State Farm is worthless. I had been with them since I was 17 because my mom used them too. They were my insurer for 12 years, perfectly clean record, never a claim (even for windshields) and they really increased my rates after I turned 25. I carried them for 4 more years when I had enough and told them I was using a different carrier. They didn't care, not that I expected them to, but I was happy to move on. If they spent as much money to retain customers and honor claims, instead of hiring superstars for their commercials, I'd have different things to say. Just a media company that happens to sell insurance coverage.
Right? I had them until this year when they decided to complain about the Boston Ivy on the north side of my house(could attract bugs!) and my neighbors oak tree, which they wanted me to trim even though the problematic limb did not extend across my property line. Screw those guys
My old State Farm agent had a similar reaction when I simultaneously cancelled the policies on all of my car collection. Never had any kind of ticket ever in my entire driving history and they wouldn't pay out when I had a freak accident that totaled my Mustang. I restored the car myself and drove it to her office and cancelled my extensive car collection's entire set of policies. There's a pic of me standing next to my car in front of that state farm office, flipping them the bird lol
I think 5 cars at that time. I was paying a lot for premiums for that collection considered I never really made claims on anything. There's like 16 cars collectively owned in the family so that's a big loss for them. I'll probably post the pic of me flipping them off to my community tab sometime
I love your comment .. they refused to fulfill their obligation when my 1986 GT 5.0 was stolen and damaged in 1996. I’ve been telling people since to avoid State Farm.
This, right here. This is why I listen to Steve Lehto. He is exactly right. If a company fails to live up to your expectations, vote with your pocketbook.
Consolidation in pretty much every industry has made this solution a futile exercise in most cases. These big companies couldn't care less about whether or not you remain a customer because they know the "competition" isn't any different and they know that they'll gain pretty much the same number of customers they're losing from customers who are voting with their dollars leaving the competition. Eventually you'll run out of alternatives and have no choice but to deal with a company that couldn't care less if you're a customer or not. Sure, the individual State Farm agent probably cared about losing those policies but State Farm itself didn't care at all because customers of some other big insurance company would leave that big insurance company for similar reasons and move to State Farm.
@@gregisflyingforfun Here's the thing, if you are a CUSTOMER of State Farm you are also an OWNER of State Farm. It is entirely owned by the policyholders. All these people saying "State Farm doesn't care about it's customers" are nuts - it is the ONLY thing they care about. It's just that the vast majority of its policyholders/owners do not care to subsidize high-risk, expensive customers. And there is no reason they should.
Here’s another problem. State Farm is the cheapest and only affordable for insurance for these cars. No insurance = no car. Other insurance providers will outright reject taking a policy.
@@gregisflyingforfun So, you've ran through all the insurance companies? I had All State 30 years ago. I've had GEICO for 28 years. And I have a relationship with USAA. If GEICO stops meeting my expectations, I'll call USAA and give them an opportunity to meet them. I really don't see the issue here..
That's funny as in 30 years they have repaid me on average once a year. Granted I have multiple vehicles and small town agents. They have always covered my claims but they could be going down hill. My roadsides are always paid by my local agent. They even paid for an over priced claim from Canada.
@57WillysCJ When I got my bill after using the roadside assistance one time, my payment was higher than the previous month. When I called them to ask why they said I had made a claim. I said that I didn't make a claim, and she told me that I had used my roadside assistance, and that was a claim, hence the premium increase. And this was a small agent that had my moms house and car and I had been with then for about 6 years when this happened, about 25 years ago.
My father in law had his parked car crashed into, and the other insurance company was digging in their heels over the repair costs of a Toyota Tercel 😂 He said fine, your customer hit my car, he owes me for the repairs, so I’m not dealing with you guys anymore, I’m filing a suit against your customer for damage to my car. You’ll have to deal with the suit, defend your customer and still have to fix my car. So they fixed his car the way it should have been. Bullies always run when you stand up to them
Coworker had his windshield chipped by a semi carrying fill dirt that had the small print sign saying they are not responsible for broken windshields. He called up the commercial insurance company and they refused to replace it. He basically said fine, i'll have my windshield and every rock chip on the front of my 10 year old car as related to your unsecured load and sue. They then covered the windshield.
Same, I had repairs into the 5 digits because a 15 year old on a learner permit didn’t stop at the sign and look both ways and plowed into oncoming traffic. I immediately stopped about 100’ up the road from the accident. The radiators on the vehicles both exploded and coolant drew perfect streaks across the roadway leading up to the resting points of the tboned car up on a lawn and her car going straight into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road right into my vehicle. I took a panorama showing everything. Even with the perfect picture showing beyond any doubt she broke the law and failed to yield, that as an result she drove the wrong way against traffic, even with this on the police report, I couldn’t get their insurance to actually pay up. I finally won when I asked the agent when a reasonable date was for receiving the check and recorded the call because it’s legal in my state. I then played back the agents response after the date and said we are now past reasonable by your own admission and if you don’t pay immediately I’m filing the court case today and the judge is going to be angry with you for wasting the courts time. I finally got my money but only barely.
You should see the state of the claims office and all the adjusters that are getting overworked because they refuse to hire more people. Of at the shops with all their required parts usage that causes repair delays. I've worked in both of those industries and hated it. Cutting budgets and departments so the CEO can make $24.5m a year. Even worse if the company has shareholders they have to answer to.
@@2nickles647 if a Porsche is still under warranty it’s worth considerably more than $4,700. This is why I say “take your insurance company to court if they refuse to pay.” Especially in my state because they always lose. Insurance companies know this so they try to make your life difficult and try to force you to go through arbitration.
Steve...I laughed out loud when you said "What made you think that way, throwing chicken bones at the ground to see what they read?". That one is hilarious!
I've been a claims adjuster for over 20 years. I never handle claims for State Farm and only work against them when I can. They cut corners on literally everything.
State Farm denied my parents house repairs from lightning strike. Finally the paid took forever. They had them for decades, then I cancelled all my policies, my parents policy’s and both my sisters policy’s👍
You absolutely can’t keep an auto or home or any other insurance policy with a single provider for more than a few years maximum. Every single one will sabotage the rates you pay to the point of ripping you off if you stay. The only way to keep a reasonable market rate is to keep switching because every insurance company does it, it’s like they believe it’s a slot machine and because you haven’t made any claims you are far more likely to require large payouts soon so you need to be overcharged. It’s not true for slot machines, and it’s not true in real life.
@@hugegamer5988I literally can’t leave State Farm. I’ve got quotes from every other insurance company. It’s 250-300% higher with anyone else for the same coverage. No accidents or claims, been with them since 14.
I do collision repair for a living. All the big name companies do this. Most shops around me wont take snake farm claims. Buy insurance through a smaller company. Insurance is the biggest scam in this country.
@@UncleKennysPlace proof? my proof is nobody open business to lose money. When it's super profitable like those "none profit", you will see lots more of them.
I have State Farm house insurance. Every contractor who came to my house, when I said my insurance with State Farm, they all said “Oh, you’ll probably want to find a different insurance provider when you’re done with this.”
The only good homeowners insurance is full replacement; otherwise, you are stuck in Actual Cash Value land. As an easy rule, if your policy mentions ACV, it is basically worthless.
You're 100% right about the agent. We had a tree fall on our roof, State Farm corporate was pushing to do the section with shingles that were "close." We called the agent, he got them to do the whole roof.
I had stare farm back in the 80's, it was actually my first insurance company. I tried to use it once and they denied my claim and cancelled my insurance. Thanks State Farm, you saved me a ton of money over the years, because I've never been back.
This is why I always insist on having higher end cars repaired at a manufacturer certified repair facility. When they say they will not cover that, I just tell them, well that's your problem. That's where I'm taking the car, and I expect you to work out the payment. The couple of times I've done this, it's never been an issue. They are expecting people to roll over and if you put your foot down, they will not prevent you from taking the car to a Certified body shop as its's state law where I live that I get to pick the repair facility.
This is not new news! I battled SF back in the 80's and 90's. They would pay for LKQ parts only (like kind and quality (IE aftermarket), and salvage parts), not genuine new factory parts. Also, some shops would not accept SF claims, as they were a huge problem to deal with. I had to get a lawyer to write letters to them to negotiate cost, parts, etc. Totally horrible to deal with. I also had a rider on my policy for a rental (loss of use), and I owned 2 cars at the time, one for winter, one for summer. I told them I would get a rental, and park it until the value was used up and not drive it one mile, or, use that money towards a new part I wanted. They gave in on that one. This was how SF behaved back then, and apparently still do.
Salvaged parts are factory parts. By law, they don't have to replace your 5 year old fender with a brand new one. That would be bettering your car. They just have to make sure the replacement came from a vehicle the same year or newer vehicle. The warranty for those parts is typically only 30 days. The LKQ part warranty is generally longer. LKQ doesn't make body panels. Just headlights and bumpers.
I deal with a lot of crashed cars from body shops for suspension repairs. If the insurance company wants to buy a used part, say a subframe or steering knuckle, and pay me to install it, fine. But if the used one they buy is ALSO bent (more common that they think), and the alignment angles are wrong, they ARE paying the full labor AGAIN to put in the next one. And again and again, until it’s correct. They’ll buy new parts if they realize used could cost them MORE at the end of the job.
@@bradleysmith2021 technically, if the part LKQ sends you is damaged, they should pay the labor to replace it. Insurance only needs to pay once. Reality is LKQ won't pay for it and it's very hard to have ins pay for it again.
@@xj4low322 In my case, the dispute was with a rear quarter panel. The body shop manager hated scrap yard panels, as they generally need alot more work to fit, refinish, etc, than a new panel from GM. I live in the rust belt, so thats an issue.
@@xj4low322 but my shop did not purchase said part, the insurance company did. Any labor reimbursement issue is between them. I get paid every time I take the car apart and put it back together.
My grandmother gave me a good bit of advice: never get insurance from State Farm. She had problems with them even that long ago. She was annoyed with me when she found out that at that time I had a life insurance policy with them, and told me to watch out. I reminded her that it was a LIFE insurance policy, and they couldn't really deny a claim if the insured was dead with a death certificate. But who knows, perhaps they would try.
Cause when it's LAW that you MUST have insurance. The state and government should be BREATHING DOWN THEIR NECKS, regulating HEAVILY, Auditing, investigating, and overlooking EVERY. SINGLE. PENNY. Insurance companies are doing, and keeping them in check with the law. In fact, I would argue if the Insurance company loses in court, not only should THEY personally be forced to cover all of your court costs and lawyer fees. But the GOVERNMENT should be forced to pay you $1million for their fuckup on Vetting, Regulating, and keeping the Insurance Company in check. When it's Required by law, they are GOVERNMENT ENTITIES, employed, regulated, and controlled by the government. Or else it wouldn't be REQUIRED by LAW.
@@JirodyneRight, and until the late 90's in Tennessee at least, it wasn't required by law. It's a scam anyway. Liability doesn't even insure your car, it insurers someones expensive car, and you have to get full coverage just to cover your own car. Then they screw you over and if you use it, they try and deny your claim. How about if I'm driving a car worth $2000 I just pay a small insurance and cover my own car instead? That's the way it should be.
@@briansomething5987 Who else??? The higher ups in the corporate scale, just like Every other industry. Automotive, Meat, Supermarket, Pharmaceutical, you name it...
@@JohnDoe-qz1ql The higher-ups only make what the owners of the company want to pay them. So who are the owners of State Farm? The policyholders. As for how much money State Farm is making - they had a $4.7B LOSS in 2023 after $8.7B LOSS in 2022.
We had State Farm years ago. So once I was driving after a heavy thunderstorm and came upon a situation where there was a fallen tree branch that was covering half of the width of the road. I drove around the tree (safely, I thought) until I realized that there was also an electrical line that was down as well. When I drove over that line, which wasn’t even visible, it got tangled up in the wheel and caused significant damage to the body molding around the wheel well. A State Farm adjuster told me (verbally) that it would be covered, and would NOT count as an at-fault claim (meaning my rates would not increase). When the next renewal period came, there was an increase with an annotation that tied the increase to that accident. So I reported State Farm to our state insurance commissioner and, after much grief and headaches, got the increase overturned. After that was finalized, I called my agent and told him that I’m canceling my insurance (3 cars plus homeowners) with the reason being how poorly State Farm handled that claim.
I dropped them when I read the policy. It says they are not repairing your car with new parts. They also are not responsible for the decrease value of your car. I was told they will only pay 45.00 per hour for repairs, so garage will not work on the vehicle. I was amazed when they wanted to see my new policy to make sure I was covered. My new policy dropped 50% with same coverage.
I had State Farm when I moved to Florida. At the time, I also had a new driver on the policy. The rates increased significantly, so I checked with USAA. Best decision ever.
I know people who lost friends who are insurance agents because of policies the agent-friend sold. "I'm just doing my job" and screwing over a friend in the process.
I have a new Kia right now in my shop with window sticker still attached, owned by the dealer, new in stock vehicle and State Farm argued almost a month with me about it “qualifying” for alternative parts. And they wanted me to get their parts trader door from 900 miles away on the OEM part they did write. I finally had the service manager at the dealership find a document stating that Kia required new in stock vehicles to be repaired with OEM parts so I sent her that document along with an explanation that I was using OEM parts purchased from the dealership that owned the vehicle and if they didn’t pay I would bill their customer and explain to them why they got a bill for the difference. Next morning she called and said her manager approved OEM parts. That’s why I have zero DRP’s, it’s my name on the sign
If I remember correctly, State Farm was sued prior for not allowing the use of OEM parts, reducing the value of the car. They lost that suit. Sounds like they have a short memory.
It's not a short memory at all. They make more money by doing business that way and paying out the occasional law suit than just doing things ethically.
Stories like this justify my dislike of State Farm. The final straw was when they raised my rates because I drove 1000 miles more than I estimated one year when I updated my policy.
It's all about the statistics. That mere 1000 extra miles changes the odds of you being in an accident. In your case enough to significantly up your rates.
@@nolongeramused8135 I never said how much they raised my rates. I just said they raised my rates because I underestimated how many miles I drove one year. The point was it was an *estimate." It wasn't a signed in blood oath.
Welcome to my experience with State Farm from 40 years ago. Not just expensive vehicles, but any vehicle they have to pay for. That is, providing that they pay for the repairs at all.
It's not just state farm. Progressive tried to foist junk yard parts for critical components onto me after a deer hit in January. I had to pay out of pocket to get new instead.
I hit a deer in May and Mutual Of Enumclw auto ins. tried to steal my car, they worked with the shop that they approve of, making false estimates so that they could total my car. I have 35 years experience working on cars and rebuilding them, I called them out on their bullshit. They hired an independent appraiser to come out and then they modified his report so that his estimate would support their fraud. They wrote me a check for $8,514! It cost me $1,000 in new parts to fix it. I still have my Clear Title and a small dent in the hood. Total crooks, wanted to give me $5,000 less than it was worth and sell it back to shop so they could make 3X what they would have made fixing it for me.
I live in California, too. And because of state government, many businesses who would not do their due diligence are no longer doing business in California. Fortunately, we have state government to ensure our drinking water supply, fire protection and utility management are properly regulated.
@@darkstorminc Florida, fortunately or otherwise depending on how one looks at the insurance issue, is turning into an interesting experiment. I’m curious what would happen if they all left and the state fully self insured. Provided the people of Florida could keep the governmental bureaucratic tendencies of administrative growth to a minimum, not for profit self insurance could actually get more claims covered for a lower cost than the fiasco that currently plays out there. And if not, at least they’ll be paying more appropriately for the disasters that happen by taking corporate profit out of the equation.
@@jimk8520 in both states profit is going to be a factor for insurance companies leaving. Between hurricanes, flooding, sinkholes, mudslides, wildfires, and earthquakes who wouldn't want to insure ANYTHING in either state lol
Had SF. Hit 2 deer at once causing significant damage to the front of the vehicle. After getting the ok to fix from the insurance co my body shop called me and told me they did ok the fix but wanted to use generic parts and junkyard parts. A steel hood instead of the aluminum hood that came as factory - hood was $200 cheaper. I have free legal through my union. A few threatening letters later all genuine GM parts were used.
I drive a 31-year-old pickup truck. I have not had a moving violation in 17 years and I had a tiny fender bender in the parking area of the condos where I live and they raise my rates by about $60 a year. I had no problem with that. The next time my policy came due they raised it another $260 a year, a 66% raise in a year. I raised hell with them and they tried to blame it on the pandemic and then tried to tell me it was because of bad drivers in Florida. I paid it this time but there won't be another. This has happened in the last 5 years, didn't used to be this way. "Like a good neighbor", my ass. My neighbors are better than that and State Farm can kiss where the sun doesn't shine. Don't they have actuaries to predict this stuff? If that is the case, they need to find new actuaries. More likely, it is greed and deception.
I was in the bodyshop business for years and one thing i will tell you . When you have your insurance pay to fix your car . All insurance companies want cars fixed to look right not to be right . Looking for the cheapest route out . Not just statefarm but all insurance companies
Allstate vs Allstate. My parents got hit from behind at 65mph, by a young blonde. At court they sided with her. My dad vould no longer fish, hunt or golf. They paid his ER bill..that's it. HATE ALLSTATE.
My insurance company worked with their approved shop to make up fake Supplement of Record (revised repair estimate) after reasonable original estimate. They wanted to total my 11 year old Mercedes, with 57,217 miles and sell it back to the same shop so they could make three times as much and I would loose $5,000 and have to buy another car. Cost me: headlight $800, headlight bracket $70, headlight support $14, headlight washer jet $15, door latch switch $24. A small dent on the front of the hood remains and bruise on the bumper cover. They had to hide their fraud with another fake estimate and paid me $8,514! 😂
*We were a state farm customer for about 20 years, until a road debris hit my car. State farm refuses to pay for the full amount to repair the damage, even left a message that they increase the amount they are going to pay by a dollar. After several weeks of talking to the higher ups, finally paid us the full amount. A couple of weeks later, we dropped them*
I had a horrible experience with The Hartford when I was rear ended by one of their insured. They basically forced me to get a lawyer, and ended up paying out 3x what they would have if they had just done the right thing from the beginning.
I was paying $164/mo when I assumed my single vehicle insurance from my parents. I shopped around and ended up with Progressive. After doing their Snapshot program and bundling my house, I pay $60/mo with my same $500 deductible. Screw State Farm.
Same thing happened to me in MA. I was rear-ended in my new Tesla while stopped and insurance, acknowledging that the other driver was entirely at fault, told me if I went to Tesla for repair they would not pay the full amount. Instead I had to go to one of their shops which did substandard work. MA has a diminished value law but the insurance company said they don't follow that law and I was welcome to sue them. Insurance companies are a bunch of thieves.
No wasting money on full coverage after my insurance company tried to sell my car to their approved body shop via fraudulent estimate, so the shop could make some serious money on my 11 year old Mercedes Benz with only 52,217 on it! I hit a deer and they tried to Total it. Had to pay me $8,500, I fix it for $1,000 myself, live with small dent on hood. 😂
Most car insurance policies indicate that the owner of the car must protect it from further damage after incurring a loss! To your point Steve, how could you drive your Jeep in Winter weather conditions without doors? What about the damage that could occur to the interior of the vehicle? Then if you made a second claim for that damage, they would deny it based on policy language! (I'm a retired adjuster in NY)
Hell yeah they do, I had the agent tell me only “their” approved shops (none of which had good reviews) would cover the damage, but I have history with a specific body shop I wanted to use, and that shop told me it’s highly illegal for State Farm to mandate that. I asked the SF agent to please put it in writing that I had to use “their” approved shops, and the next reply I received was some higher up saying “a communication error had occurred, and I was welcome to use any shop I like”.
I prefer the insurance company with the green lizard. Live in the US for 15 years now, only had one claim (someone drove right into my car at a parking strip, my car was parked and I was not inside). If it wasn't for the camera of the store, I never would have known who was responsible. Everything was taken care of within a month. Within 2 business days I was told that I could bring the car in for repair. The following day I was called by the police department that they had located the owner responsible for the damages. Sample size N = 1, so maybe I was just lucky.
@@graysonwagner1855 Not true in all states, I will say this, if the body shops estimates are within the guidelines of the book (state written) that dictates how may hours and max that can be charged the insurance company doesn't have a argument.
Snake Farm did that to me on my first windshield replacement. Gave me a list of windshield shops to use and said if I go to the dealership it could cost more and I could end up paying out of pocket. Net windshield I talked to the state insurance commissioner and was told they can’t do that if I want OEM. The windshield thru previously installed was of a cheap quality and didn’t work with the heads up display. It made it fuzzy. StateFarm refused to let me go to the dealership to get it fixed the first time. This second time I got them to reluctantly agree to the dealership with the state insurance commissioner.
*I once got into an accident with my motorcycle, insurance covered the cost but then hiked the monthly cost way up. I canceled it and went with another insurance company with a more reasonable rate. Problem solved. I don't know why more people don't do when their insurance tries to play loose and fast with their insurance rate.*
i was with state farm since the day i got my license. its who my parents used and i continued thru my adulthood using them. i was with my local agent about 20 years. her new office manager just would not get things done. i had to beg and plead for things. the agent had been out seriously ill. i ended up changing to farm burea and have been happy.
i had state farm home insurance when i first bought my house. 3 months after puchase and having multiple inspectors come through to approve the loan state farm agent rolled up parked on the street took one picture of my house and said i needed to have my roof replaced. roof was less then 5 years old. dude never even climbed on the roof. then when i called my "agent" and sent him the inspection they dropped me and flagged my home so when i tried to get a new insurance company to keep my loan many wouldnt accept my application and would deny it because of the flag for the roof. all except allstate who actually pulled the report and read the inspection notes. FU statefarm
I had state farm with 2 auto, 1 classic car, 2 off road, a home owners, 4 life, and business policies paying over 3K a month and had to file a home owners twice in 15 months after no claims in 35+ years and they dropped my home policy for them having to pay less than 5K total, so I canceled everything and had the business agent promise that he would personally make it right, I told him nope. I have probably paid over 300K to them over the years and got dropped for them having to pay under $5K
They trired to total my car by having the repair shop find more damage so it would seem like the damage was more than it was worth. It was just front bumper and grill. Thankfully the garage didnt but they let me know about it. I keep my vehicles a long time and take good care of them.
My insurance companies approved SHOP worked with them to try to steal my car from me, they made up absurd claims on the revised estimate, $3000 headlight, 12 hours to repaint a bumper cover and then $1440 for a new bumper cover, $1000 worth of parts that were never damaged. I thought like hell with them, they got a new appraiser to hide the fraud and paid me over $8500. Other than a small dent on the front of the hood, it took about $1,000 to fix it. 😂
They tried doing that with my sister’s car. Their adjuster showed up a couple of days early when no one was around, forced his way into the repair shop and did an ‘inspection’ of the car. Later claimed the engine was damaged and unfixable. CCTV footage from the shop showed he couldn’t even get the hood up to see the engine, so was just making crap up to up the estimated repair cost. My sister threatened to report State Farm and the Adjuster, which got her results. Got the car fixed (guess what, the engine wasn’t scratched😂), then switched insurers. She’s never going back to SF.
I'm not so sure. Common sense would make this sound true, however the higher ranked companies (ranked by customer satisfaction) are not necessarily lower advertisers. Take for example liberty mutual. They rank very high with payout and no-hassel (among their customers, attorneys, repair shops, etc.). I see their commercials everywhere. Also there's Progressive and Geico - which are both rated right in the middle of the pack, but advertising budgets are tremendous.
State farm saved me several times. The first one was when I totaled my car in Warren, Ohio, 400 miles from home in 1966. The second was the big one when my house burned n a wildfire in 2010. I worked with their agents to draw up construction plans for the house and use them to get a very fair settlement. No bad incidents in sixty years.
My wife's car was rear ended. It needed a new rear bumper cover. Our insurance policy says they can use non-OEM parts if the quality is the same. After they had the car for 3 months waiting for the non-OEM bumper cover, and multiple calls to the body shop and insurance company, the body shop went to the dealership (who had an OEM one in stock), and the dealership sold them the OEM part for the same price as non-OEM. We could have probably had the car back in 3 weeks instead of 3 months if they had done that in the first place.
An Allstate imposed repair shop, used cheap aftermarket parts including a headlight that within 3 years was so yellowed almost no light shown from it. This was an uninsured motorist claim for an unlicensed DUI criminal invader driving with no lights on on the wrong side of an interstate highway where there were no street lights.
I was talking to a claims adjuster after a late night deer collision banged up the front of my truck. After some basic questions he comes out asking what I was doing on the road late at night (about 2 am). I guess he honestly thought he might catch me admitting I was coming home after a bender at the local bar or something but I just asked him if my policy only covered daytime driving because I must have missed that language in the policy.
I remember an old commercial from some Law Firm. A building had a sign on a adjuster's school and the building was rocking back and forth with them singing no way we won't pay deny the claim we won't pay.
I was a service writer and dealt with State Farm a few times. IMO they gave us any parts we asked for and never cut any corners. However getting them to pay at times was a nightmare. We had this guys car done for weeks before they would pay.
My wife’s BMW got hit and the woman who hit it has AAA insurance that covered all the costs. AAA is more expensive to have but they don’t cheap out. They paid the bill: $5,000 for the factory right rear suspension components, plus wheel, quarter panel, rear bumper cover ($1,200), labor and three step paint job. Total $12,500. On top of that they picked up the tab for 18 days rental on a Maserati while her car was in the shop.
My son totalled my 10 year old Accord. (He was fine - shooken up) Declared scrap - didn't look like it - but airbags drove it over the top. They offered a number. I dug in my heels. A lot. Got an additional $2K out of them. Never accept what they offer. Instead of buying new, bought a used 2003. Traded in for a new 2019 Accord.
I can relate to your story about insurance agents. I purchased a number of policies through an agent, including my business insurance, the business policy increased by a not inconsiderable amount over several years, culminating in a large increase (with no claims being lodged) So I looked around and got a comparable policy with another reputable insurance company for a lot less. When I called the agent to cancel my policy with them,they asked why and I explained, they said “oh we could have got you a better price” I said well why didn’t you, that’s what I pay you for, they didn’t see my point. Needless to say I took all my other policies elsewhere.
Hey Steve, My Chevy dealer in St Louis, Missouri is well known for putting a drive line life-time insurance policy on all new vehicles. I was in a head on crash, at an intersection. My Colorado pickup appeared drivable. But, i had it towed 40 miles back to the dealer to be checked out. So the tow bill plus $100 for checkout fees were in play. The insurance company agreed to pay these fees BECAUSE an insurance policy cancelation was possible if I did not take precautions, before driving. The policy was NOT State Farm.
My Dad gave me excellent advice 50 years ago: "Never ever ever buy insurance from any company with All, State, or Farm in its name." Very solid advice.
State Farm has been doing this since the 80s. They once brought me a blue dash from the salvage yard for a car with a black dash and asked me to paint it. Told the adjuster to tow the car out and take the dash with him.
Many years ago I took a college class on insurance and one of the instructors was a former manager for a national auto insurer. His office received a corporate memo telling all agents coast to coast to lowball ALL claims by $50. This small amount would not be a point of argument by most claimant but it was going to save this company millions each month
Thanks, Steve. Oh, and that reminds me, I have State Farm and it's time for me to go shopping again for a better rate. I'm anticipating they'll do another "oh gee, rates are going up again". I went with them a year ago because they significantly beat everyone else, but honestly, they're not at all the best with paperwork or claims.
Had something similar with home owners. Had a roof leak, called my agent, he told me to call a roofer, any roofer. Agent and roofer get there, both do inspections, talk prices, etc. Agent tells me how much I'm getting for the roof, decking repair, and sheet rock repair inside. Awesome. Six months later, I get a check for half. Call them up. "Oh, we got the price wrong." So I get the roofer (rock solid dude) to give me an invoice, scanned, and email it to them. They give me anorher check a couple weeks later and it's still short. "Oh we won't pay for the decking. It's due to rot." The decking rotted because it took you guys SEVEN MONTHS to get me a check. During spring and summer. When it rains a lot. "Well it's not our fault. That's just wear and tear. We won't replace it."
Our roof was constructed without any ventilation holes anywhere! When the roof leaked after a may snow storm, the insurance company sent out an adjuster. The plywood was delaminating. We had a total tear off including the decking. We took down the vents in the soffit, and there were no holes cut. We had custom trusses built on site. Several houses in the neighborhood had their roofs replaced shortly after including the decking just like ours.
I had my body shop for 45 years and the last 15 years was a nightmare with insurance co. Yep State Farm was definitely the worst we had to get parts from 5 different places some time so they could save 50 dollars and most was from salvage yeards or aftermarket junk. Trust me they don't repair cars the right way anymore if insurance is involved its never back to pre accident condition. Im glade i retired and don't have to deal with them anymore. It was a fight everyday trying to fix a car the right way.
I am not sure about cars but our governor in Florida has put through legislation to say you cannot sue homeowners insurance. After getting this done two major companies either refused to repair or under repair homes after this passed. One of them was discussed. Gov Ron had one company donate a 30k golf simulator for his home. Meanwhile state employees are prohibited from taking gifts over 5 or 10 dollars. Meanwhile if you want to play golf with him in a group it's 25,000 or 100,000 for a one on one.
Florida has a lot of great police because of their radical sunshine laws, public employees can't get away with anything down there. But real anti-corruption measures can't survive IOKIYAR - they either grow some self-respect about electing outright criminals, and quick, or that all goes to sh!t. It's already showing with the sheriffs talking increasingly political.
Still remember when a state farm claims lady, that must have been 80 years old refused a loner to me. Car hit the back of my 73 Monte Carlo, mashing the trailer hitch up into the license plate, putting the hitch ball, through the license plate, and up against the gas cap, which could no longer be opened on my empty tank. Out of gas, parked at my house, it couldn't even be driven to the inspection. She told me to torch the hitch ball off ... the one against the gas cap. Took 2 weeks for the claim adjuster, plus estimates, plus repair work. It was left empty on the repair lot, so they had to toe it to a gas station. ( I did have to contact a lawyer to get them off their butts.
“Like a good neighbor, State Farm don’t care”
Barry Manilow should have written his jingle that way!
@Tripoutski I think that's Barry.......
State Farm is worthless. I had been with them since I was 17 because my mom used them too. They were my insurer for 12 years, perfectly clean record, never a claim (even for windshields) and they really increased my rates after I turned 25. I carried them for 4 more years when I had enough and told them I was using a different carrier. They didn't care, not that I expected them to, but I was happy to move on. If they spent as much money to retain customers and honor claims, instead of hiring superstars for their commercials, I'd have different things to say. Just a media company that happens to sell insurance coverage.
Right? I had them until this year when they decided to complain about the Boston Ivy on the north side of my house(could attract bugs!) and my neighbors oak tree, which they wanted me to trim even though the problematic limb did not extend across my property line. Screw those guys
“You’re in deep s**t, with Allstate!”
My old State Farm agent had a similar reaction when I simultaneously cancelled the policies on all of my car collection. Never had any kind of ticket ever in my entire driving history and they wouldn't pay out when I had a freak accident that totaled my Mustang. I restored the car myself and drove it to her office and cancelled my extensive car collection's entire set of policies. There's a pic of me standing next to my car in front of that state farm office, flipping them the bird lol
I'd like to see that picture, sounds great.
How many cars was that?
I think 5 cars at that time. I was paying a lot for premiums for that collection considered I never really made claims on anything. There's like 16 cars collectively owned in the family so that's a big loss for them. I'll probably post the pic of me flipping them off to my community tab sometime
I love your comment .. they refused to fulfill their obligation when my 1986 GT 5.0 was stolen and damaged in 1996. I’ve been telling people since to avoid State Farm.
This, right here. This is why I listen to Steve Lehto. He is exactly right. If a company fails to live up to your expectations, vote with your pocketbook.
Consolidation in pretty much every industry has made this solution a futile exercise in most cases. These big companies couldn't care less about whether or not you remain a customer because they know the "competition" isn't any different and they know that they'll gain pretty much the same number of customers they're losing from customers who are voting with their dollars leaving the competition. Eventually you'll run out of alternatives and have no choice but to deal with a company that couldn't care less if you're a customer or not. Sure, the individual State Farm agent probably cared about losing those policies but State Farm itself didn't care at all because customers of some other big insurance company would leave that big insurance company for similar reasons and move to State Farm.
@@gregisflyingforfun Here's the thing, if you are a CUSTOMER of State Farm you are also an OWNER of State Farm. It is entirely owned by the policyholders. All these people saying "State Farm doesn't care about it's customers" are nuts - it is the ONLY thing they care about. It's just that the vast majority of its policyholders/owners do not care to subsidize high-risk, expensive customers. And there is no reason they should.
Here’s another problem. State Farm is the cheapest and only affordable for insurance for these cars.
No insurance = no car. Other insurance providers will outright reject taking a policy.
@@ThnkIaA Sounds like you can't afford that car.
@@gregisflyingforfun So, you've ran through all the insurance companies? I had All State 30 years ago. I've had GEICO for 28 years. And I have a relationship with USAA. If GEICO stops meeting my expectations, I'll call USAA and give them an opportunity to meet them. I really don't see the issue here..
State Farm dropped me because I actually had the audacity to use the roadside assistance more than once. Best favor they could have ever done for me.
That's funny as in 30 years they have repaid me on average once a year. Granted I have multiple vehicles and small town agents. They have always covered my claims but they could be going down hill. My roadsides are always paid by my local agent. They even paid for an over priced claim from Canada.
They called it a claim and raised my rates when I used my roadside assistance once!
@@AeroGuy07 I pay a small monthly fee for roadside assistance which really means a reimbursement. They have always done it.
@57WillysCJ When I got my bill after using the roadside assistance one time, my payment was higher than the previous month. When I called them to ask why they said I had made a claim. I said that I didn't make a claim, and she told me that I had used my roadside assistance, and that was a claim, hence the premium increase. And this was a small agent that had my moms house and car and I had been with then for about 6 years when this happened, about 25 years ago.
@@AeroGuy07 I guess they are not consistant. I just know from my plus 30 years as well as many of my friends.
My father in law had his parked car crashed into, and the other insurance company was digging in their heels over the repair costs of a Toyota Tercel 😂 He said fine, your customer hit my car, he owes me for the repairs, so I’m not dealing with you guys anymore, I’m filing a suit against your customer for damage to my car. You’ll have to deal with the suit, defend your customer and still have to fix my car. So they fixed his car the way it should have been. Bullies always run when you stand up to them
I had the same issue with Farmers insurance when woman hit my daughters parked car.
Insurance will pay for a lawyer,up to the limits of the policy. I suspect the damage was going to be less than the lawyer fees.
@robertheinkel6225 my insurance was happy to sue for cost, so it's on them
Coworker had his windshield chipped by a semi carrying fill dirt that had the small print sign saying they are not responsible for broken windshields. He called up the commercial insurance company and they refused to replace it. He basically said fine, i'll have my windshield and every rock chip on the front of my 10 year old car as related to your unsecured load and sue. They then covered the windshield.
Same, I had repairs into the 5 digits because a 15 year old on a learner permit didn’t stop at the sign and look both ways and plowed into oncoming traffic. I immediately stopped about 100’ up the road from the accident. The radiators on the vehicles both exploded and coolant drew perfect streaks across the roadway leading up to the resting points of the tboned car up on a lawn and her car going straight into oncoming traffic on the wrong side of the road right into my vehicle. I took a panorama showing everything. Even with the perfect picture showing beyond any doubt she broke the law and failed to yield, that as an result she drove the wrong way against traffic, even with this on the police report, I couldn’t get their insurance to actually pay up. I finally won when I asked the agent when a reasonable date was for receiving the check and recorded the call because it’s legal in my state. I then played back the agents response after the date and said we are now past reasonable by your own admission and if you don’t pay immediately I’m filing the court case today and the judge is going to be angry with you for wasting the courts time. I finally got my money but only barely.
Insurance company trying to save money at a customers expense? Color me surprised
You should see the state of the claims office and all the adjusters that are getting overworked because they refuse to hire more people. Of at the shops with all their required parts usage that causes repair delays. I've worked in both of those industries and hated it. Cutting budgets and departments so the CEO can make $24.5m a year. Even worse if the company has shareholders they have to answer to.
Is that between purple and green?
SF rejects any claim over $4,700? That's the repair cost of a minor collision.
Because the cost is beyond the value of the vehicle
@@2nickles647 if a Porsche is still under warranty it’s worth considerably more than $4,700. This is why I say “take your insurance company to court if they refuse to pay.” Especially in my state because they always lose. Insurance companies know this so they try to make your life difficult and try to force you to go through arbitration.
@@2nickles647The vast majority of vehicles on the road are worth more than that
*That the cost of a fender bender, never mind the paint.*
Cheaper to just scrap it and cut you a check that won't cover buying a replacement.
Steve...I laughed out loud when you said "What made you think that way, throwing chicken bones at the ground to see what they read?". That one is hilarious!
State Farm is just like every other insurance company….deny until held legally responsible.
I've been a claims adjuster for over 20 years. I never handle claims for State Farm and only work against them when I can. They cut corners on literally everything.
State Farm denied my parents house repairs from lightning strike. Finally the paid took forever. They had them for decades, then I cancelled all my policies, my parents policy’s and both my sisters policy’s👍
You absolutely can’t keep an auto or home or any other insurance policy with a single provider for more than a few years maximum. Every single one will sabotage the rates you pay to the point of ripping you off if you stay. The only way to keep a reasonable market rate is to keep switching because every insurance company does it, it’s like they believe it’s a slot machine and because you haven’t made any claims you are far more likely to require large payouts soon so you need to be overcharged. It’s not true for slot machines, and it’s not true in real life.
@@hugegamer5988I literally can’t leave State Farm. I’ve got quotes from every other insurance company. It’s 250-300% higher with anyone else for the same coverage. No accidents or claims, been with them since 14.
I do collision repair for a living. All the big name companies do this. Most shops around me wont take snake farm claims. Buy insurance through a smaller company. Insurance is the biggest scam in this country.
Everyone says that, however, insurance companies pay out nearly all of their premiums in claims.
@@UncleKennysPlace proof? my proof is nobody open business to lose money. When it's super profitable like those "none profit", you will see lots more of them.
@@UncleKennysPlace B.S. They make a killing like a casino.
@@UncleKennysPlace This is just plain false.
I have State Farm house insurance. Every contractor who came to my house, when I said my insurance with State Farm, they all said “Oh, you’ll probably want to find a different insurance provider when you’re done with this.”
same here.
The only good homeowners insurance is full replacement; otherwise, you are stuck in Actual Cash Value land. As an easy rule, if your policy mentions ACV, it is basically worthless.
I made a claim two months ago and cant get them to pay or even return a phone call.
@@fl3609 homeowners claim?
This is useful information, does it cost more? Do the major providers have it? @@bobbbobb4663
I've seen signs on more than one auto repair shop that said, "We Do Not Accept Claims From State Farm."
You're 100% right about the agent. We had a tree fall on our roof, State Farm corporate was pushing to do the section with shingles that were "close." We called the agent, he got them to do the whole roof.
thats getting harder for them to do insurance is getting worse not better
I had stare farm back in the 80's, it was actually my first insurance company. I tried to use it once and they denied my claim and cancelled my insurance. Thanks State Farm, you saved me a ton of money over the years, because I've never been back.
This is why I always insist on having higher end cars repaired at a manufacturer certified repair facility. When they say they will not cover that, I just tell them, well that's your problem. That's where I'm taking the car, and I expect you to work out the payment. The couple of times I've done this, it's never been an issue. They are expecting people to roll over and if you put your foot down, they will not prevent you from taking the car to a Certified body shop as its's state law where I live that I get to pick the repair facility.
This is not new news! I battled SF back in the 80's and 90's. They would pay for LKQ parts only (like kind and quality (IE aftermarket), and salvage parts), not genuine new factory parts. Also, some shops would not accept SF claims, as they were a huge problem to deal with. I had to get a lawyer to write letters to them to negotiate cost, parts, etc. Totally horrible to deal with.
I also had a rider on my policy for a rental (loss of use), and I owned 2 cars at the time, one for winter, one for summer. I told them I would get a rental, and park it until the value was used up and not drive it one mile, or, use that money towards a new part I wanted. They gave in on that one. This was how SF behaved back then, and apparently still do.
Salvaged parts are factory parts. By law, they don't have to replace your 5 year old fender with a brand new one. That would be bettering your car. They just have to make sure the replacement came from a vehicle the same year or newer vehicle. The warranty for those parts is typically only 30 days. The LKQ part warranty is generally longer. LKQ doesn't make body panels. Just headlights and bumpers.
I deal with a lot of crashed cars from body shops for suspension repairs. If the insurance company wants to buy a used part, say a subframe or steering knuckle, and pay me to install it, fine. But if the used one they buy is ALSO bent (more common that they think), and the alignment angles are wrong, they ARE paying the full labor AGAIN to put in the next one. And again and again, until it’s correct. They’ll buy new parts if they realize used could cost them MORE at the end of the job.
@@bradleysmith2021 technically, if the part LKQ sends you is damaged, they should pay the labor to replace it. Insurance only needs to pay once. Reality is LKQ won't pay for it and it's very hard to have ins pay for it again.
@@xj4low322 In my case, the dispute was with a rear quarter panel. The body shop manager hated scrap yard panels, as they generally need alot more work to fit, refinish, etc, than a new panel from GM. I live in the rust belt, so thats an issue.
@@xj4low322 but my shop did not purchase said part, the insurance company did. Any labor reimbursement issue is between them. I get paid every time I take the car apart and put it back together.
A Jeep without doors in winter in Michigan is a four wheeled motorcycle
The motorcycle has sideview mirrors.
My grandmother gave me a good bit of advice: never get insurance from State Farm. She had problems with them even that long ago. She was annoyed with me when she found out that at that time I had a life insurance policy with them, and told me to watch out. I reminded her that it was a LIFE insurance policy, and they couldn't really deny a claim if the insured was dead with a death certificate. But who knows, perhaps they would try.
Oh, sure they can. "Preexisting condition".
@@Sky-bx9mn 🤣😂😅🤣😂
By yhe way, State Farm just lost their "A" rating from AM Best.
Insurance companies make more than anyone else. And everybody surprised they cut Corners to make more money
Cause when it's LAW that you MUST have insurance. The state and government should be BREATHING DOWN THEIR NECKS, regulating HEAVILY, Auditing, investigating, and overlooking EVERY. SINGLE. PENNY. Insurance companies are doing, and keeping them in check with the law.
In fact, I would argue if the Insurance company loses in court, not only should THEY personally be forced to cover all of your court costs and lawyer fees. But the GOVERNMENT should be forced to pay you $1million for their fuckup on Vetting, Regulating, and keeping the Insurance Company in check.
When it's Required by law, they are GOVERNMENT ENTITIES, employed, regulated, and controlled by the government. Or else it wouldn't be REQUIRED by LAW.
@@JirodyneRight, and until the late 90's in Tennessee at least, it wasn't required by law.
It's a scam anyway. Liability doesn't even insure your car, it insurers someones expensive car, and you have to get full coverage just to cover your own car. Then they screw you over and if you use it, they try and deny your claim.
How about if I'm driving a car worth $2000 I just pay a small insurance and cover my own car instead? That's the way it should be.
Exactly how much money is State Farm making, and who is getting this money?
@@briansomething5987 Who else??? The higher ups in the corporate scale, just like Every other industry. Automotive, Meat, Supermarket, Pharmaceutical, you name it...
@@JohnDoe-qz1ql The higher-ups only make what the owners of the company want to pay them. So who are the owners of State Farm? The policyholders. As for how much money State Farm is making - they had a $4.7B LOSS in 2023 after $8.7B LOSS in 2022.
Your stories were very humorous in this episode. Thanks for the laughs. :)
We had State Farm years ago. So once I was driving after a heavy thunderstorm and came upon a situation where there was a fallen tree branch that was covering half of the width of the road. I drove around the tree (safely, I thought) until I realized that there was also an electrical line that was down as well. When I drove over that line, which wasn’t even visible, it got tangled up in the wheel and caused significant damage to the body molding around the wheel well. A State Farm adjuster told me (verbally) that it would be covered, and would NOT count as an at-fault claim (meaning my rates would not increase). When the next renewal period came, there was an increase with an annotation that tied the increase to that accident. So I reported State Farm to our state insurance commissioner and, after much grief and headaches, got the increase overturned. After that was finalized, I called my agent and told him that I’m canceling my insurance (3 cars plus homeowners) with the reason being how poorly State Farm handled that claim.
I dropped them when I read the policy. It says they are not repairing your car with new parts. They also are not responsible for the decrease value of your car. I was told they will only pay 45.00 per hour for repairs, so garage will not work on the vehicle. I was amazed when they wanted to see my new policy to make sure I was covered. My new policy dropped 50% with same coverage.
I had State Farm when I moved to Florida. At the time, I also had a new driver on the policy. The rates increased significantly, so I checked with USAA. Best decision ever.
USAA is the best in country fact
I know people who lost friends who are insurance agents because of policies the agent-friend sold. "I'm just doing my job" and screwing over a friend in the process.
I own a body shop , and I work with State Farm all the time. They really suck. They are terrible.
I have a new Kia right now in my shop with window sticker still attached, owned by the dealer, new in stock vehicle and State Farm argued almost a month with me about it “qualifying” for alternative parts. And they wanted me to get their parts trader door from 900 miles away on the OEM part they did write. I finally had the service manager at the dealership find a document stating that Kia required new in stock vehicles to be repaired with OEM parts so I sent her that document along with an explanation that I was using OEM parts purchased from the dealership that owned the vehicle and if they didn’t pay I would bill their customer and explain to them why they got a bill for the difference. Next morning she called and said her manager approved OEM parts. That’s why I have zero DRP’s, it’s my name on the sign
If I remember correctly, State Farm was sued prior for not allowing the use of OEM parts, reducing the value of the car. They lost that suit. Sounds like they have a short memory.
Something to do with headlight?
It's not a short memory at all. They make more money by doing business that way and paying out the occasional law suit than just doing things ethically.
Stories like this justify my dislike of State Farm. The final straw was when they raised my rates because I drove 1000 miles more than I estimated one year when I updated my policy.
It's all about the statistics. That mere 1000 extra miles changes the odds of you being in an accident. In your case enough to significantly up your rates.
😆😆😆😆😆
@@nolongeramused8135 I never said how much they raised my rates. I just said they raised my rates because I underestimated how many miles I drove one year. The point was it was an *estimate." It wasn't a signed in blood oath.
@@AeroGuy07 Yeah, they aren't very forgiving. You also have to tell them when you drive fewer miles or they'll never drop your rates.
Welcome to my experience with State Farm from 40 years ago. Not just expensive vehicles, but any vehicle they have to pay for. That is, providing that they pay for the repairs at all.
I’ve never met anyone who had kind words for SF…. except for an agent who wrote policies for them.
Exactly this, State Farm is to insurance what Wells-Fargo is to banks. If you want to stay sane avoid at all cost.
nationwide is not on your side either...
It's not just state farm. Progressive tried to foist junk yard parts for critical components onto me after a deer hit in January. I had to pay out of pocket to get new instead.
I hit a deer in May and Mutual Of Enumclw auto ins. tried to steal my car, they worked with the shop that they approve of, making false estimates so that they could total my car. I have 35 years experience working on cars and rebuilding them, I called them out on their bullshit. They hired an independent appraiser to come out and then they modified his report so that his estimate would support their fraud. They wrote me a check for $8,514! It cost me $1,000 in new parts to fix it. I still have my Clear Title and a small dent in the hood. Total crooks, wanted to give me $5,000 less than it was worth and sell it back to shop so they could make 3X what they would have made fixing it for me.
I live in California, and due to the state government, some insurance companies are no longer doing business in California.
I’d take that as a win!
I live in California, too. And because of state government, many businesses who would not do their due diligence are no longer doing business in California.
Fortunately, we have state government to ensure our drinking water supply, fire protection and utility management are properly regulated.
Don't feel bad, Florida is the same way lol
@@darkstorminc Florida, fortunately or otherwise depending on how one looks at the insurance issue, is turning into an interesting experiment. I’m curious what would happen if they all left and the state fully self insured. Provided the people of Florida could keep the governmental bureaucratic tendencies of administrative growth to a minimum, not for profit self insurance could actually get more claims covered for a lower cost than the fiasco that currently plays out there. And if not, at least they’ll be paying more appropriately for the disasters that happen by taking corporate profit out of the equation.
@@jimk8520 in both states profit is going to be a factor for insurance companies leaving.
Between hurricanes, flooding, sinkholes, mudslides, wildfires, and earthquakes who wouldn't want to insure ANYTHING in either state lol
Had SF. Hit 2 deer at once causing significant damage to the front of the vehicle. After getting the ok to fix from the insurance co my body shop called me and told me they did ok the fix but wanted to use generic parts and junkyard parts. A steel hood instead of the aluminum hood that came as factory - hood was $200 cheaper. I have free legal through my union. A few threatening letters later all genuine GM parts were used.
I drive a 31-year-old pickup truck. I have not had a moving violation in 17 years and I had a tiny fender bender in the parking area of the condos where I live and they raise my rates by about $60 a year. I had no problem with that. The next time my policy came due they raised it another $260 a year, a 66% raise in a year. I raised hell with them and they tried to blame it on the pandemic and then tried to tell me it was because of bad drivers in Florida. I paid it this time but there won't be another. This has happened in the last 5 years, didn't used to be this way. "Like a good neighbor", my ass. My neighbors are better than that and State Farm can kiss where the sun doesn't shine. Don't they have actuaries to predict this stuff? If that is the case, they need to find new actuaries. More likely, it is greed and deception.
"Like a good neighbor, stay over there" - State Farm
State Farm is the Wells Fargo of the insurance industry.
At least they're not Hertz. You file a claim and they call the cops.
Question on the Porsche end: can they really deny warranty coverage? Would that fall under Magnuson Moss?
I was in the bodyshop business for years and one thing i will tell you . When you have your insurance pay to fix your car . All insurance companies want cars fixed to look right not to be right . Looking for the cheapest route out . Not just statefarm but all insurance companies
There's a difference between driveable and road legal.
Perfectly said....now what do you say Mr. Adjuster expert.
Allstate vs Allstate. My parents got hit from behind at 65mph, by a young blonde. At court they sided with her. My dad vould no longer fish, hunt or golf. They paid his ER bill..that's it. HATE ALLSTATE.
Allstate did this to my with my exes homeowners, when I fell on his painted steps.
My insurance company worked with their approved shop to make up fake Supplement of Record (revised repair estimate) after reasonable original estimate. They wanted to total my 11 year old Mercedes, with 57,217 miles and sell it back to the same shop so they could make three times as much and I would loose $5,000 and have to buy another car. Cost me: headlight $800, headlight bracket $70, headlight support $14, headlight washer jet $15, door latch switch $24. A small dent on the front of the hood remains and bruise on the bumper cover. They had to hide their fraud with another fake estimate and paid me $8,514! 😂
*We were a state farm customer for about 20 years, until a road debris hit my car. State farm refuses to pay for the full amount to repair the damage, even left a message that they increase the amount they are going to pay by a dollar. After several weeks of talking to the higher ups, finally paid us the full amount. A couple of weeks later, we dropped them*
I had a horrible experience with The Hartford when I was rear ended by one of their insured. They basically forced me to get a lawyer, and ended up paying out 3x what they would have if they had just done the right thing from the beginning.
I was paying $164/mo when I assumed my single vehicle insurance from my parents. I shopped around and ended up with Progressive. After doing their Snapshot program and bundling my house, I pay $60/mo with my same $500 deductible. Screw State Farm.
Very interesting stories and know I need to definitely change my policy as a state farm customer
I bet the insurance companies lobbied like hell to require you to pay your own attorney fees.
In Michigan they lobbied the state supreme Court...
Thanks for your civic service of accurate information, Steve.
Those testifying insurance reps sound like politicians.
They went to the same schools.
Same thing happened to me in MA. I was rear-ended in my new Tesla while stopped and insurance, acknowledging that the other driver was entirely at fault, told me if I went to Tesla for repair they would not pay the full amount. Instead I had to go to one of their shops which did substandard work. MA has a diminished value law but the insurance company said they don't follow that law and I was welcome to sue them. Insurance companies are a bunch of thieves.
No wasting money on full coverage after my insurance company tried to sell my car to their approved body shop via fraudulent estimate, so the shop could make some serious money on my 11 year old Mercedes Benz with only 52,217 on it! I hit a deer and they tried to Total it. Had to pay me $8,500, I fix it for $1,000 myself, live with small dent on hood. 😂
100k isn't a luxury car anymore - that's just a pickup truck.... ROFL
Those luxury pickup trucks and their customers confuse me
@@thejohnbeck If something that simple in life "confuses" you it might be time to see a doctor.
No, that is a luxury car. No one needs a $100,000 car.
@@carolr7823 that's why it's funny
@@thejohnbeck luxury? When did an F150 become a luxury truck?
Steve's commentary is fantastic.
I had the same problem with Nationwide back in the 1970s.
Ben combining w/the Lawyer Dog, upper left of sign; upper screen right.
Most car insurance policies indicate that the owner of the car must protect it from further damage after incurring a loss!
To your point Steve, how could you drive your Jeep in Winter weather conditions without doors? What about the damage that could occur to the interior of the vehicle? Then if you made a second claim for that damage, they would deny it based on policy language! (I'm a retired adjuster in NY)
They also do this for home owners claims. Had same thing happen last year. Fought them every step of the claim and was able to get through it.
Hell yeah they do, I had the agent tell me only “their” approved shops (none of which had good reviews) would cover the damage, but I have history with a specific body shop I wanted to use, and that shop told me it’s highly illegal for State Farm to mandate that. I asked the SF agent to please put it in writing that I had to use “their” approved shops, and the next reply I received was some higher up saying “a communication error had occurred, and I was welcome to use any shop I like”.
😂
Can't you get a ticket from the police if you don't have your rear view mirrors on your vehicle?
If it is required by your state, then yes.
Side view mirror, drivers side. Yes you can. The adjuster obviously hasn't had a class about DMV and vehicle required equipment.
I prefer the insurance company with the green lizard. Live in the US for 15 years now, only had one claim (someone drove right into my car at a parking strip, my car was parked and I was not inside). If it wasn't for the camera of the store, I never would have known who was responsible. Everything was taken care of within a month. Within 2 business days I was told that I could bring the car in for repair. The following day I was called by the police department that they had located the owner responsible for the damages. Sample size N = 1, so maybe I was just lucky.
This has been a problem for years - i remember some lawsuits coming out of that too. Why I refuse to do business with them.
owners are legally free to use any professional shop for a repair.
I get two estimates.
I ask the low ball company to quote me a slight high price 😅😅😅
I thought this might vary by state?
Yes, you can use any repair facility. However. If the insurance company does not agree to the price of repair, you pay the difference
@@graysonwagner1855 Not true in all states, I will say this, if the body shops estimates are within the guidelines of the book (state written) that dictates how may hours and max that can be charged the insurance company doesn't have a argument.
Snake Farm did that to me on my first windshield replacement. Gave me a list of windshield shops to use and said if I go to the dealership it could cost more and I could end up paying out of pocket. Net windshield I talked to the state insurance commissioner and was told they can’t do that if I want OEM. The windshield thru previously installed was of a cheap quality and didn’t work with the heads up display. It made it fuzzy. StateFarm refused to let me go to the dealership to get it fixed the first time. This second time I got them to reluctantly agree to the dealership with the state insurance commissioner.
*I once got into an accident with my motorcycle, insurance covered the cost but then hiked the monthly cost way up. I canceled it and went with another insurance company with a more reasonable rate. Problem solved. I don't know why more people don't do when their insurance tries to play loose and fast with their insurance rate.*
Hagerty has always treated me well with my Porsche.
i was with state farm since the day i got my license. its who my parents used and i continued thru my adulthood using them. i was with my local agent about 20 years. her new office manager just would not get things done. i had to beg and plead for things. the agent had been out seriously ill. i ended up changing to farm burea and have been happy.
State Farm dropped me after 38 years.
i had state farm home insurance when i first bought my house. 3 months after puchase and having multiple inspectors come through to approve the loan state farm agent rolled up parked on the street took one picture of my house and said i needed to have my roof replaced. roof was less then 5 years old. dude never even climbed on the roof. then when i called my "agent" and sent him the inspection they dropped me and flagged my home so when i tried to get a new insurance company to keep my loan many wouldnt accept my application and would deny it because of the flag for the roof. all except allstate who actually pulled the report and read the inspection notes. FU statefarm
I had state farm with 2 auto, 1 classic car, 2 off road, a home owners, 4 life, and business policies paying over 3K a month and had to file a home owners twice in 15 months after no claims in 35+ years and they dropped my home policy for them having to pay less than 5K total, so I canceled everything and had the business agent promise that he would personally make it right, I told him nope. I have probably paid over 300K to them over the years and got dropped for them having to pay under $5K
They trired to total my car by having the repair shop find more damage so it would seem like the damage was more than it was worth. It was just front bumper and grill. Thankfully the garage didnt but they let me know about it. I keep my vehicles a long time and take good care of them.
My insurance companies approved SHOP worked with them to try to steal my car from me, they made up absurd claims on the revised estimate, $3000 headlight, 12 hours to repaint a bumper cover and then $1440 for a new bumper cover, $1000 worth of parts that were never damaged. I thought like hell with them, they got a new appraiser to hide the fraud and paid me over $8500. Other than a small dent on the front of the hood, it took about $1,000 to fix it. 😂
They tried doing that with my sister’s car. Their adjuster showed up a couple of days early when no one was around, forced his way into the repair shop and did an ‘inspection’ of the car. Later claimed the engine was damaged and unfixable. CCTV footage from the shop showed he couldn’t even get the hood up to see the engine, so was just making crap up to up the estimated repair cost.
My sister threatened to report State Farm and the Adjuster, which got her results. Got the car fixed (guess what, the engine wasn’t scratched😂), then switched insurers. She’s never going back to SF.
Basic rule about insurance companies: the more they advertise, the less you should be a customer.
True story!
I'm not so sure. Common sense would make this sound true, however the higher ranked companies (ranked by customer satisfaction) are not necessarily lower advertisers. Take for example liberty mutual. They rank very high with payout and no-hassel (among their customers, attorneys, repair shops, etc.). I see their commercials everywhere. Also there's Progressive and Geico - which are both rated right in the middle of the pack, but advertising budgets are tremendous.
State farm saved me several times. The first one was when I totaled my car in Warren, Ohio, 400 miles from home in 1966. The second was the big one when my house burned n a wildfire in 2010. I worked with their agents to draw up construction plans for the house and use them to get a very fair settlement. No bad incidents in sixty years.
My wife's car was rear ended. It needed a new rear bumper cover. Our insurance policy says they can use non-OEM parts if the quality is the same. After they had the car for 3 months waiting for the non-OEM bumper cover, and multiple calls to the body shop and insurance company, the body shop went to the dealership (who had an OEM one in stock), and the dealership sold them the OEM part for the same price as non-OEM. We could have probably had the car back in 3 weeks instead of 3 months if they had done that in the first place.
To be fair oem parts are close to garbage quality lately
An Allstate imposed repair shop, used cheap aftermarket parts including a headlight that within 3 years was so yellowed almost no light shown from it. This was an uninsured motorist claim for an unlicensed DUI criminal invader driving with no lights on on the wrong side of an interstate highway where there were no street lights.
I was talking to a claims adjuster after a late night deer collision banged up the front of my truck. After some basic questions he comes out asking what I was doing on the road late at night (about 2 am). I guess he honestly thought he might catch me admitting I was coming home after a bender at the local bar or something but I just asked him if my policy only covered daytime driving because I must have missed that language in the policy.
I remember an old commercial from some Law Firm. A building had a sign on a adjuster's school and the building was rocking back and forth with them singing no way we won't pay deny the claim we won't pay.
Love your personal stories, and I believe them!!
It’s weird people would happily defend a monopoly.
i see it all the time...those paid shills aren't cheap either
I was a service writer and dealt with State Farm a few times. IMO they gave us any parts we asked for and never cut any corners. However getting them to pay at times was a nightmare. We had this guys car done for weeks before they would pay.
Steve, your the lawyer. Negotiating with state farm is fxxxed.
My friend used to work in the auto body industry and said State Farm is the absolutely worst company to work with.
I had to fight with them to cover repairs after an accident, then they dropped me.
My wife’s BMW got hit and the woman who hit it has AAA insurance that covered all the costs. AAA is more expensive to have but they don’t cheap out. They paid the bill: $5,000 for the factory right rear suspension components, plus wheel, quarter panel, rear bumper cover ($1,200), labor and three step paint job. Total $12,500. On top of that they picked up the tab for 18 days rental on a Maserati while her car was in the shop.
My son totalled my 10 year old Accord. (He was fine - shooken up)
Declared scrap - didn't look like it - but airbags drove it over the top.
They offered a number. I dug in my heels. A lot.
Got an additional $2K out of them.
Never accept what they offer.
Instead of buying new, bought a used 2003. Traded in for a new 2019 Accord.
This is why I find it weird that you can't charge the opposing party for costs if you win. I think most countries have that.
I can relate to your story about insurance agents. I purchased a number of policies through an agent, including my business insurance, the business policy increased by a not inconsiderable amount over several years, culminating in a large increase (with no claims being lodged) So I looked around and got a comparable policy with another reputable insurance company for a lot less. When I called the agent to cancel my policy with them,they asked why and I explained, they said “oh we could have got you a better price” I said well why didn’t you, that’s what I pay you for, they didn’t see my point. Needless to say I took all my other policies elsewhere.
Hey Steve, My Chevy dealer in St Louis, Missouri is well known for putting a drive line life-time insurance policy on all new vehicles. I was in a head on crash, at an intersection. My Colorado pickup appeared drivable. But, i had it towed 40 miles back to the dealer to be checked out. So the tow bill plus $100 for checkout fees were in play. The insurance company agreed to pay these fees BECAUSE an insurance policy cancelation was possible if I did not take precautions, before driving. The policy was NOT State Farm.
My Dad gave me excellent advice 50 years ago: "Never ever ever buy insurance from any company with All, State, or Farm in its name." Very solid advice.
State Farm has been doing this since the 80s. They once brought me a blue dash from the salvage yard for a car with a black dash and asked me to paint it. Told the adjuster to tow the car out and take the dash with him.
Always had problems with state farm when i had a moped. No thank you, oh and nice Ferris Beullar quote at the end.
Many years ago I took a college class on insurance and one of the instructors was a former manager for a national auto insurer. His office received a corporate memo telling all agents coast to coast to lowball ALL claims by $50. This small amount would not be a point of argument by most claimant but it was going to save this company millions each month
Thanks, Steve. Oh, and that reminds me, I have State Farm and it's time for me to go shopping again for a better rate. I'm anticipating they'll do another "oh gee, rates are going up again".
I went with them a year ago because they significantly beat everyone else, but honestly, they're not at all the best with paperwork or claims.
NAME & SHAME A insurance firm ....for their actions...
Had something similar with home owners. Had a roof leak, called my agent, he told me to call a roofer, any roofer. Agent and roofer get there, both do inspections, talk prices, etc. Agent tells me how much I'm getting for the roof, decking repair, and sheet rock repair inside. Awesome.
Six months later, I get a check for half. Call them up. "Oh, we got the price wrong." So I get the roofer (rock solid dude) to give me an invoice, scanned, and email it to them. They give me anorher check a couple weeks later and it's still short. "Oh we won't pay for the decking. It's due to rot." The decking rotted because it took you guys SEVEN MONTHS to get me a check. During spring and summer. When it rains a lot. "Well it's not our fault. That's just wear and tear. We won't replace it."
Our roof was constructed without any ventilation holes anywhere! When the roof leaked after a may snow storm, the insurance company sent out an adjuster. The plywood was delaminating. We had a total tear off including the decking. We took down the vents in the soffit, and there were no holes cut. We had custom trusses built on site.
Several houses in the neighborhood had their roofs replaced shortly after including the decking just like ours.
It seems to me most insurance companies have this hidden motto: "We Don't Pay."
I had my body shop for 45 years and the last 15 years was a nightmare with insurance co. Yep State Farm was definitely the worst we had to get parts from 5 different places some time so they could save 50 dollars and most was from salvage yeards or aftermarket junk. Trust me they don't repair cars the right way anymore if insurance is involved its never back to pre accident condition. Im glade i retired and don't have to deal with them anymore. It was a fight everyday trying to fix a car the right way.
I am not sure about cars but our governor in Florida has put through legislation to say you cannot sue homeowners insurance. After getting this done two major companies either refused to repair or under repair homes after this passed. One of them was discussed. Gov Ron had one company donate a 30k golf simulator for his home. Meanwhile state employees are prohibited from taking gifts over 5 or 10 dollars. Meanwhile if you want to play golf with him in a group it's 25,000 or 100,000 for a one on one.
Florida has a lot of great police because of their radical sunshine laws, public employees can't get away with anything down there.
But real anti-corruption measures can't survive IOKIYAR - they either grow some self-respect about electing outright criminals, and quick, or that all goes to sh!t. It's already showing with the sheriffs talking increasingly political.
Still remember when a state farm claims lady, that must have been 80 years old refused a loner to me. Car hit the back of my 73 Monte Carlo, mashing the trailer hitch up into the license plate, putting the hitch ball, through the license plate, and up against the gas cap, which could no longer be opened on my empty tank. Out of gas, parked at my house, it couldn't even be driven to the inspection. She told me to torch the hitch ball off ... the one against the gas cap. Took 2 weeks for the claim adjuster, plus estimates, plus repair work. It was left empty on the repair lot, so they had to toe it to a gas station. ( I did have to contact a lawyer to get them off their butts.
It’s ridiculous that despite insurance being basically required in many cases, there is still so little oversight.