I would like to share my own experience with a "national" insurance company.
Several years ago, I had all my insurance with Farmers Insurance, and was
with the preferred company for the best rates. When I say I had all my
insurance with them , I mean I had house, car and boat insurance. With
premiums exceeding $3k a year. Than one day I had to file a claim on the
house because of storm damage, heavy hail had all but destroyed my wood
shingle roof and caused leaks. This managed to cause water damage to sheet
rock in several rooms of our house. After submitting the claim through my
agent, it took several weeks before an claims adjuster finally arrived. By
this time, I had contacted a private mechanical inspector and had an
estimate done. He figured that it was going to cost almost $11k to fix
everything.
The adjuster for Farmers arrived and figured it would only cost $2.2k for
the repairs. He said that the roof was ten years old and would have to be
discounted, and that I should find some cheap contractor to do the repairs.
Needless to say I was furious and filed a protest with the company. They
said that they had had so many claims from the storm in our area that they
would not re-evaluate our claim. And while we were arguing with them about
the house my wife had our Astro van stolen while at work. Same insurance
company, It took the adjuster over a week to get to the dealer we had the
van towed to after it was recovered, and it was only a 2 mile drive from
their claims office to the dealers body shop. I made several calls during
that week to the dealer and the insurance company. The insurance company
told me that the claims agent went on vacation and that claim was sitting on
his desk. No apology for my inconvenience or the delay. Than they make the
claimant feel as if they are some kind of criminal for becoming a victim of
a crime.
Needless to say, I no longer am insured by Farmers. cancelled their
coverage and took my business to Progressive for my autos with more coverage
and a whole lot lower premium. I switched my house over to Travelers
Insurance with the same results. We purchased a new Chevy conversion van
for my wife in '97, kept the Astro, along with my '83 GMC c2500 p/u and my
'95 Geo Tracker 4X4, raised our liability limits and lowered our
deductibles and still I am paying less than with Farmers.
I had Travelers insurance when we lived in Kansas City, but they were not
doing business in Texas when we moved here, or I never would have changed
over to Farmers.
I feel that as Michael has stated, that the insurance companies would not
stay in business for any length of time if you don't do business with them.
And it pays to shop around every couple of years for premiums. Most
companies will give you a lowball rate to get your business than they will
gradually raise the cost over the next couple of years, even if you don't
have any claims. The actuaries figure that the odds of you having a claim
raise with every year you are covered and try to force you out before this
happens. Income not outcome.
Larry Zink
Z Group Racing and Performance
Houston, Texas
>
>
|