Stupid insurance companies

[Outis the Unready]

Okay. This is a rant on behalf of a local friend...

She called her (not local, Geico is the biggest local employer of insurance peeps-props to them) insurance company because a tree fell on her car during our freak snowstorm and she told the woman on the phone offsides that the claim on her car (about $1500 of glass and body) was nothing compared to her  house (which has an above ground pool and garage and back deck and balcony taken out by an oak.)

ANYWAYS, this woman she's on the phone with says that people should not live in places where "these things happen" and they deserve what they get...

Now, understand me, I agree that people should move out of flood basins, not live in California  unless they have earthquake proof houses, not live on the dry bluffs of Utah without a cement house, not live on Kansas prarie unless they have a tornado-proof  underground bunker, not live in Florida...well, at all, and that if you live in a hurricane zone without an escape plan and the rest, you're taking your own life in your hands...

BUT this event we had in Buffalo....

Okay, let me put it this way- SNOW TIRES ARE ILLEGAL TO HAVE ON YOUR CAR until this Monday....we don't get snow this early... Most people don't put them on until November, right before the Thanksgiving travel period. (WE pay the extra for damn good all seasons and have an emergency kit that includes snow supplies in our car year round.)

Decidious trees, with hundreds of thousands of years of evolution were pulled down by the weight of snow on their MOSTLY GREEN leaves (It was just the beginning of fall) If this was normal, they had THOUSANDS OF YEARS to adapt and failed!!!! (Evergreens were mostly fine!) Many of these trees were hundreds of years old, having lived through Buffalo's other two "disaster declarations" (1976-a HUGE ice storm, and 1977, a freak ground blizzard-where piles on snow on top of frozen Lake Erie and gale force winds turned Buffalo into a giant snow drift, some of the snow being 30ft high!!!!)

I am not a very strong person, but I can usually shovel. I could not lift a shovel full of snow. It acted like a sponge as it rained. My fat snow shovel holds about a two cubic feet of snow. That shovelful weighed AT LEAST 75 pounds- and my STEEL shovel weighs at least 25. (When you see the expensive snow shovels at home depot and think "what kind of people spend $40 on a shovel" it is US. We know we will use it for years and spending $40 once is better than spending $15 a year every year!)

This was like the fricking New England hurricane of 1938 (The one that nearly killed Katherine Hepburn) or The Halloween Storm of 1991 (the one "The Perfect Storm" is about) ...we had no warning (the weather report said a CHANCE OF some wet snow in the rain...maybe...)

The National Weather Service does not use the term "perfect storm" lightly, and they used it to describe this event (they are calling it an "event" because it neither fits the description of a hurricane nor of a blizzard.)

This is probably properly termed a derecho, or more accurately a serial derecho....

If so, this is about as bloody late in the year as they come.

[Bob in a quantum-state-of-faith]

Okay. This is a rant on behalf of a local friend...

She called her (not local, Geico is the biggest local employer of insurance peeps-props to them) insurance company because a tree fell on her car during our freak snowstorm and she told the woman on the phone offsides that the claim on her car (about $1500 of glass and body) was nothing compared to her  house (which has an above ground pool and garage and back deck and balcony taken out by an oak.)

ANYWAYS, this woman she's on the phone with says that people should not live in places where "these things happen" and they deserve what they get...

So.  Did your friend get a settlement from them or what?

If it were ME, I would strongly suggest that your friend report the comments of the insurance adjuster to your insurance commission - those comments were unconscionable.  At the very least, I'd complain to the head office - insurance companies are very aware of their negative image, these days ...

[Sibling Chatty]

Report the adjuster to the company, the state insurance board, anybody else you can come up with, thes see if they have an on-line presence or more especially, an on-line complaint forum, where the transgression isn't an e-mail that's not seen by others.

If this is pervasive among their adjustors, it's a company ploy to soften up the client for a low settlement, and should be counteracted by agressive legal pursuit of a proper settlement. Allstate learned ALL about that when it was pulling the "You should park in a covered location" in the face of a massive hailstorm and the resultant damages.

And she SHOULDA said. "Shut up and do your job, and keep your editorial comments to yourself, or i'll make sure your company does something about your unfortunate tendancy to harass their clients. The company knew the risks when they assigned me to the risk pool for this area. Quit whining about having to DO YOUR JOB."

Of course, the insurance companies often use 'customer liability' as a negotiating tool for adjusters. That doesn't fly here. She was insuring that house in that location when she gave them her money. She has a right to expect professional behavior from their employees.

My Inner Schnauzer wants to go bite them...

[Outis the Unready]

Well, this was her car insurance company kvetching, her homeowner's insurance adjuster was a lovely local.

I've been helping with branch lifting all day. Boy, I am pooped and groggy.

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

(light bulb)

I finally got it!

grog ---> groggy!

How 'bout that!