The Personal Insurance Auto Insurance Reviews

I am adding my observations of The Personal Insurance company for benefits to others. My vehicle was hit early morning and Police woke up us. The vehicle was hit from the back left side and it hit the back of a vehicle parked in front of it. My vehicle bounced back and its front right wheel was on the curb. The impact was very severe. The insurance company took the vehicle and told me that they will get the vehicle repaired. They provided me with a rental vehicle. They told that the vehicle will be fixed within three weeks. It took two months to get the repair done. The cost of repair was more than I bought the vehicle. They handed over the vehicle and after driving within shop parking lot we noticed that the front LCD panel was dark and back camera was not showing up. Asked manager about this. He told he did not touch it. He told he got a check from the dealer and we went there. They found wiring is damaged and that burnt the camera. After that we noticed the right side wheel was making noise, Parking Assistance light is flickering, right passenger door malfunctioning, front side bodywork was poor and some sections were left loose. We started complaining through email and leaving telephone messages for the claim agent but he did not reply until after 19days when they arranged the third party for inspection. They fixed some and the insurance representatives pretended these are wear&tear. My vehicle was fine, nothing was wrong before the accident. Now I have spent around $2000. That is white elephant now for me. I want to let you know never get repairs through insurance dealer. I asked dealer why you handed over safety risk vehicle to me and why you ignored these obvious signs you did observe which we are showing you. He says your insurance did not show the actual picture of this vehicle, so he did not check the complete vehicle. Insurance just told them to check apparent damage and hand over the vehicle. The insurance instead of protecting your rights just drains the money for others.

I was hit by a person who was drunk, unlicensed and left the scene of the accident, this person was insured was The Personal. They gave me a terrible unfair settlement for my vehicle that was deemed a total loss. They refused to give me the rental car I was entitled too, they never emailed me the documents they were supposed too, I had to continually call them and fight with them. The customer service was absolutely horrible. This is an awful company and I hope they go under.

They Sneak Back In Extra Charges!

We have our home and auto with them in Alberta, sadly they are all pond scum but the personal we have dealt with them for the past 9 years.

Every year we do a policy review and we keep removing the glass coverage as it's cheaper to buy a windshield in Alberta every year than to do a claim and have your premiums increase. So....We get a $50/person reduction.
Then the very next year, we get a price increase and guess what, they have added back the glass and another fee increase!

It's unfortunate that ALL private insurance in Canada does these low ball tactics and if you are not paying attention you will see a price increase and they will never tell you why.

What a great business model yes, raise the price, don't advise that it's happening and when you're called out on it, deny, deny, deny!

I spoke to a customer service manager named Charlie, he could not tell me the exact reason why my policy increase by 444.00, even the numbers he provided did not make any sense. He said, "no one can give you an exact explanation..", there are so many factors that go into deciding a policy. No staff member could tell me or make sense of why my policy increased!

It is frustrating that I have to go somewhere else to get an affordable and a good policy, there is no loyalty. I had to reduce my policy coverage to keep my premiums affordable. Do no deal with this company, or any company that refuses to give you a break down of your policy and the differences in premiums year over year.

I had a MVA in July 2016; now 8 months later, I am still getting the roundabout and no answers except that they're still waiting for a police report. They told me processes change with the Police (they haven't, I work for the same city!!), then I was told that the July request for the report was done with another department due to "sensitivity", and was now just told that their payment for the police report requested in January wasn't received by the police and had to resend a payment at the beginning of February! I am making car payments for two vehicles but, because my car was a write off, I only have 1! Had to purchase a new vehicle to get to work at the end of September! This is an extremely unacceptable insurance company and WILL NOT be continuing with them. I have let union members know what's been happening and they have started cancelling as well.

I wish I could give less than no stars for this company. I will share my experience with them over the past number of years. If you don't already know and they do not tell you. They treat their insurance like a cell phone contract. If you wish to cancel the policy you will pay a penalty to have no insurance with them. These penalties will add up. When you talk to them do not let them get away with saying one fourteen. Make sure you get them to say the correct dollar value which means one fourteen is acually not $1.14 but $114.00. They call themselves a national insurance company but base their payouts on Ontario prices. So if you have to hire someone to cut up a fallen tree in your yard get them to give you a breakdown of cost they will cover. Here in Alberta they were only going to pay 15 dollars a hour to do this labour. Tim Hortons was paying 20 per hour to serve coffee. So get this clear before you do anything. I eventually decided to pay out of pocket. Which goes against the reasoning for having insurance. In conclusion the best thing I ever did was getting out of this company and staying out. Be aware that there is no peace of mind with the personal only ways to get more money out of you. Honestly going to a insurance broker was the best thing I ever did. I was paying 573 monthly to the personal and went to a broker and got a better rate at 318 per month and better coverage and better discounts on everything I own. Ps the personal will only cover 10k for flood damage due to backed up sewer. The company to clean up your basement charges 23k for this service so once again based upon prices that are not necessarily in your region of the country. In all honesty if I can say two words NEVER AGAIN.

I had to restart my (expensive) studies and decided to cancel my insurance for 6 months. 2 weeks after the amount was charged directly to my account (about $1300), they sent me a cheque of $478, no explanation. Where has the rest of the money gone???? A bunch of yeaaah but we keep money for this and that, and that... , they won't give it back. If there was a no start possible, that's what I would have gone for.

I am looking for people to file a collective claim because this is clearly a scam. You can contact me at camille.rougeot@gmail.com

This is ridiculous. I got insured with them 6 months ago. My car got stolen, I called for my claim - it took forever for them to call me back always asking for more time to get back to me. Stating that they were always missing some file to finalize the procedure. At one point they told me to go ahead and buy my car because I knew approx. what I was getting so I did so and then they said they would not pay my claim and that they would cancel my policy and refund my money instead ... What kind of company is this? I will not rest until I get my money. I will take them to the media. This is robbing people and I will not be another their victim... I would like to get everyone together to fight them for our right to our money.

Don't ever get your insurance with them. They will rip you off as much as they can. I changed my address and they charged me 100$ monthly, while another insurance company would charge me exactly 100$ less. Then if you try to cancel with them, they will charge you 500$, in other words, you'll be stuck with them and they will laugh at you. They are the legal robbers.

I was in an accident on September 8th, t-boned by another car that was accelerating through an intersection. This was my first major accident (obviously not at fault), so I was freaked out and had no idea what I was to do in this situation. The other driver was almost a century old, and was no help at all.

I had a relative call the start the claim for me, because I was taken to the hospital for routine checks. Luckily I had no injuries aside from minor seatbelt injuries. My relative was able to get me a car rental, as my car was considered unsafe to drive. Probably the only really good thing about this ongoing experience.

The first time I had spoken with the company was with an agent the evening of this accident who just needed a statement from me, so I gave the statement and was told I would be contacted within the next 24 hours from an adjuster. The adjuster didn't call for nearly three days. And this is just the beginning. This company is awful to try and get a hold of, no one here seems to understand the concept of time and is incredibly rude and inconsiderate to the people who are technically paying their bills.

Every single time I spoke with my adjuster on the phone, she used a condescending tone, implying that I was too young to handle something like this. She told me that she needed a police report to understand who was at fault, despite the fact that it is clear that it was not my fault. She told me that it would take her weeks to get a police report if she requested it, and sometimes could cost the company a lot of money. So she asked me if I could get the report, however told me that some districts in Ontario charge over $500 for a police report. As she put me on hold to "confirm" that Durham Region was one of these districts that charged this outrageous amount for a police report, I googled it. What came up? Nothing shy of $65 for a full police report, $35 for a shortened and free for the drivers of an accident. When she came back on the phone, she said that she confirmed it was $500 for Durham Region. I just scoffed, and told her no, I can get it for free but I have a very busy schedule and it would need to wait. She was over-enthusiastic about it, so much to the point that it felt ingenuine for me to do this favour for her.

About a week later, I received a call from the collision centre/auto body shop that had my car telling me that the car was a total write off. It was fixable, however it would cost nearly $8,500. The internal computer of the car was damaged and would need to be replaced. He also told me that it was odd that the airbags didn't go off and it was quite obvious that the car had some issues. He advised me to not take anything less than $9000 (high mileage on the car) for a settlement. So, I patiently waited.. and waited.. and waited.. A week later, my adjuster called me back to tell me exactly what the shop had told me on the phone, and offered a settlement which was above what he suggested so together, with the other owner of the car, we took it.

The adjuster told us that we needed to return the rental car by September 27 and take everything out of our old car so that it could be moved. Now, I commute to Toronto from Oshawa, and it's not easy to get there without a car. The other owner of the car went on vacation, and can't have the settlement released until she comes back because the decision to buy a new car is going to be a joint effort. In addition to this, for me to go down to the body shop which already had limited hours was really unrealistic. The adjuster's fake sympathy came back, explaining that she would try to extend the rental, but of course had to remind me that I've had the car since the 8th. My only reply was that it took her so long to get back to me, and that we could have sorted this all out a lot sooner. She didn't tell me that she couldn't extend the rental until the day before it was due back (a week after the call I made asking for an extension). I asked a relative to empty the car for me, as one of the owners was on vacation and I was in between work and school in Toronto everyday. I found out that the car was not emptied as per my request, and received a very angry voicemail from my adjuster who just kept telling me that it should have been done. The call was borderline unprofessional, as I could sense every single urge of the adjuster's discontent with me.

As all of this is going on, I developed whiplash - as it is normal in the circumstance of the accident. My doctor recommended physio, so I booked an appointment and told my adjuster (who again, took a week to get back to me about it). She told me she opened a claim (On September 20th), and said another adjuster from a different department would be in contact with me. She said she couldn't offer me any details, but that this adjuster would be in contact with me soon. It is now September 30th and I have yet to hear back from the adjuster. It's been nearly a month since the accident, and the fact that I can't even get simple coverage for a follow up appointment is outrageous.

The other issue I have - aside from the already terrible communication - is the type of communication. This company seems to love phone calls (perhaps less to trace? I don't know, but it's definitely weird). I have told my adjuster numerous times that I can only be reached by email, yet she still calls and leaves voicemails and then ignores my emails.

Obviously this is still an ongoing dispute, however my advice to anyone that is considering choosing this company don't waste your time. If this accident was any worse, I don't know what I would have done. You never know what's going to happen in an accident, and you're better off with a company that you can trust to do their due diligence.