GEICO fires R Lee Ermy
From the folks at TMZ, R. Lee Ermy tells the cameraman that the jackwagons at GEICO didn’t like R Lee Ermy’s politics;
[I removed the video because it looks like it was causing a script error on the blog, so you can watch it at the TMZ link above.]
Yeah, well, I quit using them when I got tossed into the general pool of drivers and they stopped being the Government Employees Insurance COmpany.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Here in San Antonio, GEICO is constantly running ads about how vet friendly they are. So you are going to target the vet demographic, then get rid of the most well known vet in the country? Doesn’t sound like everyone there is on the same page.
Well, at least they’re being consistent. They fired the actor who originally did their Gecko’s voice for political speech also.
http://dailycaller.com/2010/04/21/geico-voice-over-actor-fired-after-calling-tea-party-group-mentally-retarded/
Revenge of the watermelons.
I dropped them too a couple years ago now when I went with USAA for everything. They did treat us very well however, even making a fender bender that was my fault seem to be like they were really serving me…..absolutely painless. I could not however ever determine that GEICO actually meant “government employees” as I never saw a discount for actually being one.
And they keep sending me the “come back we miss you” stalker notices in the mail, but after firing the Eermey (who made thier best commercial ever “you jackwagon!”), I’ll not even fathom it.
C-
I left GEICO when they took around 6 months to process my claim. Even after all that they said they paid me too much and wanted money back.
Note to Programmer: I keep getting a scripts error pop-up that forces me to hit No about a dozen times before a thread comes up. It’s only arising at TAH and just started this morning. No other sites are generating the error.
I am now anonymous and getting very nervous (2-17 AirCav)
Same deal here, Anon aka 2-17 AirCav. It did not only happen in this topic, either. Weird.
Switched to USAA 4 years ago, been happy ever since.
Yeah, I got the same error, but only in Internet Explorer. Mozilla Firefox doesn’t get the error, however.
I think the problem was in the TMZ video, I removed it, and the error message quit bothering me. Tell me that it’s fixed now.
No errors here using ie…
….AFTER you fixed it…
Those that go with GEICO, shame on you hypocrites.
GEICO is one of the largest providers of LIDAR units to law enforcement.
As one of the larger insurers in the US, whats the problem with giving John Law more radar stuff?
Because when he hits you with it, then tickets you, the liklihood of them ticketing a GEICO-insured person is fairly good. Then they raise rates. What’s wrong with this pictuer?
Car and Driver magazine was one of the first to expose this hypocracy. Its nuts…
Good to go.
#2 Hondo,
That guy went after private citizens in a very nasty way as I recall (refresh my memory if I’m wrong) Ermy singled out a public figure…a little different if you ask me…
It is in their name “Government Employees Insurance Company”.
I finally dumped GEICO earlier this month, after Dad *finally* became a USAA member, giving me eligibility. My GEICO insurance seemed to keep going up with every renewal before, when I had no claims/tickets, and the renewal went up again after a little fender bender back in April. I also always hated how you had to pay a 6-month policy over 4 months. USAA is just a little bit more for the 6 months, but I get it pay it over 6 months, which will be easier on my very tight budget.
@16. Good point.
In the interest of fairness (whatever that is), I would point out that Ermy’s comment regarding the administration was made last December and we are unlikely to be told why his contract was terminated. Also, the guy who made the dispaarging and inflammatory comments regarding the Tea Party actually handled his firing quite well, at least publicly. He said that he was stupid and that he understood why GEICO 86’d him.
Not really, Old Tanker. Both were canned because their employer didn’t want to deal with the backlash caused by their outspoken political statements. In the Gecko voice case, he called Tea Party members “retarded”, thus potentially pissing off a huge number of potential customers. Ermey calling out the current POTUS did the same – it potentially pissed off a huge number of potential customers. I suspect if Ermey had made a non-political racist joke he’d have gotten fired too, for the same reason.
Not defending GEICO – I don’t much care for the company for other reasons, most notably their corporate philosophy starting many years ago regarding radar detectors – but here I have to admit they acted consistently. They simply don’t seem to want public spokesmen who make controversial statements and piss off groups of potential customers.
I’m sure that this has nothing to do with it but GEICO is a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, Inc. That’s Warren Buffett’s outfit.
They can’t compete with USAA anyway.
Yipes. TAH must have started something. The story has bumped the thunderstorms in Florida. Fron page splash at Fox news.
Hondo,
I didn’t mean sound like I was justifying one and not the other..just that there was a difference between the two. I agree with you that GEICO was consistant and I’m sure they just want to try and stay out of politics…at least publicly, which I can certainly understand.
For what it’s worth, GEICO is owned by Warren Buffett who has become a Democrat tool of late… I know he generally likes to let his companies run themselves, but if GEICO has a history of penalizing political speech it doesn’t agree with, then it’s worth mentioning.