What do you look for in an insurance company? I’m sure there are many answers to that question, but if you’re looking for an insurer that will screw you over, and then go far out of their way to screw you over again when called to task, I think I know a company you might consider.

Andres Carrasco, a 76-year-old retired bus driver living in the Los Angeles area took legal action against Adriana’s Insurance. That’s bad, but it’s worse than you think. According to the Los Angeles Times:

The settlement was the result of a 2012 lawsuit in which Carrasco alleged that an employee at the company assaulted him when he tried to buy insurance, his attorney said.

See what I mean?

AP photo by Antonio Gallo, courtesy of the Los Angeles Times.

The insurance company settled the case and owed Carrasco $21,000 by July 25. The insurance company certainly did pay. You can see Carrasco with some of the settlement on the photo to the right. Yes, the insurance company paid $21,000 in coins, including pennies. Adriana’s Insurance staff delivered 16 – 18 five-gallon pails filled with coins to his attorney’s office after they brought the ‘payment’ to Carrasco’s home and he refused to accept it.

Wow.

It boggles my mind. Companies will certainly see customers who are absolute assholes. I’m sure it happens all the time, but customers really have no reputation to protect. They can simply go elsewhere. Companies, however, certainly do have reputations that takes years to establish and are easily damaged. You can bet this story will make its way around the Internet and people will pay attention. Those looking for new insurance certainly will, and even those who know how reticent insurers are to let go of any money have a first class example of one company that will even try to fuck you once they know they have to give you money.

No matter what this guy did, the company should not act so childish. This is doubly so when all he did was suffer an assault at the hands of one of their sales people.

Now of course we only have his side of the story, and everything I’ve said above is predicated on his story being the unvarnished truth. According to their report, the Los Angeles Times reporter contacted Adriana’s Insurance for comment, but they did not call her back. On a lark, I sent the company an e‑mail message asking for their side of it. If they reply, you can read about it here.

I just can’t help but feel Adriana’s Insurance is going to get an education on what happens when you really screw over a customer and social media finds out about it.

Information and photo from The Los Angeles Times with additional info from The Telegraph. Hat tip to Boing Boing.