Quite a few years back I had the misfortune of being robbed blind, which included my entire audio system, consisting of a pair of Totem Mani 2’s, a Classe Audio DR 25 amp, a Meridian transport, digital preamp, and DAC, can’t remember the model numbers, and all of my cables and CD collection.
I had all the boxes, manuals, receipts, and photos of the system. As it turned out, I was not only robbed by the burglars, but my insurance company, which proceeded to try to rob me as well.
It took me over a year to finally collect my replacement costs, minus attorney fees, but more on that later. I remember sitting at a table at the corporate office of the insurance company with my attorney a year later, when they finally paid up, at which point I asked them why they made it so difficult for me to collect? They told me because most people never provide them with all the documentation I had presented, which made them think something was fishy.
I about blew a fuse, replying, I thought that’s what you’re supposed to do!
Later, after stewing about the whole affair, I decided to take further action, and contacted the 9 news trouble shooting team, and they said they’d be happy to do an expose on Farmers Insurance, which they had done once before. I then contacted the district manager for Farmers insurance and spoke to him, letting him know about the lousy way I was treated, and what I planned on doing about it. He immediately said he would send me a check covering my attorney fees plus some additional funds, if I didn’t go to 9 News. I accepted the deal, and got on with my life.
So, in my case, doing what you’re supposed to do, keeping all your records in order, caused me a lot of extra grief.
Do you think they were saying the truth? I don’t! There is a code that they have to follow. Had they doubted your claim, they would have called an inquiry, or contacted the police!
I think the reason they dragged their feet, is because they doubted the validity of my claim, and were investigating me. Or it could be they just didn’t want to pay out a large claim.
Forgot to mention, they also were going to cancel my policy after they settled with me, and after checking and discovering no other company would insure me, after having a large claim, I decided to call 9 News. That didn’t happen though, after I told the district manager my plans of doing an expose with the news channel and exposing their underhanded practices.
A year or so after all that, I found a different insurance company and cancelled my policy with Farmers.
Not convinced that homeowner’s insurance companies
live up to their marketing hype…
They are an evil necessity that love to rack in their premiums
but despise honoring legitimate claims…
It is ludicrous what Farmers home owners insurance tv ads
that they have seen a thing or two…but drag their feet
to cover legit claims.
Makes a person wonder if a separate rider for expensive
audio gear would be available and having such would
claims like Gary_M’s would have had better outcome…
Insurance Companies’ definition of Loss Prevention: Minimize costs associated with Client’s claims.
Methods: Make recovery as difficult and inconvenient as possible.
Some years ago, we had significant storm damage. I expected an onerous process from my insurer but they were quite the opposite; paying for things that I never expected. (Chubb)
I heard that that is one of the better insurance companies out there. I currently have Auto Owners insurance, and they did a good job handling a recent claim on my vehicle when it was caught in a windstorm that caused extensive damage.
My current house was hit by lightning, resulting in sizzling a lot of audio equipment. I experienced a burglary of all of my audio equipment in my prior house. Both handled wonderfully by the respective carriers.
It appears some of you got one of the good one’s, one of the better homeowners insurance underwriters. I won’t go into the details here, but following a wind and hail storm Farmer’s was in cahoots with the independent adjuster and roofers in our area. Caught them violating state homeowners insurance guidelines. My local agent assisted me with resolving the issue, but the Regional Claims Manager proved problematic until I suggested reporting their practices to the state.
Lucky you. It sounds like I am left wide open, as my insurance won’t cover even a small part of the cost of my gear - they put a limit on house contents… Sounds like the surge protection etc will not work.
Thanks to all for your suggestions. It sounds like the best bet is to pull everything out of their power sockets when I am not home. Unfortunately there is a lot of lightning activity in my area of Perth West Australia.
It does put the damper on keeping my gear powered up all the time.
In addition to the PS Audio gear, I have other expensive equipment, and I am also a bit of an audio hoarder.
I am too embarassed to say how much I have plugged in at any one time, from purpose installed wall sockets, but will confess that pulling multiple devices out every time would not be a small task, especially as the power points are mostly behind the audio racks.
The enforced reality is, I guess, that it all doesn’t need to be connected at the same time, and leaving it so has been a lazy indulgence.
My experience in the States is it is easy to obtain full replacement coverage of audio equipment and the coverage is inexpensive. There are certain things for which one needs designated coverage riders, such as jewelry, but audio is not one of them.
I have certain riders on things not covered under my home owners insurance, but it wasn’t necessary to do so for audio gear, it was automatically covered under the policy.