The Personal Insurance Auto Insurance Reviews

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.

I was returning a leased car after 3 years on July 25th 2016. On July 10th I emailed The Personal to let them know. They replied telling me I had to phone them with this information!!! I phoned them and was asked what I would be replacing the vehicle with. I said I didn't know yet. That was an issue. The girl told me that once they cancelled the policy all of my good driving record would be eliminated and when I wanted a policy again (even in a week or two) I would have to be insured as a new driver, losing my excellent driving record of no accidents and no tickets in over a million km. I suggested therefore they could stick there Insurance company where the sun doesn't shine. A week later I received a call from the same agent who told me they had reviewed my policy and would like to offer insurance on my replacement vehicle after all, with my good driving benefits in place. I told her I had looked at a vehicle and would advise in a week or so when I had decided to purchase. On July 19 I purchased a minivan in London and arranged to have it certified etc. and pick it up in London when I returned my Smart Car and on the 20th I called The Personal and let them have some details of my change. On the 25th after dropping off the Smart Car I picked up the minivan and called the agent with the specifics. By email I received confirmation of insurance and subsequently a policy in the mail. A month later I received another policy from The Personal for the Smart Car which I no longer had, together with a list of the payments they planned to charge my bank for this policy.
By the way, don't waste your time putting one of those Ajusto devices in your car to save on insurance. They don't work. My Smart car was garaged each winter and when I checked on line it was driving erratically all over Ontario, then when I was advised I had saved 15 or 20% for my safe driving, there were zero savings. When I asked where the savings were I was told they were absorbed into the total price and in fact every year with these 15 or 20% savings my insurance went up by 15 or 20%. Just a bunch of swindlers encouraged by our Ontario Government to cheat the taxpayers. Sadly I have absolutely nothing to say "good" about The Personal.

Not worth it to go through to this company even cheap payment but no peace of mind if you have claims,

I got involve in an accident, it's not our fault on the first hand, but the adjuster never to be on our side, being rude, impolite, and aggressive. Everytime i talked to him feels like he's on rush to end the conversation.Matthew S. if this is your adjuster heads up
They never call you for update, I was left hanging figuring out what is happening, I am the one who always contact for follow up

Even in car rental they will not pay they will tell the rental comp. that they will give the final date, even my car is not fix. Ending up I am gonna be charge by my own pocket!!

So sad, worst ever, I will change insurance after I get my car

had an acccident which involved getting a rent from a rental(covered by policy) company they work with (Discount) 4 days before i was supposed to get my car back i got a call from rental company, they told me that insurance had stopped their payments, so i got charged just over $500 for extra couple of days. it was discovered later that The Personal's claim advisor miscalculated the dates so i ended up getting charged, now they refuse to reimburse me because they think the invoice that i got from rental company is too high, they have their own rates apparently.and now its almost been 4 months since they attempted to contact Discount rental, nobody has replied yet and im still fighting them, worst experience i've ever had.if you ever happen to have any sort of accident that needs to be reported to them you better make sure they do everything right since they're clearly not competent enough to do a bear minimum at least.

Our car was hit in our condo parking lot while it was parked. The offenders had personal. Their inability to return phone calls and relay information back to the victims caused massive delays in repairs, and we wound up getting charged insurance for the rental vehicle while ours was being repaired. Now in the process of disputing that charge, but not holding out much hope. Avoid at all costs!

Never had a claim of any kind. I was hit in a parking lot and put in a minor claim for $3000. The claims advisor with Desjardins assigned to my claim has never responded to any of my email inquiries or voice mails. WATCH OUT on Rental Car Coverage with this company. I have $1500 of coverage and my policy states "In return for the premium charged, we will reimburse you for the reasonable expenses of renting a similar substitute automobile." They will only authorize a regular rental car, not a luxury class car if that's what you drive. In my case, I am issuing a formal complaint regarding this. I need a rental car for 10 days. A luxury rental would cost $57/day for a total of $570 vs $40/day that they are authorizing. They simply will not honour their own policy wording and provide a "similar substitute" vehicle. They will lose 2 auto policies and one home policy over a difference of $170. Claim cheque issued was for the incorrect amount. They are claiming due to some kind of transposing error on entering the appraiser's estimate into their system(s). Terrible experience with this company when it counts - on a claim. Would NOT recommend them to anyone.

We lost three vehicles due to flooding. Two were insured by The Personal, the third by another party. While the initial response was fairly good (as soon as the water dropped a local tow company came to fetch the vehicles), it's been downhill from there. The assessor took a week to see a car that had been *underwater* and decide it was a write-off but didn't assess the car that was parked up right next to it for another week because someone hadn't told him he had to both. We had full, for-new replacement insurance. It took another two weeks to get the settlement figure because they couldn't check a website to get a comparison cost correct. We finally get the settlement figure (which is the exact price on the website), and they forget to send the payment. Twice. They tell us that it's been sent to our bank as a direct deposit and will clear in three days. Only this was a lie and it was never sent to the bank. First we're told both cheques were couriered, then both mailed, then only one couriered - and that it had been signed for at "reception" so why didn't we have it (as though we'd lie about not having a cheque for $30k?) Turned out they had couriered one cheque to the wrong address, so we have to run around town trying to find who had it because they couldn't tell us. There was no "reception", it went to an old address that we had changed with them online, corrected over the phone when it didn't update, and then specified to them on three occasions was the wrong address. Luckily, we know the people who live there, and they were home for us to pick it up. They claim they mailed out the second one via Canada Post on a Sunday, but as of Friday, it's not arrived despite the mail having been delivered. They won't even confirm where they mailed it to, so that's fun. It also wasn't registered or tracked so I can't find out where it is. They lie to you constantly. They say anything to get you off the phone, with no respect to your time or the truth. Good luck if you want to speak to a manager to make a complaint about the constant lying because they will claim it takes 48 hours to reply and then never contact you. I won't shout at the call centre staff as it's really not their fault that their company is incompetent, but I've been lied by so many of them that it's hard to find anything positive to say about the experience. Actually one thing. They have agreed to pay us out, so that's nice. It would have been nicer if we had actually received the money as promised when promised. I'm starting to doubt the second cheque was ever sent in the first place. We are now without vehicles as the rental allowance has run out (technically it ends the moment you agree to accept the settlement figure, so in our case a week ago) NOT when they get around to paying you. So now we're out of pocket on top of everything else. Huh, turns out I don't have anything good to say about them after all. Avoid like the plague - we're recommending to our employers that they no longer work with this company.

Do you want to experience an official criminal activity? You got it. Get an insurance with the Personal and try to process a claim. I had 3 consecutive worst experiences. They lie to you. They will never process your claim. Update incorrect records. Not provide you with a rental car. Not send an estimator as promised. Blame you for everything. Long wait times. Repeat the same story to different people when you call... Move out to anyone who can do better as I am doing now...

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 had 3 vehicles insured with these bandits. First tip as to what they were like was when I called them, they seemed to have only voice-contact back office in India - would never confirm info by email. Second was when the company behind this brand, Desjardins, started pushing the 'get a 25% discount if we put a tracker into your car so we can spy on your ads. Turns out they just want to spy on their insureds so they will have reasons to increase premiums or deny coverage. I didn't fall for it. Next, when somebody rear-ended me, they had my bumper fixed but required me to drop off the rental car 50 miles from where the car repair facility was. Turns out I could have dropped it off at the repair facility - but they didn't tell me, so it necessitated huge inconvenience. When I picked the car up, it wasn't right but as it was 10 pm and in a scuzzy part of town, I didn't want to leave it. Not everything was fixed, and something that had been repaired by a garage just prior to dropping it off at the repair facility was broken. And a part that had been damaged in the accident had not been repaired. I telephoned the claims person and left word but they never called me back. EVER... OH YEAH, in the daylight I noticed that my car was covered in yellow crayon marks that the body shop ( one 'authorized' by Desjardins) had put on all the little paint defects, scratches, etc and marked them up - presumably photographing them for Desjardins so that if any of those parts of the car ever were involved in an accident, then Desjardins would be able to escape paying to fix these 'pre-existing' dings. SHEEESH!!! I have never dealt with any company that was so sleazy, underhanded, untrustworthy, and suspicious. When I reported the accident, they tried to get me into one of their doctors - no doubt so their paid lap dog could declare I didn't have any injuries - and really pressured me. They also did not advise me of my rights to have them pay for physio, etc. They are, in my experience, con artists who make sure they always take advantage of the un-advised and un-aware. Later they sent a letter saying they had advised me of those rights - an outright lie...BEWARE!!! WHEN you call their line, listen to their recorded message - it basically says if you stay on the call you give them permission to spy on you and post what they find on sites that other insurers can access. I find them absolutely awful, and the worst company I have ever dealt with.