Mary Billington – State Farm Insurance Agent

Horrible experience! After being a State Farm customer for 25 yrs this office cancelled my auto policy after I changed bank accounts because they didn’t have a «authorization signature» even though I filled out the new bank account information and gave them all the new information. Now, because of this I will lose all my years as a loyal SF customer. I will lose deductions for good driving/​no accidents 10+ yrs, etc all because this office did nothing to help me! After receiving a letter from the DMV stating I owe them a huge fee for not having auto insurance I called the office only to be hung up on by the owner of this particular State Farm office (Mary). I spoke to another SF office in the LV area who gave me information on how to handle the situation and rectify it the best way possible. They found the actions of this office unbelievable as well. I believe State Farm is a great Insurance carrier although, as in every profession you run into people who care about their costumers those who just want the pay check.

Excellent service and great pricing. All the people in the office are very caring and conscientious. Always there to take care of needs and done very efficiently. Highly highly recommended.

I just signed my policies with Maria. I saved over 50% from my previous insurance agent. I am so happy with their service. So if your like me and your fed up with paying those monster premiums every month. Please call Maria right away.

Does anyone ever want to deal with «insurance people»? Doesn’t everyone have a horror story? After living through a hurricane (I did; much of the property didn’t), when it came to insurance I just wanted to retreat into the computer, make my payments online, and hope I never had to hear slick promises or slicker excuses ever again.
When I decided to change my renter’s insurance (for the second time — the first company wouldn’t let me make policy adjustments online, and the second company sent me a snail mail letter confirming automatic renewal then dropped me without warning for non-​payment), I decided to pick a local agent with a known company that had a strong, flexible web presence. (Flexible as in they had online tools beyond a payment screen.)
I chose Mary Billington’s office mainly because of location. Well, she also had a trustworthy look, one that said «professional but not so into my business that I forget about yours,» but I don’t want to officially say that I judged someone based on appearances, so let’s just say it was location. Yep, that’s what it was.
When I say I chose Mary’s office, I mean that when I signed up for a new (cheaper, and better featured) renter’s policy on the State Farm website, I clicked on her as my desired agent. That was it. It could have been anybody. I was able to do everything regarding my policy online, so selecting an agent was kind of a formality, an empty gesture. Mary left a friendly courtesy hello on my voice mail the next day, but there was no sales push. I figured (and hoped) that would be that.
Then I decided to upgrade my camera to a newer, although not the latest and greatest, DSLR. Unfortunately, as a renter, I couldn’t just add a rider to my homeowner’s policy, which is the standard advice you get if you ask about insurance in a photography forum. (Argh.) I’d queried my old insurance company about options (which gives you an idea of how long I spent researching the camera) and was given a royal runaround of slow emails that, short version, came to a quote of nearly $ 175 for a limited amount of coverage. But now I was with State Farm, so I emailed Mary.
Mary replied the same day, letting me know she was looking into it. Her next message came either that afternoon or the next morning (I just remember that it was quick). Yes, they could offer me a personal articles policy (I think that’s the term) that would cover everything — theft, damage, etc. — both here and wherever I traveled, and the policy would still be good when I moved.
Cost? $ 32… and that also covered a new lens, a filter, and two memory cards.
(Some months later I was enjoying the new camera in Alaska when another photo enthusiast advised me to put a filter on my lens to prevent damage if I dropped it. I already leave a filter on my old camera for this very reason, so this wasn’t bad advice. However, the low cost of the policy on the new camera means I only have to use a filter when I actually want to take a filtered photo, and the rest of the time I don’t have to mar my images with an extra layer of plastic or glass in front of the lens. Nice!)
I told Mary I’d come see her once I bought the camera, although I wasn’t sure when that would be. The camera policy was something that couldn’t be done online (at least, I assumed it couldn’t), since I did need to show my receipt, but hey, I did pick her for her close location. The office was down the street among the new businesses that have sprung up on Blue Diamond near Durango.
Some weeks later, a few days after the camera arrived, we decided to pop into Mary’s office on the spur of the moment and get this done. I was pleasantly welcomed by a woman at the front desk, and Mary was soon out to greet me and my husband. She led us into her office where, even though I hadn’t made an appointment, she was able to quickly pull up the paperwork she’d had ready and waiting for me since I first emailed her. Impressive.
Everything was sorted out quickly, although I’m afraid we both chatted her ears off, going on about all those things you talk about when you’re getting along well with someone. I think Mary deserves some of the blame, though, because you can’t set out photos of your sweet-​looking dogs around your office and expect people to stay quiet. We also talked about iPads (we’d just gotten ours), and she told us how she’s using them in her business. I have to admit I’m always encouraged by people who are interested in embracing new technologies.
And that’s that. I had an extremely nice experience and would recommend Ms. Billington to anyone looking for a good policy with capable, personal service. I think we got the best of both words — full web features for managing our policy and a great agent for everything you can’t do online.