I happen to have been looking for renters insurance recently. I signed up immediately after reading the insurance policy terms. They are about as generous as the terms offered by Liberty Mutual, but LM wanted to charge me more than 3x as much, and I had a strange and frustrating conversation with a LM agent that left a bad taste in my mouth. Charity or no charity, it's a great deal.

However I made two mistakes. First, I selected personal property coverage that was probably too low. Second, I used a throwaway e-mail address to get my quote. I see no option in the app to modify either one. As I put in a support request for each item on the website, it occurred to me that I am probably screwed if anything goes wrong with my policy or claim. Yes, I am aware that there is an emergency hotline. But what happens if I'm no longer in an emergency? Insurance payouts can take a long time -- am I supposed to only ever interact with the company through a little "Help" popup on their website while I'm waiting for my check?

I'm also wondering: why is the actual interface to the application only available in a mobile app? What happens if my phone is damaged? Will I be forced to call the emergency hotline for even minor administrative tasks until I get a new phone? Is it that hard in 2016 to support web and mobile simultaneously?

Finally, I am sick to death of patronizing "I'm your friend" interactions with applications. The whole idea of "Maya" the robot assistant is goofy. It feels like a grown-up version of Smarterchild, and I get the same uncomfortable feeling "interacting" with Maya that I do when I'm trying to explain to a cheerful robot on the phone what I'm calling about.