Allstate's Poor Practice Should be Outlawed!

My husband is a General Contractor who specializes in Insurance
Restoration with 20+ years of working with practically every insurance
company. It has gotten to the point that he will not even speak to an
Allstate adjuster to do an estimate. He says that in his experience
Allstate will deny a claim the 1st and 2nd time it is submitted, and
that IF the insured submits it a 3rd time they will (grudgingly) pay
50% of whatever the estimate is to repair the damage. He's been to
court more times than I can count as an expert witness AGAINST
Allstate in order to get the company to pay for the homeowner's
repairs.

We've been State Farm customers for more years than I can count, and I
have never once had a complaint. Great rates, and fabulous customer
service.

I work in a business that tries to make insurance companies pay out on
the claims. Let me tell you, they'll risk letting their insured get
sued over the SMALLEST little things. They deny claims the first two
requests out the door, even if you have the perfect claim.

Nosw, from my expierience of being an insured person, and dealing with
the claims process, I'd definately recommend State Farm. They've
treated my family and I very well over the years. My parents have had
State Farm for over 20 years! I've used them since I had a reason, at
16. Best of luck to you OP, and congrats on the new home!!

You admit to having a claim. Were you decided to be "at fault" for
this claim?

Our neighbor's old oak tree fell on our garage. No ding on our
premiums. A year ago, 4 feet of water in our basement, along with
quite a bit of related damage, due to Midwest flooding.

Our rates have not gone up, even with these claims. We were not
determined to be "at fault".

But if we hadn't shoveled our sidewalks, or salted the ice, or our
dogs had bitten someone.....Our rates might have gone up.

OP, you might find better rates if you insure your vehicle(s) with the
same company as your homeowner's. It's amazing, the discount we get
for having multiple lines--home, autos, umbrella.

For the recommendations. I'll give Farmers and State Farm a call on
Monday. I'll keep my fingers crossed!

While you do seem annoyed that you were denied coverage, you seem more
annoyed that they wasted so much of your time before telling you
this!

It's like when I go to donate blood, and after all the stupid
questions about whether or not I've had sex with someone from Africa
or ever exchanged sex for drugs, THEN they test my iron count and if
it's too low, I'm sent on my way. I've tried getting them to test my
iron first, but they refuse.

(No lectures, please, I know how to raise my iron count and have done
so.)

I've heard nothing but bad things over the years. Honestly, I would
try State Farm or some of the other well known insurers. I've always
heard that Allstate is great until it comes to actually dealing
with/paying out a claim...which is why you pay them!

I have been using Farmers Insurance since 1989 for Auto, and then I
added homeowners, I was once rear ended by an allstate customer
allstate did not respond to My agent, and then the pereson that hit me
magically had no insurance Farmers took care of all legal items, and
they recovered everything from allstate, including my deductible.

Everybody should remember the commercials from a company are inversly
purportional to their service and product quality!!

Allstate is HORRIBLE! When the Hurricans hit, people that had
Allstate HURRICANE insurance were told by Allstate, "Sorry! Act of
God! You are not covered." My in-laws had trouble with them, too.
My MIL was turning left into her drive way. This teenager in a car
came speeding down the road and hit the back of her car. Allstate
told her "Sorry! Your fault!" She fought it and they did pay out HALF
the Blue Book of her car.

If you have car insurance, see if they offer Homeowners too. Some
times they offer a discount.

WE happen to have State Farm and they have been really good to us. My
husband has been with the same agent for 20 years. NEVER had a
problem!

I agree with you on this. Insurance companies are in the business of
insuring people at risk, and I never understood why filing a claim
means a rate increase or even being dropped. If Allstate never covers
anyone who previously collected on a claim, then that should be the
first thing they check. Not only would it eliminate a lot of
prospective clients but would also save everyone's time and energy.
If this is how they are treating you now, maybe they're doing you a
favor by rejecting you. Insurance is a lot about customer service,
and this doesn't sound very efficient or friendly.

We've had State Farm for a very long time and have filed and collected
on plenty of claims, which never caused our rates to be increased. I
don't know how State Farm compares to Allstate, but even if the
premium is slightly more, it might be worth the extra money for better
customer service.

I agree - they are in the private sector - they have the "right" to
establish their own criteria as to what the deem an uninsurable risk.

However. . . it should be standard practice before wasting peoples
time to determine that 5 minutes deep - not an hour later after
running credit reports etc.

Seriously - Why even initiate a quote if it doesnt stand a chance of
making it through the underwriting program? Furthermore - does one
small claim really make someone uninsurable?

Companies establish criteria that does not allow their agents any
ability to make judgement calls or negotiate.

Like I said, yeah I have a claim, I get that. I am willing to absorb
risk by taking a VERY high deductable just to get insured. . . a $5k
deductable should be attractive to someone . . . but its not. . . it
makes no difference.

What I meant was, maybe they need to plug in all the information at
one time to assess your overall risk. In other words, maybe the claim
alone would not disqualify a person if other variables are favorable.

In the end they may say "well, you had this claim, and that is what
DQ'd you," and it may be that is what led to the denial, but there may
be other factors that could outweigh that in some circumstances.

the value of your time, sometimes processes just are not that cut and
dry.

You clearly understand enough about insurance to know that they have
to get a comprehensive picture of your habits in order to determine if
they can extend you coverage. If you don't like how long they take,
perhaps with the next agent you speak to, you could ask them up front
how long their evaluation process takes before agreeing to answering
their questions.

You can't say they should be able to give you a cursory response
regarding your insurability in 5 minutes. The process isn't that
simple.