I had a small restaurant in the Houston area..this restaurant was a victim of vandalism a couple of times (the area it was in was not the best, but it was nice). The biggest customer I had was the Christian school behind me. Several weeks after a vandalism incident and all types of racial/prejudice slurs spray painted all on the walls and the glass was broken, my place burned down...the fire marshal came out and ruled the fire as arson. Ofcourse, the fire marshal investigated and even interrogated me. I owed no money on the restaurant equipment...all my bills and i do mean ALL my bills were 4 months ahead. My house has been paid off for over 10 years. My car was paid off in 2008. I had NO debts, no IOU's..nothing!! The only debt i had was a credit card bill ($2300). The restuarant did $5500 in sales a month (on a crappy month), it was only one year old and everyone knows you don't start making money til about 5 years into a new business.
The fire marshall checked my background (clear)..checked my where abouts (all good)...checked my phone records (all good)...
Farmers sent out an "investigator" who pretty much asked all the right questions to ask a criminal.
I provided all kinds of documents. They asked for all types of personal information...got nothing to hide, I gave to them. Bank records..gave it to them...phone records..gave it to them...tax records, income records, personal phone records.. gave it to them.
I under went a 5 hour EUO and they asked for more crap...gave it to them.. they wanted releases signed.. gave it to them.
They denied my claim. I told my lawyer..'File a suit".. he did. Judge ordered them to re-open claim and finish it.
I under went a second EUO (examination under oath).. this time from 9am to 6pm with a one hour lunch break...their lawyer asked about my bank records, literarly transaction by transaction.. 16 months worth.. "i see you spent $78.45 at Sams..what was that for".. "what is this $4.56 at Starbucks for"... junk like that.
The lawyer's questions were of this nature "how long would it take you to drive to your restaurant and back if you wanted to do it in a hurry?"... what road would you travel on to make the trip to your restaurant if you did not want to be seen?".. "did you know that we can track where you made a call from on the night of the fire?"... "the points of entry on your restaurant were both penetrated on the night of the fire, why is that?" (how the hell am i supposed to know??)... my favorite "did you know they found traced of burnt wood by your restaurant after the fire?" (you moron, there was a fire!! all the window trim is wood! the counters, doors, shelves and cabinets were wood!!!)
I signed more releases and provided more papers...
They came back and asked for my personal phone records for the past 4 YEARS!!! We are in 2011..my place burned down in 2010...why are you asking about my phone records for the past 4 years?? why are you asking me how much money I spent the third week of 2007?? (literarly)
It has been a year and 4 months since the fire...have i received what is rightfully mine? No!
Are they purposely putting this off? Yes
Are they doing this so I would say "screw it, i don't want my money"? YES!!
I got nothing but time. I don't need the money, but it is mine...did i send out for an EUO when they sent my the monthly bill that i was 4 months ahead on?
Farmers insurance is GARBAGE!!!
