I am glad that I came across your story at the site for Farmers Direct. I

had received mail from Farmers Direct and after calling around decided to

use them as my car insurance carrier. I called on Wednesday (8/26/98) and

was told to put a check in the mail for $323.10 for coverage for 6 months

on my car. I was told that the coverage would start the day the envelope

was postmarked. I decided to call today to see if they had received my

check. I found that I had left their number at home so I called 800

directory assistance to get the number. There was no listing for Farmers

Insurance or Farmers Direct. I then tried Maryland information for Farmers

Insurance because my check was mailed to Timonium, Md. I did get a number

and I called and explained to the woman who answered the telephone that I

was trying to get a number for Farmers Direct which is a subsidiary of

Farmers Insurance, she said she was not allowed to give me that number even

after I gave her the reference number that Farmers Direct gave me.

I was starting to get a little nervous so I decided I'd go on the internet

and find a number for them and that is when I got your information. I then

went to the library in our law firm and looked up Farmers Insurance and

called their California number. I explained to the woman who answered that

I was trying to get the 800 number for Farmers Direct, a subsidiary of

Farmers Insurance. She told me a) there is no 800 number; b) she had not

heard of Farmers Direct; and c) Farmers did not have insurance coverage for

the state of Maryland.

Now I was totally confused and unnerved and realized that my present car

insurance ends today. I immediately called my insurance company

(Progressive) and had them extend my insurance for another 6 months. I

then called my bank to see if the check had cleared - it had not. I then

put a stop payment on the check which cost me $25 which is a lot better

than being out $300.

While Progressive is quite expensive for me, I now have 6 months to

research a little more for future car insurance.

I'd be most interested to hear what other problems people have had with

Farmers Direct.

My email address at home is: xxxxxxx@xxxx.com

So, while my time with Farmers Direct was indeed very, very short; I don't

know how they would have served me in a time of crises as it appears no one

(directory assistance or Farmers Insurance Group) had ever heard of them.