Its hard to not want to firebomb my insurance company.

[fastfredracing]

What a sneaky, and underhanded business that is. They sell you this great policy, that is going to cover you in case of bla bla bla bla bla, sell you some extras, just in case, " oh, and also, you should have this " and in reality, it does not cover poo.
Im fighting them this time. Im not taking no for an answer . It is all worded in legalease in my policy, but from what I see I am covered.
They are denying my coverage, because I did not have my tow truck "declared " on the policy.
I have a half a million dollars worth of equipment and tools in the place, and not one single piece of it is declared, nor was I ever advised, that I needed to declare any of it. So, I would have to assume, that nothing I own under my business policy is covered .
Srry, just wanted to rant.

[Racerbvd]

Just went through a similar reaming with mine.

[Jims5543]

I will never use State Farm Again as long as I live.

Had insured my homes with them since 1989 never a claim.

In 2004 I had my first claim due to 2 hurricanes back to back. Minimal claim to be honest and in hindsight wished I had claimed more.

They then doubled my rate, then tripled then quadrupled then dropped me all in a 2 year window of time.

At the time I had 4 fleet vehicles, equipment rider policies x4, renters insurance on my office, 4 personal vehicles, commercial Gen Liability, and finally a Professional Liability policy, all with State Farm.

I walked into my agents office a week after they dropped my homeowners, and cancelled all my policies with them. He was begging me to not do that and I told him it was a simple fix, give me back my Homeowners are a fair price and I will stay with them.

No can do.

Adios!

I hate insurance companies. Legalized gambling is all it is.

[drcoastline]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

What a sneaky, and underhanded business that is. They sell you this great policy, that is going to cover you in case of bla bla bla bla bla, sell you some extras, just in case, " oh, and also, you should have this " and in reality, it does not cover poo.
Im fighting them this time. Im not taking no for an answer . It is all worded in legalease in my policy, but from what I see I am covered.
They are denying my coverage, because I did not have my tow truck "declared " on the policy.
I have a half a million dollars worth of equipment and tools in the place, and not one single piece of it is declared, nor was I ever advised, that I needed to declare any of it. So, I would have to assume, that nothing I own under my business policy is covered .
Srry, just wanted to rant.

So little confused Fred. I'm in the commercial insurance business. Your post indicates to me two different insurance coverages. One the truck policy (commercial Auto) and the other the business policy that covers your equipment and perhaps a building. That being said they could be on the same policy but two different coverage sections. Autos would need to be specifically listed on a policy. Tools equipment not necessarily. You should have equipment with higher values itemized with serial numbers, values and photos.

Can you provide a little more info? What happened?

[fastfredracing]

Long story short, a tree fell on my tow truck while it was off the road for an overhaul. It was not registered, or insured at the time of the incident. Why would it be , I was not driving it , and what could possibly happen??
Just amazes me that I could have soo much insurance, and still not be covered. Home owners does not cover it. Commercial auto , nope, business/commercial property, nope, inland marine, nope . Its just frustrating, I think I just needed to vent a little bit

[GH85Carrera]

Insurance companies are borderline better than the mafia but not always.

Several years ago we had a project to fly over an island in the Houston shipping channel. It was covered in trees, and has no structures visible, so just an old island in the harbor. Some company called and wants aerial photos, BUT they insist all contractors for them have 10 million in liability insurance. To fly over an island covered in trees. So we called our carrier and they had cold sweats but set it up.

They wanted the pilot to call them just before he took off to go fly to the island, and go land and call them and say it is done. The coverage was in effect for 30 minutes at most while our pilot was on that project. It still cost a lot for the insurance but we just tacked on the invoice.

Evidently after we flew it, they but several bulldozers on the island, and removed the trees to build something. We never found out what since that was not our project.

[vash]

State Farm got the worst rating during our wildfire. by far.

my friend is just breaking ground after the company ran her around for a year. other companies wrote a check sight/unseen just to get their clients into apartments ASAP.

[biosurfer1]

My family will never use State Farm. They insured my father's boat in the eraly 90's and awe had an unusually cold winter and the heads cracked. When the issue was found, it was right after the LA earthquake.

My dad had an guy check it out and say yes, it was due to cold, no abuse, etc. State Farm denied the claim and said their own guy had to come check it out. That guy did and even HE said it was due to cold, no abuse, etc.

Reply from State Farm was basically they were getting crushed settling claims in LA and my father would have to sue them to get any money.

F those guys to hell.

[Baz]

These commercials kill me....literally......

[varmint]

Just before I was born my hometown was pasted by a tornado. Seven years later it still hadn’t really recovered. I can remember riding with my dad. He’d point at a vacant lot and say that used to be the hardware store. Or that shell of a building was the pharmacy. We drove by one house that looked different. It was burnt down. I asked my dad. He said it was the insurance man’s place.

[drcoastline]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

Long story short, a tree fell on my tow truck while it was off the road for an overhaul. It was not registered, or insured at the time of the incident. Why would it be , I was not driving it , and what could possibly happen??
Just amazes me that I could have soo much insurance, and still not be covered. Home owners does not cover it. Commercial auto , nope, business/commercial property, nope, inland marine, nope . Its just frustrating, I think I just needed to vent a little bit

Sorry to hear that. Tough lesson. You can vent.

[Evans, Marv]

I had State Farm for my cars, home, & apartments for a quarter of a century. When I moved out of town into a rural area, my agent told me they didn't cover homeowner's insurance because of elevated fire risk. I changed to Farmers, and after a couple of years they raised my premium (already had raised it every year) by 37%. Found another company and sent Farmers a letter saying I'd never buy a policy from them again because of their usury premium raise. Got a letter back saying the raise conformed with State guidelines, yada, yada, yada. It's a racket and our governments are participants.

[Baz]

I try to go the self-insured route as much as possible. Eliminates the middle man.

[wdfifteen]

Sorry to hear of your insurance problem.
Insurance is a great racket. They sell you a bundle of papers you can’t read (unless maybe you are an attorney) and get you to pay for it month after month for the rest of your life.
You never know what to expect. They replaced a 20 year old hail damaged roof for me, paying 80 percent - I was a few months out from replacing it for its age. My wife had a newer roof damaged by hail, they paid for the roof AND new gutters because the old ones had a couple of dents, then refused to renew her policy.
Then you have a real loss and they refuse to pay.

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by drcoastline

Sorry to hear that. Tough lesson. You can vent.

I am sitting home reading my policy front to back. Am I out of line calling this old tow truck business personal property?
Its worded pretty simply
(4). Personal property , owned by you that is used to maintain or service the buidling or structure, or its premises .
My business property consists of the following property (2) machinery and equipment . (4). All other personal property that is owned by you, and used in your business.
I am a sole proprietorship , the truck is titled in my personal name .

Property not covered:
p. Vehicles , that are self propelled machines ( including aircraft, or watercraft)
that :
(1). Are licensed for use on public roads . ( it is not )
(2). Operated principally away from the described premises . ( it is also not, this truck is strictly a lot truck to move disabled vehicles around the lot .
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you

[nota]

staying with one ins corp[rat]
is a sure way to get OVERCHARGED

I get quotes every year or two
they always hike the rates over time
they never go down
and the only way to save is shop around

wind storm ins in s fla is limited to one corp
and is very very expensive

[wdfifteen]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

I am sitting home reading my policy front to back. Am I out of line calling this old tow truck business personal property?
Its worded pretty simply
(4). Personal property , owned by you that is used to maintain or service the buidling or structure, or its premises .
My business property consists of the following property (2) machinery and equipment . (4). All other personal property that is owned by you, and used in your business.
I am a sole proprietorship , the truck is titled in my personal name .

Property not covered:
p. Vehicles , that are self propelled machines ( including aircraft, or watercraft)
that :
(1). Are licensed for use on public roads . ( it is not )
(2). Operated principally away from the described premises . ( it is also not, this truck is strictly a lot truck to move disabled vehicles around the lot .
I'd like to hear your thoughts on this. Thank you

#2 makes it sound like a tool, sort of like a forklift. What does your insurance company say about insuring a forklift?

[MBAtarga]

Fred - IANAL, however, I'd say you've got valid points for the truck to be covered....

[fastfredracing]

Originally Posted by Baz

I try to go the self-insured route as much as possible. Eliminates the middle man.

Im with you Baz, but the state requires me to have a certain amount of liability insurance to have a State Inspection license.
No one writes just a simple liability policy for a business like mine, so I end up with a bloated 113 page policy , that they fleece me out of 5 grand a year for, and so far has not paid out a cent to me, or anybody else .
I had one claim about 10 years ago, with another company. I guess, my $5 k a year was not enough, and they still have to hit you with a $1500 dollar deductible when something does happen.
So , over 10 some years with that company, I paid them around $50K They paid out $1000.00 on a $2500.00 claim, then they started jacking my rates, and did a property inspection, and tried to make me do all sorts of silly upgrades, not even related to my business . I dropped them asap. then picked up Nationwide. My premiums more than doubled in 2 years with zero claims . I **** canned them pronto,(and gave the local agent an earful)
Id do better with the mob .

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by fastfredracing

I have a half a million dollars worth of equipment and tools in the place, and not one single piece of it is declared, nor was I ever advised, that I needed to declare any of it. So, I would have to assume, that nothing I own under my business policy is covered .

State Farm is not to blame BUT the quote in bold tells me you should DUMP the agent that didn't advise you (unless you didn't disclose the situation).