Transamerica formerly Monumental review: Disatification of customer service & billing against senior citizens 3

Words cannot express the disgust towards TransAmerica Insurance formerly Monumental. This letter is written on behalf of the customer, my mother. She is a widow and also a senior citizen in which I take care of on my own. She has been a loyal customer with TransAmerica for over 26 years (since 1985); since I was a little girl and even then I was outraged in the poor quality of customer service they demonstrated towards her. It is sad and a shame when a child recognizes bad customer service and greed from anyone not to mention a company. Recently, I have reached a breaking point and will no longer tolerate the continued blatant disrespect from TransAmerica and her being taken advantage of because she is a senior citizen. Let me be loudly vocal in stating that this has been the norm since she has been a customer. She would send in her payment and then they would IMMEDIATELY send her a letter stating that her insurance has lapsed & has no value & if she wants it reinstated she must pay double or triple. Not wanting her insurance to lapse and believing the lies of illogical reasons given from reps over the phone, she would send in the overpayments. She has been doing this for over 20 years!
Recently, TransAmerica advised my mother to send a payment of $205 that they claim was past due? My mother sent them a money order on the 1st of December 2011 (for what they asked for, though I begged her not to send it). They sent a letter stating to her that her insurance had lapsed and her account had no value and to be reinstated she must send in $380 (again almost double). Wow! Go figure, typical TransAmerica. My mother called & spoke with a rep who told her that the reason her insurance lapsed was because they didn’t receive it until December 9, 2011, which was too late. My problem with this is, the payment was sent to Little Rock, Arkansas; it’s only minutes from Memphis! I understand payments have to undergo processing & then be notated & all of that, but I refuse to believe it took 9 days for them to receive mail from Memphis. I am not buying that! And for whatever odd reason that it might have been received by the 9th, why would you be so quick to cancel a client’s insurance that has been with you for 26 years instead of simply applying a late fee? This indicates that this company places profit over the customer. Sure, companies are in business to profit; but a wise company knows that without customers there is no business AND you still will not profit. My mother & I inquired with TransAmerica about a number of things concerning her account & received a letter from Jenny Williams, the Quality Assurance Coordinator, who claims that since my mom took out a loan 5 years ago it has made her value go down & that my mom’s payments were $48 a month & she was sending only $34 which wasn’t enough to keep the policy current which was the reason for the lapse, but they would be happy to reinstate for $380. First, please take notice that her reason in the lapse is different than what the rep my mom spoke with gave. Second, regarding the loan, my mother states that she took out a very small loan (only$1, 000 or less) that she understood to be her own through equity & would not have to repay. Next, her monthly payments have been $33.97 since I was a child so if there was an increase to $48 she would have paid it instead of the $34 (an additional .03 monthly) which she paid. Therefore, my mother never received any written docs from TransAmerica stating that there would be an increase in her policy to $48. Nor do any reps inform her over the phone that her policy went up to $48 a month during the various times she spoke to them over the years. She does not have a whole life insurance policy (which from my understanding increases and is expensive) but a universal one. If her premiums were going to fluctuate throughout her lifespan, I seriously doubt she would have done business with this company! If my mother can have value after reinstatement that she has accrued though it’s so called lapsed, I wonder is it really cancelled or does she really have value? To add insult to injury, TransAmerica returned her money for what they claimed was a past due amount of $205? Why would they tell her to send money and then send it back? Who does that? And at her age of 64 what is she supposed to do, start over? TransAmerica knows good and well that when or if senior citizens have to start over getting life insurance their premiums are highly expensive and the value is less since they are considered a higher risk of dying more quickly. But my mother should not have to start over after investing with a company for 26 years and paying them well over what they deserve. I am trying my best to ensure that I take the very best care of my mother; you only get one! Like millions of other Americans, I am negatively impacted by the economy and employment opportunities have not extended an offer to me for over several years, so I an unable to come out of my pocket to pay for her burial expenses. Furthermore, this should not even be an additional bone on top of our already stressful plate of things we are undergoing to survive. I have reasonable cause to believe that her rights have been violated over the course of the years by this company due to her elderly age. I am confident, that if it’s being done to her, other customers have had or are experiencing the same tumultuous horror. When you have someone who has been your customer for 10+ years, one should not be so quick to kick them to the curb! But it is obvious that TransAmerica does this purposefully! If you have a grandmother, mother, father, uncle, aunt, or guardian that this has occurred to then you may be able to relate, but even if it hasn’t happened to your loved one & you are against companies preying & discriminating on the weak, elderly or minorities then please by all means raise more than an eyebrow. Lord forbid, but if my mother dies tomorrow I would have no way to bury her & pay for her home going arrangements. It is absurd to allow all the money she has given this company to go to waste after enduring much abuse and being taken advantage after all this time. It is clear that TransAmerica cares nothing for their customers & are only concerned about taking the hard earned money from others especially those who are vulnerable such as senior citizens & putting it in their pockets. This company should not be allowed to continue operating under these conditions in which the customers are the victims. Times are too hard to be giving money away for free; my mother has done enough of that with TransAmerica for the past 26 years. Where is her compensation? What is return on the investment she has put in with these sharks? I am asking for any of your help & emergency assistance in bringing justice to this matter for my mother, me & the others who have battled or are battling the same or similar situations with insurance companies. TransAmerica should not be allowed to continue taking advantage of the elderly; they should not be allowed to continue charging ridiculous and high interest rates in addition to not notifying policyholders of these changes and then demanding mind boggling fees to be reinstated as they have done to my mother. This cannot go on and I cannot afford to lose my only parent and love of my life.