Have you ever gone to your local UPS store or Fedex/Kinko’s store to send your package by overnight mail. This can truly be a shocking experience. Yesterday I needed to overnight an insurance payment from San Diego to Cleveland. My first stop was Fedex since it was the closest location. I placed the check in a standard overnight envelope and did not request an early morning delivery time. I handed the envelope to the person at the counter and after about a minute he said the cost would be $43. I didn’t want to overreact so I just asked for my package back.
This must have been a mistake, so I thought I would walk down the block to the UPS store and send my package there. After filling out their shipping form, I walked up and handed them my overnight envelope. I waited about another minute and was quoted $47. Now I realized that I was making the mistake. How could these companies demand so much money for such a small envelope? Does it really cost them that much to ship a two ounce envelope?
Desperate to get my package sent and running out of time, I tried one last place, my local post office. I am not a big fan of the post office since there always seems to be a line. Now I know why. After filling out the form one last time and waiting about 5 minutes to get to the counter, I was greeted by a grumpy postal employee. I handed her my package and about a minute later she said the package will arrive by 12:00 p.m. tomorrow and the cost will be $17.00. I was so excited I said “Sold”.
In the future I will be more than happy to wait a couple of extra minutes in the post office line to avoid being ripped-off.
Is 21st Century Insurance another AIG Subsidiary?
In September 2007, AIG, which owned 62% of 21st Century, bought the remainder for $813 million. Since AIG no longer promotes their insurance products directly they have turned to their wholly owned subsidiaries to get you to buy their insurance products. Sounds a little suspect to me. I am not sure I would want to own an insurance policy from a company that most likely will fail or be sold off in the next few years. Before you buy insurance, just like anything else, do a background check to make sure who you are dealing with. AIG has dozens of affiliates that operate under different brand names. Beware!