Economical Insurance Auto Insurance Reviews

We insured our Nissan Xterra Off-road with economical after a big blowout with AMA (they cancelled our insurance (& didn't notify us) because they tried to take whole annual premium out at once, instead of monthly payments. Obviously it was NSF.)
About 4-5 months after signing with Economical, my husband had his first accident (ever) when he had black ice, slid off the road and hit a tree.... On December 22 at 10pm. Economical (and everyone else) was closed for the holidays so we filed police report and waited until they reopened to file a claim. They were polite to deal with and were understanding of the situation. They took time to explain the process to us and make sure we were comfortable as we had never had to do an insurance claim before and really had no clue what are were doing. They recommended we deal with one of thier preferred garages (Boyds Autobody) for the repairs so we agreed and the vehicle was picked up by a flatbed in January when the shop opened be the adjustor gave his numbers.
From that point on, we lived a nightmare. Anything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The shop had trouble finding parts, then the new hood they ordered was cracked, they couldn't find the special tools they needed, the paint shop was overbooked, they found extra damage to the vehicle frame....

Eventually it has been over 2 months and we still didn't have our vehicle back. The rental cars through insurance had run out and the repair shop "doesn't do loaner cars anymore" so we're were stuck borrowing a family members car. We were also supposed to be getting weekly updates from the shop, and tha just want happening so we would pop in every once in a while to get an update (for the first 1.5 months, the vehicle didn't move. Husband marked the tire with chalk because he didn't believe their BS).

Finally got our SUV back after 2 months after a pop in visit & they said they "forgot to call to say it was ready". We got the keys, got in, started it & looked up to see them lock the door & turn the lights off. We then spent 2 days using a vehicle with no heat in -30*C weather waiting for the shop to open on Monday. They told us they forgot to reconnect something with the heater so that was fixed but it still was running way to high - 1000rpm at idle....
Apparently that was due to the engine being cold....

We were extremely leery about it so about a week later, husband took the vehicle to our Nissan dealership to have their repair guys give it a boo. Turns out they put a n improperly sized fan belt on....
Husband called me from dealership and said they were refusing to let him drive it off the lot, I called insurance claim person (side note, during this whole thing, were actually got swapped out to 3 different claims people, but everyone left really good notes so it wasn't a problem) and asked what to do, they said call Boyd's and listen to those instruction; Boyd's said dealership were idiots and to drive out over, even agreeing to all liability of anything happened on route.

On route to Boyd's, the belt blew on the highway, causing a loss in all power steering and braking. The belt ripped off the fan, smashed the radiator and generally undid everything they had just fixed. By sheer luck , husband drifted it into a roadside turn out were I had a very loud, vey heated conversation with Boyd's and they sent a flatbed. Next call was to insurance claims person who immediately apologized and said she was escalating it internally.
The next day, I got a call from the Western Canada VP or Economical Insurance who apologized profusely & essentially asked what we're wanted to do. We weren't comfortable with Boyd's touching the vehicle again so he arranged to have it sent to our dealership for the repairs, a complete review of all of Boyd's work and said that they would be pursuing Boyd's for reimbursement of the cost of this, and Boyd's would be providing us with a rental vehicle until the dealership finished the work.
He also asked for my permission to have a rep from Boyd's get in touch to get details directly from me, which I agreed to. The next day, I spent about 2 hours in a conference call with the Western Canada VP of Economical and the VP of Boyd's Autobody's Canadian branch.
When we picked up our vehicle from the dealership, we found out that they don't actually deal with insurance companies, but Economical had explained the situation and had a money write sent over that morning to pay them before we picked it up.
I was later informed that the manager at the repair shop had been fired over the mess and Boyd's was on Economical's s**tlist as a result.

Couldn't believe how hard the insurance company fought for us, especially only after a couple of months on the policy.
Ooh, and did I mention when it came time to renew the policy the next year, out premiums actually went DOWN!

We have since added a second vehicle to the policy and have our house insurance with them as well.