Insurance GRRR

We had a bad hail storm last August (1 year and2 months ago). There was tennis ball size hail accompanied by 60 mph winds. Insurance was very good about replacing the broken windows, roof, vehicles, siding, and gutters. So far they have figured about $37,000 damage. Now we have been "discussing " the deck and screened in gazebo all summer. The adjuster origiionally told us new handrails, spindles, screens, posts decking, and shingles on 5 of the 8 sections of the octogon shaped gazebo roof. I had a contractor come out and give us a bid for this work, and the insurance Co (State Farm) didn't like his numbers. Last night the "new" adjuster came out to look it over with the contractor and the new plan is to re-stain the deck, railing, and floor. Also now just doing the ridge caps on the roof, and somehow fixing the shakes that are broken or missing. Also wanted to just repalce 3 sections of screen out of 8, because "the dents from the inside are something other than hail". In this case you have to remove all the handrails and spindles to replace the screen, which you would have to do to stain it also.
I know he is just doing his job and trying to save company money, but when they tell you one thing and then switch it up on what they will cover it just pi$$e$ me off!
We had a little trouble with the windows like this too. The old windows were Pella's and some of them had built in blinds. Now in all fairness some of them leaked and needed replaced anyway, but when we brought the price of new Pella windows with built in blinds to them they really squawked! We decided to settle on triple pane, vinyl windows by North Country and I couldn't be happier with them. They were less expensive than the Pella windows so insureance said OK.
Has anyone had any luck dealing with this kind of stuff? What is the trick, sticking to your guns? Is ther any recourse with them or do you just get what you get?

Keep your ground and argue with them. They have nothing to loose, you on that other hand have already lost it and want it back the way it was.

Its their job to fight tooth and nail every step of the way, and they are better at it than you are since they do it multiple times a day.

Tell them to fix it right and fix it NOW! Its already been over a year.

That's just State Farm.

If you want to see some real horror stories about State Farm, read some trade magazines from the auto body industry. Maybe they've straightened up in the last few years, but as recently as five years ago there were large body shops that refused to deal with State Farm.

They'd only pay for aftermarket parts instead of OEM, they'd try to dictate how the repair was done, usually below both the shop's and industry standards for quality, they'd steer the work to a few select shops that would do their shoddy work for them, etc.

The other way is to go make a video recording of all the damage. Get at least 3 estiamtes from reputable contractors. Get it fixed. Then take them to court for breach, sue for treble damages. Then watch them settle with you real quick.
State Farm by the way is the WORSE for H/O insurance.
They never want to pay out.
Nationwide much better.
BTDT
Pete

What state? If needed you sssshold tell State Farm that you will be calling your state insurance comission.

Rick

Daughter-in-law's parked car was damaged by runaway golf cart in grandfather's driveway. Driven by Grandfather. Insurance took three weeks to getting around to daeling with it. She can't even use the car as passenger door unopenable. Companies don't care - their time, not ours. Probably the longer the frog around, the softer you'll get. Then you'll take any settlement out of frustration.

Call the insurance commissioner in your state. Here they only have so many days to settle. They would be paying a fine to the state. Not State Farm but another insurance company was dragging its feet on settling a pick-up claim and they called the commisioner one afternoon and the next morning the adjuster called and said it was imperitive that they settled today.

You think State Farm is bad - you should try to make a claim like that with Farm Beruea.

Boss at work had hail on his new roof early in the 2011 year, never got around to fixing it then and had hail again in 2012 on the same damaged roof. Insurance company(not state farm) wants to drop him because of too many claims, he saved them from roofing it twice, go figure. chris

Well I have never dealt with an insurance company that did not make me want to kill someone. They like to gamble with you on weather things will be damaged then they want to change the odds after you have a loss.

I would get three estimates. Then tell the insurance adjuster he has ten days to approve one of them or you will take the company to court for breach of contract. They will drag their feet forever if you let them.

I was messed over on a car one time. It was wrecked and totaled on Good Friday. They started out four thousand under the value of the car. I fought with them until Labor day. I still came out a few thousand dollars short on the car.

The lessons learned:

1) NEVER have a car taken to your property. The insurance company is not paying storage so they have zero incentive to settle faster.

2) You are on your own. The agent is working for the insurance company. HE/she can lie to you all day long about what the company will do and you have zero recourse.

3) The bigger the company the more crooked/slow/cheap they are to deal with. I have had much better luck with smaller local mutual companies.

4) Do not be cowed into accepting poor service from them. The adjuster is working to pay you as little as possible.

5) Don't shy away from getting legal counsel on the matter. THEY do. So you should too. You need to know the exact laws in your state. Then go after them.

With these things is mind you need to remember that if they half way repair the damage and you accept their payment, they are done. If the roof or windows leak in a few years or months it is going to be on your dime. IF any of the damage shows up later they will not pay a dime.

So get three estimates. Go to your lawyer and have him write that you are giving them so many days to accept one of these estimates or your going to court. A few dollars to someone that represents you will be cheap money in the long run. Even if the cost is in the thousands remember what it could cost you down the road to repair a cheap home repair.

Last thing Switch companies just as soon as they settle. You have given the current one a year to settle. They have proven that they are not to be trusted. So go to another one.

Insurance companies try to squeeze you for every penny. Last May we totolled my old Lincoln which I loved and kept in topnotch shape. The adjuster called up and told me he was taking off approximately $1000 for hail damage. My problem was it was never in hail of any size. I said I never saw any damage like he claimed and he said you have to be an expert at things like that and even though I never saw it, he did. Now, he also asked me to release the car because it was costing him a lot to keep it in the towing storage yard. I replied " I will relase the car and accept your deal when you include $500 for the brand new car door hinges just installed a week ago, and another $500 for a brand new intake manifold installed a month ago as they can be salvaged and resold . Also forget the hail damage, and we have a deal".
. After thinking it over a day he called back and took my deal. Just have to stand tall and not let them bluff you.

As long as State Farm has been mentioned I will relate my
story. I had an 86 Ford diesel farm truck that I paid $2000
for 5 years ago. It was totaled by fire. I carry minimal ins,
but I did have 0 deductable comprehensive on it. Everyone I
talked to with the company was really nice. They settled
quickly for $3200 and charged back $200 to keep the truck. I
had not had a claim in years and my rates are really low. I
will never think of changing companies.

They really hate playing claims, to work in their office or as an adjuster you have to have the attitude that everyone but you lies (they hire a lot of ex new car salesman). Show them no quarter, document damage with videos, if it's a house get a pre purchase inspection done on the damaged area by a qualified and licensed home inspector, get estimates, forward copies of the inspector's report and the estimates to your state insurance commissioner along with their settlement offers, concurrently file a lawsuit against them in your local court. Make sure your lawsuit asks for interest, administrative fees and punitive damages for breach of contract and don't accept anything from them that doesn't cover your troubles. Also be prepared to be dropped and have difficulty getting insurance for a while, make sure you get enough to pay the blood money. Best insurance story I heard, my wife's uncle was driving his truck, a truck going the other way was from a body shop, they were hauling a car hood, it blew off and hit Uncle Lyman's truck. The police came and the truck driver stated that he was at fault and if Lyman would bring his truck to their shop they'd fix it- no charge, no need to get the insurance involved. The cop decided not to write a ticket. Lyman shows up at the body shop the next day and the tune is changed yes they'll fix it for $2,800, not their fault because no ticket was issued. Lyman got in his truck, drove home and filed on his insurance. Within 48 hours his insurance company sends him a check for $3,300 and tells him where he can pick up a rental car to drive while the truck is repaired. About 2 days later the body shop calls, we'd sure like to fix your truck for free. Seems Lyman's insurance company sent the body shop a bill for $4,200 for the repair, the rental car, the adjuster fees and their costs to process the claim. He took the truck somewhere else to get fixed.

As others have said, contact your state ins. commission. From what I know, if you"re having trouble with an ins company in Tx, they really don"t like to hear you say you"re going to contact the state ins commission.

We have ins through USAA. They have been outstanding. Thursday night, Sept 29, 2011, a thunderstorm took the roof off my barn here in Dallas. Ins adjuster was there Fri afternoon. I had an extremely generous settlement in my bank account by Tues evening.

Can"t say enough good about USAA. They have always been excellent.

I have been with State Farm for 44 years now started out on my 48 Packard.
I have been real happy with them what I have learned is your agent can make a lot of difference in how well you are handled.
I had a bad accident with a tractor ,don't ask, so my ins. Jumped way up I called my agent and he worked with me to get a lower price for the next year until they drop the fee for having too many claims. Why do people have to bangup your nice truck when it's in a wide handicap parking place. And how do they hit your recessed liscence plate without touching the bumper. I try to keep my 97 Ranger like new but it's real hard with so many idiots on the road.
Anyway I will stay with my State Farm for now anyway.
Walt

I did deal with Farm Bureau about five years ago when my wife was in a head-on collision. The gal who caused the collision was insured with Farm Bureau.

The Adjuster first tried to lowball me on the value of our minivan that was destroyed. When I informed him I was a bodyman and also an Adjuster (at the time), I got him straightened out in a hurry and got a fair settlement.

For the rest of it, medical bills, pain and suffering, etc, I decided I was in over my head and our attorney handed us off to a buddy of his who specializes in personal injury. We got a fair settlement, but not quite what I'd hoped for. The attorney was edgy about one doctor that would have been called to testify had it gone to trial. The attorney said he'd seen that same doctor in other cases, and he was prone to make statements in favor of the prosecutor off the record, and then when under oath on the witness stand do a 180 degree flip and testify in favor of the defendent.

We had a fair offer on the table, so we took it.

Tell your agent that you are not happy with the new adjuster and then tell him that you want the company to send out an independent adjuster for an unbiased settlement.

You need to play hardball with these A-holes.
First thing to is call your agent.
Then tell him that if you are not treated properly you will get an attorney to get them to pay. Then switch insurance companies. You may want to just say "Hey buddy, flip me $30,000 and we will call it even" Get better prices for fixing the stuff then you will come out ahead. Do you actually have broken window from hail damage? I have not seen that before.
I have a buddy that had a bad hail storm and he actually made out well on the claim, he pocketed over $5,000. The adjuster thought he would need all new vinyl siding, but my buddy just needed to replace several pieces and it all matched well, so he was good with it. He had roof damage too.

This is one place where getting an attorney involved will be worth the cost. Maybe not so much in property damage claims, but in personal injury matters (which can get pretty high-$$$), insurance companies routinely stonewall you and do nothing until they get a letter on attorney letterhead, then they'll start working on the case. You don't know the right buttons to push, and they know it.

You might want to contact a "public adjuster", they work for you negotiating with your insurance company. Here, they work on a percentage of the claim, by law no more than 14%, I believe, but that figure is negotiable. I had a public adjuster settle a claim for me at 10%, it was well worth it.
In my case, which was more than 25 years ago, wide spread storm damage had all the adjusters busy. The insurance company told us it would be weeks before an adjuster would be available. Well, we had a public adjuster here two hours after we called him. We had our claim settled well before our neighbors, and for more money.
I tell my friends who have claims to get a public adjuster.
Regards,
Charlie

And lucky you, for turning in a claim, you will now pay a higher rate for the next 5 years. No fault of yours that it happened but they will raise your rate. Try moving to another company and they won't even talk to you because of your claim.

Ok sounds like you have dealt with this before too. yeah the hail came sideways, like i said 60 mph winds at the time. After the window in the boys' bedroom broke it left glass embedded in the sheetrock wall on the opposite side of the room. This wall is 10 feet away from the window and the glass was stuck in 4' up from the floor. It broke out 5 windows and dented up the aluminum on 5 or 6 more. Too much to get into here

Ins. ,but a little off topic. Has anyone had dealings with Hagerty Ins. in Mich? They insure older vechicles and other colectable things.
We went with them a yr. ago with 15 of our antique tractors. We have heard good things about them. What is the general feelings about them? Thank you.clint

i am 71 years old and have delt with many inc co.over the years State Farm was the worst of all and Farm Bureau the best off all