American Family Insurance Sucks

[Husky]

I have 3 cars, two bikes and my house with American Family Insurance. No claims on anything for past 9 yrs. Called agent for some wind damage on roof and he did everything to try and talk me out of filing the claim instead of assisting me in doing so. Just turned in the roof claim for wind damage. The Insurance adjuster came, 1 hour late and spent less then 5 minutes looking at the roof and now being told its denied as I never signed some special endorsement? I of course requested this "endorsment" and thus far no copy but the battle goes on. I could only imagine if I had ever turned in a bike claim or car claim. While they may have cheap rates dont be fooled and get them as they will not be there when you need them. Their service sucks, they dont return calls, I guess you get what you pay for.

[UglyDogRacing]

I dropped American Family over 10 years ago. Will never go back with them.
State Farm just approved my claim about 2 hours ago. They are buying me an entire roof.

[rybo]

I too have had nothing but GREAT experience with State Farm. They sent a partial settlement check out for my stolen race equipment yesterday - less than 1 month after it was stolen.

When the tornado hit Windsor a couple years back the winds in Milliken were pretty feirce and took most of the shingles off of my roof. State Farm had an adjuster at my property in less than 24 hours and a check issued for repairs in less than 3 days.

I highly recommend them and can send you to my agent if you want to make the switch.

Scott

[MetaLord 9]

Woof, that sucks man!

I've got USAA on the house & cars, Progressive on the bikes (USAA won't cover bikes in CO) and I've got nothing but good things to say about both of 'em.

I added the third bike (second Hurricane) to the policy and it actually lowered my monthly premium with Progressive. They've got some honest folks too. I def recommend for bike ins.

[Sean]

I had a good friend who had a bunch of water damage done from bad pipes. He eventually got American Family to pay, but it was a HUGE uphill battle. Much more of a headache than it should have been. The agent did the same thing as your guy, denied everything right away.

[Husky]

Thanks for all the feed back guys. The more I talk to people the more I hear of similar experiences and will most likely switch to one of the insurance providers you guys have. I am not yet willing to give up on this as I am determained to pursue American Family to do whats right and than switch.

[aerofaze]

State Farm gave me what I needed for a new roof, including new gutters, and a complete external paint job of my entire house, window screens, deck, and mailbox. All this resulted from hail damage last 4th of July. Adjuster spent about 1.5 hours examining the house and answering my questions on his write-up.

No issues working with them throughout the process whenever I called with questions (and that was several occasions).

So, a +1 to State Farm if you decide to switch.

[Husky]

I have heard nothing but good stuff about State Farm, I think its gonna be a easy decision who to go with as soon as I get this mess sorted out with Am-Fam.

[salsashark]

Been with state farm for 20 years. The own me (car, bike, homeowners, rental property, life)

The only gripe I have is they're always trying to sell me something like investments and loans. If that's the worst I get, I guess I don't have much to complain about.

[Jtigger]

We have the cars and house with American National and have for years. We LOVE them and have always had great service and no one could touch our auto rates when I shopped around 2 yrs ago and we get 25% of our premiums back for every 3 year period we are claim free. So this year I get 3% of my premiums paid in 2009 back since we haven't had any claims.

Another thing to think about - if involved in an accident where you need to sue the other party to recover damages (which is more often now that you don't have to carry PIP in CO) you cannot sue your own Ins. company so any costs your health insurance denies due to it being related to an accident you are at risk of not being able to recover as easily via a legal settlement. My coworker was also not paid any pain and suffering as a State Farm customer who was hit by another State Farm customer because there is no need to pay it out since there is no risk of being sued. This is of course a risk of being with any large agency if hit by someone with the same insurance just seems State Farm is definitely popular in CO!

[edj]

I am not a fan of Amfam either after they tried to cancel my car insurance for making a minor claim on a motorcycle accident. Got it sorted but left a bad taste in my mouth. I think all insurers are a bunch of weasels... good luck finding one that works for you.

[grim]

Ive been with American Fam since 2001 and have had no issues whatsoever Even when i was in the navy stationed in VA i kept the same agent i always had in CO and when i had to make a claim on my cavalier because it was broken into when i was deployed they took care of me from out of state ( even though they werent supposed to) and every time i had to have my jeep towed (which was a lot) they always reimbursed my money within 48 hours. I think it just depends on your agent! But I say go with whats best for you!

[Dr. Joe Siphek]

I have been w/ SF for 10 years now, have had 2 bikes stolend and last fall they also replace my entire roof, including Gutters/Downspouts and my Chimney, and somehow we got $$$ back...shhh...don't tell anyone.

[bornwildnfree]

I have Dairyland Insurance for my bikes. They understand motorcycles and coverage and I was able to get a great deal with lots of coverage for $100 cheaper than Farmers. My insurance agent said they are the best motorcycle insurance out there.

[modette99]

^ Dairyland is nice, I talked to the President who called me...when the FZ1 came out....only company to call me back to get it classified the same as the Bandit 1200 vs an R1. President was caring and concerned they had it classified wrong (thus losing customers), he even called me a few weeks later to say they did indeed find with research that it was like the Bandit 1200 so they would be putting it into the lower category. So yeah good people.

But for me AAA had the best Home Owners rates out here in CO. State Farm was $300-$400 more. *shrug* Dairyland and a lot of others I checked with wanted way too much.

We have had a claim with AAA, wind damage although I think they wrote it up as hail damage *shrug* Kid would not go over to that part of the house in his baggy pants to look and see the whole section of missing shingles (I had to inform AAA about that as I was worried they deny the claim)...but either way it was covered. AAA sent me a check in a week, and I deposited it and told the roofing company it was less then their quote, he said no problem and I made up a figure and he said they do it for that...so we paid basically no deductible. At the time I did the math, we paid $50 I think for a whole new roof. Probably could of claimed the deck too as we did have hail...but I don't really care that much if a piece of wood has some dents in it...they sand out when you go to repaint *shrug*.

My parents had State Farm and had to claim it for a broken washer hose...they paid up, paid for my labor of buying a shop vac and cleaning the basement...plus spray bleach on mold...they were very appreciative so much so they classified a lot of my parents items as art. Which means name a price and we will pay...my parents being honest they did not take advantage of that gesture and thus Insurance worked to have things done how my parents wanted them done. meaning you don't need to put in the hardwood floor through the living room pathway just put in carpet and instead drywall the basement ceiling vs drop down...they said OKAY.

[Husky]

Well after 3 months of fighting a up hill battle with American family insurance we finally won and are getting a new roof. Just a word to the wise, do not ever get insurance from American Familey, they are horrible and treat their customers like crap. Even the Jefferson County Roof Inspector that came out said he had a similar bad experience with American Family.

[Clovis]

Since everyone else is chiming in, I will too.

We've had Allstate for the last 8 years and State Farm for years before that.

10 years ago I had a car break in where my stereo was stolen (surprise!). State Farm covered everything at the full replacement cost which was cool since I bought everything off eBay for about half the cost of retail (at the time eBay and online buying were just catching on). Originally they told me to create an inventory of everything that was stolen from the car, including my book of 200ish CDs (before iPods - you remember having a book of hundreds of CDs right?)

So I put together the list and then that part was denied on a technicality. I still came out about even but it kind of left a bad taste.

8 years ago we bought a house and got Allstate for the home owners. After waiting 2 years for a ticket to fall off so we could get their best driver bracket we moved our auto over. Ended up being about half the cost of state farm at the time.


Allstate has been great from the service side. Every time I've called in to my agent I've never had to give my policy number, just "Hi, this is _____ and I have a question about..." -- of course this is probably thanks to their software and caller ID automatically pulling up my account but still it feels like they know me.

We've had a few auto claims (hail damage, suspension damage, R1 stolen) and they've always been quick and hassle free. Plus, and this is a big one: Allstate does not increase your premiums or add a surcharge for traffic tickets or small claims resulting in under $1,000 pay out.

That's a pretty big plus with this crowd. Also, I'm not sure if this was just for the 2007 year but they classified my 2007 R1 as a standard motorcycle so the premium was 1/4 of what a 07 gixxer 1000 would have been.

My agent was surprised at the time so I repeated the VINs - he asked "Aren't the R1 and Gixxer 1000 kind of the same bike?"

[Ezzzzy1]

For what its worth... USAA is the best

[Ricky]

I've never been with any other insurance other than State Farm. My record with them is good, so they don't even look at my driving record.

However, one time I got into an accident that was the other guy's fault. Totaled my truck, and likely this guy's car. his insurance was State Farm, and at one point I nearly had to hire an attorney because they told me I'd have to pay the fees for a rental car for being under 21. They immediately responded and had me switch rental cars. Other than that, never an issue, and I've made several other claims.