Farmers Insurance Rated Worst! (Farmers Insurance Sucks!)
* Farmers Insurance Rated Worse! Consumer Reports rated 20 homeowner insurance companies based on their reader's claim experience. Farmers Insurance was the only company on the list that was rated "Worse" for both "Problems with Claim" and "Delayed Payments". Report dated September 2004, (see Personal finance-Homeowners insurance 9/04)
* "Farmers: One Of The 5 Worst U.S. Bad Faith Insurer Records!
A Consistently Very Bad Record! Large Insurer Group. Be Advised: You Do Not Want To Buy Insurance Or Be Insured With This Bad Faith Insurer!" -Fight Bad Faith Insurance Companies (FBIC). Site includes an investigative exposé called "Breaking The Mold" regarding a homeowner policyholder and toxic mold claimant revealing examples of the bad faith insurance claim practices by numerous bad faith insurers, in this case Farmers Insurance, and the damaging effects on the family. (Rating as of June 2005)
* Farmers Ranked Worse! Farmers ranked as the worst company for complaints in the homeowners insurance category, "with a complaint ratio five times higher than the survey average."..."too often Farmers customers must depend upon the Department of Insurance to get their claims paid and their rates reduced." Los Angeles Business Journal, July 1, 1991
* Farmers Insurance had Second-Worst complaint Ratio! What If The Company Won't Pay? Kiplingers Personal Finance Magazine, June 1999. Article has some great advice for dealing with a Claim (see bottom of article)
* To see more information regarding Farmers Insurance see: http://www.farmersinsurancegroupsucks.com/
posted by FarmersInsuranceGroupSucks at 10:33 AM
2 Comments:
We are still wading through the post disaster crisis which occurred this past spring, originating with a house fire with damages of $289,999, which includes the housing allowance.
Farmers gave us a policy for $230,000 on the structure and 128,000 on contents. The fine print reads the home must be insured 100% loan to value to qualify for the additional 25% which was critical to rebuilding. They failed to insure it 100 % loan to value. But the adjuster said he would get a new real estate loan, which he did, and this brought it to 100% or we'd have been in real trouble. Three bids were done, one at 299,000 and two around 250,000. Farmers bid was $110,000. Nobody --- wanted to build it for that amount.
Many issues are perplexing and complex. The contractor Belfor Construction is a Farmers accessed company, but the PA felt he was the one to do the job. Now with the squeeze to pay $30,000 or they threaten to take our house with a law suit, we say to ourselves---Was this a scam? Did they all plan it this way from the very beginning? How many people has this happened to? We know that when a flood occurred in a nearby city, our PA stated he harvested some 11 clients from it.
Our fees to the PA were assessed based on the Service Masters cleaning of our home contents, and cost of construction, to rebuild. We'd initially planned to have the PA do an inventory of our house contents, which they stated for nearly two monthes was near Tacoma, but at end of June the PA stated he'd just learned the stuff was in Everett. All this time, in calls he was saying he'd been to the storage and was separating out the damaged stuff from what was usable. At that point, we became uncomfortable with the amount being thrown away, which had been cleaned and boxed by Service Masters, and that the whereabouts of this stuff was in fact virtually unknown. So we decided to forego the inventory, and go for the structure portion of the policy.
The other thing is that we were rufused admittance to the Service Masters warehouse, because the PA said we may "ferret out" contents and he was counting everything. So for 3 mos I was unable to work, as they held equipment. This was finally released. But we could have appreciated being given access to the stuff more cooperatively. They are not open weekends, and we could not afford job time loss in the face of the expenses that the fire loss brought.
The other thing we became uncomfortable with was that we were told to turn in receipts for expenses, but these were never recompensed by Farmers, as promised over and above the emergency check issued.
Presently, after hiring -Sound Loss & Claims, the Public Adjuster recommended by our insurance company, which is Farmers, he gave us the bill of 10% just two weeks ago, demanding we pay it in full immediately, or he would halt construction on our home and the ALE (housing allowance) for our selves, teenage daughter and who was six when the fire occurred (basicly meaning we'd all be out on the street.
We explained as patiently as possible that we did not have the ability to take out a non secured loan on nearly $30,000, but need the house repaired and THEN we can refinance.
We called Farmers, who stated they can do nothing more to help us, and we have to deal with the PA, Sound Loss & Claim, who put a restriction on their business telephone, requiring an access code, and accused us of refusing to return phone calls.
Today I finally got through, and the PA's wife said he was at the attorney to file a law suit against us. The Sound Loss & Claim, has interpreted our inability to take out an immediate non secured loan as a refusal to pay, and a desire to rob them of fees. We have no problem paying the bill when we have a home to secure the loan with, and have always payed our bills.
Welcome to the world of Farmers Insurance claims. Farmers Insurance will lowball and deny your claim any chance it can. Read this article about Farmers Insurance lowballing another homeowner. Farmers Insurance is the worst insurance company in the country.
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