American Family Insurance - Homeowners

I recently purchased my first new vehicle. I called to add this to my policy and remove the old vehicle which I had loaned to my son and he was insuring in Washington. I was questioned by Joanne at the Matt Moffit agency about why I was not keeping the PT cruiser insured. I explained to her that my son was using the old vehicle and it was insured in Washington where he lives. She called again to let me know the PT Cruiser was no longer insured and I told her I knew that and it was okay. I waited for a new policy on my new vehicle and it finally came about two weeks later. Then about a month later, I received a double bill for $140. I paid this bill as soon as I received it online through my bank.

Two days later, Joanne called a threatened to cancel my new policy due to non-payment. I told her I had just received the bill and paid it the same day. Then she informed me that a previous bill had been sent and I was being charged a late fee as well. I then explained that I had not received a bill before the one I had just paid and thought I was okay because I had paid in advance on the policy for the PT Cruiser and should have had some credit applied. She became so rude and threatening that I told her I was going to look for another Insurance company to insure me. She hung up on me. I was so angry that I called back and told her how rude I thought she was and I was not going to allow her to treat me this way any longer.

This was not the first time she has been rude to me for no reason. I have been with American Family for over 20 years and with this agent for eight years. How can you allow your agents and employees to treat customers this way? I will never deal with American Family again and I tell everyone I know how I was treated. This is unacceptable when there are so many other Insurance companies available to the consumer.

I have damage to the front of my home. My home is only seven years old. In the last three weeks, I discovered that my natural stone was falling off in huge sections. Also, the stone is cracked up on both corners. I've had three people look at this and all three have told me that it is water damage. Somehow, there is water getting behind the wall and popping the big sections of stone off the wall. I did discover a mold issue along with the stone problem. I had chris ** from American Family Insurance come out and she said it is due to settling. The house is seven years old and if this was going to settle, it would have settled in two to three years max. The flashing is bent up on the north wall. The inspector told me this is due to ice damming.

I have attempted to file two claims now for the damage to my home. In each case, the inspector came in and found an excuse not to cover. The first was water seeping into my basement due to an animal having burrowed under my front patio. The inspector claimed that that wasn't the cause (my home inspector-friend disagrees) and that we don't have flood insurance. He also said he knew that before even coming out.

Second case, our kitchen faucet developed a leak and we didn't notice for a little while since it only affected the back part of the cabinet area (leak was under the sink, which is locked because some cleaning supplies are under there). As soon as I noticed the leak, I replaced the faucet and then waited to file because we were going on vacation. When I filed, the inspector came out and claimed that there was no coverage because the leak had been ongoing. I asked him how long are considered to be "ongoing" and he finally admitted that anything more than a day, and they would deny it. He also said that since he didn't find any moisture (because I had replaced the faucet and then waited a month to file due to the aforementioned vacation), that they were unable to prove when the damage happened and it could be out of the year. I asked him if the policy actually covered anything and he kind of hemmed and hawed. In addition, my agent, who was so nice when we signed up and gave them payment info, has since done everything he can to discourage us from filing claims. Overall, I'm not happy with this company. They need to either refund my premiums or start covering damage to my home.

After 30 years of paying my insurance to American Family without a claim, I decided to claim the hail damage to my roof after a bad storm this spring. All my neighbors were doing the same and getting 100%. I had my adjuster on my roof while the next door neighbor was starting his roof. I was told by my adjuster that I had no hail damage and he could not explain what the bruises on my roof were from. He also told me I don't know anything about roofs since I'm a woman. My neighbors were also shocked at this discrimination.

On July 24, 2011, I had a sewer back in my basement apartment. I called American Family 24-hour call center to file a claim. After the 3rd day, the carpet in the unit began to smell, so I had it removed. I took pictures just to prove that it was there. Ten days had passed before a field adjuster called me to view my property for inspection. I showed him the carpet pictures and advised him that I had been spraying the walls with bleach to keep the mold down like the last field inspector had told me to do because I live in the unit and didn't have any money for temporary relocation. He commented that he could not smell any mold and would submit a request for payment to replace the carpet, the drywall in laundry room and painting, plus some money for carpet debris removal.

The field inspector took pictures of both exterior drains in front and rear doorways, too. After 2 weeks, I called American Family and was transferred to their catastrophe center for update. I was told the file was being reviewed and to check back in 2 weeks. Two weeks later, I called and was advised that the claim was denied because the inspector included in his summary: "Water in unit due to possible surface water" and that I should contact the field inspector directly. So I called the field inspector and requested a re-inspection because his report included no notes that I have 2 sewer drains directly in my unit. One drain is in the front half of the unit in my bedroom and the other drain in towards the rear in the laundry room behind my kitchen. He told me he didn't know about the drains. I advised him I had a previous claim for sewer backup from 07-2010 and was just closed out on Dec. 16, 2010. I thought the reason he didn't take a lot of measurements or have any question was because he had access to the previous claim and was only updating.

The field inspector told me he didn't need to come back to the property, just send him some pictures and he would include them in his report and with this information, he would modify his report and that I was sure I would have a check in a few days to start repairs. So I took pictures of the drain, but I also included pictures of various areas to prove that mold is growing behind the walls. So apparently, his nose is not as keen on smell as he thinks it is! I called again for status and was advised no change, claim was denied and the company feels the surface water came from under doorway. So then I requested a supervisor, his name is Pat.

I told Pat that I had a previous claim on 07-21-2010 for sewer back with no problems. So why is it this year, that claim is being denied with this surface water **? I asked Pat, please explain how your company is totally ignoring the fact that my apartment has 2 drains in it as if no sewer backup happened, but only that water ran from underneath the doorways? Pat said "Yes, it is feasible that if the drain in front of my home or rear were full, the drains in the house would be full too and a sewer backup would happen. However, you only have sewer backup, not flood coverage and surface water is not covered under your policy". My house is a 125-year old, 3 unit building. The drains are in the same now as when it was built. They were there last year and will be in the same place next year. On top of that, my home insurance in which includes a $10,000 sewer backup rider has gone from $2610 in 2009 to $4681 in 2010 and now, $5544 renewal as of 10-01-2011.

On March 14, 2011, I was looking online for homeowners insurance since our insurance has gone up $200.00. I did fill out this form online which sent them to several insurance companies. Jennifer called me right away. I gave her all the information from my insurance company that I have now, then she had said she gave me a quote 2 years ago, but would work something up and get back to me. She emailed me the information but emailed me two different quotes so I called her. The first quote came in at 1:39 pm at $581.00 with a $1000.00 deductible, or $566.00 with a $1500.00, then the second email at 1:59 pm at $799.00 with a $1000.00 deductible or $776.00 with a $1500.00 deductible, so I was confused that's why I called her at that point. Jennifer told me that the $566.00 was more or less a dummy quote, as she put it, and the actual quote was $799.00.

Then I asked her if my father-in-law was on my deed and loan or could've been on our insurance since they base it on credit. She said yes so I called my father-in-law to get the okay signal and gave Jennifer his information to see what kind of quote we could get. She checked and came back with an even better quote and emailed me that quote at 4:58 pm. It was $468.00 with a $1000.00 deductible or $459.00 with a $1500.00 deductible so I called her right back and told her that that would be great and we will go with that quote. Then she went on to tell me that she would have to get with her underwriter, then set a appointment to come out to take pictures of our home. I told her that that would not be a problem.

Jennifer called back within 10 minutes and told me that the underwriter would do the insurance if we would do a multi-car insurance with them. Because my father-in-law had put in a small claim almost 2 years ago (the first one ever), I had never told Jennifer before she called her underwriter. Anyway, I told her that if she could match or beat my auto insurance then it would not be a problem but I felt like I was being blackmailed into the homeowners insurance to save me almost $400.00. As it turned out, the auto insurance with American Family has doubled the price of what I have now.

I told Jennifer that we are not going to insure my father-in-laws home or cars, because it was our home that my father-in-law had the credit and that he has helped us out in our home the same way. She said he could also put a claim on our home too if he wanted too, since his name is on it. But the point being anyway you want to put it is it was a blackmail. They will cover our home if we get their multi-car insurance too is the way it was put.

American Family Insurance continues to have bad practices on policy cost. Today, after being with the company for over 30 years, since my home insurance is escrow with mortgage, mortgage company received notice underwriting canceled my home policy even though the home information is on my auto bill. Due to economical hardship, I was struggling in 2008-2009 and it hurt a few attributes that build the cost for home and auto rates (e.g. credit score, claim (over 5 years ago), one late payment (after being with American Family for 30 years)). So, I had to increase my deducible to make the payment, that was the solution.

Today, I find out no home insurance, which will be reported on my insurance record, making it hard to change insurance companies because that will affect my rate with the new insurance vendor. So there are three factors to unite as a group and prepare lawsuit against American Family: 1) Rate increase due to claims for policy holders over 5+ years of being customer of AF, 2) Using credit score for economic hardship issues with longterm policy holders and 3) Cancellation of policy without notifying via document or phone call to discuss solutions. And the list goes on.

I have contacted my State and US Senator and will start following their guidelines with insurance complaint within the State of Illinois.

Our roof is in need of a new roofing job. This is our second claim (the first one was a patch) now the roof is leaking in other places. I can not use the light in my kitchen because of the damage (water leaking over my table). When we made the claim, we said it was the roof, but Jon said he came out, took pictures of two places that he would have patched. Wrote a report and sent us a check. Case closed?

I called him last night and told him I had a waterfall over my table, one going down the small porch in front of the house and I needed him to call, leave a message and we will make sure we are home. He did not take the time to talk to us so we could show him all the damage. Now I want someone to check out the electric too. My home is falling apart because no one wants to look at the whole picture. I live in AZ, where it does not rain much, but when it does, I worry if the roof is going to hold up.

American Family Insurance has hired a 3rd party investigator to check on our rental properties. We had an AC company replacing an AC unit and the tenants looked out to see a strange man had entered their backyard via their gate. They asked him who he was. He said he represented us showing the tenant a paper with our name and address on it. The tenant knew better having spent the greater part of the last 48 hours discussing their non functioning AC and said funny, we would have mentioned it. They indicated they would go call us. The man was asked to leave. He got very rude with the tenants as he left indicating he got paid no matter what they did.

Basically this individual has fraudulently represented himself at the door of 4 of our rentals resulting in the police being called at least twice. He continues. The Arizona Department of Insurance isn't interested. Say they don't handle our complaint type. Call the police. The police refuse the tenants' request to make a police report.