Your call may be recorded for quality purposes. How can I help you today?"
My auto policy is due to be renewed within the next few weeks, but before I renew it, I want to shop around and see what other insurance companies can offer me. After being with a company for 5 years, you'd think you might get some type of discount. However, instead of a discount, my insurance company is raising my premium by almost $100 more dollars. They claim my state is a high insurance rate state, so I want to look around and see if another company will value my business more as a new customer.
The first company I started with was GEICO. Anyone who's watched TV in the last decade knows about GEICO thanks to that adorable snarky little gecko. That also means they're a huge insurance provider, so I expected there to be a sizable wait to talk to a sales representative. Surprisingly, after I got through the directory I was able to almost immediately speak with a sales representative. I probably sat on the hold line listening to music for less than a minute. It wasn't a bad experience at all.
When I called, a recorded voice greeted me and said, "Thank you for calling GEICO. Your call may be recorded for quality purposes. How can I help you today?" I responded that I wanted to "Get an auto insurance quote." The voice assistant then said, "Okay. To get started, please say or enter your date of birth. Month, day and year." It read back my entry in confirmation and stated, "Next, please say or enter your full 10-digit phone number." At this point it got stuck for a minute and I had to repeat my phone number three times, but my dog was barking in the background and I think that messed up its voice detection abilities.
After that, it needed my ZIP code and then asked, "Have you had an auto policy with us within the last 6 months?" After I answered no, it stated, "If you or your spouse is active military, say yes, otherwise, say no." We are not a military family so I said no to that and then it told me that it would get a customer service agent to help me. From that point on, things went fast. There was a brief message about GEICO's privacy policy and then after a very short time on hold, I was able to talk to Aaron about auto insurance quotes.