I stumbled on your website while visiting the UFAA website, I browse it every once in a while to see if Farmers has made any improvements with the way they run the business. I was good friends with Ralph Buchanan and Louie Jandro many years ago when they were a big part of UFAA, I'm letting you know this so you realize I have/was around Farmers for many, many years. I'm not some new ex-employee trying get revenge.
I worked in the Regional Office in Phoenix for 13 years right out of High School, I thought that the company was great when I started. As years went by and Farmers was still lagging behind every company in technology I began to wonder where the company was heading. I mean they were still using IBM punch cards through the mid-90's. The only reason they stopped using punch cards was because the machine that ran the cards every day kept breaking and nobody in North America could fix it or make spare parts since it was so ancient. I moved up the company ladder as much as I possibly could with out a college degree and felt that I was stuck at my position. But I was meeting alot of really nice agents that I loved helping so I didn't really mind doing the samething every day. The pay I thought was great, in my eyes. I was making around 28k in 2001 after putting in over 12 years.
Then I got sick and went on FMLA which is suppose to protect your job from missing any work. I missed a little over 2 weeks in a months time and when I came back to work I was fired. The reason I was given is that they had listened to a call of mine, where I told another agent how another agent was doing in profitability for the year. It is true I did tell another agent who was the worst agent that year for losses (over 1 million in auto alone) how another agent who was half a million profitable how he was so successful. They both had the same size agency around 4,000 PIF and the agent that was in the losses wondered how the other did it. I basically told him that it looks like your old business needs to be looked at, you have to many people with min coverage's, to many 9A's and so forth. Now keep in mind that all this information is accessible to agents at anytime using the computer for their district, I don't know the program but I do know agents can see how others are doing. So after putting 13 years with Farmers I was let go for that reason. When in fact I know the real reason was they just didn't want me around because of my FMLA but oh well, and I was just to close to the agents. The upper management with Farmers thinks the agent's are always out trying to scam something or pull the blanket over the Regions eyes. When in fact I know that 99% of the agents were very honest people trying to make a living and trying to keep the clients they had.
I then called around to other Insurance companies and was hired the very next day making 38k to start doing pretty much the same work. The company I work for is always #1 with AM Best, J.D.Powers and every other insurance ranking groups. I get so many calls each week with people wanting to leave Farmers Insurance to switch over to the company I work for now, I just don't understand how Farmers stays in business. I beat Farmers by 20-50% on premiums and offer much better coverage and lower deductibles. I feel sorry for my old agent buddies that are still holding on to hope that things will turn around, but I can't see that ever happening with the middle and upper management with in Famers Home office. I never understood what DM's were good for, I saw the checks the received and for the amount of work they do it just didn't make any sense. Now I know there are some DM's that work very hard, but they are few to none.
I think this is a very good website and hope that anyone wanting to become an agent or even an employee thinks twice before committing years of their life to a company that is hanging on by a string. I still have many friends at the Region in Phoenix and was told that coming this year they will be out of jobs or have to move out of state to keep their jobs. They are selling the Region and others like the one in Aurora, Illinois, I wish all them the best and only hope they find a great company to work for like I did.
Moderator comment: Just to let you know, you are correct in that agents have access to other agents information in many different forms from the Farmers Agency Dashboard. In fact, District Managers often send out emails with current PIF or Policy In Force information of every agent to every agent in their district. They also like to brag about other successful agents to encourage their new "suckers" into taking the bait.
In our district we heard many stories about the top 2 agents and how they are doing everything right. How well "cold calling" works.. How we need to hire more staff and spend more money on marketing!
The most important message the DM sends to Farmers Agents: Sell More Life Insurance!
Thank you very much for your submission. Every story counts and it helps those who are currently stuck in Farmers realize that they are not alone!
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