Pacific Specialty Insurance
ConsumerAffairs Unaccredited BrandPacific Specialty Insurance Company, the flagship of the McGraw Group of Affiliated Companies, is recognized as an industry leader in motorcycle and personal watercraft coverage. Pacific Specialty also offers automotive, homeowners, dwelling fire, boat, motor home, mobile home and commercial products, and has become the "one spot" independent brokers and agents can source all their clients' coverage needs.
For the third consecutive year (2011-2013), Pacific Specialty was listed as a Ward's 50 Top Performer. Each year, the Ward Group analyzes the financial performance of over 3,000 property-casualty insurance companies in the United States and identifies the Top 50 companies that have passed all of their safety and consistency performance tests for the preceding 5-year period. We are honored to be included in this select group of insurance companies.
54 Pacific Specialty Insurance Consumer Reviews
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ZERO STARS! On 5/26/19 I cancelled via fax, per instructions from Pacific Speciality, both my homeowners and earthquake policies, and asked for a refund from that date since both policies are paid through 1/9/2020. I have DOCUMENTED proof that PS received the fax cancellation at their end, in the section of the fax where it says "OK" and confirms they received it. On 7/30/19 I spoke to a rep in customer service who said they never received it and asked me to email it to them, which I did on 7/30/19. He said it would take 8-10 days to refund. I have since called multiple times to CS to confirm they received that email, as he suggested I do, only to get the robo message that they are experiencing difficulties and that I should visit their website.
I just sent them an email with original documentation attached advising them that I would be filing a formal complaint against them with the insurance commissioner within 72 hours if I did not have a response from them. If this is what PS is like in getting a refund, imagine the nightmare of actually filing a claim with them.
Our experience is below. We are seeking legal representation and invite anyone else who would like to join us to email me at **. We have been treated as horribly as you can possibly imagine by this company, PSIC. They used a substandard test to tell us our home was safe to live in after the Woolsley fire. We have 4 children, 2 of which are under 5 years old. Not only did all four of my children get sick, but I became extremely ill and asthmatic for the first time in my life. I am now under the care of a pulmonologist and have been told I will be sick again if I go back into my home environment.
PSIC refused to pay for a second opinion test but told us they would consider paying us back and using the findings if the findings were different than theirs. Not only did we order an extremely thorough and extensive test but we furnished them with an equally thorough and extensive report which stated our house should not be lived in and needed to be cleaned. We also had an insulation company and ducting company examine the attic and home - they told us the same thing.
After many unanswered calls and emails to PSIC (this is their norm), we were told that they would be sticking to their original findings and would not clean our house nor would they pay for the test. At that point, we were living in a hotel. They mentioned many times during our stay that they may not pay the bill and made us wait for weeks to get paid back. At this point, we still have weeks upon weeks at the hotel outstanding that we have not been reimbursed for as well as loss of use back in January before we checked into the hotel that hasn't even been acknowledged. Our emails questioning them go unanswered.
The fire burned all over our neighborhood, including on our street and the homes/yards above us on our street, behind us and in front of us. All of our neighbors have already completed full remediations - we are the only home fighting to get our house cleaned. In addition, the embers burned holes in our roof. The rains that came after the fire, poured into our home and damaged dry wall in three rooms. We had a roofer out immediately to examine the roof. He found burn areas and wrote up the recommendation and estimate for a new roof. PSIC finally had a roofer exam the roof two months later - they would only use that roofer for obvious reasons (much like the hygenist) to get them the report to say what they wanted two months later after an exceptionally rainy season. They refused to cover the roof loss and made us open a second claim.
Our home was built in the early 70s and PSIC knew the drywall contained asbestos. The damaged drywall was removed and our walls were left open that entire time (2 months) while they waited on their roofer. Asbestos was left exposed and possibly disturbed for those 2 months in different areas of our home. PSIC refuses to test to see if our home is safe from the asbestos. They are now kicking us out of our hotel without any cleaning to our home, any repairs to our roof and potential asbestos fibers free in our home.
I filed a claim with Pacific Specialty two days away from being three months. My adjuster Crystal ** NEVER answers her phone nor does she call back. We had water damage in our carport due to heavy winds and rain... Received my new policy stating that they were going to cancel it because of our carport that has not yet been fixed. To begin with, there's an open claim for the carport and now it's our fault that they have not yet resolved this issue? In all honesty, I feel like the adjuster and the representative just want us to either forget we have an open claim or perhaps they're just waiting so they can get their share... It is extremely upsetting! Every time that I've asked to get a manager's or supervisor's phone number or email they beat around the bush! Never providing me with one! How can I file a complaint?
Dont buy their home Insurance. They made it very difficult to cancel. I have to call their customer service. Call my Allstate agent twice. Write 2 emails to Pacific Specialty and 2 emails to my Allstate insurance agent to cancel. They never reply back whether my Insurance policy is cancel or not. I feel very frustrated.
My tenant of 12 months was evicted due to major delinquent payments with involvement from the court and sheriff to force him out. Assessing the damage, I had discovered that he had left the house in chaos: broken, missing, or removed furniture such as light bulbs, kitchen tables, mirrors; cracked windows and destroyed blinds in about every room; severed kitchen fountain and defective cabinets. The entirety of the house was saturated with scribbles and tiny holes, and I had also found the walls behind the kitchen cabinets hammered in. The back and front yard were littered with the broken furniture and a massive quantity food waste, clothes, toys, and cardboard. Fortunately, the overflowed garbage bins were not toppled.
I emailed my insurer of all the documents of missing payments, repeated damages the tenant cherry-picked to disclose, and proof of purchasing a locksmith due to tenant refusing landlord (me) access.
I was incredibly infuriated when I read their response. It was a denial because all of these damages were unintentional and not vandalistic - that this squalor resulted due to house deterioration. Repeated contact of lengthy gaps always referred to an innocent and untarnished... denial. It is strange that every review supervised by Pacific: Facebook and their Website reviews, possess none of the criticism listed here, but this is just my speculation.
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HOW THIS COMPANY SCREWS PEOPLE OVER WITH EXPLANATIONS: For the love of Pete, DO NO USE THIS COMPANY! READ THEIR REVIEWS. The reviews on their website are hand picked from likely every person that they have been able to schmooze into writing a good review. Either that, they wrote the reviews themselves, or they paid people to give good reviews.
Malia ** - Lying claims rep. Alexandra ** - Manager of the lying claims rep that does not call back when she says she will. Not even within a few days of when she said she will, as I STILL haven't heard back from her. Brian **- Gets a bad attitude and a tone in his voice if you ask him questions that he doesn't have the answers to. Gabrielle - Receptionist - Very nice and TRIED to help, but she is too low level to do anything. Stephen **- Guy who did the estimate on my repairs. This guy is an absolute piece of work. He missed some things on my quote so I sent him pictures of the damage. Then he had the nerve to call me a liar. Darren ** - Guy has an inferiority complex and doesn't know simple answers to common questions.
This company will try to cheat you at every single angle they possibly can. I got an original claim stating that my repair cost would be $2800 and that my bike was not totaled. After DAYS of trying to convince them that the quote was missing three damaged pieces, the manager (third level of support), Justin **, finally agreed to add the items. I gave them VERY CLEAR PICTURES of the damage on the day of the accident. Not until I did this would they even accept that there was damage. Instead they basically just kept calling me a liar without actually using that word. They even told me that without those pictures they wouldn't have added the damage. Justin said I should have the check, with the cost of the added pieces, by the end of the week.
Here we are Tuesday of the following week and I get a call from Darren stating that now they are claiming that my bike is totaled and he didn't even add the three pieces that Justin said they would. How is this possible? Because this company doesn't have a clue what they are doing? Then Darren also states that if I want to keep the bike that it will ALSO have a salvage title. PLUS he said that I would only receive $2700, instead of the original $2800. I literally cannot even handle this company anymore. I LOVE MY MOTORCYCLE, but because this company is SOOOOOOO HORRIBLE, they forced me to give up on my bike or lose even more money than they are already trying to screw me out of. Now it's been 7 weeks and I still do not have a check, a bike, and they have still not refunded me for the insurance costs during that time period. HORRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE ON EVERY SINGLE LEVEL AT THIS COMPANY!!!
Bad experience from the beginning. First they sent notice to me asking for remitting a completed application form, while I had already sent the signed form weeks ago. It turned out to be their mistake. When the appraiser comes, he said everything looked good, but a month later they sent me a notice to trim back all the trees and send back photos as evidence. I hired tree service and trimmed all the trees, sent photos back to the company. No confirmation, no follow up, they've been quiet until last week they sent me a non-renewal notice. The reason given on the notice was non-compliance of the company's request to provide pictures showing Trees have been trimmed away. WTF? Homeowners beware and stay away from this company. They just don't care and do a pretty poor job communicating with their customers.
I had Pacific Specialty Insurance for my home thru Allstate Insurance. I paid for the whole year from 6/17-6/18. I called in Nov 2017 to cancel my policy because I found State Farm Insurance did not subcontract their homeowner's insurance. I'm supposed to get refund of $1063, that's the difference since I cancelled. Pacific Specialty Insurance claims they refunded my Bank card on Dec 11. I have been diligently checking my bank account daily to check if refund was deposited. I've been calling Pacific Specialty on status of my refund that hasn't showed up in my bank from Dec 11 to present (Dec 21). I called again and they said they gave me a confirmation number, again I called my bank, went inside the bank and there is no refund pending from Dec 11.
I do the booking in my house, so I know what money comes in and what money goes out. Now Pacific Insurance is telling me that they subcontract their refund and they have no control over it. I'm at my wit's end because now I'm behind on my new homeowner's policy since Pacific Insurance won't refund my money owed to me. I smell something fishy with this company. I am looking into seeking an advice from an attorney on this matter since Pacific Insurance has been giving me a full circle runaround with no results.
This place has cheap ** insurance! I use it for PLPD on a motorcycle so basically they are just taking my money for nothing and I can't ever get ahold of no one. :0( Has to be bogus insurance but I don't care if I get in a accident on my bike... Not expecting to live much less it being "my fault". This place won't even contact me to renew my crap ** insurance policy just to be legal. :0( I could never imagine if I had to use them for a claim!!! If you needed them for a claim you might as well go bankrupt... 100% total piece of ** company!
Motorcycle insurance - Stay away from this company at all cost. Filed a claim at the beginning of the year and It's still pending for damages that were never paid for. Adjuster came and did his thing. Later I found out he never included the water pump or radiator that had scuffs on them. I emailed the claim rep back and asked why. They had no explanation other than that adjuster didn't include them in the report because they were not too bad and could be painted when they painted the frame. I contacted the insurance commissioner after 5 months trying to get an answer from them. "They take weeks to reply to emails and they won't take calls -_-".
After this they agreed to replace water pump but only paint the radiator. Apparently it's my job to find a painter. Since no dealer will paint a part like that I can't find no one. They haven't responded to my email I sent them regarding this. It's been almost 7 months it feels like. Do yourself a favor and find another insurance company. Worst experience and headache of my life. I'm never the type of person to leave a review and this is my first in 31 years. Just trying to warn others to stay away at all cost. Trust me it's not worth the headaches.
Pacific Specialty Insurance Company Information
- Company Name:
- Pacific Specialty Insurance Company
- Company Type:
- Private
- Ticker Symbol:
- N/A
- Year Founded:
- 1989
- Address:
- 3601 Haven Avenue
- City:
- Menlo Park
- State/Province:
- CA
- Postal Code:
- 94025
- Country:
- United States
- Phone:
- (800) 303-5000
- Fax:
- (714) 998-3158
- Website:
- www.pacificspecialty.com