Update: I am editing this post now that my temper has cooled down a bit. My husband is calling the insurance agent to see if they can help. I haven't had a call yet from a manager. I took more pictures of damaged fridge and the power company is seeing if they can figure out if it was a lightning strike or a power surge that destroyed 3 expensive pieces of electric powered equipment at the same time.
I am going to give Allstate a chance to do the right thing before I say anything bad about them.
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Begin Rant:
You may remember some of my recent woes - my computer hard drive blew out, my Tivo blew out and my refrigerator died all at the same time. At first I thought someone had left the fridge door open, but then realized that it was not working at all and all the food in it spoiled.
So I am thinking "self, I think what must have happened here is that in one of the recent storms we have had we got a power surge or a lightning strike." I went and bought a new fridge because lets face it, you just can't live without a refrigerator. I went to the Sears Outlet and got a scratch and dent fridge over the weekend. It's to be delivered Tuesday.
So this morning I called Allstate to whom I have been paying homeowners insurance premiums for 12 years without having any claim paid. I asked the guy that I had a new fridge coming tomorrow and they were going to haul away the old one but I had taken photos, would that be a problem. It is a 13 year old fridge and I didn't think it was worth trying to repair. He said it shouldn't be a problem just take a picture.
Well the claim representative calls me at 5:00 PM as I am on my way home from work. She tells me that I need to keep the broken fridge so they can assess what kind of damage was done to it and I need to attempt to have it repaired. I ask what I would do to get rid of it after that and she says in a snotty tone of voice "I really don't know." Well, give me some advice, what am I supposed to do with a huge old frige. She then tells me I have to PAY to have a repair person come try to fix the fridge and then if the claim is not covered for whatever reason I can't even have that bill reimbursed. So now I have to find someone to check out a fridge at 5:00 PM, (No, she is not able to tell me who to call, she informs me that she is in North Carolina and would not know who to call in Georgia again in that snotty tone of voice) and then keep the broken fridge until they tell me its ok to get rid of it, then I would have to pay to have the old fridge hauled off AFTER whatever amount of time Allstate determines I need to keep it in case they want to see it.
When I asked to speak to a manager she told me they didn't have any available. I asked to have one call me first thing in the morning and she said that might not be possible either. Whatever. Thanks so much for the excellent customer service. And yes I am being TOTALLY SARCASTIC.
If this is how they treat customers who have just lost very expensive and necessary pieces of equipment in their house how do they treat people with catastrophic losses?
End rant.
