beware if you claim
by faithful 25 years!!! on Apr 20, 2016
1 out of 5 stars
Similar to another review on here, we had hail damage in Airdrie in summer 2914. Dealing with the personal and their mandatory contractor Belfor has been one of the most horrible experiences of my life! We wanted to use our own contractor but to do that they would only pay out about $11000 on the $25000 of work :( . It took nearly a year to get started and it has dragged on to the point that we are STILL waiting for some things. They would only do two sides of the house despite our siding being discontinued so we have a multi colored home... The Windows had to be replaced FIVE times over ELEVEN visits (for which I had to become all day), due to multiple mistakes (shout out to Chinook Glass in Calgary the subcontractor, they were the most unprofessional company ever).... One window still rattles loudly with any wind.
I am appalled and cannot wait to switch insurers. Beware to those thinking you are getting a deal with the Personal, you will pay for it in the long run.
We have had a few car claims with relatively little problems... But fixing the hail damage on our truck was also a nightmare, a tale for another day!
I've been insured with this company for the past 7 years and I'm glad they ended my policy 36 hours after I relocated to a different city (36 hours !!! seriously!???). I tried to claim a damage once, and it was so horrible that I decided to pay for the damage myself than experience the frustration they gave me.
The coverage looks so shiny and nice but it's just papers. In reality, you have no insurance and they're simply ripping you off.
Also, they can come up with 100000 reasons to suspend your policy (I moved to a different city and called them to ask them if my vehicle's policy can be paused - they pulled the plug on me and canceled my home insurance) - I've never made any claim in my whole life (Tried once then never proceeded because of the horrible experience)
Had a bad hail storm which caused damage to home and also a rental. The Personal had an adjuster come with a reconstruction company guy to go over both houses. The reconstruction company would have done everything which would have been no hassle for us, but we took a pay out on some stuff and got work done by other tradesmen. I think The Personal took good care of us overall. We got coverage for "damage" which we hadn't even expected to get! On the downside, the Personal, when it comes to hail damage, only does direct damage. This means that only two sides of our rental were covered regardless of the fact that a siding match could not be found. However, I emailed the guy at The Personal directly (on advice of the adjuster) and he agreed to do the third side because it was so visible from the front of the house. The fourth side we are paying for ourselves which may sound bad since many (most?) people got all 4 sides done on their insurance, however, when I found out what their premiums were compared to what we pay, I was MORE than happy to pay for that fourth side! Also our deductible was $1000 for both houses together whereas many people I spoke to had a $2500 deductible so that more than paid for that 4th side right there. So we've been pleased so far (this is the first claim we have had with them) so I wanted to be sure to make a positive review since so often people only do a review when they are ticked off!
I have been a customer/policyholder of The Personal for 12 years and made my first home claim due to the Nov 2014 wind storm in the Oakville/Burlington ON area. The claims management experience has been a nightmare! Little assistance to help the policyholder through a stressful process, ridiculous policy on covering damages/expenses incurred because of The Personal and their service providers' incompetence, and to top it all off, a painful process to even get funds forwarded in order to pay service providers for those expenses they DID accept!!! Unbelievably bad customer service skills, adjustment/claims management process and expense reimbursement. I am beginning to believe that the favourable rates (mostly due to a group plan) are just not worth it. Stay away for the claims experience alone - believe me! If I could choose NO STARS I would.
In August 2014 there was a very bad hail storm in Airdrie. Pretty much everyone had damage. The back and side of my house were hammered with hail. My siding is no longer available. The personal plans to use a different colored siding on the affected areas! I will have a two tone house! This is crazy. All my neighbors who are in the same position are getting a full wrap of new siding. The personal is the only insurance company following the'letter of the law' on this. Every other company is using common sense and deciding to do the right thing by their customers. This means I either agree to having mismatched siding or I pay $12,000 additionally to replace the rest of the house to match. DO NOT USE THEM. You will regret it.
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I don't think there is a Worst Company out there. They said they could insure our house, so after 25 years with another company, we move to them. We were going to save $500, so we figured it was worth it.
Guess what? They couldn't insure our house. They said they didn't understand what a "Heritage House" meant - it means the house is Heritage Designated....the first agent had no idea. The second agent we spoke to, said they couldn't insure the house, so now we are in limbo.
To add insult to injury, they keep calling us to tell us to pay the premium, however they can't insure the house. I am scrambling, looking for a new provider and they keep hounding me to either pay them or to find a new company.
They suck!
So we had a flood in our house from a toilet upstairs in the end of August.
It is now December and I am still waiting for my house to be fixed :(
Also when I complained about the workmanship my adjuster said that there was a clause in my insurance that prevented the workers from fixing the house! The walls are all crooked and they will only replace the countertop in the kitchen that was damaged not the whole counter top as the countertop that was damaged was the breakfast bar. And of course I could not find an absolute match so now I will have miss matched counters! Worst company ever for customer service as I can not actually speak to them - I have to go through the adjuster!
Also when the claim was first filed they tried to tell me it was a ground water claim where I would only get $10,000 not the full value of what it should have been - had to fight for that!
My husband and I thought they were great insurance company for first time house owners, we were wrong! First off, we had a big storm back in 2011. It destroyed our shed and when the power was off, most of our food from our freezer rotted. We were told we would only get 400, yesterday I went to a new insurance company and found out our claim was 2,400! They lied to us about how much our claim would be! Who does that?! Secondly, they jacked up our house insurance WITHOUT sending any renewal form! I was told 3 lies, it was 'apparently' sent june and then aug.. and then sept. I didn't receive anything! They took money out of my account that was not agreed upon, they did it without me receiving any renewal form! They are awful! They don't even have any email! Please do not go with them; the woman that I talked to talked to me as if I was 2 years old. Just horrible!
We had been with them for over 9 years, no claims. They treated us horribly when our basement flooded due to failed sump pumps. They had made previous errors before with our car policies, but thankfully no accidents had occurred. We were literately in the process of searching for a new insurance company when our basement was flooded. They are rude, uncaring and will do as little as possible when it comes to your claim.
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been insured with the personal for 25 years. home and 2 automobiles.Had water damage from a copper pipe fitting that dripped behind a wall and down through the finished basement ceiling onto the carpeted floor. called the personal thinking that after all these years of not one claim against my policy and faithful on time payment the would help me out. Wrong!!! they send out an adjuster with a man from an emergency restoration clean up company, take some pictures and tell me not to do anything because there could be mold now. they tell me to tarp off the room until the so called mold can be removed by specialists. 1 week goes by no help from the personal. 2 weeks go by no help from the personal. In the third week they finally actually take my call just to find out they are denying my claim because in their opinion I should have done my due diligence and thoroughly inspected my home to ensure all things are in good working order on a daily basis. they told me to contact the plumber from 25 years ago a make a claim against him. there was never any mold when the adjuster made the site visit but after 3 weeks of taking his advice of tarping off the room mold had set in. mentioned this to the adjuster but he didn't care. also advised him that over the last quarter century I have probably paid them in access of $50,000 with no claims, again he didn't care. very disappointed with this company as I felt I was a faithful customer. My lawyer said I could make a case about the miss directed advice about the mold but this meant spending more money, repairing the damage to my home cost enough.Do yourself a favor and get quotes elsewhere. they are only in it to take your money , not to help you.