GEICO'S GECKO HAS STICKY FINGERS - ALL THE BETTER FOR GRASPING
Fool me once - shame on you. After watching the cute gecko on the Geico commercials, I was sucked into hitting the web site to see him doing the robot. I should have suspected something amiss when I discovered intially that there was no dancing gecko. Still, they did offer a great quote on my motorcycle insurance that appeared to be substantially less than Progressive's renewal amount.

So, I waited until my Progressive expired - on a Sunday - and applied for a $156-00 from the lizard. Big mistake. Big. Huge!

Seems that if you let your old policy lapse by a few hours, you lose any "discount" that Geico hints at. Progressive ran out at 12:01 a.m. and at 5:00 a.m., or thereabouts, I had signed up for Geico to kick in at 12:01 a.m. - less than 24 hours later.

Alas, my reward for switching was (a) thanks for the $156 - we've taken that off you faster than a gecko can catch flies, and (b) now send us another $16 because you don't get a discount. The "savings" on Progressive suddenly became not so big a deal. Did anyone say "bait-and-switch?" How about "sharp practice?"

Seems that the sticky-fingered gecko is so strapped for cash that it needs $16 so badly it will risk losing a new customer for it. Hard to believe, isn't it, that the friendly gecko turns out to be nothing more than yet another insurance reptile.

Clearly I'm not the first to find this out. A quick web search reveals that the domain name www.geicosucks.com is owned by - yup, Geico! Now there's a company so secure in its dealings that it has to register domain names that people might use as a protest. Geicosux.com appears to be on hold, as does geicoblows.com.

I have encouraged the nice people at Geico to read this blog, just so they can maybe try to understand that business is not just about new customers but also keeping old ones. Whenever someone now types geicosucks.com into a search engine, this blog will respond to the call and folks will see it. Rest assured I'll be making sure that everyone I know gets to hear about Geico's shabby treatment. I know they can waive the $16 if they want and for them to pretend otherwise is churlish, mean-spirited, and not a little disingenuous. To insist on my forking out the $16 is indicative of an attitude - and we can guess what that attitude is.

Fool me once - shame on you: Fool me twice - shame on me. And I'm not going to be a fool again.