Consumer complaint received 2022-12-28
Company: CAINE & WEINER COMPANY, INC.
State: MI
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
When purchasing a home many years ago, my realtor recommended that I use an insurance agent for purchasing home-owners insurance. I used XXXX XXXX ' to bundle both home and XXXX  insurance at that time. However, the agent assigned to me kept changing, and I quickly forgot who my agent was, and how to contact the insurance agency. I paid all of my bills on time, and my insurance was renewed regularly, and the lack of contact with the insurance agent was not a problem until I tried to change insurance. 

In XXXX 2021, while researching life insurance, I decided to change my insurance provider for all of my insurance, including XXXX insurance. At the time, an unnamed XXXX XXXX agent had set up my auto insurance with XXXX XXXX. After setting up my new auto insurance, I tried to cancel my policy with XXXX on the XXXX website. Since I could find no forms to cancel this unwanted service, I submitted a ticket/message to cancel the duplicative auto insurance. XXXX informed me that I couldn't cancel my service, but I didn't understand why. I responded again and said that it was unacceptable to create a contract that could not be cancelled. Despite clear communication that I no longer wanted the service, they continued to bill my credit card, and provide duplicative insurance for another 8 months. It wasn't until my XXXX XXXX did their annual re-issuance of cards in XX/XX/2021 that a representative of XXXX XXXX ' finally contacted me ( which is a big clue that they don't really care about helping me, they just want to make sure everyone gets paid ). I informed her that I had canceled my policy months ago, and I needed help getting a refund for the duplicative auto insurance services that I did not need or want. She told me that many insurance companies require that cancellation notices go through the agency, and sometimes aren't accepted directly from the consumer. I told her that I found this logic problematic, as legally an agent is a representative between a consumer and a third party, but they can't prevent or supersede communication directly between a consumer and an insurance provider ( or any service provider, really ). Fundamentally, this makes the requirement to use an agent to cancel an unwanted service legally unenforceable. I re-iterated again that I wanted help getting a refund, and she promised to try to do so and get back to me. 

The XXXX  XXXX agent, whose name I can't remember, communicated with me a few more times while attempting to cancel the unwanted insurance with XXXX. First, she contacted me to tell me that XXXX did require that I use an XXXX XXXX agent in order to cancel the service. I told her that I disagreed with this and asked her to cancel my insurance and again ask for a refund. She informed me that a refund was unlikely, but she would try to cancel my insurance. 

The next time the XXXX  XXXX agent contacted me, she asked for a photograph of my present auto insurance so that XXXX could cancel the service. I again protested, stating that additional documentation should not be necessary, but I texted an image of the new policy anyway. 

The third time the XXXX  XXXX agent contacted me, she told me that XXXX had not accepted my prior requests for cancellation, and they were now requiring that I fill out a form. At this point I terminated the relationship with XXXX XXXX. After failing to cancel my policy twice, or obtain a refund, it was clear that they were not interested in representing me. 

In total, I notified XXXX 4 times that I was cancelling our contract. XXXX would not accept my cancellations, would not tell me why, and continued to bill me for unwanted services. Even after attempting to follow their unlawful rules for contract cancellation, they continued to create more barriers to the termination, instead of respecting accepted legal doctrine on the termination of contracts. There is no legal doctrine where a consumer is disallowed from cancelling a contract directly with proper notice. As such, XXXX needs to remove all collections on my account, and provide an appropriate refund for 8 months of unwanted service. 

XXXX XXXX failed to properly represent my interests in this matter. In addition to providing poor customer service by repeatedly changing my agent, and not providing timely notification of changes, they failed miserably on simple negotitions on my behalf. Their involvement in the relationship only served to provide XXXX with excuses for not responding directly to my requests for communication. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation