Worst insurance company ever!
by EdmondTRT on May 11, 2019
1 out of 5 stars
Their collision centre and insurance are in bed together. We were sent to Car Star. They estimated repairs of $9,445.00 plus. Took it to Campbell's Auto Collision Centre who said there were things that reported by Car Star...nothing wrong. Got a quote for $6200. approx. Called Doug Ford's office to change insurance laws. Under your new policy, they have it seems all the rights. They bend the rules to suit themselves. They have the right to write off your car even though it's not a write-off. The write off adjuster is rude and very demanding. Spoke to many professionals and car owners who know of companies "scams". Not all companies and collision centres are the same. You can take it to your own centre for an estimate. There are good insurance companies and collision centres and there are bad ones. These companies give honest companies a bad name.
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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I have been waiting almost a year for my truck to be returned to me in pre-accident condition. Economical's preferred shop returned my truck to me with a repair that was incomplete and then proceeded to argue with me when I voiced my concerns. After months of repeatedly ignored emails from me, they finally agreed to have a reputable repair shop inspect my truck. Now that their appraiser has seen it for the 3rd time, and been made aware of discrepancies in the original repair, Economical has not responded in writing as required.
The accident was almost a year ago. Their Ombudsperson has not assisted. Their claims manager has regularly ignored written requests from myself and my broker, the president has not responded at all.
Both FSCO and GIO have been aware of this claim since last year and have advised me of my rights, which I have reminded Economical of several times.
Economical has taken what should have been a straight forward, simple claim and turned it into an added source of stress and trauma.
Please think it over, and choose a different provider, this is a great product until you need it. They really tried to screw us but I think we avoided the worst of it by continuing to push back. It does take its toll on you. This is an abbreviation of events we experienced, sorry for the long story, We’ve been with this company for two years with home and auto. The price was better than anybody as a result of an employee discount provided to the Airline that I work for. My wife was hit by a car while crossing an intersection. She was not at fault. Her car was drivable if you crawled in from the passenger side of the vehicle. Not knowing what to do with the damaged car she returned home after the police report was completed and called the insurance to begin the claim process. A message was left, and a day and a half later no reply so we called our broker and shortly after a claims advisor returned the call. We have vehicle loss of use insurance but were told a rental would be given until our car was under repair. I was told to go get some estimates. Got 4 then was told the estimates were no good because the shops charge more than $77 an hr. Still no rental car, and I feel like we’re being run around. After a lengthy argument about the purpose of loss of use coverage and insurance itself, they agreed to provide a rental car...almost a week after the accident. In exchange, we must leave the car at a repair facility. A repair shop was chosen and the car was left there in order to get the rental. Then, Economical didn’t like the estimated cost of repair and sent there own field adjuster to write up an estimate. This took a week and a half and there was a difference in costs due to the shop rate and what comical will pay. Economical wanted us to pay $3200.00 to cover the difference in charges. Unbelievable! So, remember that we did get a rental, they place a time limit on it, and we are now into the 3 weeks of 4 weeks allowed. The car hasn’t even begun to get fixed. As a last resort, I asked for the claims advisor for the at-fault party (another Insurance) and picked up the phone, explained the problem to her, I said there is a shortcoming of about $3200 from what economical will pay due to labour charges. She put me on hold and came back and said: “we’ll cover that go ahead with the repair”. That easy! The car begins to be repaired, parts ordered, etc. Now over a month since the accident. Rental car company calls and says, they need the payment for the rental car or return it, Economical only pays $ 900 worth of the rental. Again I call another insurance company advisor and ask to have that covered by them... No problem! Why is it I’m the one that had to do all these steps. I don’t do insurance for a living, that's why I bought insurance! You’d think that that economical would take care of the details like these. Nope! I did call them multiple times and never, never reached a live agent on the first try, always leave a message and we’ll call you back! Almost 2 months since the accident the car is fixed and we are back to driving our car. I now have an uneasy feeling about our current situation because we are still covered by this company and can’t switch companies until it expires without incurring a large penalty for cancelling in the middle of the policy year. Bottom line “You get what you pay for!”
I got into a not at fault accident with my company pick up truck, a young kid pulled out infront of me from a side road and I wasnt able to stop in time. I have a small snow plowing and landscaping business. Because it wasn;t my fault they said I would not need to pay any deductible and that everything is covered. They quickly set everything up with my local body shop which was one of their company shops too. The shop gave me a rental but i realised that the rental truck that was provided didn't have a trailer hitch and I couldnt use it for work. I called the adjuster back and explained I need a truck with a hitch for my trailer, otherwise i couldn't pull my trailer with my tools and equipment. The adjuster knew his stuff and said he would arrange a half ton pick up truck just like mine, with a hitch and a bed liner. The adjuster was really friendly and understood that I needed a truck to keep my small business running. The rental company Enterprise, called me within the hour and got me into exactly into the rental I needed, After about two weeks the bodyshop called and told me my truck was ready. I pick up my truck and everything was repaired beautifully. I was able to continue on with my business and life without a hitch. I've been with Economical for 16 years and the one time I got into an accident they really took care of everything and then some. I could't have asked for anything more.
My car was parked and driver went to get a parking permit while the SUV in front backed into me. It was an obvious who's at fault, no one's even at the driver seat. Reported the accident on weekend and finally got a call back asking for details on Monday. They asked me to bring the car to one of their preferred shop to have it assessed. Took the car in on Thursday, the accident details haven't even been uploaded. I tried to explain what happened. The guy took some pictures, didn't even pop the hood and that's it. Later on, I brought into dealership and other shop for a second look. Because the car hit me was a SUV, the mounting for the light cracked inside. I called Economical about it, they didn't even listen to me and cut me off. Immediately the next day, i decided to fix the car elsewhere. Called the assessment centre and requested an assessment report. The insurance company said it should be uploaded after 48 hours. I dropped off my car and got a rental. After 4 days, the shop called me and told me that they have not yet receive anything. I called in again to find out what happened. For the very first time, that is two full weeks after the accident occured, my adjuster called me. She asked me if I have brought my car in for assessment, which I have already done more than a week ago. I have called in 4 times trying to speak to her but she doesn't have a voicemail for me to leave a message so I was served with other representatives. I'm back to start. Seems like all the calls I've made with other representatives were just useless. She's the decision maker. No notes have been put on and no action was taken to contact the other party. The rental was from my deductible because they need to assess who's at fault. I ended up have to pay for the rental and get my car back from my shop which no work has been performed.
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.
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In December 2018, I had a trip to Montreal with my friends. On the way back, an 82-year old man changed his lane without checking the blind point and hit my car. We reported this case to the Montreal Police. And contacted Economical Insurance. This company tried everything not to solve this problem, and simply pay money to the old man, put all the responsibility on me. Due to this case, I repaired my car by myself and my insurance rate went high. February 2019, I cancelled the policy with them. Now is May 2019, they had $390 payment on my credit card. I was so shocked, if I didn't check my credit card transactions, I won't find out it. I tried to contact them, the thing is that they won't take your call forever. Friends, simply suggestion, just don't be a customer of them. They are a horrible company!