RicV vs AAA

Ric Valentine vs AAA -- The Case of the Missing Insurance Policy (and much more)...

If you are interested in our "web summary with photos", scroll down past this list of documents!!

CA Dept of Insurance Complaint #1 - Ric V vs AAA -- now found here

CA Dept of Insurance Complaint #2 - Ric V vs CIG -- offline as of 10/9/2019 Currently in negotiations.

Chronology...

1997 - Ric became a customer of AAA car insurance since.
2017/08/30 - AAA sent Ric a Declaration Page prior to renewal (note the low cost of his policy...) Note the declaration type as a "renewal certificate". Note renewal certificate reference on the second page. - view
2017/08/31 - AAA sent out a renewal bill. The bill indicated a due date of 10/4/2017. It indicates policy renewal documents were sent prior (reference to declaration page prior) . view
2017/09/22 -- AAA sent out a payment reminder with a due date of 10/4/2017. The notice stated the amount due was an account balance. The notice stated the past due amount was $0,00. This notices leads a consumer to believe this is the continuation of an existing agreement and it leads the consumer to believe there is a reasonable late payment (past due) handling process. view
2017/09/29 -- Ric wrote checks for bills. Seemingly a payment was thought to have been mailed or called in on that day. There is a hand written notation of 9/29 on the statement. (But to be clear, we are not disputing the fact that no payment was processed by AAA). view
2017/10/04 - This was the Renewal date/Due Date/Expiration Date for AAA insurance policy. No related document, see docs above.
2017/10/05 - 2017/10/19 -- AAA was the only stakeholder on the planet that knew Ric was without insurance. No notices related to a late or missed payment were sent to Ric or anyone else. No cancellation notices were sent to Ric or anyone else.
2017/10/19 - (aquired in December 2018) -- "Proof" of notice provided from AAA to Bay Federal Bank of Cancellation effective 10/4/2019 -- view

NOTEs: (1) Bay Federal claims this notice was never received. (2) IMCOVERED.com does not show this notice. (3) The system used to convey the notice between insurance company and bank was/is LexusNexus -- a legal IT network ?!?! (4) This notice was sent 15 days after Ric's policy was cancelled. AAA claims the 15 day delay between cancellation date and notice was to accommodate late payments, yet they sent no late payment notice to Ric to stimulate a late payment?! (5) During the 15 day period between 10/4/2019 and 10/19/2019 AAA was the only stakeholder that knew Ric was an uninsured motorist. (6) The official reason given by AAA on the cancellation notice was "Cancellation Customer Request" !?!
2017/10/19 - (aquired in December 2018) -- "Proof" of notice provided from AAA to the CA DMV notice of Insurance Cancellation as of 10/4/2019 -- view

Reason given was "Coverage Cancellation"
In October 2017 and November 2017 notices were sent from Bay Federal Credit Union about a lack of insurance. HOWEVER, these notices started before 2017/10/19 and they are clearly related to an automatic reminder system that triggers on prior policy expiration dates. The assumption at the time was that the policy information had not made it from AAA to the bank.
2017/11/29 -- Information was submitted to Bay Federal which indicates there was coverage from 10/4/2017-10/4/2018, but nothing about the data presented makes much sense. Data is in incorrect fields, and seemingly the information was not cross checked from AAA and/or did not originate from AAA. view << this doc only shows the document map and the 2017/11/29 drill down detail...

This next view link contains a screen shot of the Imcovered.com portal and ALL insurance related docs since 2015 . Conspicuously absent is the 2017/10/19 notice AAA supposedly sent to the bank -- and you can see waht the digital communciation cods look like with this document packet.... view
2018/10/24 at 10:45am --- 12.5 months after 2017/10/04 Ric was in an accident involving his car, one other moving vehicle and a parked vehicle. There was approximately $15,000 in damage to the three vehicles total and no bodily injuries.

See 2a) Accident & Fraud Summary Exhibits at http://ric-vs-cig.bryancanary.com for photoes and accident details
1. Ric pulled out his insurance cards at the scene of the accident. He Realized they were old so called AAA to get information. In that call he was told he didn't have insurance and had not had insurance for 12.5 months (since 10/4/2017).
2. Ric went to the AAA sales office in Monterrey directly from the accident.
3. Chris Rauber issued him a new policy and had him sign a statement saying he didn't have insurance at time of accident.
4. Chris Rauber indicated their policies are like "new policies" each year and thus were not subject to cancellation notices.
5. CIG contacted Ric by cell phone for a statement. He was driving and he told them he'd call them back.
6. State Farm contacted Ric by cell phone and he made a statement.
7. Ric called Angelica at CIG back and got her voicemail. He left a message (see phone records).
8. Ric tried to make a statement to CIG but was never able to do so (see http://ric-vs-cig.bryancanary.com for all further accident and CIG details)
2018/10/29 - DMV sent Ric a notice of car registration suspension for lack of insurance effective as of 1/22/2018.

Notes (1) This is the only notice from DMV regarding an insurance cancellation problem and it was delivered over 1 year after AAA supposedly notified the DMV of the insurance matter. (2) This notice was issued on the day we were getting very aggressive with AAA asking for notice details from 2017 (3) The effective date of this makes no sense to any of us (4) The timing of the notice sure alludes to the idea someone covered their tracks with a DMV notification after the accident - view
2018/10/27 - 2018/11/07 -- Emails with local AAA Branch. Sales Person Chris Strauber, and his sales supervisor Carmen Jones. These emails reveal various types of information (email dialogue highlights posted with 11/30 DOI complaint information )
2018/10/31 - 2018/11/29 -- emails with Josh at Corporate reveal various types of information (email dialogue highlights posted with 11/30 DOI complaint information ). This is when he provides the 2017 notices.
2018/11/30 - A claim was mailed to the California Department of Insurance against AAA for improper notification processes.
1. California Department of Insurance Complaint Form (signed 11/29/2018) -- view
2. Written Statement for California Department of Insurance -- view
3. Email dialogue highlights with AAA/CSAA's Monterey CA Branch -- view
4. Email dialogue highlights with AAA/CSAA's CA corporate office -- view
2018/12/10 - CA Department of Insurance acknowledges complaint -- view
2018/12/14 - AAA issued a written response to our complaint glossing over the most relevant parts -- view
2018/12/18 - AAA issued a written response to our complaint detailing claims filed by others and those denials -- not relevant since no disagreement on dates policy did or did not exist -- view
2018/12/24 - We responded to AAA's 12/14/2018 response. We clarify the complaint mis-characterization and resort to a "circle the right answer" for legal association of AAA documents to CA statutes... -- view
2018/12/25 - 2019/01/16 - Cat had AAA's tongue. They were silent. A nudge to the CA DOI was required to stimulate a response.
2019/01/17 - AAA responded with 1.25 pages of inverted prose that required inference that could lead to incorrect understanding. view
2019/01/30 - We responded asking Tricia for clear answers that don't require inverted prose reading skills and inference. We detail the path AAA has taken into the Statute Rabbit Hole. We detail what industry standards are . We provide simple and clear suggestions for Statute changes to close this black hole. We ask a lot more relevant questions. This document is UNORTHODOX. -- view
xxxx - Tricia replied back without answering any more questions...

Accident Liability Related Evidence...

Accident Specific Diagrams, Sketches, Video Screen Captures, Photos and Statement(s)

Google Earth -- Pre and Post Accident Positions annotated on Google Earth Image - view
Hand Sketch -- Post Accident Vehicle Positions and Vehicle Contact Points based on photos taken at time of accident -- view
Video Screen Captures1 -- Google Doc with static screen capture images and captions of entire Accident as it transpired from Security Camera with good line of sight -- view
Video Screen Captures2 -- Google Drive Folder with the same static screen capture image of entire Accident with annotations on the images themselves. Click through the images one at a time to see the accident unfold... -- view
Photos - Accident scene photos of car damage and some positioning photos -- view
Statement - for Insurance Companies (CIG, AAA and others)-- view

Web Summary in story form...

Imagine this situation....

You've been a customer of AAA car insurance since 1997 with no policy lapses.
On October 24, 2018 you get into a car accident and you realize you have old insurance cards in the glove box.
You call AAA (CSAA) and they tell you you have not been insured for 12.5 months because they never received the first payment on your renewal policy that was supposed to have gone in place October 4, 2017.
You check your AAA folder in your file cabinet and you have ZERO notices related to past due/failure to pay and you have ZERO records related to a cancellation. And although you have the top 2/3 of the renewal bill with a hand written note implying payment was made (presumable by mail, but possibly by phone, not sure), when you check your bank records it is clear no payment was processed via check or cc.

When you ask AAA about a lack of notices, AAA tells you you did NOT get any failure to pay or cancellation notices because they don't view the first payment on a renewal policy the same as all other payments due. In their (fanciful) world the renewal of an insurance policy is in fact just the initiation of a new contract in disguise, and in their world that means no notices need to be sent if the first payment on a renewal policy isn't received. In their world a renewal notice is really just like a quote for new coverage with a new client, and if payment doesn't make it, the client wasn't interested... (never mind the fact that the policy number upon payment stays the same, and the payment notice and the payment reminder notice use terms like Account Balance Due, Past Due $0.00 etc. )

This is the original orientation of Ric's car and the parked care BEFORE the accident. Ric moved his car back into this position for this photo after the accident. Ric's Green Subaru is in foreground and the green Lexus in front of his car is the one that was hit. ATTENTION: The water in the lane next to the parked car in front of him is where Ric's windshield wiper fluid leaked from accident. That is where the front end of his car was during the pinch. As can be seen from this alone, Ric was well into the lane of travel at the time of the accident.

Yes, you read correctly. When AAA doesn't receive the first payment on a renewal policy, they simply drop the insurance coverage and the insurance client with no grace periods and no notifications to the client. The fact that payment processing problems could have been the result of the mail service or AAA themselves is fully irrelevant to them.
And it gets better. According to AAA, their notification process fully complies the the CA Insurance Commission and consumer protection laws related to insurance policy notifications and policy cancellation for the 5th largest economy on the planet...
Does this sound pretty illogical? It should. And it does. The State of California very clearly lays out notices for failure to pay and cancellation, but in an interesting twist, those policies don't explicitly state that the first payment on a renewal policy is or is not governed by common sense consumer protection laws that would prevent the creation of uninsured motorists overnight without notice. And that leads to another question... could Ric really be the first to complain about this utterly insane handling of the first payment on a renewal policy, or has the CA Department of Insurance addressed this on a case by case basis but turned a blind eye to systemically clarifying this situation in the past?
And then it got better. It became apparent AAA was sending their 20 day renewal notice out 35 days prior to renewal so it could qualify as an "expiration" notice, which is grouped with "cancellation notices" in the statutes. Yes. AAA is double dipping on notices. And as for that that 10 day payment reminder notice? What seems like just a logical reminder since they send out the bills so far in advance is in fact doubling legally as a cancellation notice -- and behind the scenes AAA calls that a cancellation notice too, although if you call them on it, they will switch to the public label -- a payment reminder notice...
Who would benefit from such an illogical process? As the old story goes, follow the money.

There are at least three groups we identified that benefit from such an illogical system.  There's a surprise in here we didn't expect to find, and it is related to the incentive systems for AAA Sales Agents and Sales offices. This surprise prevents folks from having to stretch into a conspiratorial mindset for sure, although that likely shouldn't be disregarded either...

Beneficiaries of vaguely worded CA Rules which do not explicitly specify that the first payment on a renewal policy is governed by failure to pay and cancellation notices and process as all other late payments are...

1) Litigation attorney lobbyists and strategists love anything and everything that increases litigation opportunities. We have FIVE times the number of attorneys of any other first world country and someone has to keep them busy. And no better way to do that than to encourage corporations and E and O insurance buyer's to adopt policies that illogically discourage insurance cancellation notices. No notices leads to more people driving without insurance unknowingly, and that leads to good business for litigation attorneys.

2) Those that financially benefit from the sale and/or management of the uninsured motorist funds are going to benefit larger if the fund is greater and if there are more claims

3) And in a surprising discovery, it seems AAA sales agents and sales offices benefit significantly more from originating new policies than they do renewing existing, and with this simple little fact, things really started to make more sense easily. It seems AAA Sales Agents and Sales Office Managers aren't nearly as concerned about people driving around without insurance as they are their own commission checks, and the later is fatter when policies lapse and re-applications are process. -- and that's what makes this all sooooo dysfunctional.

4) other??  There are likely numerous other possible reasons AAA has evolved into this secret notice insurer where everyone but the consumer knows what is going on... but what are the driving reasons behind the scenes?

A real sham(e) for sure...

So we know why Ric didn't get notices from AAA, but what about his Bank or the DMV? Surely Ric would have gotten notice from the Bank or the DMV right? Now, imagine this...

Ric's bank uses a web based portal called IMCOVERED.COM for tracking insurance policies on the cars they have liens on.

According to AAA employees as well as an experienced Insurance Broker in CA, that system should be showing an insurance cancellation notice, and it does NOT.

And in fact, it shows a document created 11/29/2017 indicating he had insurance!?! How could that be?? Well, it looks like a consumer can in fact upload data related to their insurance policy, assuming it would be cross checked, but there doesn't seem to be any cross check mechanism in place for verifying consumer uploaded data either, and we aren't even sure if that's how that got there to start with either...

What a strange and broken system , yes? Strange by design? How could it be anything else...
The California DMV also has a system for tracking insurance. It appears Ric's registration was suspended (OR WAS IT?) No notices were sent out? The only written notice Ric got about a suspended registration came approximately 5 days AFTER the accident (which was 12.5 months after the insurance was dropped)_ and that notice indicated he became uninsured in January 2018, approximately 3 months after the loss of coverage. Requests for clarification from the DMV on this illogical notice were unanswered, and the timing on the notice from the DMV is awfully suspicious...

None of this makes any sense either does it. It does NOT appear that AAA sent out a notice to the DMV in a timely manner either.

In a yet stranger twist, we were told by a seasoned insurance agent that in the state of CA, you can renew your registration in CA even when it is suspended for lack of insurance, because proof of insurance isn't required to get vehicle registration!?

Yes. You read that correct. Turns out you don't need proof of insurance to register a car in CA and turns out you may not need valid proof of insurance to renew registration while it is suspended for having no insurance... and get this, to get your registration back on track after an insurance related suspension, the ONLY WAY to do that is via payment at an online portal... (humm. who makes money on that payment processing system?)
How do three notification systems fail simultaneously?

AAA doesn't feel they need to notify the consumer when a payment doesn't arrive by a due date.
AAA indicated they would have notified lien holders in a timely manner of the missing payment and the policy cancellation, but that does not appear to have transpired.
AAA indicated they would have notified the DMV in a timely manner of the missing payment and the policy cancellation, but that does not appear to have transpired.
Are we to believe conscious, conscientious citizens intentionally created systems from Swiss cheese to prevent uninsured motorists? Yes, Swiss cheese they appear to be...

Now, imagine this...

The accident you got into involved 3 cars.
You pulled out of a parallel parking spot and out of nowhere a burgundy Lexus starts pushing you into the parked car that was in front of you.
Had that parked car not been there, most likely the damage from the impact to your car and the burgundy car would have been minimal, as the cars were nearly parallel, but once the parked car was hit, everything got rather mangled in the pinch.

The burdgandy car was the moving vehicle. Her right front bumper struck rick in the drivers side door. She pushed and pinned him against the parked car. Then she slid down his side on an angle. Her right wheel well area caught on Rics front left bumper as she passed him by.

Her car got hooked on the front left bumper of Ric's car as she moved down the side of his car and eventually across the front of it.

Ric's right side was pinned against the parked car. He was pushed so hard against her his car appears to have been lifted and then fallen slightly has the pressure increased and decreased (from the videos we see that).

This is the damage done to the SIDE of the parked car that was in front of Ric. Hard to imagine he hit her coming out of a parking spot given he was pushed sideways into a car that was parked in front of him...

The driver of the Burgandy car made a claim at the scene that Ric pulled out and hit her on the side. Ric refuted that and told her she hit him and pushed him into the parked car. Her position made no sense at all. The final position of the cars would not have been a pinch and the damage on the cars would have shown something other than what it showed had Ric struck her instead of vice versa
A rough estimate puts the cumulative damage to the three vehicles at around $18,000 combined. Maybe a little less. (yikes!?!)
Feeling you were not at fault, confident you had checked the traffic flows before you pulled out, and baffled as to where this burgundy Lexus came from, you were diligent about pursuing video from the car wash at the scene of the accident. And low and behold, the camera captured everything that happened in the accident, with a near perfect line of site. And as can be seen in the video, this burgundy Lexus did appear almost out of no where, and the driver of the car had a clear line of site to your tail lights for a minute or so prior to impact. It is hard to imagine how that driver didn't know you were trying to make a move, but accidents happen.
Yes. You read correctly. We have a video of the accident too. It's one of those videos that has a low frame refresh rate, so it misses some of the fast action, but the view prior to the accident makes it crystal clear the driver of the moving vehicle had direct line of site to the tail end of Ric's car and his taillight for a lot of time before the accident...AND WE ARE TALKING DIRECT, UNBLOCKED LINE OF SITE TO RIC'S CAR AND TAILIGHTS FOR SURE!!

Welcome to the Case of the Missing Insurance Policy...

Ric's Resolution Attempts

Ric (and his business manager) have made attempts to communicate with a Sales Agent and the Sales Manager of the local Sales office and they have attempted to communicate with a Policy Relations person at the Corporate Level.

Ric made an offer to pay any and all past premiums to bring his account current and those offers were ignored.

And in an interesting twist, it seems due to the legal concept of Estoppel, if in fact they followed their normal business processes with these illogical notices, to make an exception for Ric now to avoid a far larger quagmire of attention would create a rash of other problems related to breaking protocols, so it seems they are in a real pickle now (or maybe they are in the right? Nah. Can't be...).

Seemingly, what has to happen now is involvement from the CA Insurance Commissioner. If he/she sides with Ric, he/she can force them to accept a back payment to rectify this without jeopardizing their policies as viewd from an Estoppel perspective. And while that would help Ric out what about others that have suffered one way or another from this type of notice black out?

Are these AAA policies inline with State Law what kind of hoodwink games are going in this "consumer friendly" state? And if not how does AAA go about changing them and how fast can that happen and what consequences might exist for using illegal or inappropriate policies for years or decades prior?

Yes all an interesting pickle indeed.

We found Chris Rauber's signature block interesting.

"Please don't keep me a secret!" -- he says...

Somehow we are thinking this isn't what he had in mind, but so often is the way with the ever slippery nature of the expression of intention.

Needless to say, there will be no personal referrals for Chris, Carmen, Josh or anyone at AAA at this time or in the near future and per Chris's request, we didn't want to keep him a secret.

Ric Valentine vs AAA -- The Case of the Missing Insurance Policy (and much more)...

Chronology...

Other Documents

Accident Liability Related Evidence...

Web Summary in story form...

Ric's Resolution Attempts

Home

About

Contact

​Ric Valentine vs AAA -- The Case of the Missing Insurance Policy (and much more)...

Chronology...

Other Documents

Accident Liability Related Evidence...

Web Summary in story form...

Ric's Resolution Attempts

Home

﻿About﻿

Contact﻿

Ric Valentine vs AAA -- The Case of the Missing Insurance Policy (and much more)...

About

Contact