AW1Steve
Posts: 14507
Joined: 3/10/2007 From: Mordor Illlinois Status: offline
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Chickenboy quote:
ORIGINAL: AW1Steve quote:
ORIGINAL: Chickenboy quote:
ORIGINAL: USS America Looks like I'm in the market for a new car insurance company after 22 years. My wife was backed into by another car in a parking lot for less than $1000 damages. Police report clearly stated that the other driver backed into my wife. We fronted the $250 deductible while waiting for the claim to be settled. Turns out the other driver is in the same "good hands" that we are. They chose to ignore the findings of the police report, even after I appealed the decision, and split the fault 50-50. We eat the $250, which makes my wife furious. Then, today I get my new policy and see a fairly hefty rate increase due to the "liable claim", which infuriates me. I stayed with State Farm by default after I left my parent's umbrella some time ago. They've always been very good to work with, particularly on our homeowner's side. July 5 of 2008 saw my wife total our old car in a major MVA. Two idiot teenagers (PUNKS-see the Geezer thread) turned in front of her in an intersection and she T-boned 'em as she proceeded straight through on the green. Luckily no one was seriously hurt. State Farm settled with us very quickly for the fair market value of the car and included the value of the child safety seats inside the car that were rendered unusable in the wreck. Furthermore, as the other drivers were 100% at fault, they went after the other drivers' insurance company in an effort to reimburse our initial $500 collision deductable. They handled all the legal paperwork and we did have our deductable returned to us by their efforts. We've had major damage to our homes and cars caused by a Tornado / hail in two of the past three years ($30,000 / $5,500 / $3,500, respectively). They've been very easy and helpful to work with. Easier than contractors, that's for darn sure. Never a hint of raising our premiums, in spite of all of these issues. I haven't compared rates in a while, but when I did a few years ago they were competitive. When combined with the loyal service, I've got no reason to consider going elsewhere. They had some major problems in Florida when I was there. If I recall the state insurance commission had to step on them rather severly after thei conduct during hurricane Andrew. Bruce, do you recall anything about it? Hurricane Andrew was....are you ready for this...nearly 20 years ago, Steve. Regardless, they've done right by me for the last 20 years. Despite the fact that I started a geezer thread CB, I do still know how to use a callender.Same company . Same place. The conditions don't occur every year or we wouldn't have insurance. So we go back to the couple of disasters. What's their track record? I honestly don't know. What does surprise me is that it's not every day a state gives a time out to one of the biggest insurance companies (which I belive was a Florida company) because of perceived misconduct. I'm delighted that you've had good luck with the company , and sincerely hope that you have continued good luck. But bad experinces with several insurance companies , plus my own experinces as an insurance salesman (well over 25 years ago) make me very,very cautious with companies. The absolute only thing you have to go on is reputation. If a company wants to screw you , generally they can. The only things that keeps companies from doing that is 1) state insurance commissions that run the range of very good consumer advocates to virtual employees of the companies they are supposed to regulate. 2)customers with long memories.
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