Worst Insurance Company ever!
by 12345 on Dec 25, 2018
1 out of 5 stars
DO NOT GO with these people. Desjardins \ Certas auto insurance is bad bad bad. I swerved my truck off the road due to a very bad snow storm with extremely slippery roads and low visibility. My truck ended up being sandwiched between an ice bank and the side guardrail. My front bumper completely cracked and falling off, front grill pushed in and front tow hook bent. Left bumper completely scraped by the ice bank. When the accident occurred it was very dark out, no street lights. Therefore I could not see all the damages. When I filed my claim online that evening, I failed to report ALL the damages. I had my truck towed to a nearby garage and left it there for the night. I was also injured. Severe whiplash. I couldn't get to the garage to look at my truck until a few days later. Once I saw the actual damages to my truck, I called Desjardins to make an adjustment to my claim and damages. At 1st the adjuster seemed very helpful. But once I received the paperwork via mail, I noticed a very big mistake. The damages in my accident had been split into two separate claims thus charging me two separate 500$ deductibles. I called Desjardins / Certas back to re-explain the situation. Again, the adjuster seemed empathetic and wanting to help. She said the checks were already sent out separately but she would fix the notes to say that all the damages were subject to the same claim and that I would only be liable for one 500$ deductible. She gives me the ok to proceed with the repairs. I then take my truck to a body shop. They give me a quote that exceeded way beyond what Desjardins / Certas paid me for damages. Desjardins / Certas convinced me to send back the original checks they gave me so that they can then start the process over putting all the damages under one claim with only one 500$ deductible. I stupidly comply and send back the checks. Next thing I know, the body shop is telling me the Desjardins / Certas is refusing their appraisal and offering me even less money than before to cover the damages. Needless to say, this accident happened in January 2018, 8 MONTHS LATER, I AM STILL FIGHTING with my Desjardins / Certas to have them cover the entire damages minus the 500$ deductible. To make matters worse, during this gruelling ongoing process they have switched me over to 5 different adjusters. As I said at the top, DESJARDINS \ CERTAS AUTO INSURANCE - WORST COMPANY EVER!!!
>Been with these guys for 11 years(since I was a new driver/teen). At the time they were known as Certas Direct, they were bought out by Desjardins.
>At first I was getting a great rate when they were Certas. I think I was paying 150$/mth. and it even got as low as 110$/mth. when I switched vehicles.
>When I noticed things were getting weird was when Desjardins randomly sent me an insurance/ownership holder in the mail with a letter saying 'blah blah we own certas, you are our valued customer blah blah'. Not too long after i got my very first speeding ticket, and then one more later that year. When my policy was renewed my rate went from 110$/mth to 200$/mth. While I take full responsibility for my tickets, i dont think i should be paying 90$ extra every month for two measly tickets.
>years later i acquired another ticket. it skyrocketed to 275$/mth. Now I am in full panic mode. I called them and said 'listen guys, yes i sped. i get that. but 275$/mth is ridiculous. i am on the brink of selling my car and opting to just use public trans/bike.' they said 'no no no, we will lower it to 250$ a month in 3 months time.' i agreed.
>RECENTLY i got into an accident. it was the other drivers fault but there was no witnesses and the other driver lied on his police report. Because we had 'conflicting stories' the two insurance companies decided to make this a 50/50 split. I was assigned a moron of a service rep. She doesn't care nor take into account anything i say. what she says is what she says. To her there is no other option. its desjardins(gods) word. Get this...I put my car into a shop on a thursday, my agent said she'd call me later that night to talk about it. no call. next day, no call. i call her. voicemail. weekend goes by. no call. i call her, leave new voicemail, she calls me back. tells me three things 'just waiting for the quote from the mechanic and i will call you back. tuesday comes. no call. weds. no call. thurs no call. i call in. voicemail again. call mechanic shop and say 'what the hell is going on with my car?' apparntly they took it apart on tuesday and assessed everything and been waiting for my agent to call. i get angry and call my agent. voicemail. 'yea, my car has been in the shop since thursday and you havent been keeping me up to date and the quote has been ready since tuesday and now its thursday...7 days. i have kids and no vehicle. please call me back and take care of this. she calls me 20 minutes later(wow...so if i pull teeth and act like an @$$ they call back?). 'okay, the quote is 2400$, 800$ for parts and 1600$ for labour...' i say 1600 for labour huh? hmmm...its a fender bender. im not a moron. they are taking you for a run. 'oh no sir they are approved by us. they know what they are doing'. oh okay, so you are telling me it takes 21 hours to put on a front fender, a new bumper and a light? i can get that done myself in 4 hours. 2 hours with a buddy. now she is all silent and being cold. i say 'listen, you arent helping me at all. im getting royally screwed. i want to take my 50% of the money for the repair and do it myself because this is bull. well sir 50% of 2400 is 1200...but then we have to device 1200 by 2...which is 600...so you get 600. So let me get this right. the damage costs 2400...its a 50/50 accident so that means you pay 1200...but you are doing 50% of the 50% i am entitled too? so 600 out of 2400. so basically thats 75/25%. no sir you dont understand. no no i undestand perfectly, im getting SCREWED.
listen guys, do not deal with these guys ever. horrible horrible horrible customer care. they are so desensitized to your questions and concerns. they Do NOT CARE. i have been dealing with these guys for a long time and the only thing keeping me with them is the fact that my tickets and 50/50 accident cannot get me a good quote anywhere for the next 3 years. dont ever go with desjardins no matter how good the quote looks.
Did you know that on average Ontario drivers with good driving records pay $1,805/year in auto insurance? Is your insurance rate higher? Get a free car insurance quote and start saving today.
I had deer collision 12 days after purchasing my new car. Desjardin think they will repair the car even tho the damage is over 60% of the value of the car. Had to fight with them to get second estimate, claims people are rude, claim no value now that all my car warranties are voided, and they told me they already had their numbers so it didn't matter where I took it for a second opinion, they wouldn't look at the estimate. There is even frame damage that they want to repair.
Still fighting but that's the way I intend to go down. I paid for replacement value, and I will go to court instead of driving the hunk of junk if that's what they think.
Do yourself a favour and find another insurer.
I recommend don't take car insurance. If you go by the claim department they refuse some parts because they said this is not related to your accident
We often have to insure because we want to secure our car but they don't
Do not go to this insurance. Never use any of their preferred shops for a repair. I've had 2 horrible experiences both with the shops and with the claims adjuster. One shop was bytek VW Ottawa and another was fixauto 417 Nissan. With VW the job was so bad insurance ended up buying out my car. The one with fixauto they go through managers like crazy and do anything to avoid fixing poor work and make excuses and as for the insurance don't expect them to do their jobs. The guy I had would take months to get back to me. I had an accident in 2019 brand new car and was still trying to get problems resolved in 2021 and got to the point I said screw it and traded in my car. The dealer used the poor work against me when purchasing my vehicle. This company also goes back in your history 10 years. Save yourself the trouble and try something else...
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.
They are a complete joke, if you have a claim on your car watch out, they will push you to use their preferred garage that has a deal with them. Furthermore, they use a third party appraiser that's hired strictly to low ball you. The ultimate goal is profit at the expense of the customers. Please take my advice and do your homework, the shops in my area refuse to work with them. Ontario government should step-in CROOKS.
I have auto insurance with them, my car was hit by another vehicle and damaged, I asked if I could get the insurance payout to my name as it was gonna be around 6500 and most of that was for labour cost, so I told them I wanted to fix the vehicle myself and they said: yes. Two other people told me yes - now they are running me around saying they can't when it's not even their money, it's the other guy's insurance that will be paying on top of that. They wanted to charge the 1000 deductible when it was not my fault. Bunch of losers, thinking they can tell me what to do with my money. And the reason I did not want to take it to the shop is they kept it an extra week before and did a crappy job at fixing it. They better resolve and give me my money or I'm suing them.
DESJARDINS - ABSOLUTELY THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER EVER EVER HAD TO DEAL WITH. I was in an accident January 2018 - 10 months later, I am still fighting with them to pay some of the repairs. They keep saying yes, yes we agree to pay a certain amount but yet 10 months later still no money from them. I just got fed up and wanted my truck fixed before winter, so I ended up just paying for repairs myself. I was granted massage therapy and physiotherapy after this accident, which I used up. Now I am fighting with them to simply close my claim so that I can move on and be done with them once and for all. The massage and physiotherapy offices have been trying to get ahold of them for months now too and finalize my claim and to close my file. To make matters worse, I can not get coverage with a new insurance until the claim is CLOSED with Desjardins
After 3 months, I finally have resolved my claim. Anybody insured with this plan should be aware that it is vital to understand it before paying the additional premium. It is written very poorly and lacks much clarity. The Superintendent of Insurance (Alberta) was involved in my claim and has asked for additional clarity in the documentation. There is no definition of total loss so each claim has its’ own definition provided by the adjuster. Unless you can prove a total loss it will be considered a partial loss so the threshold is critical. So much so that I would advise all to get the definition before paying further premiums, which will rise each year. The value of the damaged vehicle must be added to the cost of repairing it and the cost of the rental. If that amount exceeds the cost of replacing your vehicle you have a solid argument to demand a new current year vehicle.
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It's been 8 years that I was using this insurance company. Never in 8 years I got into an accident or any claim. In October 2018 I got into an accident at no fault. It was a very minor accident. It took 1 and a half month to fix my car. Finally got my car fixed. After a month I was travelling out of the country and wanted to put my car on storage. And I came to know that this company is about to cancel my policy because they wanted some documents signed from me. And I never received any documents due to Canada post strike. And I called them, I told them I never got any document from you yet, so finally they were like okay, you can download that document online. I was like ok, no problem, I will fill this and send over to you guys. After another week I got a letter saying that they cannot renew my policy because they never got the document. So I was speaking to an agent, I explained her I am going out of the country within 4 days. There is a Canada post strike going, you should be getting that soon. So that agent replied me saying, I am sorry "we are not Canada post, Canada post strike is not our problem". So I said ok, so am I responsible for Canada post strike? This company sucks, the agents have no respect towards a customer. They hang up on you when you demand to speak with a manager. This company is a useless piece of crap. Agents are extremely rude, no respect, no sense of responsibility towards the customers. I would suggest everybody never ever go with this company.