Farmers Insurance blushes Company is mailing thousands of apologies for mistake in billing

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By Richard Williamson - Denver Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer

Farmers Insurance is sending out nearly 50,000 apologies because its customers in Colorado and other states weren't able to make electronic premium payments on New Year's Eve.

"This was not Y2K-related in any way," said Farmers spokeswoman Kitty Miller. "It was a manual programming error in our billing system."

Farmers is the No. 2 insurer in Colorado. Miller said she did not know how many customers were affected in specific states, including Colorado.

The December payment will be taken from customers' bank accounts along with the January payments, Miller said.

All insurance policies will remain in force, she said.

"There may be some confusion when they receive their bank statement and the charge that they usually see from Farmers isn't there," she said.

Farmers is sending letters to its customers today explaining the problem and telling them to expect a double bill in January

"We sincerely apologize to our customers for any inconvenience," Miller said.

The problem occurred when a programmer who was updating January billings accidentally eliminated the withdrawals scheduled for late December, Miller said.

By law, Farmers and other companies can only make electronic withdrawals from customers' bank accounts on dates the customers specify.

[ENDS] January 8, 2000

http://insidedenver.com/news/0108farm.shtml

-- Cheryl (Transplant@Oregon.com), January 09, 2000


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