Day: August 31, 2009

A view from the inside of State Farm’s call center: “I think the companies screw over people regularly.” Lorrie Beno, Welcome to Slabbed

Q. …….Would you be willing to chat with him briefly about this? He just has a much better grip on the issues in this case and I think that it would be more helpful to him to talk directly to you.

A. Wow. I’m kind of torn here. I do this – I’m in this business because I like to see that people get every dime they’re entitled to and that’s what gives me satisfaction in this job. I think the companies screw over people regularly. On the other hand, I have had my neighbor suing me for four years on an easement that’s been in existence since 1920. I have been abused by a whole number of attorneys including the judge who likes to keep his docket padded and that’s why we’re in this situation.

Q. I understand.

A. So right now, I have really had my fill of attorneys and don’t care to help one out. I wouldn’t help one cross a busy street right now.

The litigants on the post katrina coast know exactly where State Farm adjuster Lorrie Beno is coming from with those remarks which were transcribed from the recording of the phone coversations she had with a private investigator hired by the Weatherly family in their fight against State Farm. We seen our fair share of judges (mostly former insurance defense lawyers) who don’t follow the law or abuse elderly policyholders like Magistrate Walker has Mrs Politz in her suit against Nationwide. We’ve seen lawyers with questionable ethics like Scot Spragins and his sidekick Lucky Tucker of Hickman, Goza and Spragins abuse the court system and flaunt court orders earning fees from State Farm. I could go on and on giving many other examples but let’s visit back with Miss Beno as she describes how State Farm adjusted flood claims:

A. I don’t know how it was handled on the wind at all.

Q. Um-hum.

A. The only thing I can tell him, which he probably already knows, is find out that adjustor has been an adjustor.

Q. Right.

A. Because of the laws that are made that people are screaming to see their adjustor immediately, they hire off the street and give them some little short training course and make them an adjustor and get them a temporary license and send them out. Continue reading “A view from the inside of State Farm’s call center: “I think the companies screw over people regularly.” Lorrie Beno, Welcome to Slabbed”

Since we’re talking insurance adjusting today

Jessica at Indexed drew a salient card recently which captures some of the general public perceptions of claims professionals. Warning if you are an insurance adjuster on a bad day or work at Pilot, E. A. Renfroe or Worley please don’t peek below the fold. Continue reading “Since we’re talking insurance adjusting today”

The Lockerbie Bomber and Big Oil

DO GIANT CORPORATIONS REALLY CONTROL SOVEREIGN NATIONS . . . OR IS THAT JUST CONSPIRACY HYPE?

Ever seen pictures of Muslim kids rocking back and forth in a madrasa school? Think vacation bible school on anabolic steroids. Seriously, it’s pretty sad. Little kids, like 5 and 6 spend the whole day kneeling, rocking back and forth while they monotonously recite the Koran for hours on end. Some of these kids are regimented like this for years and years. I have no medical idea what happens to the human psyche when a brain is robotically programmed this way, but it helps me comprehend the phenomena of suicide bombing. Scientists say we’re hard wired for survival and nothing is more repugnant to human nature than self-destruction. So, if that’s true, how does a person’s natural, hard wired instinct to live get overwritten by a phony religious command from Allah to blow oneself to smithereens? Remember the 60’s phrase “brainwashing,” to me it’s no more or less complicated than that.

So what’s the point? Well, it seems one such brainwashed Muslim grew up, made a bomb and in 1988 vaporized 259 people aboard an airplane over Scotland, and murdered 11 more on the ground. But he didn’t do the suicide thing. He hid the bomb in a Samsonite suitcase. Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi, head of security for Libyan airlines finally was caught for masterminding the plot. After a preposterously convoluted trial lasting 9 years, he was finally convicted and shut away in a Scottish prison. 

Last week the Muslim got a get-out-of-jail-free card, 19 years early, and went home to Libya. Then came an impassioned international outcry, mainly by the families of people he blew up. Everyone wondered . . . what in the world is Scotland, a seemingly civilized country, thinking? Political officials across the world issued harsh rebukes. Finally responding to international pressure the Scots were forced to speak. Here’s what they told us: the Muslim was released early on compassionate grounds, as “he had terminal prostate cancer.”

A few more days of worldwide anger boiled-up, and then it came out . . . this wasn’t the real reason he was let go . . .it was a private offshore oil deal. Continue reading “The Lockerbie Bomber and Big Oil”