Terrible claim service and follow up service
by Jeffrey Rosehart on Jan 17, 2022
1 out of 5 stars
My wife and I have been Belairdirect customers for many years. In 2016, we had 2 unfortunate accidents. However, we were informed that, given our policy, these would be forgiven, one to my wife, the other to me. On the first renewal date, this appeared to be the case: No insurance increases. The following year “they changed their mind”, however, attributing both accidents to me. When I followed up, I simply was told that that’s what was decided and there’s nothing further they could do. A “reward” of customer loyalty!?
We’ve also had poor claims experiences. The worst was with respect to one accident that was not our fault. We took the vehicle to one of Belairdirect’s preferred collision repair shops. Although the repair appeared to have been performed properly, there were several customer service issues. And the interior of the vehicle was filthy when I picked it up afterwards. Not too long thereafter we had another no-fault accident. Given the previous experience, we chose to have the vehicle repaired by a shop that came recommended by others. After starting the repair, this shop noticed that the entire previous repair had not been done properly (e.g., the entire area was rusted) and had to be completely redone! Since then, we’ve never again accepted Belairdirect’s offer to have any repairs done by a preferred shop.
We’ve only remained with Belairdirect because of all the bad experiences others have had with other insurance companies and shared with us over the years.
I joined Belair during 2016 when they had their big “Accident Forgiveness” campaign. Now, four years later, after my first collision, I find out that accident forgiveness was not added to my policy and no one at any point told me it needed to be added. Then the person on the phone said I could add it with my next car, forgetting that I JUST HAD A COLLISION and am no longer eligible. She made sure to highlight they’re the only Canadian Company offering accident forgiveness, but that doesn’t matter if it can’t actually get it. Once they pay me out for my car I am likely never dealing with them again.
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I've made three claims with this company, once for my home, which was NOT paid, and twice for my vehicle, one of which was an at-fault accident. We paid for accident forgiveness, and then we had an at-fault accident and my insurance spiked by about $450 per year. Why am I paying for something and not receiving it? I am sure if I followed up with them, I would get a bunch of excuses about industry standards, blah, blah... but considering for that first claim, I had to shell out an extra $1200 for OM parts when my vehicle was brand new, that blather isn't going to be well-received. The insurance adjuster for that at-fault claim was an absolute incompetent on a power trip. I would be changing insurance companies if I could. But of course, without already having accident forgiveness with another company, we're pretty much screwed for a couple of years.
I was in an accident and they said I would go to a zero star rating and the toral cost to insure would be $285. Then when I went to cancel they told me I would be at a 5 star rating and I have built in accedent forgiveness. They told me the cost of my new car would be about $170. Now that the year is up they said they would charge me $285 to insure my car and that was a 5 star rating. Clearly they are charging a zero star rating price. When I check other car insurance quotes. Someone with a 5 star rating would pay about $158.
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Spent over two months without contact after my claim was submitted, even after multiple phone calls attempting to see what was happening with my claim. Found out after the 2-month mark and 5 phone calls they had not even contacted the tow yard with my car, nor done anything with the policy. The car rental company contacted me saying they were behind in their payments and would have to charge me until they paid, which I had to call again to find out they had been ignoring their emails as well. After finally settling my claim, when trying to set up a new policy for a new car not 3 days after the finalization of that issue, they refuse to honour their own accident forgiveness policy (my first ever claim of any kind) and tell me I now have a gap in insurance because they did not properly explain the cancellation process...