One of our Tatler readers alerted me to this story in comments on another post. It seems that GEICO, the insurance company whose ads feature cavemen, Eddie Money, two bluegrass pickers and a loveable gecko from origins unknown, has canceled a customer’s policy because the customer is engaged in the firearms industry. Here is the letter that GEICO sent to the canceled customer. Click to enlarge.
The letter was originally posted here, with little context to explain it. The blog Moonbattery picked it up, which is where our reader saw it.
What’s going on here? The letter is straightforward. GEICO says it is canceling the policy because the insured vehicle “is used in conjunction with a company that deals in the weapons industry.” Apparently the customer, now former customer, owns a company that manufactures gun parts. That’s quite a bit less sinister than “deals in the weapons industry.” GEICO’s phrase makes it sound like the customer is involved in running guns to Mexico or Syria. Those jobs have been picked up by the federal government in the Obama era.
I called up GEICO this afternoon and spoke with a nice gentleman. He was not in the company’s public relations department; GEICO makes contacting the public relations department extremely difficult if not impossible. The gentleman said he was aware of the issue and that there had been some misunderstanding with the customer back in December and that GEICO has tried reaching out to him. I pointed out that the letter is dated 1/22/2013, not December. The GEICO employee had no explanation for that. He did not confirm that the policy has been canceled. He also was not able to confirm whether GEICO would ever issue any public statement on the issue.
I pointed out to him that GEICO probably has millions of customers who own firearms, and who will be upset by this turn of events. He had no response to that, which would not be fair to expect of him, as he is not in the company’s difficult-to-reach public relations department.
GEICO does have a company blog. There are no statements about this story posted there. It has not been updated since January 17, 2013. The authors’ emails or other contact information have not been posted.
Since it’s owned by Obama’s crony Buffet through Berkshire Hathaway, this is less than surprising.
The big list of who hates guns – spend your money accordingly!
This is a good list for anyone considering memberships or donations.
Since none of my money goes to any of these groups, a list of businesses would be of more interest.
– the Eddie Money ad is funny…
Nope, he’s irritating and he sings even worse than I do.
My husband hates the pig ads. I think the gecko ads are pretty clever.
Even so, ix-nay on doing business with Geico.
Short Lane LLC
Miles City, MT
Next time use a Sharpie to blot out the address
Brian,
Letter mailed on Dec. 6 2012. Insurance cancelled on 1/22/2013.
Sorry – I forgot I meant to mock the “guy on the phone” a bit….. The silly business owner didn’t understand that the giant “Cancellation Notice” was just a joke – one of those silly form letter things!
The Second Amendment, like the rest of the Constitution, restricts action by the Federal Government beyond the powers granted to it by the Constitution. To the extent provided in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments, the Constitution also limits State Governments. However, it is impossible for any individual or private entity, acting in his or its private capacity, to violate it; trample it, perhaps, but not violate it.
That is dealt with in this, the third part of a three part series at my blog on the Constitution. Parts I and II are linked there.
It seems like a poster on a different thread is leading to a significant area of need. We all understand that our most effective strategy is to starve the beast that supports anti-American policies.
The information today regarding Rahm’s pressure on BofA is something that Americans need to know. 9 million firearms owners making withdrawals and closing accounts can be effective.
Likewise, the FreeBeacon reports that Lockheed, Wal-Mart and PG&G are part of an organization that is providing direct support to Organizing for Action.
As he mentioned – where do you find a solid list of companies that are directly involved in supporting these policy decisions? In short – a policy version of Snopes. As the Reed debacle has shown, when we have information, we can be effective.
Hey, I was able to download that letter from GEICO, adjust the levels in photoshop, and get all the redacted information
It’s not just GEICO. State farm cancelled its policy with Gary Atkinson, a farmer near Chapin, South Carolina because he had a modest shooting range on his property. Insurance companies issue policies on specific guns through a Scheduled Personal Property Endorsement, giving them a database of who owns what. Based on this data, Prudential cancelled coverage on a Connecticut police officer because it didn’t like the Mossberg 500 shotgun he included in his list of guns.
Citibank began closing the accounts of “businesses that deal in weapons”. When people complained, the bank saw the light. It changed its rules to treat firearms businesses “the same as any other small business”.
It’s a Full Court Press.
I’ve actually worked in the weapons industry. GEICO can go to blazes.
I hope states take a look to see if GEICO is discriminating, or violating state laws.
Course, to be fair, it could be an overly broad interpretation of a guideline that says “insuring gunpowder carts” is not our business.
We should all follow Geico’s example. Write them a letter that says we are changing our insurance because of their discrimination against the 2nd amendment. Keep a copy of the letter because you are going to need to send the same letter to Bank of America. I sent a letter to Lay’s Potato Chips after Eva Longoria called women who supported Gov. Romney twats. Her commercial has never been run on television in conservative Georgia again. And, no, I don’t think my letter changed their minds; I believe I was one of many who objected to Longoria’s degradation. If we band together we will be able to make a strong stand and we will have the comfort of knowing our money is not destroying the USA.
Some has to say it …
Dropping GEICO insurance is so easy – even a caveman can do it.
One thing your article should easily point out is that GEICO is an acronym and stands for “GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE Insurance company”. That says it all right there. I will never give them MY MONEY.
The date of mailing is December 6th, nice reading comprehension.
Time to boycott Geico with their anti-conservative slant.
Just showed this letter to da wifey – who is a licensed insurance agent.
Her initial response was “Ohhhh, they’re going to be in trouble……”
I had initially thought it might have something to do with trying to use personal insurance on a personal vehicle for commercial activities, but she pointed out in the letter that specific reference to commercial insurance.
At least in NC, they couldn’t get away with pulling a stunt like this on a number of levels – not the least of which is they are only giving them 15 days notice – plus they could only cancel the physical damages, not the liability.
The gentleman may want to contact the Montana equivalent of the Department of Insurance or state Insurance Commissioner and see what kind of response he would get. My suspicion is the state government officials who oversee insurance in Montana will take a dim view of Geico’s actions.
Or, if he gets no satisfaction, he could always move to NC….we have lots of other gun manufacturers here already.
Oh, and one more thing.
Gun owners should avoid Geico like the plague.
Your wifes an idiot and North Carolina is a take all comers state. Obviously the vehicle was canceled because transporting firearms is inherently dangerous. It makes the vehicle more prone to theft, vandalism and explosion. What company would write that risk?
Oh, where to begin you shit-for-brains idjit….
If you can pull your head out of your ass, how about you provide a fact based rebuttal to her observations regarding insurance you useless troll?
Oh, and as far as transporting guns in a vehicle, work on your reading comprehension you dumb f$ck – the guy manufacturers PARTS, not entire firearms.
Now let’s see…”EXPLOSIONS”?
Only in Hollywood is there such a hazard. When experiments were performed and entire crates of ammo were set afire, the only result was that the brass casings split. Yes, you had a hotter fire due to the propellant burning off but you didn’t have an explosion.
Let’s see…”vandalism”. Yep, that’s probably right up your alley you pencil-penised coward. Such crimes usually occur when the owner of the property isn’t there to stop it – hence it’s the actions of a coward.
Kind of like posting insults under the name “Anonymous”.
Let us know when your momma tosses ya out of living in her basement.
Two observations:
• While the cancellation was effective Jan 22, the letter was dated Dec 6 2012, 9 days before Sandy Hook.
• It’s possible that Short Lane LLC listed another line of business on its application, so that the cancellation is due to customer misrepresentation or a post-application change in the line of business.
Thus, don’t jump to conclusions, but it’s worth investigating further. I would like to know if this is an isolated, fact-specific incident, or if GEICO is in fact implementing a broader policy here.
If GEICO is implementing a broader policy, look for lots of letters like this.
“In a related story, the famous ‘GEICO Caveman’ ads will be canceled because, according to a GEICO company spokesperson, ‘Cavemen used spears to kill animals and each other. Spears are scary and dangerous and we don’t want to appear to be condoning possession and use of such weapons by the public.’”
(Just joking, but the above satire is truly “so stupid…it could be true.”)
Excellent timing by Geico, since my insurance is up for renewal.
So, goodbye Geico. Who should I switch to?
Dear Customer,
We are cancelling your policy because of you’re black.
Thank you for your past business.
Yours,
GEICO