State Farm Agent Ray Barnett in Lynchburg, Virginia: A Review

Ray Barnett was my mom's State Farm agent for many years. So, when I bought a vehicle in 2004, I also used State Farm for my car insurance. While we've never been in any vehicle accidents, there have been many customer service issues with Ray Barnett's office.

Since I was going out of town with a friend, I wanted to know if my car insurance would cover him driving. When I called State Farm, Ray Barnett happened to answer himself. He never answered my question though. He asked why I would allow someone else to drive my vehicle. Even though I explained that it was a one time situation, he went into a speech about how I should never let someone else drive.

My mom was curious about the price difference if she switched from full coverage to liability. Instead of answering her question, he gave her the run around. After about fifteen minutes of listening to him, she hung up without getting the quote.

When we were looking at a house and checked into State Farm's homeowner's insurance, Ray Barnett's secretary asked a ton of questions about the home. While some questions seemed reasonable, some of them were down right ridiculous. For example, how many cats lived in the home seemed unnecessary.

I contacted State Farm to see if the insurance cost would be different if my vehicle was signed over to my mom. They insisted on knowing why I'd sign over the vehicle to her. Having reached my breaking point at their nosey questions over the years, I informed them that we were switching to a different agent. I told them that we never wanted to hear from them ever again.

I picked a new State Farm agent from the phone book and told them to contact Ray Barnett and have our policies transferred. I received a call from Ray Barnett the same day. As usual, he was talking over top of me and would not listen. I screamed that we were finished with him and hung up. He called straight back, but seeing it was him on the caller ID, I did not answer. My mom called him back and spoke with one of the secretaries. She told her the same thing I did, and when she pretended not to hear her and begin to question her, she repeated herself then hung up.

Our new agent informed me that the insurance agent vehicle inspections hadn't been required in years even though Ray Barnett had insisted on it with my mom's new car. When we bought a home, they didn't ask any overly nosey questions either. Even though these two are both State Farm agents and work out of the same city, they have completely different ways of doing things.