a joke of an insurance company - SAFECO - Auto
14 November 2008Safeco came through for me… - SAFECO - Home Safeco came through for me when some of my personal property was stolen out of the back of my truck. I went throug...
Safeco is the way to go. - SAFECO - Auto I used another auto insurance carrier for years before switching to Safeco. I have been *very* pleased with the ...
This is the most ridiculous company I’ve dealt with. This is also the only company that tries to pull “fast ones” on you. I’ve heard the rumor that claims agents get commission based on the amount of claims denied/not against them. If this is not true, then I really don’t understand why they treat customers this way.
Firstly, I’ve had 3 claims with this company. The first one was an accident where I hit the curb and broke an axle. There was oil spilled on the ground, so I lost control. At first, it took 3 weeks just to get an adjuster out there to take a look at my car at the shop. A week later, they finally approved of the estimate. It took a while to fix, so the car was out of my possession for nearly 1 1/2 months. This is completely absurd, especially when you need the car as a daily driver! After that, they sent a letter saying that I was 100% at fault after their “investigation.” Well, they had no investigation and wanted an excuse to raise my premiums through the roof. I sent a letter telling them what happened (again) and said that I have video tapes and other evidence to support me not being completely at fault. I was ready to show them this evidence, but without disputing, they sent another letter saying I’m now 50% at fault. So in summary, all I did was send them was a letter restating my original statement to the claims person! This obviously says that they either don’t know what they’re doing, or tried to catch me offguard. It sure seems like they’re in it to take your money, period.
My second claim was when a person in a small SUV backed up into my car. I filed a claim just to make sure that if the other party claims injury, I might be in trouble if it’s not reported. Long story short, it took 3 months just to respond to my claim after I sent it out! After a scolding by my local carrier, she finally responded that I was 50% at fault! In the meantime, the people “at fault” tried to call me and bargain with me (pay me out) without the insurance knowing - which practically makes them guilty. Still, Safeco did nothing and cared about nothing. I was able to remove all the damage with rubbing compound anyway so I dropped the claim in disgust. As I stated earlier, it took them 3 months to respond. However, as soon as I said I want to drop the claim, they did it INSTANTLY!
The last claim, regards car vandalism. I found my car vandalized right outside of my home one morning. It was spray painted on the side, the gas cap was stolen, and they put sugar/syrup in my gas tank. I consider myself good at fixing cars (as an auto enthusiast), so I quickly removed the paint with paint cleaner before it set in. I hadn’t driven it until a week later, where I discovered the missing gas cap. I drove it to work, and it turns out, the car ran terrible. So I figured the tank was contaminated. I quickly got home and drained the tank because sugar can really foul up and cake in your system, especially if you leave it sitting in your tank/pump/filter without cleaning it up. After that, it still ran bad. I tried looking at it for a few more days, but couldn’t get to the problem without spending a lot of money and days fixing it. So I had to take it to a mechanic. He changed the spark plugs saying they were fouled. It still ran bad. Now the claim.
I called the insurance up and they seemed happy to take the claim (that’s a first). He took my statement, asked why I filed the claim so late, and then advised me to just save all my receipts - like it was going to be simple. I needed to get it estimated, so I took it to my shop (barely running). He said I would need to take it to another shop, later, so their safeco rep could look at it, as well. On a side note, he told me his shop is 11.5 miles away; it turns out it’s actually 19 miles away!! Luckily, when it was being diagnosed at my shop, it stopped running altogether. That same day, I had to get it into their shop. It turns out the fuel pump went bad (because the sock was caked and stuck full of sugar, so hardly any gas could enter the pump itself - which will burn out the pump quickly). In the meantime, I tried to call safeco twice, but nobody answered. I left 2 messages and they never got back to me. So I told the mechanic to just fix the fuel pump. I called again a few hours later, and the claims agent finally picked up. He never even got my message nor seemed to care. Once he found out that I had approved the shop to fix the pump, he simply backed out of the claim! Since I didn’t get their approval, as in they didn’t look at the car when it was running bad, he said I can’t prove anything now! Since it was still being worked on, I asked my shop to stop work on it. I told the safeco agent that I can leave it aside, but he said he wouldn’t be able to get another agent out to my shop until 5-6 days! So it would be sitting outside, unguarded for that many days. He even told me it’s not good because of potential vandalism! So in the meantime, if I would not have got it fixed, it STILL would have sat out there for 5-6 days! Sounds like circular reasoning here. I told him that I could show him the fuel pump that was removed (caked with sugar), but I or the mechanic could have “switched fuel pumps to make it look I had a bad one.” He said that they do not accept the mechanic’s word whatsoever. They will not accept any witnesses on this case either. He said that even if I have 10+ witnesses, it still doesn’t matter.
Out of disgust, I contacted my local insurance carrier, and they contacted the agent’s manager. I also wrote a long letter saying that I have scientific proof on how sugar will ruin/cake up the fuel system. In addition, I had a police report verifying that I had sugar in the system. Well, after a call from the manager, they did a 180, and now say I have sufficient evidence - no more questions asked. So again, it sure seems like they were trying to discourage me from continuing with the claim. That is, until I showed I will fight it. This seems to be like a “used car salesman” tactic now, with a lot of bargaining. This is completely absurd, considering this is supposed to be an insurance company.
So my word to you: I have had nothing but agony when filing a claim. Everytime, they seem to either delay the claim, or purposefully pretend they won’t cover you so you will drop the claim.
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