Belairdirect Auto Insurance Reviews

We have been a Belair client for years and have never been in an accident. Unfortunately, about 6 weeks ago, we got into our first accident and have had the displeasure of having to go through the Belair claims process. The initial intake process was smooth and relatively painless and the customer service was friendly. That is when things took a terrible turn. After a week and a half, it was determined that the vehicle was a “total loss” meaning it was being written-off and it was determined (wrongfully) by our adjuster that we were “at-fault”, despite the police report stating the opposite (there was an officer on-scene who happened to witness the accident). This is when the nightmare began. First, they rushed to send us an email settlement offer (which we did not receive as it ended up in the junk folder) and terminated our rental vehicle coverage on the same day the settlement was “presented” without notifying us. We learned that the rental car coverage had been terminated 3 days afterwards, only because we called to follow-up on the status of our claim. It was on this call that we were advised that a settlement offer had been made, and had to search through our junk mail to find it. After reviewing the offer it took three emails and three phone calls to our adjuster to FINALLY get a call back on the issue of ‘fault’. Both the police that attended on the scene and at the collision reporting centre agreed that it was the other driver’s fault. However, Belair, when prompted for an explanation, simply said the other driver’s statement was the reason for their determination. Rather than choosing to follow the police report and represent our best interests as their client, they decided to take the other insurance company’s position. We have escalated this to a ‘manager’ and were supposed to get a call back in 24 to 48 hours. We are going on three days now and have yet to receive a call back on this point. With respect to the settlement, the offer was woefully below ‘fair market value’. We have been back and forth over twenty emails now, providing them with comparables for sale in addition to values calculated through both Kelley Blue Book and Canadian Black Book's total loss evaluation tool and have only managed to get them to go from about $2,600 to $3,600 (all comparables are in the $4800-5800 range). We are only asking for $4,600, but they are deciding to dig in their heels over less than $1,000. Finally, I asked them to provide their valuation methodology and comparables. They provided me with a list of 5 "comparables" all of which have between 55,000-65,000 kms more than my vehicle (not to mention one of the vehicles has a manual transmission where ours was an automatic). The moral of this story is that if you are looking for an insurance company that, in the rare instance of an accident which is an understandably very stressful time, will support you and help alleviate some of the stress, do NOT consider Belair as an option. They will add ten times more stress than the initial incident itself and drag out the process and do whatever it takes to pay out as little as possible, hoping that you just give up and accept their low-ball offer out of frustration. Save yourself the stress and aggravation and run as far away from this company as possible. The online reviews do not lie. You are better off paying higher premiums and actually having an insurance company that looks after you and offers superior customer service and a proper payout in the unlikely event of an accident.

Great at accepting premiums poor service when you need them. I had minor cosmetic damage and a punctured tire after we got hit while stopped at a red light and were found at 0 fault. Then the claims process started and Belair has used every underhanded trick in the book to try and settle with us for a low ball offer even though I believe the other driver's insurance company will make them whole at the end of the day. They have bullied my girlfriend, threatened to salvage her car before we agreed to a settlement, consistently changed the price they are offering, refuse to complete a full estimate of the damage, bait and switch the value of the offers. When calculating the price they use comparable vehicles that are 6 months old. After I ran CARFAX reports on the vehicles I found a bunch had previous accidents, were used as rentals and commercial vehicles and even had smaller engines and manual transmissions, along with almost double the kilometers driven. Basically, the cheapest vehicle you could find and still call it almost a comparable car. Luckily, we had just bought a second vehicle and are able to get by on one car. I can see how someone without that option can be highly pressured and pushed into taken a minimal settlement as this has dragged on for almost 6 weeks now and we had to return the rental that was provided a few days after the accident. Stay away from the Belair as one day you may need them and they will not be there.

When my windshield cracked due to a truck kicking up rocks, I had to run around to get my windshield replaced by their people instead able to do it at the closest windshield repair service. And on top of it, I had to pay $300. Why have insurance? When I went with another company when my insurance expired, Belairdirect still wanted me to pay for their insurance, saying that it is still in force! Obviously, if I did not pay for the renewal, I am NOT insured by them, and therefore I am not obligated to pay them! I would never deal with them again or can recommend them to anybody!