accident. The owner of the vehicle contacted Mercury 30 minutes after the accident (in which he was hit by a pick-up truck), and after informing them of his concerns of driving the car, he was told to get a rental from Enterprise.

After reminding Mercury many times that his old car was parked in his driveway and he would like an adjuster to inspect it, Mercury finally sent Mr. Michael Picket (Southern California Mercury Insurance Group adjuster), who decided that, although the rear wheel was damaged, the car was in driveable condition. Mercury paid to repair "most" of the damage (they refused to repair the handle on the back door of the mini-van which fell off), and for less than half of the time the insured was driving the rental car.

Upon contacting an attorney, the insured was told that, although he had the law on his side, it would cost more than is economically feasible to file suit against Mercury Automobile Insurance Company. The California Insurance Commision refused to file a complaint against Mercury Insurance, bucause an attorney was contacted.

On July 27, 1998, I purchased a one-year-old automobile and The Supreme Protection Plan offered by American Mercury Managing General Agency, Inc., A member of the Mercury Insurance Group. On August 4, 1999, the freeze plug blew out and drained all the coolent from the engine. I was traveling on a busy interstate and by the time I was able to pull off the highway (approximate one mile later) the engine had overheated & I had the car towed. About a week later the inspector (Eric) inspected the car & stated that the problem was the freeze plug and he would authorized the replacement of the freeze plug and the labor to replace it, but refused to authorized the remainder of the damage. He stated that the damage was caused by the car being run with out coolent. Of course it was run without coolent, the freeze plug blew out on Interstate 10! We left three voice mail messages for Eric to call us back so that we could explain what had happened, but he never called. We called the Service Manager. After leaving two voice mail messages that he did not return, we finally caught him at the above number [edited out]. We asked for another inspector to come out, but he refused our request. He said that it didn't matter what happened, they were not going to pay the claim. Since then, we have left three voice mail messages with the Automotive Department Manager, but he has not retured our calls. We asked Eric, the supervisor, for the address and phone number directly to Joe _____, so that we may talk to him directly. The number he gave us was 1-800-445-____, extension 8___ (a fax machine) and the address of: The Plan P O Box 1___, Wheat Ridge, CO 80034. I don't understand how any company can stay in business with representatives like this. I have filed a complaint with the Texas board of Insurance. I don't have the $4500 it will take to fix the car. That was why I spent the $1287 for the protection plan to start with. A word of caution to anyone reading this, don't buy the Supreme Protection Plan from this company. They don't pay claims. If anyone has a problem with this company, please inform them to file a complaint with their State Department of Insurance. Sincerely Diane and Gerald ____.

[Note: the above was slightly edited to shorten the text].

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