Bad Insurance, Worse Agent

OMG. First of all my agent retired the summer of 2015 while I was on the road with my boyfriend a trucker. I was given to Eli Sauceda. Nothing but trouble since day one.
I asked to have the contents portion of my home removed and it was never done. Never. What they did do was jack the value of contents to $48,000. Seriously!? So what they did do was lower the value of the home which I had way too high to begin with and jacked up the contents to compensate. I always called to get the payment amount because I was on the road and every month it was different. Or they didn’t know and would call me “right back”. Which never happened.
I looked online and because they where constantly changing my policy the amount due was never correct. So I’d either over pay or not pay enough and get threatened to be dropped. Handling my business from an 18 Wheeler is no easy task so I rode with it bitching every step of the way. I tried to get down to see this clown in Victoria TX but life and work got in the way.
Finally, I was like screw this and called another agent to switch over. Eli called me and was nothing but rude, arrogant and just a jerk. He said “I’m sure Ms. Woods we are not the first business you’ve had difficulties with”. So what are you saying? I replied “UM, yes Eli, yes you are. Your service has been a nightmare since day one and thank God I finally wised up and dropped YOU”.
I just went online to see what new payment was with corrected contents value. I almost died. It’s half of what I was paying him. No wonder he was doing what he did. I can’t wait to call headquarters tomorrow. He was straight ripping me off, lying about the changes haven’t been done because the under writers where 2 months behind (I bought that) and what ever lie he could come up with.
I have been over paying on a policy he devised for almost a freaking year. At the cost of $86 a month for a grand total of $1,032.00. I’ve no idea what his cut was, I’m just glad I’m not a part of his scam anymore.

Ellen Woods

Mom gets wrecked

Hi,
My mother at the time of her accident was 74 years young. She was pulling out from the grocery store parking lot and a driver (from another country, while attempting to operate his cell phone), ran directly head on into her.
She was subsequently taken to the hospital and after numerous tests was released.
She continued having chronic neck and shoulder pain and after numerous bouts of conservative treatments, she finally had shoulder surgery (a very ugly and painful procedure)!
In order to shorten the story and get to the bottom line.
Mothers underinsured motorist coverage was recruited for paying her by way of legal counsel.
Note, her responsibility for out of pocket medical costs all inclusive was around 16K. Meanwhile her underinsured contract policy limit was 50K. Keep in mind her attorney contractual fee was 40% of her recovery amount!
State Farm literally abused my mother! Putting her through answering interrogatories, depositions, and ultimately a trial!
State farms only defense was that mother is older and suffers from Arthritic pain and degenerative joint disease. Meanwhile, prior to this collision mother had not received and treatments on any parts of her body by Pt's, MD's, or DC's! And most certainly had never received ANY surgical intervention in either shoulder!
In closing, these auto Insurance companies, especially State Farm, are COMPLETE RIP OFFS!
They maintain their high archly management ALL making Hugh 7 and 6 figure yearly salaries, with OUR money through premiums and when you NEED them, they simply flush you, by way of negating your claim with their retained defense counsel! There is no other word to describe the current auto insurance ethics, better than "criminal"!
Until we people stand up and support one another, the auto insurance companies will continue to abuse we the public! People simply have no compassion nor does the average Joe understand how destructive an auto accident is to the human physiology, most people NEVER truly recover!

Truck Tragedy

My brother Travis has had SF for years. He was hit by someone with SF
at the 1st of June 2016. The person who hit him was fully at fault.
Travis's SF agent Kirk knows that he has Parkinsons and had to retire
because stress at work was causing him physical harm. Kirk told Travis
he would take care of him so he did not get a lawyer. He was told by
SF that he would get enough to buy a replacement truck because his was
going to be considered totaled. He has a 93 dodge diesel club cab. The
right side was damaged not the motor or transmission. The truck was
drivable and still a work horse. SF had sent him a letter offering
$4500. He said he need more, SF said that they needed to pick it up
and bring it to an adjuster to be able to give him more. So he said ok
they said next week sometime they would pick it up. He has Parkinson's
so he some days he moves slow and others slower.  2 days later a tow
truck was at his yard. He thought that they would be getting him a
check for a replacement truck. He likes the older trucks because he
understands them. A 93 dodge truck that runs without known problems
sells for $8000 and if it is in great shape $15,000 and up. If the
truck needs a transmission or has death wobble, which means it needs
all new front end stabilizer parts you can find them for $4000 to
$5000.  SF picked up his truck on Friday July 29th. August 1 he called
to see when they were going to bring back his truck and they said they
would not give it back to him. Then SF called him and said they would
only give him $3800 because it was dirty and had a bad paint job.
After a week of SF stressing him I called on his behalf and SF said
they could not talk to me because he had not authorized me. He had to
talk to them several times before they allowed me to help him. When I
talked to Sheryl said we have his truck what are you going to do. She
is using their possession of his drivable truck as a negotiation if he
wants any $ he should take what she is offering. She was happy that
they had him without his reliable transportation. The fact that the
only truck he could find that ran without issues was a step down, reg
cab and cost  $7000. In my book a good deal for SF. He had to get a
$6000 loan to pay for it because he did not have full amount. The
longer SF drags it out the more interest that someone has to pay and
it should not be him. We have done told SF that he wants to buy back
his truck but they do not want to give it back to him. According to OK
law SF is suppose to pay for rental from when they took his truck but
they do not think they should. SF hoped that leaving him stranded
would break him down They do not even want to pay for what it cost to
buy a working dodge diesel. SF wants to see how much $ they can make a
victim be out. SF has caused him so much stress that he has froze up
more times last week then the months of March, April and May. SF logo
should be State Farms helping hands here to take you out.

Vacation nightmare

This is one of the instances where State Farm Insurance deceived us and nearly cost us our home. Actually their deceit WILL cost us our home if we can't come up with nearly $10.000.

I was married in December of 2014 to my beautiful wife who is from Indonesia and knows little about living in The U.S....Well thanks to State Farm Insurance Company she now knows how corrupt an American company can be. We began our marriage in a small apartment that neither of us really liked and I being her husband made a promise to her that we would soon have our dream apartment...at least as dreamy as could be with our extremely modest income. All my wife asked for was something nice near the train station where she catches a train every day for her long commute to her workplace, and her own washer and dryer. Well I found the perfect place and we soon moved into our new home.

We enjoyed a quiet apartment with everything we wanted and were both extremely happy. We bought our bedroom set as well as a dining set and sofa to furnish our new apartment. The renters who were extremely nice required that we buy renters insurance to cover any accidents or damage that may occur. I called my State Farm agent and gave him the EXACT requirements that were listed on the lease which included coverage for our personal property as well as liability for any damages that may occur from accidents or accidental negligence that might cause damage to our apartment. Sounded like a good precaution and worthwhile protection for my wife and I as well as the landlords.

My State Farm agent blindly set up the policy and in his usual non-friendly attitude informed me that the policy was now active. Now we could move in. Skipping to December of 2015 my wife and I enjoyed our first Christmas in our new place and life couldn't be any better. We had a party with all our friends to show our new apartment....we were very proud. At the end of December my wife had planned to go visit her family in Palm Springs  CA and she fought to get me to accompany her even though my budget didn't really include such a trip. But she was my wife and it was her family so I figured I had to go. Little did I know that that decision would start the nightmare that ensued.

Our trip was awesome and I was so glad that I went and the trip home from Cali to our northeast location was a little depressing. But it had been a crazy warm winter here with temperatures being up in the sixties and even seventy near the day that we had left home. Well cutting to the chase, we arrived home on Jan 9th to hear a hissing coming from our main bedroom. As I entered the room I was horrified to see water pouring from the ceiling and flooding our beautiful new home. The landlords quickly had a plumber there who stopped the leak, but major damage had been done. It seems that somehow the heat had gone off and the pipe had frozen and burst. This whole situation is still under scrutiny so I cannot say how the heat had gotten turned off but it was not me...that I knew for sure. That saying the landlord made the assumption that the heat had been turned off and that is why the pipe burst.

Well the apartment was trashed. The entire bedroom had to be gutted and the carpet and floor replaced in three rooms. The whole thing took a few weeks and it turned our stomachs to see the damage every day. The men who did the repairs were awesome and did an incredible job in less time then I thought possible considering they had to completely rebuild the one bedroom. Well as all this was being done my wife and I were in turmoil as to who was going to pay for all of this but it was safe to say that either the landlords insurance or ours would pay the bill. Well the DAY AFTER the repairs were finished we were sent an invoice from the landlords for almost $9000 to be paid immediately because the damage had been caused by someone turning off the heat and the pipes freezing.

Well part one of our nightmare had been answered so I quickly called my State Farm Claims Department to file a claim on the damage that had been done. Well they put me through to my claims agent who proceeded to tell me this: OUR APARTMENT WAS NOT...I REPEAT NOT COVERED BY OUR RENTERS INSURANCE. IT SEEMS THAT THE POLICY ONLY COVERED OTHER PEOPLES DAMAGE TO SAY ANOTHER APARTMENT THAT WATER MAY HAVE LEAKED INTO BUT DID NOT COVER ANY DAMAGE TO OUR OWN APARTMENT. I ALMOST THREW UP HEARING THIS. AND HE DELIVERED THIS MESSAGE TO ME AS COLDLY AS YOU COULD IMAGINE.

So here is what he was telling me. If I had say left a heater on in my room and it burned up my apartment and two others than they would pay to fix the other two apartments but I would be stuck rebuilding my own apartment!!!! If a storm had come and flooded my apartment than I would not be covered because flood insurance is separate from renters insurance. So if my renters insurance won't fix my apartment than the question is WHAT INSURANCE WOULD.....AND I'LL TELL YOU. ANOTHER COMPANY WOULD COVER YOU. That is why our landlord had us buy renters insurance and that is why they immediately send invoices also to my insurance company... State Farm.

So as it stands no one is going to pay for my apartment and I do NOT have the money to pay it. My wife and I are scared to death of losing our beautiful apartment because of STATE FARMS in my opinion NEGLIGENT insurance coverage and lack of informing me when the policy was bought of this disgraceful policy loophole that my now cause me my home.

I have to finish saying that everything I have said is my own opinion and that's so these State Farm VERMIN don't try to sue me for slander or something. I have left the comment boxes on these pages so you could please voice your opinion and if you have any sense of judgement DO NOT BUY FROM STATE FARM!!!!!!! Do it for me and my beautiful wife and for me and for everyone else who has been burned by their insurance company, especially STATE FARM!

I have had State Farm Insurance for my home, auto, boat, renter, and life insurance for over thirty years. I have been fortunate enough to be able to live in the state of Alabama for most of those years and other than an occasional checkup left it up to my agents to take care of my insurance and advise me of any concerns they may have had regarding my coverage.

I have two sons age 20 and 18. They both started driving when they reached 16 years old and my wife and I have been fortunate enough with employment that allowed us to be able to afford to buy them both good used cars and maintain insurance on those vehicles as well as our own vehicles.

In 2010 I was laid off from my job at the Boeing Company in Alabama and was forced out into the job market. I was unemployed for several months but eventually was able to find work but the pay was less than what I was receiving at Boeing. To make a long story short, I changed employers three times trying to get back to the same level of pay that I had. My last change required me to relocate to South Carolina and we made the move in January this year. We are pretty much settled into our new lives here and things are going well.

We received a letter from State Farm a few weeks ago and they said that we would have to transfer our insurance to an agent in SC by September 8 or we would be dropped. I started looking on the web for a new local agent. The first agent I contacted took down my information over the phone and said that he would get it all worked out for us and may contact me for any additional information he needed to complete the transfer.

After a week or so, we received another letter from State Farm threatening to drop our insurance. At that time my wife and I decided that she would stop in the agents office and check on the status of the transfer. She later told me that the person she spoke to in the agents office did not have a clue as to what she was asking about and she became frustrated from trying to get information about our insurance. She left the office and called me and told me about her experience. I then decided that we would try another agent in the area.

So I made a call to another agent and explained our situation to her. She initially had the same personable attitude and came across as you would expect from someone you wanted to take your business to. After initiating the transfer she called me the day after and said that she had some documents to sign and she would fax those to me. She then stated that I should just sign them and fax them back. I agreed and asked her a few questions about my four auto policies and if there would be any change in the cost. I figured there may be differences changing to another state. She then replied that my insurance cost would increase over $150/month. I asked  why there was such a price difference and she stated that youthful drivers was costlier in SC. After hearing that I spoke to my wife and explained to her that our insurance would be costing us quite a bit more for the boys to drive and discussed ways that we could adjust our budget to cover the additional expense. The agent also required $450 dollars to initiate the transfer so I gave her my debit card over the phone.

A while later I received the emails with the documentation she had sent and started looking it over before signing it. Within that documentation she had added a coverage for each policy for underinsured motorist. Each policy had an increase of $40 dollars for this coverage. She had already answered yes to the question asking if I wanted to accept or reject this coverage. I then started researching this coverage and discovered that it was not required in the state and I had never had the coverage in Alabama. I then called the agent and asked about the coverage at which time she stated that she assumed that I wanted it due to the fact that many of her existing customers carried it. I then told her that she should have asked me if I wanted any additional coverage especially when I had asked about the significant cost increase.

She then became very offensive. She also stated that there was nothing she could do now that she had submitted my documents into the system and we would have to wait until the new policies went into effect, about a week, before we could make any changes. I had not even signed the document stating that I wanted the extra coverage.

Needless to say, I am very upset that this happened. Later that afternoon I called the original agent we had contacted and explained to him what I had experienced and he told me that he had all of our documentation worked out and our monthly payment would be approximately $300, which is what I was paying back in Alabama. I then mentioned then mentioned the underinsured coverage that the other agent had added to our policies and that had contributed to some of the cost. He then stated that he had also included that same coverage in the quote he had given me and he would have to remove it and update the quote to reflect the difference in cost.

Well, I am finding it hard to believe that both of these agents use the same tactic to add unnecessary coverage to a customer policy before discussing it with them. Very deceitful in my book. That is no different to me than shoplifting. It’s not a crime unless you get caught. Now I am upset with sort of behavior and just want to know how many have they done this to and got away with it…..

Thanks for listening,

Glenn

Robert Blackmon writes:

My 80 year old mother has had State Farm home/fire insurance for 18 years. For each year with State Farm, her insurance premium has increased by 2% (compounded) for inflation. Needless to say, her home is completely overinsured, (for replacement cost of double what they really are) and their comment when we called to investigate, was that "when you sign the check, you're agreeing to the charges. It's up to you as a customer to call us on these practices, otherwise, buyer beware". There's supposed to be a courtesy call by an agent to discuss the premium, but my mother does not recall any calls, nor does the company have an agent on record for my mom's insurance.

Rob, I, George E. Nixon, filed my insurance complaint against the State Farm Insurance Company w/ State Farm, the Georgia Insurance Commissioner and the Better Business Bureau. I canceled all of insurance policies with them effective 5 October 2006. I had been insured with State Farm since 1986. I had insured my three automobiles and my two Mortgage-free houses. I had my first complaint filed with my local state farm agent in January 2000. My Mother had passed away on 14 January 1999, and I had filed with the local State Farm Agent the necessary papers to update my policies (I delivered a certified copy of her death certificate, a copy of her probated will (I am the Executor), a copy of the deed at 810 East Boundary, Augusta, GA, the property my mother and I had purchased together in March of 1958.

In January of 2001, the State Farm Agency sent to the 810 East Boundary address, a threatening notice to my deceased Mother to come into their office about the property insurance. My tenant at 810 East Boundary, Ms. Teresa Moore, gave me the letter. This was the first incident; I went to the State Farm Agent's office, tearfully questioning, why would they try sending such a letter to my deceased Mother, the policies are in my name and they knew my mother is deceased. As Landlord, since August 2000, I have rented this property under the HUD Section 8 program. I thought everything was all ironed out. The State Farm Agent, Preston Thomas then apologized for the incident (I have always paid the insurance policies in person). Before her death, my Mother became blind in 1997 and later was on kidney dialysis; all of the insurance policies had been in my name. My mother and I had had purchase this property in March of 1958.

A second incident occurred, sending yet another notice for my deceased mother to come into the office. I went calmly to the office to talk with Mr. Preston Thomas. He stated that that's the way the policy was written and he couldn't change it. Gathering my composure, I stated to Mr. Thomas that from now on, I will only pay my portion of this so called two-party policy – George E. Nixon & Clara E. Nixon. Believe it or not, a 'light bulb' went off in his dim-witted head and he had the refund check rewritten in my name so I could cash it. All was forgiven and I continued being a State Farm customer. Preston Thomas retired; then along came this new agent, Don Brandenburg.

In 2003, I had overpaid the State Farm insurance premium on the 810 East Boundary property and they sent me a multiple party refund check, including my name George Nixon, my brother’s name, Thomas Nixon, and my brother-in-law’s name, George Turner. Financial institutions in the State of Georgia do not honor multiple party checks. I had brought this information to the attention of the State Farm Agent, Don Brandenburg. He indicated he did not know I owned the property. I had brought all pertinent documents (copies of the deed, my mother’s death certificate to him) on at least three occasions. He indicated there was nothing he could do; and he thought I didn’t own the property. He indicted he would need me to bring him a copy of the deed again. Well, needless to say I was insulted, yet again.

Another item, over the years on several occasions, I had been noticing on my insurance renewal billing, the policies deductibles dropping, thereby causing an increase in my premium payments. Sometimes, I would catch these incidents late, reported it to their office and they would correct the policy premium payments. In August of a certain year, after a policy increase jumped up on my old family car, I told State Farm that I would be leaving and cancelling my policies with them. I happened to call MetLife and a former State Farm employee assisted me. She guided me and explained the unknown intricate habits of State Farm and how the writings in their policies could be misleading. She demonstrated how much more superior and factual MetLife policies were. I signed with MetLife and canceled my State Farm policies.

State Farm sent refunds checks for each of my policies; however, they again sent me a multiple-party refund check for the rental property, 810 East Boundary, Augusta, GA. Once, again, I cannot cash multiple-party check at any local bank; and neither could State Farm, in any instance, prosecute such a multiple-party fire damage claim that would have been filed to State Farm Fire Insurance Area on the rental property.

Let me explain clearly here, the 810 East Boundary, property is where the State Farm property incidents kept coming up. My mother and I purchased that property in March of 1958 and the mortgage was paid it off in 1997. Since my mother passing on 14 January 1999; in her Will, I am designated Executor of her estate, the Will was probated by the Superior Court Judge, and this process was attended by me and my attorney. Days after that and processing her Will with my attorney and filing papers at the court house, is when I took all of the necessary paperwork to State Farm.

Yet another item here, I have been HUD certified as a public housing property manager since 1979. My property rental lease at 810 East Boundary has been with my tenant, Ms Moore, since August 2000; and it has always been a one-landlord-party lease (me as landlord and property owner) and Ms Teresa Moore, as Tenant. The local HUD agency has recognized that in their Section 8 Program. Now, I am very suspicious that the Fire Insurance Service Area of State Farm Mutual Company (which sends the non-cashable multiple party check pay-outs) maintains non-prosecutable/executable fire policies on rental property home-owners. No claims of any kind to the multiple party insured can be paid nor refund checks cashed. Mr. Brandenburg unsuccessful attempted to explain to me that I needed to bring the evidence of property ownership again to his office. THREE OR MORE TIMES IS ENOUGH!!! This is harassment! They (State Farm) got that information from me; plus its public record stuff! I gave State Farm copies of my mother's death certificate, a copy of her probated the will, a copy of the property deed – They, State Farm Fire Insurance Area, if being of sound business principles, would have never created and accepted such a policy they could not thoroughly execute in the first place. If the policy was out of context and claim considerations could not be affected, why would they have drawn/written it up???

If I didn't own the property, would the local Housing Authority, a HUD agency, have accepted my property into the HUD Section 8 Program? I didn't need to waste another minute with State Farm and I have told my relatives to leave them alone - get away, drop this fraudulent or ignorant company!

Now, I had requested the Georgia Insurance Commissioner, launch an investigation, the external quality type, to look into their ) be launched into the policy prosecuting procedures of the State Farm Fire Insurance Area, where and when their fire policies are written for rental property owners who own outright, their rental properties.

The final and most important request is that State Farm is to send me an cashable insurance refund check (Single Party, me only, George E. Nixon- the only one they have known and the only one that have ever sent them insurance premium payments for this property). I have no idea where their stupidity comes from.

Regards,

George E. Nixon

[Phone numbers withheld to protect privacy}

PS. Rob, if this website is a scam for ripping off, ripped off persons, then welcome to my world of taking these types of scammers down!!!

Pamela writes to us:

A strong storm blew through on Saturday June 18th peeling the tin back on my roof. I immediately call State Farm and get a lazy cow on the phone who tell me that State Farm will allow me 4 sheets of tin to fix my roof...approximately $300 without even coming out to look or send an agent out. I called back and told them this was unacceptable and their response was "State Farm is under a lot of pressure since the tornadoes in April, we are not trying to minimize your claim we are trying to settle all claims by phone"...a roof by phone? meanwhile it is supposed to rain today and the inside of my house will suffer damage since i have no tin on my roof. I live alone and have no way to tarp and have no help. These people are slimy salespeople. I hope they all burn in hell. My agent is Mr. Tyree Petitis South Memorial Parkway, Huntsville, AL.

Leigh weighs in with this unbelievable incident...read it all the way through:

In 2006, my 18-year-old daughter and 13-year-old son were in a 5 mph fender bender with a lady (I’ll call her Donna) insured through State Farm. In a construction site, she changed lanes without signaling and hit my daughter’s front right bumper. My daughter was already in the lane. Since the damage amounted to a cracked signal light on my daughter’s car, and no damage that the naked eye could see on Donna’s car, she left the scene before police could be contacted. The car my daughter was driving was not hers, but belonged to her aunt. We went along merrily until one month later when I get a phone call from Donna saying that, in fact, she DID have damage to her bumper in the amount of 1,800 and wanted me to write her a check. How she got our number, I don’t know as there was no information exchanged at the scene. Being suspicious, I refused to pay as I felt that doing so would admit liability. I suggested it be reported to the insurance company. We get no calls or anything, so I assume nothing was reported at her end. Almost a year later, we get a call from State Farm letting us know that there was nearly $15,000 worth of medical bills and car damage done to their insured. How could this happen? Her back bumper was just tapped, and she was driving an Econoline van—may daughter was driving a Honda Civic. Her back window was smashed in, her bumper seared in half—damage that could only happen if she was hit by someone going at a high rate of speed. State Farm advised they will file a lawsuit to seek reimbursement from us. We got an attorney. He says we don’t have a leg to stand on since there were no photos, the Honda was long sold off, and there was no police report. We head to arbitration. The arbitrator sides with Donna who is older. There was no evidence to support my daughter’s claim that SHE got run into, and they can’t take her brother’s testimony because he is related. We threaten to go before a jury. Our attorney advises us that State Farm has very high-powered attorneys and it could be costly for us to fight it. We cut our losses and took it in the backside. We have been paying $200 per month ever since and have our balance down to $1,400 (basically interest at this point). I did later find out that State Farm indeed had photos of my daughter’s car. She was working when they came by to ask her if they could photograph her car one evening. Strangely enough, they denied having the photos and wouldn’t let us see the file unless we got a subpoena. Long story short…if you are ever hit by a State Farm insured, make sure the police are there, you take photos and get statements. They are a no-fault company and will pay their insured whatever, then will come after the other party full on. Until I go to my grave, I will find every opportunity to smear them.

Hey, I just got in a accident 3 weeks ago I have full coverage and a super rare car. Acura Integra type r that was a show car for the past 2 years my insurance company is State Farm. long story short. After the accident car went to collision center someone broke in stole my whole interior =(. Just today I had the insurance company call me to give me the quote they offered me $3900 and $1000 deductible so $2900. I laughed and asked them if that was just for the wheels as my car goes for average online and locally for $13,000 and that’s in shit condition and good conditions up to $20 000, and mine was a perfect show car condition. I told them my car is worth so much more just the seats which are original factory Acura seats are valued at $4000 I sat on garbage bags to keep my seats new lol. They said as the car was stolen we got no proof you had those seats I LAUGHED I asked her well what the fuck did I sit on buckets maybe a couch she said you could have had other seats well how am I supposed to proof to you that I had those seats I told her I will show her pictures of those in my car as well as online pictures as my car was photographed at shows even get the previous owner I bought the car from and the owner of the shop that saw my car as a whole before it got stolen. she said you cant proof that those pictures are your car even though I got the group sticker the car traveled with on the windshield she just kept on blabbing about MARKET VALUE MARKET VALUE bull shit. So I wanted to search my options online and I stumbled across your little website so I decided to write my story to you I hope we can do something as I would really want these assholes brought down and would love to ruin there reputation. I have attached a picture of my baby to this email and you can contact me at cells11 (at) live.com

Well, folks, now you know why I FINALLY switched my insurance to Mercury (here in California), where by grouping my policies (auto + home), Mercury was able to give me BETTER coverage than State Farm at HALF THE RATE. I kid you not.

Read what RB has had to go through:

Rob,

Friday night, 4:00pm, wife and I notice water outside the front door. After some investigation, determined it was coming from inside a wall in the coat closet, on the other side of the entryway by the front door. At 4:30pm I called my agent who asked if I wanted “Servpro” to come out and do whatever it is they do. I declined saying I’d look into it further. By 5:15pm, we knew we were in over our head. I called and left a message for my agent and then contacted a local flood/restoration company. Naturally, I assumed my HOI would cover a slab leak or at least the ensuing damage. Around 5:30 or so I was on the phone starting the claim process with their claim center. I was told a member of their claims dept should contact me to explain the process within a couple hours. Meanwhile, the flood and restoration company was busy tearing out the wet drywall exposing the leaking pipe. A couple hours later, I initiated a second call. I was greeted by someone who ‘was so glad I called’ and could connect me to the claims department. The claims department indicated they couldn’t authorize any work (I had contacted a local plumber and scheduled him to come out on Saturday morning for repair and/or leak detection) until the damage had been inspected by their adjuster. When I asked when the adjuster would be out, I was told he was off for the weekend and most likely would return my call Monday morning. The claims rep stated that only the adjuster would know my policy and its coverages and exclusions and that the amount of coverage could not be determined without an investigation. I tried my agent again via email and phone, no answer either way. Like a good neighbor, State Farm was…out at the lake fishing or whatever.

Meanwhile, the flood and restoration guy left his blowers blowing and his dehumidifiers dehumidifying.

Saturday morning, the plumber confirms a slab leak but opts not to repair until we discuss with the insurance company. He suspects the leak is about 12” down, below the slab. Neither he nor the flood/restoration guy had EVER heard of a slab leak not being covered. They both indicated, in their experience, that State Farm most likely would not cover repair to the pipe itself, but, based upon what they’ve seen in the past, the insurance normally covers everything else including the drying, wet stuff rip out, slab intrusion, and rebuild. Since State Farm couldn’t tell me what was covered and not, we waited.

Sunday, while waiting, I looked up another local State Farm agent I’d met through the local chamber of commerce. I emailed her. Wouldn’t you know it, she returned my email by calling me within an hour, unlike my own agent.

Monday morning, I finally reach the adjuster. He indicates the field rep is already in the field for the day and won’t be able to assess damage until Tuesday at the earliest. The adjuster indicated that slab leaks are not covered under the policy but that the ensuing damage should be. This meant we would have to pay to cut into the slab and repair the line. At NO time did he mention the infamous ‘subsurface water’ exclusion. I reached my agent on Monday and gave him a piece of my mind. He was less than helpful and claimed to have never received my email. He admitted that he does not check voicemail messages over the weekend. At this point, I’ve made peace with the fact that I’d be paying for my deductible and the plumbing repair in its entirety. I was unsure if the tile damaged to get to the plumbing would be covered or not. Meanwhile, blowers blowing and dehumidifiers dehumidifying

Tuesday morning. The flood and restoration guy arrives and confirms the area is dried. He has done his job correctly and saved our tile from water damage. The State Farm field rep shows up. He does his thing. To his credit, he did the best he could and seemed genuinely empathetic, BUT, wait for it, State Farm has an exclusion for water originating below the surface. If the leak is 12” down, it is below the slab. Therefore, absolutely NOTHING is covered, not the primary event nor the ensuing damage.

In conversations with the adjuster, the agent, and their field rep, they all were adamant that NO ONE covers damage originating from subsurface water and that this is very well known in the industry. To which my flood and restoration guy says, “Uh, no it’s not.” My question, if it’s so well known on their common HOI policy, why the hell didn’t anyone I spoke with when I started the claims process know this??? Had I known on Friday night, I would have told the flood and restoration guy to take a hike and would have gone and rented my own blowers and dehumidifiers from home depot. Since I thought the insurance company was going to cover the loss, I assumed they needed licensed and bonded contractors to do the drying scientifically and not Joe Blow homeowner.

In my opinion, State Farm acted in bad faith by delaying the inspection process and failing to explain the coverage of my HOI policy when I explicitly explained on Friday night that I had a SLAB LEAK. If this exclusion is as well-known as they indicated, certainly their own staff would have known it when the claim was initiated.

They did offer to pay for the leak detection, which I thought was fair considering that $250 got them off the hook for the $3400 drying bill, $3000 rebuild bill, and $900 plumbing repair (more like $2400 because we opted to reroute OUT of the slab).

The ‘good’ news is that my HOI policy is up for renewal in four days. I’m shopping for a new carrier. I wonder if my mortgage company is aware that State Farm lacks this coverage? I wonder if they’d force their homeowners to look for different HOI…

Allen writes:

Hello, I saw your info on-line about Sate Farm. I recently experienced damage to my home due to the heavy snow fall the north east U.S. experienced. Both of the major gutters and the fascia board they attach to are damaged beyond repair and need to be replaced. One fell off the roof completely and the other is barely hanging and is bent beyond recovery. The attic of my house is now exposed to the elements while I await repair. My State Farm agent said the loss would be covered and after waiting 2 weeks for an adjuster I was handed a check for approximately half of what 3 contractors have estimated it would cost.

Rob's reply:

Allen, it's critical that you hand them back the check and submit your own estimates. State Farm relies on "fast pay" to pay out much lower reimbursements. This happened to me with water damage to a floor. Within a day or two, State Farm handed me a check for $6000. Unfortunately, the damage was more than double that amount. I refused the check and submitted estimates from three other vendors, in writing. State Farm revised their check and paid a total of $17K, which did cover the damage.

Never take the quick check. Always do your homework and it should work out.

Everyone knows there's a recession in 2009. Everyone knows that insurance companies are a business. Here's Jerry, who knows it too well:

I just received notice from State Farm they are raising the rates on my property insurance by 57% on one building and 67% on another building. Nothing has changed on any of my property and I have not filed any claims. They just decided they were going to raise the rates.
Who gets away with this kind of outragous price hike?
I wrote to my State insurance commission to see if they had any kind of protection for the consumer for this type of tactic. Surprise Surprise it turns out it is  perfectly legal for them to charge what ever they want. No caps or any controls on how much they can raise the rates.
It is time for a revolution in this country against Insurance Companies.
Everyone should cancel their policies at one time and put these con artists out of business.
Jerry

Please use my name only as "Tony" I fear retribution from State Farm.

ROB'S NOTE: How strange is it that Tony would have to fear retribution from "a good neighbor"? Amazing. But read on:

I really need your help. Recently my daughter was in an accident with one of State Farm's insured. Their insured was not driving the vehicle, someone else was, and they backed into my daughter in a parking lot. Police refused to respond because it was private property. Thus began the perfect storm.

By the time the dust settled State Farm claimed that their driver had produced a "witness" who said their insured was in fact the one driving and that my daughter had rear ended them and was at fault.

State Farm made the decision to deny the claim and never even spoke to my daughter until I had contacted them and yelled until they did. They would take the word of a witness that their driver produced after the fact but would not even speak to the two witnesses who were in the car with my daughter when the accident occurred. And to this minute they refuse to even consider allowing me to file an appeal or do anything to assist. What really stinks is I have had my home owners policy with State Farm for 19 years, and a good chunk of that time had two homes with them. The damage to my daughter's car is slight and it would have been much cheaper for them to pay my claim then to lose me as a client, but oh well.

Here is my real question. Who is the advocate for people in my situation? All State Farm has to do is say no and no one will help. This is an outrage and very unfair. State Farm has dared me, literally, to take them to court. I know that if on some technicality I lost I would be liable for their legal fees as well as my own. I am sure they bank on that. I have contacted my state insurance commissioner's office and they have had the case for nearly two months and I can't even get a call back. I am afraid being too aggressive with them will cause me to lose the one last hope that I have.

Do you have any advice? This could be your wife or your daughter that this happens to. Doesn't State Farm feel any responsibility to try and find out what really happened or is it truly just about money? They won't consider obvious witnesses because this would force them into a position where they cannot just deny, deny, deny. I guess this is just a small taste of what those poor people in Katrina felt like when State Farm was sticking it to them.

ROB RESPONDS: Tony, all you can do is go public and NOT be intimidated. I'm no expert, but I agree with you that intimidation is what they rely on. Persistence can wear you down, but it can ALSO wear THEM down. I'd keep sending the letters and if necessary, consider small claims court. In California, the limit is/was $7500 -- and they never LOWER the limit. Have you tried that? Small claims judges also tend to bend over backwards to help out the well-documented, polite little guy.

Steve From Stafford Virginia: 

I filed a claim to state farm for water damage to my residence after a rubber grommet that surrounds the vent pipe on the roof was damaged, opened a gash on the seal, water came in for 8-9 straight hours, ruined upstairs bathroom, and coming to rest in lower living quarters under the pergo flooring. Residence is a Split level home lower part partially underground with sump pump. 

After the storm, a State Farm adjuster came over spent about 30 minutes pointing a flashlight at various parts of the damage and said those magic words that excludes them from paying out, "sub surface water damage." 

After spending time showing the guy how the water flowed he argued and flew out in a huff, Result, they only paid for the upper bathroom ceiling area. but absolutely will not cover the down stairs, living area. I explained my wife and I witnessed the water flow into the area, It didn't come down like in buckets, but a steady stream for 8-9 hrs. He explained he had a whole 10 years experience at this,  (Adjuster Stuff) He explained he doesn't see how that stream gathered that much in a volume of water. I turned to the deep sink, turned the water on a steady stream of water, and told him let that run on your floor for a while and see if water doesn't collect on your floor. He didn't hardly speak to me after that. 

The pergo flooring was only in one room, on the whole downstairs living quarters. The water level didn't rise above the quarter inch pergo flooring, there wasn't that much water Just enough to damage the edges of the floor. State farm Agent agreed with me, but was told to stay out of the argument...I explained we had additional storms with equal intensity with heavy rains on an already saturated ground with no further incident after fixing the roof. The water was clear rain water, not stained muddy ground water. State Farm only gave me a check for half the damage. The sump pump was working as always. the water in the lower lower quarters was rain water not sub surface ground water.

To everyone and anyone reading this post, you MUST know that whenever submitting a claim to State Farm, you must expect to appeal and go after your rightful settlement no matter what they tell you!  For reasons that are too boring to go into, we still have State Farm covering our home.  But watch this:

We recently had a pipe burst, flooding out lower floor and ruining the hardwood.  State Farm was very quick to send out one of their adjusters, a nice woman with a clipboard and a pencil.  The woman poked around, took measurements and left -- in about ten minutes.

Roughly a week later, I received a check for roughly six thousand dollars.  Nice, except that the damages were way higher than that.

I immediately called the State Farm adjuster, and faxed her a notice describing everything her "field agent" had missed, including three rooms and four walls that were heavily damaged.  But then I went even further, calling in floor and wall contractors to estimate the cost of repairs.  Each contractor came in with a bid three times higher than the State Farm amount.

I faxed those estimates to the State Farm offices, too.  They decided to send out their own contractor, who submitted his own estimate, which was only twice as high as their original.

Within four more weeks, I received another check from State Farm, which actually covered the damages in a non-fiction format.

Moral of the story:  Get everything documented, keep copies and show them you mean business.  It is, after all, just a business to them.

Rob,

Proceeding cautiously here! My wife and I are business owners in (withheld by Rob to prevent retribution from State Farm).

We are currently being withheld claim payment from a May13th 2007 burglary at our store. Not denied, they have claimed for 7 months they are investigating! Well we lost 17,000 thousand dollars worth of inventory from a 1 year old startup business that was doing extremely well. 

There (sic) failure to pay this claim has now forced us to shut down 1 brick and mortar store and we are in jeopardy of losing more. The real kick in the nuts here is my wife is visually disabled not 100% but she will be eventually due to eye condition. Its her business and DVR and the Bureau of the blind helped set her up for future self employment for the disabled.

The thief's (sic) stole her PC and wrecked other equipment that allows her to operate the business as normal despite her disability. This allows her to maintain records and prepare them for our accountant, do banking, inventories and other things a business owner would need to do. 

Now our good neighbor has been investigating claim, refuses to explain, what, why or anything. They keep requesting documents over and over knowing how hard this is on my wife without the equipment they are denying replacement of (special rider just for this equipment)

Now they have begun sending large bundles of our records they requested, re-copied in extra small legal text and tell my wife to legally confirm the accuracy of all records. There is so much more to tell you but i will need to find out a little more about you. I have documents, tape recordings and transcripts and have documented 7 months of this. we sat back and have let them proceed unabated but not unrecorded. Now its time to act!

I also run a network of websites and webstores and was going to do the same thing you are doing to our neighbor online, but am cautious due to wifes claim status. I have the ability to host video, tapes, documents, or anything else, and it cannot be shut down or spammed away. Several of our sites have good PR with google and the link power they have is a great publicity tool.We also have customer forums and the users love to spread information down the highway. 

Hope to hear back from you soon!

Jason & Judy

(If you would like to contact Jason, reply to Rob directly)

Jon has entire sites devoted to State Farm's "service"!

Hi, I think state farm is the worst; I can send you all my letters if you would like: they basically changed my APR rate of my credit card, Lied about a balance transfer and for my insurance they actually said they would cover something and turned around and did something else:)

http://www.statefarmstillsucks.com

Alexa submitted this link, noting that even Senator Trent Lott is suing State Farm over the way it seems to be dodging its responsiblities stemming from Hurrican Katrina. State Farm claims damage done by wind was actualy done by flood water. The article claims that even when State Farm agents agreed that damages were covered, State Farm refused to pay and actually fired the agents. Read more at http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2005/katrina_lott.html.

Travis writes this adventure:

On Dec. 19, 2005, I was rear-ended by a State Farm insured. She was lost, in rush hour traffic, and too busy talking on her cell phone to worry too much about driving. She plowed her '92 Toyota Tercel into the rear of my '99 Dodge Neon. Neither her car nor mine were drivable. I had mine towed to a dealership with a body shop.

The following wednesday, I called State Farm to find out the status of the claim. NO CLAIM HAD BEEN FILED. Maybe their insured was still on the phone, who knows. So I let them know what happened, and they said they had to talk to their insured. Hours later that day, I got a call stating they were accepting responsibility for the accident, and that they would get someone out to look at my car. Finally, on January 3rd, they call back and tell me they're going to declare the car a total loss.

The woman explained to me the repair estimate was $3400, so they were going to cut me a check for $3700. I said "wait, I thought you just said the repairs were only thirty four hundred. Why would you give me MORE? She replied that THEY would be getting my car!

I explained that is not an option, since I owe more than that on the car, and it's under lien. She replied they are under "no legal obligation" to pay off what I owe the bank. I told her I was not interested in some kind of payoff, just FIX MY CAR. She rattled on something about when an estimate is within a certain percent of the "total loss" declaration, they can declare it a total loss. I again explained that I owe more than their "payoff" and cannot afford to pay a thousand dollars to a bank for a car I would no longer possess. She simply said that it's not their problem.

Then it came to light WHY they were willing to give me $3700 for the car- they fully expect ME to BUY BACK the car from them, which would mean they'd only have to write a check for $3100 (the difference between the retail and salvage retail). I told her she needs to have someone call me back that is more qualified to answer my questions. I've yet to hear back on it.