If you are looking for an insurance agent in Austin, avoid this agent and this office. State Farm is a great company and there are plenty of other agents in town. Do yourself a favor and stay away from Karen Easterling!!!\r
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We originally switched my wife's auto coverage from her parent's State Farm policy to her own policy when she graduated college. A year later when I graduated, we added my car on to her policy. We went with Karen Easterling as her office was right down the road. A few years later when we purchased a house on the other side of town, we went to another State Farm office and asked if we could transfer our policy over to our office. They told us they would have to give Karen a courtesy call - she refused to let us leave our office.\r
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A few years later, still unhappy with Karen and her rude staff, we again tried to move our policy to another State Farm agent, and again, Karen would not let us leave. The other agent called Karen and was informed that Karen insisted on talking to us personally. She called me and I explained why we wanted to go to another agent and she very rudely insisted that ""because my wife was her client before she even knew me, she would not let us leave her for another agent unless my wife personally called her and told her to her face."" My wife absolutely hates dealing with things like this so we were again stuck with Karen. I think her last straw was after we hit a deer - Karen's office called, but not to assist with the claims process, but to remind us that life events like this our a great opportunity to consider adding life insurance to our coverage - THIS WAS BEFORE THE CAR HAD EVEN BEEN REPAIRED!\r
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Here is the problem: the only time we hear from Karen's office is around our birthdays each year trying to sell us life insurance (which we keep telling them we already have through our employers). Every time I have had to call or visit her office her staff has been rude and unhelpful.\r
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The last straw for us is involving a recent hit and run I was involved in. I was sitting at a red light and was hit by another vehicle. Luckily I was able get a picture of their plates before they sped off. We eventually managed to track down the other driver and while they did have insurance, their coverage was not great compared to our State Farm coverage and would be difficult to use our preferred shop (which is why we have stuck it out for so long), so we were given the option to have the other insurance company reimburse us for our deductible and file the claim through State Farm and a not at fault collision claim. Before making this decision, I called Karen Easterling's office to verify that doing so would not hurt us, cause our deductible go up, or change our coverage in any way. They assured us that as a not at fault claim, it would not. \r
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This past weekend we get a notice in the mail that State Farm has made the decision to not renew our auto policy. I called Karen yesterday and all she had to say was that it was out of her hands. When I asked If the fact that we have a $1200/year homeowners policy + a few other personal property coverage with her had any factor, and she told me we are welcome to take those elsewhere. IF HER OFFICE COULD HAVE AT LEAST TOLD US THAT THIS OR THE PREVIOUS NOT AT FAULT CLAIM WOULD HAVE CAUSED US TO LOSE OUR COVERAGE, WE WOULD HAVE GONE THROUGH THE EXTRA HASSLE OF FILING THE CLAIM THROUGH THE OTHER COMPANIES. Don't you think this would have been something they could have mentioned when I called to verify making the claim would not have an effect on our coverage??\r
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Both my wife and I grew up with parents with State Farm for 20+ years. We have had State Farm together since we have been out of College. Because of Karen Easterling we will now be moving our auto, homeowners and personal property coverage to another company. Again, State Farm is a great company, but do yourself a favor and STAY AWAY FROM KAREN EASTERLING!
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