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Economical Insurance Auto Insurance Reviews

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(229 reviews)
Economical Insurance
1.4 out of 5 stars:
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stressed right out

by Joe. P on Oct 4, 2014
1 out of 5 stars

They caused me more stress than the car accident I was in, and someone died in it. I was 100% not at fault, and yet Economical made me feel guilty about it. My girlfriend and I are college students, just trying to get by.

Their communication was terrible. We phoned on a Saturday and their weekend rep said she could get us a rental for five days. Three days after we get the rental we get a phone call saying we were only supposed to get it for three days and it had to be returned or else it was at my own expense. They also weren't giving us any concrete information on the claim and when we tried calling back for an inquiry, the lady we were dealing with started dodging our calls. So we pressed 0 to ask someone else, and that person was more helpful, but then as I was sitting in my doctors office waiting to get checked for injuries the insurance lady phoned back and told me off, as if I was some kind of jerk who had to be put in his place. She then asked me to stop calling them until they had more info.y broker got through to her and got her to extend the rental period but what a crappy experience.

And then the settlement offer came. 2/3rds the price of what I paid for the vehicle. I tried telling them that I only had it for less than 6 months and that it had some new parts, and she didn't care. I told her that I went to the Canadian black book site and found the same model/year for six different ads and she didn't care. I'm SOL and can barely make rent--not a fun way to start off the school year.

These people would make so much more money if they didn't treat their clients like enemies. Because now I'm taking my business else-where, and they could have hade for years if they were even willing to just give me a fair price

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Punishing Experience

by KMR on Mar 19, 2014
1 out of 5 stars

I was insured by Economical on both home and auto. After accepting them as my insurer they made some adjustments which was noticeably more than the quote. I made some changes and received a torn statement with a boot mark on it! The following year my premiums were increased substantially. I gave up on them and went to Meloche Monnex who was much lower. Never made a claim with them.

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Horrible Claim Experience

by Behzad Qazi on Oct 8, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

Claim #1193XXX

I got in a no fault accident on my side. The car was brand new - I literally bought it 27 days before the accident. I paid $23,500 for the car.
The car was totalled - air bags went off etc. I asked for a cash out so I can buy a new car. Yet I was refused.

Instead of getting a cash out for 23,500 plus tax ( about 26,000). The insurance company repaired the car for about $23,000 plus paid $3000-4000 of rentals etc. Which totalled more than what the car was worth.

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Complete penny pinchers

by eric-the-red on Sep 19, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

This insurance company is by far the worst I had to deal with. The basically steered me to go to a "preferred shop" by claiming that my repair claim wont be guaranteed or that I may not be fully covered and extra prices might be charged to me.

So I went with the shop that they suggested and when I received the car it was so poorly reassembled and they didn't do all the work. They also used a non certified aftermarket part even though I was told verbally that it would all be OE and everything would be fixed to my satisfaction. They played the "You signed the agreement" card to try to wipe their hands clean.

When I complained the insurance company told me I was ungrateful and selfish for complaining. They didn't take my complaint seriously until I told them that I was forced to go there and that if they don't restore my car to pre-accident condition that I would be following suit for both them steering me to a preferred shop and approving non certified parts onto my car. Not long after they agreed. I know its mostly the body shop I went to that should be blamed but I have to blame the insurance company for forcing me to go there and not taking responsibility and pushing the blame over to me.

I have since changed companies and even though most companies are the same the one I am with now is a little better.

Remember to always go to a dealership with their own body shop that only uses OEM parts. NEVER agree to use a preferred shop.

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WORST COMPANY EVER

by Allison on Jul 5, 2016
1 out of 5 stars

Don't ever get involved with this company. They put your rates through the roof and try to charge you way more money than you should be paying! I am paying over $300 less per month with Desjardins than with Economical for the same car in the same address with the same work distance and the same drivers. Economical comes with two hour long holds and unexpectedly high rates which they will refuse to explain to you. I have spoken to managers and still they offer no explanations for any changes in price other than vague statements. I have also been hung up on by brokers they use in KTX. (Whose customer service is horrific as well by the way) NEVER trust this company for your insurance. EVER! Absolute bullshit service. I'm very pissed off at this company.

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Economical stole our car!

by dkg on Feb 27, 2015
1 out of 5 stars

Do not insure your car with this evil company!

Yesterday, my fiance was in a collision, thankfully he was not hurt but the car was wrecked. he was not at fault, and it says so in the police report. Since we put in a claim however Economical has given us 24 hours of hell, and I expect many more days of hell to come.

First, they refused to loan us a vehicle until they can get the police report, so they can prove he was not at fault. We gave them the incident number and the contact information of the police officer who responded to the scene. The incident number says my fiance is not at fault, they refuse to believe that, and they refuse to speak with the officer who responded to the crash. The lady who is in charge of the claim spent more time on the phone lecturing my fiance about how he doesn't have their most expensive insurance plan to compensate for this crash than actually helping. She also insisted we contact the police and get the report from them in order to speed up the claim process. Needless to say the insurance is responsible to collect the police report, so the police would not give it to us and were even horrified that the insurance asked us to collect it.

Next they asked my fiance to go to the impound by Friday (the collision happened on Wednesday) to fill out the proper release paperwork that would allow the insurance company to take the car from the impound lot. We get a call from the impound lot an hour later stating that the Economical has informed them that they would be picking up the car the next morning. They impound lot called us because they thought it was strange, because no paperwork had been signed yet to release the car, which had just came into the lot that day. My fiance said he would be there in the morning to sign said paperwork, remove the licence plates, and collect our belongings.

This morning he goes to the impound lot only to find out Economical had sent a tow to collect the car in the morning before he had gotten there. Somehow they had taken the car without the paperwork filled out and took our licence plates and belongs with them! They essentially have stolen the car because we did not have the paperwork filled out that gave them permission to take the vehicle. Now we are fighting them to get our belongs and licence plates back! The people we have spoken to on the phone have been nothing but rude and awful to us, essentially saying it's our fault they took the car without our consent.

On top of that the lady in charge of the claim won't answer our phone calls. I am outraged! Do not get insurance with this company and save yourself the stress and horror we are going through now.

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Harassment and abusive

by Bekah on Sep 14, 2020
1 out of 5 stars

After being injured in a car accident a claim was filed for my physiotherapy treatment. I suffered extreme whiplash and a herniated disc which required me to need help with every single aspect of living. I lost 4 months of treatment due to the pandemic closure. Things were going fine with the company until we got close to the end of my benefits. I have not recovered from my injuries due to the pandemic closure and require more time. My adjuster decided to cut me off early. He refused my physios treatment plan. He claimed to have spoken with my provider which my physiotherapist can confirm is a lie. He claimed that my treatment plan would be approved. Another lie. He continued to send harassing and threatening emails stating "let me tell you upfront that this is not the end of the story". This felt like an absolute do what I say threat. He demanded I attend a medical exam with a doctor of his choosing. I was advised by my physiotherapist not to do this as it will not be beneficial to my cause. I am also immune-compromised and have no desire to enter a medical facility during a pandemic. It is not safe for me. I requested that he drop this and leave me alone. I do not need the added stress and anxiety. Today my fiancé received a message from Direct IME, a medical examiner in Markham demanding that I return the call. The adjuster does not have permission whatsoever to give out my fiancé's details to anyone. He was told by multiple individuals to back off and leave me alone but he went ahead with this anyway. This is now just pure harassment on his part. He clearly enjoys making other people stressed and miserable. The audacity of this man is just appalling. Extremely unprofessional and incredibly abusive.

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The Worst

by Uneconomical on Dec 2, 2019
1 out of 5 stars

Nobody likes insurance companies, but Economical is in a class of their own. We had a single-car accident that they refused to pay out or even cover car rental ($45,000 car value). You have to book a phone call a few days in advance via email. When you finally get to speak to a representative, they are evasive, manipulative and dishonest. They had us running around picking up the police report for them and filling out excessive and redundant paperwork, anything to discourage the claim from moving forward. They even threatened that our claim would "go on the back burner" if we didn't comply with their demands quickly enough. They raised our rates by $1000 per year and messed up the details on the paperwork for our policy. Economical is a predatory insurance company that illustrates why car insurance should be a publicly held institution. You pay in, but you cannot collect.

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My experience with Economical

by Jimmypop on Sep 19, 2017
3 out of 5 stars

I had a small bump in the driveway of my Father's house. My Father was backing up and bumped the front of my vehicle with the back of his, causing the bumper to be damaged, the grill to be pushed in, the hood not closing properly nor latching properly. I called to make a claim and instead of having an adjuster come to look at the damage they sent me down to Fix Auto in Saint John, NB, I showed the damage to the guy at Fix Auto who immediately started telling me that there was no way that damage was caused by the accident, even though this guy knew nothing of the accident and didn't even know the make or model of the vehicle that hit me. Needless to say, i told him exactly what needed to be fixed, the bumper and grill needed to be painted and replaced if needed the hood latched i wanted working properly and i wanted my hood to close without vibrating like crazy. I get the truck back in a day or two, the hood still vibrates because they didn’t replace the hydraulic hood latches, the paint is terrible, very sloppy and overspray all over my black trim pieces. Also the hood still doesn't latch quite right. Meanwhile i am having to argue back and forth with the adjuster (Fred B.) who still hasn’t gotten off his behind and come to take a look at my vehicle. They keep telling me that my father's vehicle could not have caused the damage to my vehicle. Basically i am being blamed for insurance fraud. I end up having to call the consumer advocate and deal through them. The reason they didn't want to cover the cost of more repairs is because they think the damage doesn't match up, but the reason they think that is because they don’t know that there is a spare tire on the back of my Father’s truck which pushed the grill in on my truck, something they would have known if they actually came out and took a look at the damage instead of relying on a third party who knew nothing of the accident. I ended up taking the truck to fix auto in Moncton to get the repairs fixed again, i figured if fux auto in Saint John did that sloppy of a pint job and argued that it was fine then i didn't want them near my truck again. I take the truck to Moncton thinking they are going to repaint the bumper considering it has spots in the paint and it is very messy around the lines. This happened because they didn't even take the part off the truck to paint them, this was obvious from all of the over spray on my trim pieces. After getting the truck back the second time i see that they haven't repainted but just blew some of the dust pit around the lines and cleaned it up a little bit. After going back to Fred B. and telling him i still was not happy he turns around and tells me that the only reason they fixed the second time was to make me happy, but they still didn't believe the damage was caused from the accident and the matter was considered closed. I mailed him and let him know that the matter was indeed not considered closed and they would be paying for the cost of repainting the bumper. The latc and hydraulic hood latches did get fixed properly when i had it in the second time but the paint was still unacceptable. I even took the truck to another collision place in Saint John and asked them to look over the repairs done to my truck and let me know if i was just being a stickler about the repairs or if i was in the right for not accepting the truck the way it was. The guy definitely agreed with me, so did the head guy from Fix Auto who ended up coming to my house to have a look. All he could say was that the guy at the Saint John fix auto must have been having a bad day and that s why they did a terrible paint job on my truck. In the end i ended up getting a cheque sent to me for a little over $200, which is supposed to cover having my grill repainted. Economical was fine to deal with as far as getting a rental car right away and all that, it was Fred B., the adjuster, who is the problem. Needless to say, i was made to feel like a criminal trying to scam my insurance company and all i asked for was to have my truck put back in the same condition it was before the accident. Be warned if you use these guys, it's not worth the headaches. It doesn't feel very good when you know your insurance company thinks you are trying to rip them off and you haven't done a single thing wrong.

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Horrible service

by OtownCrankyGal on Aug 14, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

Had an accident. Had some injuries and they offered me physio and massage, but never followed through, and never sent me the forms. On the vehicle side of things they were of no help, wouldn't call the body shop back or the tow truck company or me. I have been with this company for almost 20 years and my family has been with them for over 40. They used to be ok, but now the company runs things more like scam artists.

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