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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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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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Monsters!

by DeadDandelion on Aug 21, 2020
1 out of 5 stars

After a car accident, I suffered a herniated disc. I was unable to walk, sit, stand, dress, perform any sort of activity of a normal life. I contacted my physiotherapist as I do not have a doctor who will listen. I was told to ask my pharmacist what to do. In order to get to my physio appointments, I had to lay down in the back of my car as I couldn't sit upright at all. I was not at fault for the car accident. I was granted coverage for physio. Thanks to COVID 19 my clinic ended up closing down for 4 months dramatically hindering my recovery. Any compassionate human would take this into consideration but not Economical! I have been repeatedly harassed by a representative demanding my full medical history for the past FOUR YEARS which is not relevant to this case. He continues to harass me and demand sensitive medical information and accuses a "pre-existing condition" for my need for continued care. I will not hand over those files as they are none of their business. My physiotherapist has all the evidence required and should be enough. I would not need continued treatment if I had not been set back 4 months thanks to COVID. Apparently, that doesn't matter. He's looking for any excuse possible to get rid of my claim. I'm being harassed and treated like a criminal.

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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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Summer Of Hell!

by keeper on Sep 24, 2019
1 out of 5 stars

DO NOT TRUST THESE THIEVES! I am a 60 years old male that has one accident non-fault in 1978, perfect driving record. Was with the same broker for 23yrs+. Home, Buss. three vehicles full coverage. Claim free. Four years ago was switched Economical Insurance without my consent. Though a lower rate was offered, I had reservations. Since then the rate has doubled! March returned home discovered large dent on drivers door 2 years old truck . Upset, but not surprised in too days society. Contacted broker. Not to worry full coverage we will take care of it. Contacted 4 days later by Kelly. Was basically interrogated rude condescending attitude for 45min. Insinuated that it was I that had slid sideways into another vehicle and failed to contact police file report informed Kelly that it would be up to the adjuster to determine. Contacted broker informed agent of conversation, was told that we have no control who the adjuster will be. Emailed photos of the damage, statement. Waited for response & waited & waited. Contacted broker 2nd week May. No problem we will take care of it. Call not returned. Contacted Kelly 5 times by email no less than 10 phone messages & to other Economical representatives that just blew me off, between June & Aug. 30. Numerous attempts to resolve this matter was ignored by my trusted family broker, one excuse after another over a three month period! During this time I got a price from two body shops $3300& $3600. What kind of Corporation would offer forgivable first claim? Insult the client to the point of legal action. Not even inspect, asses the damage. Would it not be a good buss. payout a minor claim of $3600 ($500 deduct) and keep the premiums flowing in. Guess not at Economical Insurance. Received renewal on Sept 2 and to insult me more Economical attempted to raise my premium by all most 30 %. I had already contacted another Insurance provider in July and received a substantial $ 1000+ lower rate. I have had the repair done at my own expense. Cancelled home buss. vehicle coverage by Broker, Economical in a total of $4400 annually. Just before deciding to warn others, and my 5-star negative experience with unethical business practices of Economical Insurance. My broker that I considered family friends, contacted me wanting to know if the service I received prompted me to seek other Insurance providers. YES!

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Absolute awful experience

by Anon11 on May 10, 2019
1 out of 5 stars

As far as I am concerned, this company is an absolute scam. My car has been hit almost a month ago at no fault of my own and we have gotten absolutely nowhere. They don’t even have the common decency to answer my calls, emails or even letters. They wrote my $12,000 car off as a “total loss” due to $1,500 worth of damage and have offered me less than half for my car. I have gotten the car appraised by another appraiser as well as multiple quotes from autobody shops and they all have said that the damages do not exceed $1,500 and that in no way is it a write-off. However, their appraiser claims the damages are higher than $5,800. In the beginning, they assured me a rental until my car was fixed (which was originally supposed to be middle of the month) but once they wrote it off two weeks before my rental was due to go back, they insisted that I had one day to return my rental. Despite all of that they even tried to tow my car off of the autobody lot before they even told me that it was wrote off. I so frustrated with this company and have no hope that this whole process will be settled soon based on their behaviour. This company does not care about their client's wellbeing. Insurance is supposed to be there as a “just in case” to assure the client's protection in situations such as accidents. I can’t even fathom the way I have been treated throughout this whole process, especially from the representative in the total loss department.

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Only if you are High Risk

by cmaxner on Mar 19, 2019
2 out of 5 stars

I found that they accommodated me when I was a high-risk driver, but after I was conviction-free for five years, not shortly after I had an accident. Seeing as the accident was between hours I had to call the "after hours" line. I called that morning for a claim and one was started with no issues. Problem was, I didn't have all the information at the time due to the accident being on a highway. I was told that she would send off my information and I would receive a call from an auditor to get the rest of the info. I waited two weeks, because it was xmas time, still no call. I called every week for 10 weeks following an hour on hold, each time. Wasted 10 hours of my life on hold with these folks. I was 15 mins away on this final call before I was actually going to head to the main office and demand someone help me. Finally got a hold them a couple of weeks ago, only to be told that the tow yards usually charge $60 / DAY for storage fees. So to aid my now +$2000 bill with the tow yards, the CSR sells them MY car to pay for it. I then had to pay the Tow bill, which was another $600 because I wasn't covered for weather. Now that I have a new car, and new coverage (for the time being), they are still charging me $250 a month for my OLD car on top of the payments I am making for my NEW car! Sneaky people, with next to none customer service skills. I hope you miss my money

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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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Economical - worst!

by Economic - Buyer Beware on Jul 28, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

Economical - sure they're cheap - but believe me when I say, when you need them the most, they'll simply leave you hanging.

Only when you are faced-off against the insurance company, will you realize how powerless we as consumers actually are - laws written by the insurance industry ... for the insurance industry!

Of all the complaints of home and auto claims, from people I know, about 20 in total, all but one was with Economical.

For one case, a near fatal car crash by an impaired driver.

It took 5 yrs to settle - fighting with their own insurance provider - Economical!

Economical will try to hold out to force the insured into taking a far lesser settlement. Economic duress is just one of the tools they employ - all very legal - naturally! All very sneaky - all very calculated and deliberate!

Horrible experience - they try every angle to wiggle out of liability.
I imagine most of the insurance industry is similar - but the vast majority of complaints I am aware of was with Economical - including family members.

If you have an older vehicle, say more than 5 years - and happen to be in an accident, no fault of your own, Economic provides little regard to anything other than the blue-book price - no matter how good a condition the car was prior. The same vehicle that you could have driven for years to come, with only maintenance costs, will see you forced you into a new/used car payment - in the end be prepared to loss money - again no fault of your own.

The province sold the farm when no-fault laws were passed ... by the insurance industry, for the insurance industry ... on our kind behalf!

Know the fine print and be sure to reference feedback by other consumers. Full credit to this website serving as a consumer forum.

Experiences, comments, and opinions of the author.

Be forewarned - cheap isn't cheap - when it comes to insurance!

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Accident claim worst experience

by Gurpreet Singh on Jul 5, 2017
1 out of 5 stars

Total loss on my car, not my fault. They wouldn't cover for my storage at the body shop it was at, wouldn't pay for my repairs that was done on my vehicle (e.g. new engine & transmission).Wouldn’t pay for my child seats that was in the car. They didn't care about my injuries that I sustained in my accident and was only concerned about cutting costs on their end which ever way they can. Adjusters Ricardo and Shalini (extremely rude) and the whole company was just trying to take advantage of me on my first accident example by asking me "if I'm injured why do I have a rental? "You should return it if you not going to use it. Why does it matter if I have a rental I'm entitled to it under my policy and I can have it parked the whole time at my House or drive all over with it. It’s up to me on what I want to do with it.

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