INTACT is WORST for service!
by BEEN THROUGH HELL on May 6, 2015
1 out of 5 stars
Very very unpleasant experience with a real b from Quebec who wasn't even trained to listen (and not interrupt), let alone try to THINK and come up with an efficient, effective way to proceed to get an estimate for my elderly mother's home insurance.
Other companies (with exception of Bellair, whose front line reps seem unfortunately about in the same league as Intact's) were very helpful and suggested ways for my mother to give them her approval for me to talk with them, but not this company.
Wonder what they'll do once the Baby Boom generation all start asking their kids for similar help.
Save yourself some frustration and go elsewhere. The only reason I'm giving a 1-star rating is because it's the lowest the site allows.
We had water damages a few days ago,they were very quick in sending someone to dry the place ,of course to their advantage to try and tell us that there is no more humidity. Then they send an estimator who claims he has done 6000 claims, acuses us of delibertely breaking the tile in the kitchen around a column that was pouring water galore. Writes down in his estimate ,take out the wood floor in the living room ,and just screw in the sub floor that squeaks, ReALLY !!! We had a contractor come and make an estimate ,and the claim is over 20k they estimated at 10k.Best par about it is that the clown that came to do the estimate is boasting how he had water damage at his house and his insurance company estimated 24 k .He boasted he did his own estimate and the damge was 48k .But he comes to our house and does to the clients he serves ,the same they tried to do with him.A real frustrated pr......k giving a hard time to the customers ,because he thinks he knows it all ,very unprofessional.
After my house got broken into, I reported a claim. I got parts of it back and when I emailed them, they said in the email if I bought the original item again, the company will refund me the whole price of the original item that was stolen. A week later, I went on and bought another pair of sunglasses to replace the one that was stolen, and a laptop to replace the one that was stolen. I am almost a year in, I sent multiple messages and not one reply. They are quick to remind me of bill payments and contract continuation, but when I ask for my claims they refuse to answer me.
My vehicle was broken into. The entire contents of my car were cleaned out. This included all my camping gear and photography equipment. Not an inexpensive claim, but this is why we pay insurance premiums. It took my adjuster 9 weeks to figure out the reason the police would not release the police report was because the forms had not been witnessed. The same adjuster told me to sign the form and send it back to her. It may take under 30 minutes to start the claim as they advertise, but don't expect anything to happen quickly after that. Every time they have recommended something to help move the claim along, it seems as though we move backward again. I have complained. The adjusters supervisor called and gave me her contact info. She told me I was not a high priority because I do not make a living from the items that were stolen. I have left multiple messages with her. Not ever has she returned a call. I am 11 weeks into this claim with no resolution in sight.
Adjuster told us that policy would not be covered due tenant damage. We had been paying to tenant insurance [over 3000.00 per year] yet even though we were told that we had coverage we did not [we paid for 3 years].
I am a single Mom, who had a terrible experience with Intact after smoke damage to our home. Intact left the restoration work unfinished to the point where it was making myself, my family, our pets and others sick. They have had excuse after excuse and have delayed our claim for over a year. Now, over a year later, I am still trying to get them to rectify the situation. We had to beg, borrow and plead for help from the community, family and credit to fix what we could after living away from home for months. It has caused us so much distress and financial hardship, that I am not sure how I am going to survive this, other than through my faith in God.
We've been insured with Intact for over 5 years. Homeowner's coverage has included a city home, a vacation home, and a small home-based business. Both homes were covered under identical, comprehensive policies.
In December 2010 we had a burglary at our vacation property and the claim of $3000 was paid out without any hassle. We were then promised that we would not be penalized with higher rates because of this single claim.
However, consider the following table that shows our total premium each year over the past 5:
2010 - $1349
2011 - $1790
2012 - $2162
2013 - $2201
2014 - $2742
You can see that in 5 years the total premium doubled. Two insurance agents told us that Intact had huge claims losses over the Calgary flooding in 2013 and had raised premiums for all customers in Canada as a result. That alone seems unfair; yet it doesn't explain the huge increases, far above the inflation rate, between spring 2010 and spring 2013.
We were prepared to pay the exorbitant premium of $2742 this year because it is very difficult to find companies that would include liability on our home-based business in the regular homeowner's policy. However, the Intact underwriter was obviously intent on getting rid of us because he told our insurance agent that the company would only insure us if we could prove that we were living in our vacation home 2 days out of every week in the year. That was an absolutely ridiculous request so we switched to another insurance company.
The moral of this story: Beware if you are offered homeowner's insurance with Intact. They do a lot of TV advertising and everything sounds rosy. However, we have never been treated so unfairly by an insurance company in 45 years of owing a home.
My mother and my in-laws both had the very unfortunate experience of having Intact insurance covering their homes, when they were flooded last summer.
Insurance is supposed to be for peace of mind, in case something goes wrong. Both my mother and my in-laws never missed any payments, and have been paying insurance for decades and decades with no claims. Then they experienced severe flooding this past summer. That's when the horrible problems began.
We all understood that there were probably thousands of homes flooded so everyone was trying to be very sympathetic. Nonetheless, BOTH sets of my relatives are STILL waiting for completion of the repairs (April '14) and the flooding happened 9 months ago (July).
Work didn't even begin until after Christmas. Work crews appear for a day or two and then disappear. The work is shoddy. The products (like the replacement carpeting) is very inferior. The assessments of the damage were unbelievably ridiculous. At my mother's house, I was walking around in water above my knees in her fully finished basement. Walls, doors, washing machine, dryer, gas fireplace insert, wash basin, shelving, the furnace - all was destroyed or damaged. Can you believe that the estimate for all repairs (including supplies) was $5,000. How ridiculous is that?? Then to keep within this absurd budget, corners are being cut left and right. The work crew keeps trying to foist left over materials onto my mom. Most recently, she found out that the replacement knobs on the doors had been allocated an amount of $1 (no this is NOT a typo). I don't have a clue where you get a replacement knob for $1 unless you are getting knobs from a demolition of another house. My mother's original knobs were fancy, relatively new and certainly were at least $30 to $40 to replace (conservatively). With my in-laws, though the bathroom in the basement was destroyed (the actual floor beneath the bathroom actually completely warped) the insurance company refused to repair the bathroom and told my in-laws they must pay extra. My in-laws (far too nice folks) agreed and despite that, the crew didn't let them select their own tiles. They just showed up with some tiles (seriously) and my kindly relatives let them install the times. (You'd better believe they wouldn't have gotten away with that with me.) My mother's crew tried the same thing - showing up with paint in a colour she hadn't chosen.
It is really unbelievable.
Because all of the neighbours are equally fed up, all these folks are just agreeing to anything in sheer desperation to finally wrap this trauma up, and to get their homes back and the crews out of their lives.
In the meantime, Intact Insurance posted a $100 million dollar profit in the last quarter of last year. They sure aren't suffering. They are making that profit on the backs of seniors like my in-laws (who are in their 90's for goodness sake) and my mother who is simultaneously fighting cancer while she tries to get her home back.
I have never seen anything so shameful and you'd better believe I shall never, ever insure with Intact after witnessing what my family has gone through.
Find someone else folks. Intact is really happy to take your money, but when the unthinkable happens, you'll be facing a terrible battle to get a fair settlement out of this insurance company.
I would have given hem a 0.5 star rating, but the Claim Exerience doesn't have a 0 star.
I have been with them 20+ years - never made a claim before. Tenant above my condo left window open, froze water pipes which burst and 1000+ liters of water entered my condo. My large furniture got hit and Intact said they would replace it.
Event though it's not my fault, Intact says that I have to pay $500 deductible because tenant had no insurance / fled the province so Intact can't find them (or so they say) and the owner of the condo above me is an intact customer - they don't sue themselves.
Have been waiting for 2 weeks now on an estimate for replacement cost of one couch, one cloth chair and bed. Gave them brand info and what I paid for them before as I have replacement cost insurance. All I get is a run around so they don't have to pay out. Not one expense has been paid as of yet and I am in a hotel on my dime - with mounting credit card bills coming due soon.
Had made a small claim with Co-Op and Wawanesa insurance 20+ years ago, which were dealt with immediately and quickly. Once this ordeal is over, will never deal with Intact again - regardless of the premiums I have to pay - Intact is cheap - but you get what you pay for and they have ZERO Service when you need them.
Secure and Certified
Your information privacy and security is very important to us. We use the same 256-bit encryption and data security levels as all major banks. Our practices are monitored and verified by VeriSign and Digicert.
Independent
InsurEye is not owned by any bank, insurance company, insurance brokerage or any other financial services institution. We collect, validate, and analyze insurance experiences of real consumers.
Insightful
We aspire to equip you with insights, data and knowledge to help in making informed decisions around personal finance, insurance quotes, and other important matters. We are always open for your comments.
INTACT commercials - your claims process starts when they get your phone call - but that does not mean they will help you or pay people. It just means they type it in the computer. Then you deal with the adjuster which is trying an experience from HELL! I had the absolute worst experience with this company and my neighbour across the street did too! Our basement flooded due to a water main break. We had top of the line coverage. Adjuster got mad at me and smashed my front door! Put a claim in for that and finally got paid one year later. Adjuster told me he did not like me, and promised to give me a hard time. He sent threatening letters that they were considering denying my claim. He offered me 1/7 the actual cost to repair the damage 2 months of the flood. I had already spent double hiring myown contractors to start repairs, not wanting to wait for the insurance company to take action. I had tenants.The fighting over coverage went on for nearly 6 months and finally I got a cheque for double what he first offered. I said this is not enough to cover all the invoices I submitted and complained to Intact Ombudsman. They did nothing. Then I reported unfair insurance practices, bad faith, to FSCO = Financial Services Commission of Ontario. This forced the matter into ARBITRATION! I recommend this to anyone not satisfied with money the insurance company is trying to get you to accept. Take the money they offer but do NOT sign a final release. Tell them you disagree with their calculation of your loss total. At arbitration, I got to present all the invoices for the actual repairs of the damage (not the adjuster's guesstimate) + lost rent. The whole process took about 9 months, but I finally got nearly everthing I asked for. INTACT gave my neighbour across the street a hard time. After his semi detached home was involved in a fire, it took twice as long for Intact to repair his house compared to the equally affected neighbour nest door. Fire was in January and the neighbour with CAA insurance was back in his house by August. The other neighbour with Intact is still waiting for drywall work to be completed. Estimated re-occupation could be 1 1/2 - 2 years because the approval during the claims process goes at a snails pace at Intact. INTACT SUCKS! Maybe their rate could be cheaper, but the attempts to deny coverage and delays in the claims process do not make it worth the savings! Go for a insurance company with a good reputation for claims processing - even if they charge more. I don't know how some insurance adjusters can look themselves in the mirror each morning after doing such horrible things to claimants - I know they get a bonus for paying out less. It's dirty money. I don't want to profit from other people's misery! SHAME on YOU INTACT Insurance Adjuster!