horrible service
by Christine on Dec 28, 2016
1.5 out of 5 stars
We were told that they already have our cheque ready in August. It's now December and still no sign of the cheque. We called almost every week to check on the status of our claim and we get the same excuse, "it's in our finance department". Are they all in vacation since August? If I could put zero stars on the "claim experience", i would. Also, to anyone thinking of going with belair, don't!
I recently had to file a total loss claim with Belair. Please do not ever insure your vehicle with this company. My claim took for months to settle. They frequently said they would call me back within two or three days and never once did. They didn't even look at the police report until three months into the process. They take advantage of consumers who don't know any better. I could go on but you get the point.
Never use this company
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Very, very, very bad insurance company. I had and accident on August 16th. Today is a November, 11th. I have been calling, sending emails no response from my adjuster at all!!! Her name is Marilen P. – very rude person. First, she said to me that she called a dealership where I bought a car and confirmed the price, and it was 10,000$ cheaper than the price I paid for it. When I called a dealership, that same person who talked to her, said that she has never asked for the price. So, I called her – no response, so after 10 times trying, I got her on the phone. And she said, we starting an investigation, she has never said, why or anything. So, I have been waiting for 4 months paying for insurance, while I don't even have a car. Very, very bad experience.
My son & daughter were in a serious accident in Aug. Some lady ran a red light doing 80km, no attempt to stop nothing. She then pushed them into on coming traffic & was hit by another car then pushed into a pole. My daughte has neck and hip problems, and from the impact her head smashed off of her door. My son, my GOD was hurt pretty bad. His leg is still to this day bruised and has no feeling, damage to his wrist, thumb and toe. Sad part is, my 20 yr old son had just moved into a condo as he started College. He has supported and worked since he was 16. He wasn't able to finish his job & because of his injuries wasn't able to look for a job by his new home & can't walk much on his leg. Belair has left my son penniless and starving. It's been still to this day that they have given him a penny to survive as that is what we are suppose to get with our insurance. It's called INCOME REPLACEMENT BELAIR!!! Yes they have a lawyer & the lawyer has been at them to get him his wage lose so he can EAT & PAY his bills. I found out that my son has not been eating and at times for a week. Since the accident my husband & i have had to pay his bills and I have been sending money for him to eat and just today I took him to buy food because he doesn't want to put the financial burden on us To date we have had to support my son with food, gas , insurance, rent and we are out over 3,000. thanks to Maddison D. who is called: Accident Benefit Claims Rep. WHAT! She is not entitled to that title and she should not be working for anyone. I wonder, has she had to go for a week without eating. Has she had to go penniless for just over 2 months and have her bills go unpaid, has her parents had to take such a FINANCIAL BURDEN? I bet NOT. She says she busy, really, but she isn't to busy to make appointments to send my kids to be examined . Wow that is more important to her then a 20 yr old living with NO FOOD, CAN'[T PAY HIS BILLS. And I find out that my son has had to dip into his college fund I saved for him for years so that he can buy his books for school. So ow she has screwed him over for next years college. Good going Maddison. You really do only care about leaving people to starve and penniless. I will recover the FINANCIAL HOLE that she has put my husband and I in for her lack of doing her JOB. I have talked to a lawyer & I'm sending all the bills that I paid to keep food in my son's stomach $ pay his bills so he can stay in college and pay his rent. If she refuses to reimburse us the money that we should not have to have paid out then she will be meeting my lawyer and he WILL RETRIEVE OUR money and I am also filing a complaint with the OMBUDSMEN. I was advised by the lawyer to write to them about this matter and how my son has been penniless Thanks to her, first priority is to have someone assess and say, oh you have no injuries. Bunch of crap. We all know that there are therapist that will say anything to help the insurance companies stop paying people because they make thousands and they want the insurance companies to keep using them for a lot of $$$. I had 2 assessments after my car accident in 2005 and they both said I was A.OK. Liars, instantly had a ct and found I had a major spine injury and had to under go 5 hours of surgery and 6 months rehab, so you see I don't trust these assessments. Those people only work for the insurance to get thousands out of them and call us all FAKES. So anyone who is thinking about Belair don't! They are the nicest people when it comes to taking your money but when your injured they no longer care about you and you become a liar, fake and a no body. Something needs to be done in our courts and with Insurance Bureau of Canada because insurance companies are scams and leave you penniless and starving!. Belair is the worst I have ever dealt with in over 30 years. Run from this company and hang up if they try to suck you in with their such kind attitude because don't you dare get hit by someone else and be injuried! You will be treated like a fake!!!
I have had so many poor experiences over the years with this insurance Bellair/Intact/Canadian Direct, I could write 20 pages about how they mistreat customers. I will try to list a couple of the most important and keep short.
Claims: If you are at fault, they will fight you to the death before they payout anything of what you are due. I had to take them to court to get them to pay a standard claim. Despite them hiring a lawyer, flying out their Claims mgr. to testify in court, the judge gave me a full judgement, plus ALL my legal costs and I have no legal background whatsoever. Please believe me, you don't want the stress of fighting for what you are due with a poor insurance company. I don't care how cheap your policy is, ITS JUST NOT WORTH IT.
Trust: Automatic monthly debit. Just like a shady gym membership company, do not give them automatic debit access to your money. They will take whatever they deem they are entitled to and cite that your insurance policy states that they can and without notice. Which it does and they take full advantage of. Good luck trying to get a fair remedy when they already have your money.
Obnoxious, bullying and Rude staff. The way they resolve complaints is to be threatening and unreasonable.
Bottom line, there are many insurance companies available and I don't think any have a stellar reputation. But this one is the worst. Save yourself the headache and being ripped off. I am now 8 years claims free and counted down everyone of those days. to the day that I could be free of them and take my business elsewhere.
If you have a good driving record in AB, you should pay around $110/month (women - $105/month and men - $113/month). Do you overpay? Get an Alberta car insurance quote to start saving.
I was insured with Belairdirect for 13 years with multiple vehicles and home insurance. The last few years with (4) vehicles so they were pulling some good coin from me every month; My son slid into the ditch Jan 28, 2013 from an ice storm and had a small fender-bender in a mall parking lot in 2015. So they cancelled my insurance - well THANK YOU !
Their "rules" are (2) "at fault" claims and you're OUT ! regardless of the circumstances and I kinda get that. BUT from a dollar-value I was worth it and still am with (4) vehicles & Home Ins. So I cancelled my home insurance with them Sept 28 2016 and have new auto insurance. THAT'S CHEAPER ! so THANK YOU BELAIRDIRECT for cancelling my insurance you are saving me money...who knew :). If my son had (2) "chargeable" at-fault accidents I would get that a little more.
I have been with belair for 10 years. When I have just joined they did offer competitive rate for my car, but were gradually increasing it year after year, despite lack of tickets, claims etc, so I am not happy about that part.
Interesting fact is when I had claim they have actually decreased my premium, but given they were raising premium every time I had no claims I find it quite logical.
When I got my first and only claim (car was hit on parking lot, I wasn't in car but I have managed to catch the guy and get his insurance info before he drove away) belair shown exceptional customer service.
I was first offered by guy to cover my repair, but then he started pulling back, not returning my calls etc, so I have filed the claim only 6 days after the fact. They said that my situation is quite common and that they will do verification and will proceed. End story: They covered my rental, let me select the body shop of my choice (not that I wanted any particular body shop, but I heard horrible stories about some other insurance companies that send you to particular place). Body shop fixed everything, but delayed by 2 days as they had to repaint few times, but again I did select them myself. The Belair extended rental for 2 more days, no questions.
My experience with them during the claim was exceptionally great. I am sorry to leave belair, but they are just way too expensive now.
I read the reviews here and just shook my head and laughed. I have been with Belairdirect for going on seven years now. Never had an issue with them as I had with some other well known insurance companies.
In fact, six months after getting my insurance a freak accident happened where a container door swung open and dented the top of my car door while I was at work. The owner of the container transport company wanted to offer me $250.00 not to put it through insurance. Well it cost way over that to get it fixed and the car was only six months old too.
My claim was taken care of right away, the car fixed within two weeks and insurance rates didn't go up. In fact I was called back to see if I was happy with the repairs done to my car.
I also moved from a very good area to a not so good area and that I will admit, but the rent was a heck of a lot cheaper. My insurance did go up $45.00, but then was reduced later since a park in a indoor secure garage. I called other insurance companies and man they wanted $400 and more for the same coverage in the same area. And since there was a claim put in for the door, well that upped the price more so.
I have had insurance with four other companies, even the good hands people. Believe me when I say, you don't want to put a claim in with those companies!
I have no complaints with this company whatsoever and my partner switched to them as well and she is saving $200 and somewhat compared to her other insurance company. Which by the way called her and tried to offer her a sweeter deal of $50 off of that $200. LOL
If you are not happy with a Insurance company, then go some place else. There are tons of them out there that will gladly take your money. Oh and being passed through to four adjusters is nothing... lol Try seven with someone else and then being kept on the phone waiting for 20 minutes only to hear click and a dial tone!
Say what you want about Belairdirect, I for one am happy with them!
I was in an automobile accident and in the span of two weeks my claim was transferred to four different adjusters. No one seems to be able to update me on the status of my claim or whether someone has even been able to view my vehicle and assess the damage. The garage has been more forthcoming than this sham of an insurance company. They don't seem to have a problem withdrawing money out of my account every month but the status of a claim...now that's asking for too much! While Belair Direct may offer better rates than other insurance companies, you get what you pay for! Avoid insuring with Belair Direct at all costs.
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Belair representatives are not fair, honest, friendly nor did they solve my claim in a timely manner. I gave all info needed within 2 days of filing my claim. It took them over 3 months to send me a letter stating I was not at fault in the accident. I then obtained insurance with different company and the file said the status of claim was still pending. I was not receiving info in timely fashion, I was getting continuous incorrect information sent to me (date of claim etc), continuous misspelling when communicating which made it very hard to get the correct spelling of thier chosen appraisers name (biased appraiser). Reps ignored my questions about my claims and complaints. The same rep that called me about information I had already sent to her days prior that she somehow couldn't find but was most definitely sent. Toddlers are better at communication then this woman. I found a complaint service called ombudsman online and went through them to solve the rest of my claim. After i hired an independent appraiser and accepted a settlement, a rep from toronto office lied to me saying she recieved one document but not the others(ownership and key). She said that because she made a mistake(forgot to say sign back of ownership) i sent everything together in one envelope 45 min prior to the call so i knew she was lying. I cancelled policy due to mistreatment.