Monthly Archives: February 2016

02.16.16
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Dear Microsoft,

Dear Satya,

YOU Ran An Update and it f’d my day up.  See at 6pm on Wednesday we were all good but when I got back on at noon Thursday we weren’t.   What happened?   Your update happened.   Now I am out 5 hours of time not to mention will pay $100+ toy support team.  Yup, double wammy.

Now I had to fix this but what dawned on me was this.  You screwing my computer up is a problem but not as big as this.  I work with insurance companies whose websites ONLY FUNCTION on Internet Explorer.   Not Edge not Chrome just an unsupported browser. Scary, scary stuff!!

Now as I write this a few days later I want to apologize.  I missplaced my anger at you and Microsoft.  The reality is, I should be pointing the finger at my insurance company partners.  Shame on them for not being available on other sites.  Oh, in fairness, some of them are, but the reality is their systems do not function at full capability.

So again, my apologies.  Maybe your company can work with the industry to help them upgrade their sites.

Regards,

Billy Van Jura

02.03.16
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When the system breaks

I lose some sleep and wake up thinking about yesterday’s “loss.”  Not really a loss more like a time where everything seems to match up but it just doesn’t.  Everything is there;

  • was referred by a trusted person(is there any better way)
  • has been with me a few years(yup, 98+% stay)
  • had actually met in person(shocking but happens)
  • helped with a non-insurance thing(helped get one a job)

So you go into the renewal time ready to follow the plan and this time it doesn’t work.  Factually the overall plan always works.  But, within that plan, sometimes the sub-plan doesn’t get the expected result.  Take the other set of circumstances;

  • two people in a relationship(fortunately insurance is ahead of the rest of the country)
  • above average credit(yup, like it or not insurance scores work)
  • home owner(they better rethink this one soon)
  • college degree(not as valuable as you think)

Feeling good at this point but then the bad side of the Insurance industry steps in.  One driver gets a ticket for using his cellphone.  No big deal right?  WRONG  Fortunately the current rate is still competitive in the market.

Quick aside; the sooner we stop punishing people for things that are more driven by profit the  better.  Some companies have wised up and in many cases look at DWI/DUI differently.  Cell phone use is in a similar category.  Good people make mistakes.  We have an imperfect “justice” system. Act accordingly.

 So you look at putting the home and auto with the same company, this has not been possible yet,  and you think;

Life might be slightly easier if you couldn’t give a multi-policy discount

But that is not the case so we trudge forward and the news gets worse.  You are in a pretty good spot but then you remember the small claim last year.  By small I mean a payout of $429.  And in steps the flawed, old, non customer-centric philosophy of throwing away every other rating variable because somebody used their insurance.  Flag on the play, I am calling a foul or honestly just saying BullS*&$ .   You wonder why so many new “tech” companies are coming into “your” space.  You wonder why you have to(really choose to) spend so much money on advertising to get new customers.

It is because you are not treating your current ones very good!!!!

Enough already.  I am moving forward, my model works and soon enough this model will solve this nonsense as well.  Honestly, waiting for Insurance companies to do it is a colossal waste of time.

Moving forward.