Liberty Mutual Insurance
reviews and complaints

Recently I was shopping for auto insurance with the help of my Agent. He stated they could save me from my 250.00 a month payment to 162.74 a month. I was elated to save almost a hundred a month(Times are tuff). I told him lets do it. I made a down payment of 237.00 on June 3rd 2009 and started my new policy. In July I made a payment, in August when my 2nd payment was due I was out of town helping my dying sister. When I got home I called to make a payment but they said I would have to call my agent and do a re-instate since I was one day past due. I called my agent and did the re-instate and made my payment. I wanted to set up on auto pay but when I called they said you will have to go thru your agent to do this. I called my agent and they were out of the office so I left a message to set on auto pay. When September rolled around I noticed that my payment had not been taken from my account. I called 3 days after the due date again and asked why the payment had not been taken. They said that this was never set up and that I would have to call my agent. I called and they said that now I could not re-instate the policy because they only allow one late pay per policy written. Agent called and they said there was nothing they could do. I was furious. I still needed car insurance so I had to make another down payment and go with another carrier. So all in all I did not save any money. I had paid 562.48 for 107 days worth of coverage and made a new down payment of 215.00. So total I paid 777.48 in less than 107 days. Then I recvd a new stmt saying that I still owe them a balance of 91.22 on top of what I paid. I called and made a payment of 20.00 thru the automated system then spoke to cust service to let them know that I would be paying this out so my account would not to go to collections. They stated today that it will go to collections anyway if not paid by 11/01/09. I again tried to let them know that my husband and I are on a fixed income (I unemployed, husband retired) and having to pay all this extra due to them not re-instating my policy and because of incompetence that was out of my control. They have no customer service, they take you money and go onto the next sucker. Since my lovely customer service experience that I received today, I will now pay 5.00 a month on the balance of 71.22. Should be paid off in Dec 2010 by my calculations and to think that I could have paid this off in Nov 2009.

We suffered water damage to our home, and have had a difficult time seeking remedy with Liberty Mutual Insurance. We have now filed a complaint with the Department of Insurance.

I know Liberty Mutual does mass marketing and offers premium reductions to State and County employees … this is how they got us to be a customer. We may put together a PowerPoint slide show at some point with the photographs of our house and circulate the presentation via the internet, but so far we have not done that. Here is what happened

On the morning of August 14, 2009, my wife and I woke up to what amounted to a lake in our upstairs carpeting. The service line to the hot water side of the upstairs bathroom sink had burst, and the water ran for an unknown amount of time during the night while Patti and I slept.

When I went into the bathroom, there was approximately ¾ of an inch of water on the floor, water was running from under the sink and vanity, down the wall and onto the floor, down the air conditioning vent, and into the carpeting in the hallway.

The water had saturated the carpets in the upstairs hallway, the stairwell, and partially into two upstairs bedrooms. When I went downstairs, water had soaked the sheetrock of several walls, and had soaked the carpeting in part of the room … it was a soppy mess. When I went into the garage, water was running down the wall, and leaking from the ceiling all over our vehicles. I immediately moved the vehicles for fear the sheetrock ceiling was going to collapse. To us, the sight was devastating.

For whatever good it did, I grabbed our carpet cleaner and began sucking up as much water as I could, while Patti got hold of the insurance company.

Liberty Mutual was quick to send out a restoration company, as well they should. The restoration company arrived about an hour later – surveyed the damage, and asked for equipment to clean up the mess. We were put up in a local hotel for four days while they dried out the house.

What is upsetting is the handling of our claim. We have faithfully paid our premiums for probably more than 8 years with this company, and have not filed a homeowner claims with them of any kind.

I first met with the claim representative the Monday following the damage, August 17. She was accompanied by the owner of the restoration company, who coincidentally owns a local construction company. The three of us walked the house. At first I was ok with everything, even with using this construction company -- but as I watched, it became very apparent Liberty Mutual did not have our best interests at heart. (my opinion, they seem to feel they have been just peachy).

There was a great deal of talk of “patching and painting”, not removing and replacing. I can’t speak for you, but I have a huge problem with just painting over and covering obvious water damage … especially since we may decide to one day sell our home, wherein we have to disclose anything that has happened to our home. Who in their right mind is going to want to buy a home that had prior water damage where the damage was just painted over and covered up?

The owner of the construction company remarked that the bathroom floor upstairs would have to come up because it was slightly buckled indicating water had gone underneath the tile floor – which the claim representative immediately responded “no, we will just replace the grout. We are not going to replace that (indicating the floor)” The vanity was not pulled away from the wall so the area would dry (this was the source of the water), and I was told there was no reason to replace it, despite the obvious water damage to the base. It seemed to be an argument to get them to agree to change the floor under the carpet upstairs, which by this time had buckled in at least two places – but after walking the area several times, the claim representative agreed the floor would have to be changed. (how you are supposed to change the base floor without removing tile and carpet is beyond me) Despite my repeated complaints, I was emphatically told they absolutely would not replace the carpet and padding … anywhere in the house … but was told that merely drying them out would suffice. There are still stains in the carpet despite it having been steam cleaned.

My wife had spent considerable hours painting our downstairs several years ago. We no longer have any of the paint that was used, and I doubt it is available as it was a specialized mix so she could sponge paint the living room. Despite the obvious water damage to several of the walls and three doors, we were told only two of the walls, and part of the ceiling needed to be replaced.

Despite obvious water damage to the sheetrock in the garage, Liberty Mutual felt it is “okay” to just paint over it. It was acceptable to replace the sheetrock on one wall since the restoration company had cut a hole in the wall to dry it out.

We were given the “okay” to move back into our house on August 18th. When I visited that morning and met with the worker from the restoration company, the house was still close to 100 degrees inside. At one point I turned on the air conditioner, but it did not seem to operate very well. After some investigation on my part, I discovered that water had gone down the ducting, and into the bottom part of the heater / air conditioning unit. I am assuming the weight of the water had knocked off the duct work, and this would explain why water collected and pooled in this area of the ceiling. I did not discover this until the restoration company was preparing to leave after giving an “all clear”. The man doing the work helped me re-attach the duct work, and the air started working a little better. I explained to him that water was coming out of the air conditioner; but he did not seem overly concerned.

Based on our treatment from Liberty Mutual, we made a decision to search for our own construction people. I obtained two bids from different constructions firms.

One contractor has been a huge, huge help to us and is obviously very knowledgeable of construction. His bid was $20, 000 and that was without replacing the carpeting or the upstairs vanity. There is a separate bid to replace the affected duct work to the air conditioner.

I received the first appraisal from the insurance carrier. They felt $5, 000 for the damage would suffice … and the bid was more about painting, patching, and covering up. They were not going to repaint the from room … only spot paint the areas affected by the water which would have left us with three different colors of paint in the front room.

I raised a stink with the adjuster, and she finally agreed to come back out. Two weeks after the initial loss, she called telling me she “was concerned” that our house may not have dried properly, and wanted to bring out another restoration company to test and see if everything was done properly. All the research I have conducted via the internet and the people I have talked with indicated the carpets and pads should have been removed, along with the air conditioning duct work and upstairs vanity.

The adjuster came out a second time on August 28th. This time she brought with her the claims manager and the same exact restoration company as before … however this time it was a branch out of Sacramento and not Vallejo. It became apparent to me almost immediately that this was being done so as to “confirm” their original position. I felt as if Liberty Mutual was attempting to pressure us into accepting their first appraisal as accurate. The tactics remind me of low-balling and coercion. The restoration company indicated the duct work had to be replaced because of health reasons.

One of the contractors we had talked to had agreed to come out and meet with the adjuster, and we are so glad that he did. Had it not been for him being here, I know that no headway would have been made with Liberty Mutual. He argued on our behalf because much of what Liberty Mutual was attempting to do was just unacceptable.

The manager for Liberty Mutual told the contractor and myself that there was no reason to replace the sheetrock in the garage – he claimed that sheetrock becomes stronger after it is exposed to water (?)

Liberty Mutual has agreed to adjust their estimate, or so they say as I still have not received a revised estimate, but they are still refusing to cover the carpet and padding, as well as some of the other work both contractors recommend be done.

We are in the process of trying to find a public adjuster to argue our claim with the insurance company so we can get our home repaired.

We just want our home repaired to the same as it was prior to the water loss –

And if you haven’t changed all the service lines in your home, you may want to call a plumber and have it done. This can happen to anyone.

Well, after sitting in front of my computer for about an hour reading consumer complaints, I decided I needed to be heard.

My mother and my sister and I were solicited by an agent of Liberty Mutal, Theresa Butler in the Dallas Fort Worth area. My mother works for a large defense contractor and they offered a discount with Liberty Mutual. The agent assured my family that even though the rates were low that the coverage was exceptional. So, everything was then swithed, home, car...etc. We have been insured with Liberty Mutual for about 2 years now with no infractions.

Last Monday 8/10/2009 we noticed that one of our base boards in the kitchen was wet. We called our handy man to look at it and upon inspection, he discovered there was a leak in the wall. The next morning we called our agent. She said she would have an adjuster come to look. When the man called my sister, his first comment was "Shouldn't I be speaking to your husband about this" **hmf** She replied that she was a single mom and the she lived with her sister (me). He called her back an hour later and said the claim was denied because it was prior damage. PRIOR DAMAGE? WE CALLED THE MINUTE WE SAW IT. HE HAD NOT EVEN LOOKED AT THE DAMAGE, HAD NOT EVEN BEEN TO OUR HOUSE. After 24 hours of arguing with the claims department, they agreed to send another adjuster out. Again, they claimed that we were not covered for damages that could not determined when they occured. We again asked how in the world we were supposed to see damage IN A WALL? Perhaps there should have been a x-ray vision clause. So we asked what exactly DID they cover. Basically if the house burns down.

We are both single moms just trying to make ends meet and we will never be able to afford to repair all this damage. As it stands right now, we don't have a sink or water to our kitchen.

Now I am in the process of seeking "higher ups" in the Liberty Mutual Chain and I meeting with resistance from local supervisors. How can this company get away with this? How can the agents mislead consumers? It is going to be my mission to get as many people to drop this company. If you are insured, have another company look at the policy and see of you are covered for anything.

I was on short term disability and Liberty Mutual has advised me that they will not be able to process my claim until I pay a bill that was sent TO THEM from my doctor. This bill was for copies of medical records that Liberty Mutual asked my doctor to send to them. I refuse to pay this bill because the bill was sent to Liberty Mutual for payment for services provided to them...not me. Now, this company is refusing to process my claim for benefits. How can they hold up my claim for ransom like that? Has anyone else had a problem like this?

I was hurt on the job and Liberty Mutuals claims case manager almost had me talked into signing some papers then he would send me a check for $2500.00, and if I did not sign them I would not get anything. I did take them to an attorney just for advise and was told not to sign them that Liberty Mutual owed me the money anyways for the injury plus 15% penalty for having it sent in 21 days from the date of my doctors report. I did have to have surgery.

This all happened in March 2009, and still yet Liberty Mutual has not sent me the money due nor have they returned any of my phone calls. I just hope that no one else has fallen for there tricks.

Hello, my name is Randy and on August 6, 2004, in Kern County. I was involved in a car accident. My car was a Ford Festiva, one of the smallest. I was knocked unconscious. The police cited the other driver for making an illegal turn. The other driver just happened to carry Liberty Mutual Insurance.

I chose to represent myself in court. As a driver or a passenger, I have never sued anyone and the procedure was hard to understand. Between the hospital, ambulance, doctor, and physical therapy the bills piled up fast. Liberty Mutual Insurance, to this day, has not paid a single dollar to any of my medical bills that has totaled over $12, 000.

For two years, I have answered all of their questions such as work, financial, bills etc. Liberty has constantly dragged their feet and so I decided to take them to court.

In October 2006, Liberty Mutual obtained my medical records illegally by using power of subpoena. Requesting medical records to doctors that I have not even seen, and to hospitals that have not seen me for my accidents. They also have requested my bank records, my credit history, the contents of my safety deposit box, my HIV/Aids status, and my past employers and employees.

My friends, the best way to fight a greedy, sneaky, fraudulent giant like Liberty Mutual is to drop their services or refuse to buy their product. The office that I was dealing with was the office in Ontario, California.

In January I started a new job where I got a discount using Liberty Mutual. At the end of January we had a very bad blizzard, and while driving to work I hit a large patch of black ice and the truck slid into an irrigation ditch.

I called the insurance company right away and told them what happened. They gave me a rental car, and a week later called me to tell me that my claim was being sent to a "special claims department". At that point my credit had gotten decent enough that I got a loan for enough to pay the truck off. Two weeks later they called again to tell me that my truck was drivable I needed to get it off of the lot that they had taken it to. I informed them that it wasn’t drivable, when they were towing it out of the ditch liquid was pouring out of the back axle. They told me ok, we'll leave it there until we can have it looked at.

Two more weeks later and the car rental company calls me to tell me that the insurance company stopped paying for my rental car, that I have to bring it back or they'll report it stolen, and that they billed me $200 for the week that the insurance company didn't pay for it. I called the insurance company and complained, so they paid the $200 but wouldn't extend my rental. I had to use the money that I got to pay off the truck to buy a second vehicle.

Two more months go by without any information from them, I have to call every week to check on any updates. I get the same answer "we're investigating it", essentially, don’t call us we'll call you.

After just over three months, they sent me an email saying that they denied my claim because I didn’t have enough insurable interest on the vehicle "title wasn’t in my name". Not only that, but they call me the Monday after and tell me to come pick up my truck, and to bring a cashiers check or money order for $800... They are charging me a storage fee for the three months that they had it in their lot... This company is the most shady company that I have every dealt with, and believe me, I deal directly with Microsoft...