I know I'm likely to encounter a whirl of disagreement by writing a negative review of this beloved insurance company but, after years of experience, I think their customer service has really slipped.

My wife has been a member of USAA for more than 15 years. When we married 5 years ago she insisted that we go with USAA and that I drop my insurance. We insure two homes and two new cars in addition to numerous riders for various items.

In her early years with USAA my wife had a few incidents - minor car accidents, vandalism, etc. Her experiences were all positive: USAA responded quickly and never argued with paying a claim.

A few years ago some of that started to change. Our experience after several minor auto accidents has left us with the impression that USAA's customer service has really slipped.

I could list numerous examples: phone calls that go unreturned, being bumped from one agent to another, having the same conversation repeatedly with various agents because information was apparently not entered in their system, etc.

In addition to that petty, annoying stuff, I've experienced two examples of really unacceptable customer service. About a year ago I was rear-ended in my car, and saw a doctor complaining of a sore neck. It turned out, thankfully, I was fine after a couple of weeks and a little medication.

The USAA agent with whom I met never explained to me that I really had two claims: one with USAA for the damage to my car (the other insurance company was being difficult, so I chose to go through USAA), and a second-party claim against the other insurance company for the minor medical bills I incurred. I would have walked away from money that was available to cover a few hundred dollars in medical bills if I hadn't learned that on my own.

More recently, I was in a fender-bender (the other driver was at fault) that left me okay but my car undriveable. I called USAA's Roadside Assist, and was left for 3 hours without a tow. Apparently the first agent with whom I spoke wasted nearly 90 minutes before putting the call into the system.

In fairness, USAA has still paid any claim we've submitted. They've never hassled us or substantially raised our rates.

But at some point the poor customer service - for me anyway - starts to take the shine off the apple.

Why should resolving a small claim require many, multiple phone calls - not to elicit new information, but merely as due to unreturned phone calls and constantly switching agents? Do I pay premiums - including an extra fee for Roadside Assistance - so a USAA agent can take 90 minutes just to enter my need for a tow truck into their system?

I honestly don't know whether we'll switch insurers, but it seems to me like something is amiss in USAA's customer service.

Recommended: Yes