03:30:40 PM
Monday, January 18, 2010
US Department of Justice
Eric Holder, Attorney General
950 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530-0001
RE: Automobile Club of Southern California
3333 Fairview Road Costa Mesa, CA. 92626
To Whom It May Concern:
We are writing to you because we don’t have a voice at the Automobile Club of Southern California, which is also known as AAA.
Many of us are policyholders as well as employees and we have witnessed a lot of illegal things going on at AAA and the things that we speak of are supervisors in the Policy Management Group instructing employees not correct any AAA errors that will give the customer a refund. We are strictly prohibited from engaging in any activities that will cause AAA to have to give the customer a refund. For example, there are different rating factors for men and for women at AAA and if an employee sees that the original writing agent on the policy coded a female as a male, he or she is instructed to just leave it as is and to stop looking for errors and to not educate the insured.
Also, if a man is listed as single, which is another rating factor, and we know that he is married and that the agent who wrote the policy listed him as single in error, we are forbidden from making this correction because married is a different rating factor than single and the insured’s premium would be decreased and if the policy is already paid in full a refund would need to be issued and if the policy is not paid in full a credit would be given to the policyholder and if requested the policyholder could request to be credited since the inception of the policy since this error in coding affected his premium and we will be fired if we make these corrections or if we notify management of the error through internal e-mail, because any e-mails outlining problems with automobile policies are strictly prohibited and if sent anyway the person sending them will be given a verbal warning and he or she will be on their way out the door because management will find away to get rid of them just as they have in the past.
Also, since mileage driven affects the premium, employees are encouraged to hide from the customer the fact that they are transferring the miles driven on the vehicle that is being eliminated from the policy to the designated vehicle of the person who will be driving another vehicle on the policy. For example, if a 1998 Mazda is removed from the policy and that vehicle was driven by Sally who put 19,000 miles on the Mazda, then those miles would be transferred to the new vehicle on the policy that Sally will now be driving and even if that vehicle already has 10,000 miles on it. Now the problem with not telling the customer that one is transferring the miles from a vehicle that is being eliminated to a vehicle that is still remaining on the policy, is that they are never notified that the premium will in many cases increase due to the mileage and they are also not given the opportunity to object to the miles being transferred once they realize how it will affect their premium.
Employees that ask too many questions and that object to what is being done behind the scenes are looked upon as problems and as liabilities and their careers at the Automobile Club of Southern California are shortened. Some other examples of errors that are not corrected are discounts for parking in a garage and for having an alarm and for having airbags. And the reason that many of these errors are not being corrected is because supervisors are telling employees to turn a blind eye and to stop looking for things while reviewing the customers policy and to only do what the customer asks of them and not to point anything out to them. Essentially we are being told that if the policyholder doesn’t ask then don’t tell them and if a problem arises that the policyholder wants to complain about don’t give them any addresses where they can write a letter, Supervisors in the Policy Management Group and the staff of the Member Relations Team will simply talk to the insured over the phone and employees are also being encouraged not to enter detailed notes because the management team in the Policy Management Group doesn’t want there to be a paper trail since our notes are legal documents.
Right now there are several employees that are being intimidated and harassed and retaliated against because they will not go along with the status quo.
Below we will list the names of the supervisors in the Policy Management Group and you may verify that these individuals work there and that they are indeed supervisors and managers in this group and by doing so you will come to understand that this letter genuinely comes from those who are concerned about the policyholders.
Dale Bowman: Manager of the Policy Management Group and Manager of the following employees:
Michelle Spigner: Employee number E630136 Phone number 714-850-8276 Fax # 714-800-2748
Michael Worth: Employee number E628905 Phone number 714-850-7613 Fax # 714-800-2788
Kimberly Reddick: Employee number E110021 Phone number 714-850-5979 Fax # 714-800-2773
Kimberly King: Employee number E635242 Phone number 714-850-5107 Fax # 714-850-3509
Debbie Massie: Employee number E636156 Phone number 714-850-8174 Fax # 714-327-7386
Julie Clark: Employee number E630982 Phone number 714-850-8137 Fax # 714-800-2757
Belinda Ongjunco: Employee number E623149 Phone number 714-850-5072 Fax # 714-850-3500
Charon May: Employee number E111386 Phone number 714-850-5660 Fax # 714-327-6424
Lorinda Schmieder: Employee number E107125 Phone number 714-850-6813 Fax # 714-800-2782
Melinda Escandon: Employee number E108197 Phone number 714-850-6872 Fax # 714-549-6072
Also Dale Bowman oversees all of the intimidation and harassment and retaliation and he should be seen as part and parcel of the problem because he reports directly to those on the fourth floor which includes Tom McKernan the CEO of AAA. And Mr. McKernan along with the other Executives of the company are the driving force behind misleading the policyholders and behind employees being instructed to look the other way when they see problems since the problems on the accounts (i.e., errors made by AAA employees) would generate a refund or a credit to the policyholder and since these same errors also generate revenue for the company as well as create bigger bonuses for the CEO and for the other top Executives and for the Managers and Supervisors of the Policy Management Group.
Unfortunately, nothing will ever change unless the US Department of Justice and the Attorney General and others on the outside of the Automobile Club of Southern California get involved because it is impossible to bring about change from the inside because the employees working on the second floor are constantly watched and harassed and retaliated against by the supervisors who are constantly patrolling the floor and who are also calling out employees names on the hand radios that they use to intimidate the staff. And employees are routinely yelled at by the supervisors and the supervisors are hostile towards them and get in their faces and basically say take it or you will be fired and escorted out of the building and there won’t be any unemployment because we won’t pay.
Thanks for any help that you may be able to offer
The employees of the Automobile Club of Southern California
CC: Los Angeles Times
CC: Orange County Register
CC: Fox News/Bill O’Reilly
CC: Citizine Magazine
Thomas Mckernan’s personal e-mail address: mckernan.tom@aaa-calif.com
