American Family Insurance Complaints

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 07:37 am Post Subject:

Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2012 07:37 am Post Subject: american nightmare

American Family Insurance is not the "American Dream" as its' theme indicates, but the "American Nightmare". Was with american family ins . :cry: A terrible insurance company......bad customer service........they take care of no one but american family.

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 02:40 pm Post Subject: Am Fam is the worst co.

I fell in a puddle of oil while walking through a McDonald's parking lot. McDonald's has a rule that the parking lots are supposed to be cleaned DAILY. Down I went, injuring my knees terribly as it was on concrete. Now because the McDonald's ins. company is Am Fam, even my lawyer said we would have a hard time winning against them! I've had surgery, have photos, have a witness (plus the two employees that stood inside laughing at me) and now my doctor said my injury is permanent. They have offered a very low amount to settle, but its not enough to even pay my doctor bills. Great. My lawyer does not want to fight them, as do most of the lawyers in my county for some reason. This accident happened in 2009 and its been drug out this long for me to get hardly anything, if anything at all?! What the hell is up with this company?

Posted: Mon Jul 09, 2012 08:15 pm Post Subject:

Your issue is with your attorney. Take up the matter with him. If a civil suit has not been filed, you are in danger of violating the statute of limitations and completely losing your right to sue for damages.

Posted: Thu Aug 02, 2012 07:43 pm Post Subject: American Family likes to take your money and run!

May 2012 we had a big rainstorm and a pipe to our sump pump broke, so we ended up with 6 inches of water in our theater room and exercise room. Expensive equipment in both rooms. We called American Family and filed a claim. We had an adjuster from a different state that didn’t know all of MN laws, but said he couldn’t see why it wouldn’t be covered. Our restoration company was 100% sure; it would be covered too. We got the shocking phone call saying they wouldn’t cover it. We have been with A.M. for 30 years and never had a house claim. We have a small business and have about 15 different policies with them, until today. Our agent we started with was great and we were sad to hear when he passed away. We ended up with B.P. from St. Louis Park, MN that has done nothing for us ever. We did talk to a friend that is an attorney and she looked over our policy and couldn’t understand how they could say it’s not covered. We could have tried for going to court, but not really having the money to go that route we ended up finding a different company after I spent MANY hours on the phone with higher up A.M. personnel. It always sound like we were going to get somewhere with them and they would come back with a copy of something that was never in our policy. They would always say they would call me back, but they always went the chicken way out though the mail. I hope people rethink going with American Family. They do not stand up to their word!

Posted: Fri Aug 03, 2012 12:17 am Post Subject:

You don't mention why it was denied (they would have sent a letter explaining this) but I read through the first few sentences and can guess... your policy does not cover flood. A restoration company is not that people you want to tell you what is covered or not and any attorney who reads the policy and does not see/understand the flood exclusion should go back to school.

I understand you don't like that it's not covered but truth is, all home owners policies (including the one you have now) don't cover flood. So going with another company does not change anything. Also, its not like AM changed anything on you. The policy clearly states that it does not cover flood water and it further explains what this is.

Again, an insurance company is required to send out a denial in writing and I'm betting that they have done this.

Posted: Wed Aug 22, 2012 08:59 pm Post Subject: American family insurance fraudulent charges

I am so sick of this company! When I first got a quote from this company, they told me a low rate. I was convinced and went to set up an account. When I got there, everything was completely different. I had points on my license that were not really there (only through insurance companies) and my quote went up another $100. I decided they were too expensive and switched companies. I have been with this other company for 3, going on 4 months now and AFI is trying to charge me for months I was not with them! In my experience, American Family Insurance is a scam! WORST INSURANCE COMPANY EVER! I have contacted my insurance company and they sent my report to this loser that he said will resolve the issue. We'll see. You have been Warned!!!!!! :evil: :evil: :evil:

Posted: Tue Mar 05, 2013 11:09 pm Post Subject:

So you had 3 claims in how many months? I think the average homeowner has 1 claim every 7 years-

You had no roof in minus 15* weather? Did the repairman do anything to try to keep the heat in? Looks like a few unanswered issues here-

Long and short of it is if I said I will give $100 every week and then you give me $200 every week how long would you do that.

Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2013 05:29 am Post Subject:

I agree with mynoncrazy, any company out there would non-renew an insured wifh 3 home claims in less than a year. Especially if you went the winter without a roof, an insured has a responsibility to protect their home from further damage after a loss. Not having a roof in summer is enough to cancel the policy, any insurance company who would accept that much risk would go out of business in a week! Its going to be impossible to get a standard policy for at least 3 years, possibly 5.

This is one of the biggest misconceptions for insureds and frustrations for agents - homeowners insurance is NOT intended for small, routine repairs. It is meant to protect against a catostrophic loss: $100,000 losses, not $1,000. This causes so many problems between an agent and their clients, who call up extremely angry that their premium doubled after they filed two small claims within a year. In the end, you're better off in the longrun paying for small claims out of pocket if possible because it'll be less than the higher premiums for a year or two. I obviously don't know the full story nor mean to imply that you suffered small losses, I'm only speaking in general about an issue we all face with homeowners insurance.

My advice, always call & ask your agent whether you'd be better off paying out of pocket for any small claims. I've heard people say always ask or pay yourself if its under $2,500, less than double your deductible, or my favorite, if its small enough that you have the ability to pay out of pocket without it hurting your financial stability, within reason like under $3,000-$4,000. Assumimg a $1,000 deductible and that a claim could raise your premium up to $1,000 for 3-5 years,after 3 years you‘d pay $4,000 ($1k ded + $1k/yr premium hike x3 yrs = $4k) youd be in the same financial position as if you didn't file a claim. Plus you dont have to deal with the claims process, having the claim on your record for 5 yrs, and be better able to handle a rate hike should you have to file a serious, large claim within 3-5 yrs.

I've seen it time & time again where an insured files several $1,500 or $1,000 claims within a year or two, causing their premium to go from $600-$750/yr to $2,000-$2,500, then a tree falls through their roof during a storm or they have a fire and have to file a $50,000 or $75,000 claim and at renewal the company cancels their policy. When they shop around they find that most standard companies refuse to insure their house, and those that will cost $3,500+ per year amd/or will only insure it for Actual Cash Value, leaving them with sub-standard at ACV as the only other affordable option. They end up paying thousands more in premium than the cost of repairing the small claims themselves, while also being left underinsured. Its a horrible situation, but one that is fortunately entirely avoidable.

That being said, I am certainly NOT advising or suggesting that an insured should not repair any damage to avoid filing a claim. If you cannot afford to pay for repairs out of pocket then you absolutely nneed to file a claim. If an insured home is damaged, particularly from a covered loss, and the insured knowingly fails to make repairs or file the claim, and then that damage later on causes further, costlier damage the insurance company can deny the claim because of negligence & failure to perform proper maintenance of the home. Plus, if you ever switch carriers or buy a new policy and the damage is found during the inspection, the carrier can refuse to insure the home or raise your rate considerably. You do not waant to be stuck without insurance or have to pay more to repair the original plus additional damage that could have been aavoided, so always make repairs or file a claim if necessary as soon as possible.

We agents need to do a better job of educating our clients about homeowners claims to avoid issues like this for our clients so they can get the most out of their insurance while minimizing their costs, maximizimg coverage & ensuring the best possible experience. Of course some won't listen and insist on filing claims for any amount no matter how small if they can avoid paying anything above thetheir deductable, but I explain to every client what their options are, what homeowners insurance is meant for, and what may happen if they file too many or small claims, that they can call me anytime to evaluate their options, that it is ultimately their decision to make and that I'll respect that decision & be there to help them through the claims process, no matter how large or small it is. Most understand and are thankful ffor taking the time to educate them & potentially save them from paying thousands more in premium and having their policy cancel. At the end of the day, they're better off and the agent avoids future angry phone calls, cancelled policies, and high loss ratios.

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2014 11:41 am Post Subject: Cancelled insurance after 20yrs since we made claims

My family has been with the American Family Insurance for many years now. In the past 5 years, we made several homeowner’s claims in a row, because we had to suffer a heavy flood and so, a major pipe backup was done to recover from the damage. On top of that, we had to make 4 natural calamities and 1 flood claims, for events that were beyond anyone’s control.

Sadly enough, we’ve been now notified by the American Family Insurance that they'll cancel our insurance and that they’d no longer cover us because of the claims we were forced to make.

My question is: Aren’t these insurance policies meant to cover people during such perils? Is that only people who don’t make any claim will be accepted by the insurance providers? We were told that the only reason for our insurance coverage getting dropped is because of our consecutive claims. I had my family insured by the American Family Insurance for the past 20 years, and just because of our claims they’ve dropped us.

This is totally unfair and certainly not an acceptable business practice. The purpose of the whole insurance thing gets defeated as a result of it.