UAIG / Bad service

Agree 100% here's my story and complaint i wrote to the Texas department of insurance regarding insurance fraud tht i experineced with UAIG.
Do not use UAIG for any insurance service because they dont give a ### about customer service they just want your money and when you have a claim they have nothing to do with it. I cant even begin to explain the frustrations i faced when i called the number of my insurance adjustor only to find out that his mailbox was full. Avoid UAIG at all cost.

To Texas Department of Insurance
April 23, 2007, In response to Mr. Fred K. Harvey’s letter:
First of all I would like to begin by informing Mr. Harvey that my case file was not promptly setup. When I called United Auto Insurance Group (UAIG) to report my case I spoke to a Marlene. She noted all my information and told me that my claims adjuster was a Mr. Blaine Rozek. I contacted Mr. Rozek like I was supposed to, and he told me to email him pictures and supporting documents regarding my case which I did as per his request. Nearly a week later I received a message from Marlene the customer representative that she had made a mistake and filed my case in the wrong category and that my new claims adjuster was a Mr. Jose Salfedo. Now as you can clearly see almost a week was wasted because of the carelessness of their customer representative. Next I called Mr. Salfedo numerous times until finally getting a hold of him. First he told me I need to send him pictures and supporting documents to which I told him that I had already sent Mr. Rozek everything. Not only this i found this very awkward that the first few times I spoke to Mr. Salfedo he was clueless of who I was and told me that he does not have any picture or documents pertaining to my case, and then after arguing he would acknowledge that he does have them. The reason I am mentioning this is to show how UAIG has been wasting my time instead of working on my case. As Mr. Harvey says that I reported the case on 3-8-"2006" and he spoke to the insured on 3-23-"2006" you can clearly see in the letter how careless, unprofessional, and incompetent UAIG is that they don’t even know that we are currently in the year 2007. And also I would like to inform Mr. Harvey that I called and reported the case on 3/5/07 not on 3/8/"06" as he claims. My loss occurred on 3/3/2007 why would I wait for so many days in reporting the case. The reason that Mr. Harvey thinks that I reported the case on 3/8/2007 is probably because Marlene the customer representative had made an error in filing my case in the correct category. I can provide written proof that I reported the case on the following Monday 3/5/2007 because I went to my neighboring insurance company and the owner of the place helped me place the call. So I believe Mr. Harvey has got his facts not only wrong but they are not even in the right year.

Anyways continuing to what Mr. Harvey says about "sending an appraiser out to inspect the property only to find that most of the property damage had already been repaired". I am not sure what Mr. Harvey was expecting. I mean the appraiser came by like a week after the accident occurred so was Mr. Harvey expecting that I leave all the damage out for a week so the appraiser can inspect it. What Mr. Harvey does not realize is that this is not an auto-auto accident. This is a business and every day that I have to keep our store closed or every day that I go without window advertising I lose money. That is why the day the accident happened I had to call someone to come and board up the place so I could open up the next day and resume business. And as Mr. Harvey says that I have "handwritten receipts" I am not sure what he is expecting. Is the repair guy supposed to carry a computer and printer in his car so he can print out receipt? It was an on the spot job so the receipt was made on the spot. Furthermore all receipts or invoices have telephone numbers on them so if the insurance company has any questions that need to be addressed they are free to call the respective companies.

Mr. Harvey states in his letter that "we spoke to Mr. Qureshi and explained that this was not sufficient and we needed an invoice or receipt". I sent Mr. Salfedo (the claims adjuster) all the invoices that he requested. Mr. Salfedo called me and said the weirdest thing I have ever heard in my life. He said regarding the$4000 door and window invoice that "what you have sent me is an invoice, it is not a receipt". I believe that a receipt or invoice is the same thing. We argued for like 15 minutes but Mr. Salfedo could not clarify for me what he meant when he said that "what you have sent me is an invoice not a receipt". So anyways to clear this I am attaching an additional copy of the invoice and as you can clearly see on the top right corner it says "INVOICE" I have even circled it so Mr. Salfedo and Mr. Harvey can easily spot it. Also Mr. Salfedo told me every time I called to check up on the status of the case that the case is under investigation. I mean this should be an open and shut case there should not be these pointless delays. The driver insured by UAIG ran his vehicle into my store, he has called the insurance company and acknowledged that he has ran into the store, the police report clearly says that the driver ran his vehicle into the store. So what more is there to investigate? What is UAIG investigating on?

Mr. Harvey states in his letter that "It is very unusual for a business to pay $4000.00 in losses in cash as every business usually documents it's expenses". I believe how I pay for my losses is my personal matter. The door of a business in my opinion is the most important part of a business because if there is no door or if instead of a door there is a wooden boarded up front to the store no one would want to come in. Additionally if the insurance company wanted me to pay by a different method then they should have told me when I spoke to them. In our many conversations no one mentioned to me that I should pay by credit card or by check. Furthermore I do believe to the best of my knowledge that I have tried to document everything the best I could but still I am new at this. It is not every day that someone drives into my place of business; this would be a first for me. Additionally we are not here to discuss what "usually" happens and what is "unusual". It is "unusual" for a guy to run his vehicle into a store but it happened. "usually" when someone does damage to someone else he/she is supposed to pay for it. And also "usually" when the police report says that the driver is at fault then the insurance company should not be conducting their personal investigations.

Mr. Harvey also states in his letter that "We are reviewing the glass bill with another company to verify the reasonableness of the repair cost" I believe it is a little too late to verify the reasonableness of the repair cost because now that we have paid $4000 we demand that we be reimbursed $4000.
Mr. Harvey also states in his letter that "We are also completing our own estimate on the carpet and wall painting so this can be paid at the same time". Mr. Harvey obviously does not know that the walls need more then paint. There are gaping holes in the walls that need to be repaired before it is painted. And even so how long does it take to get an estimate. It has been well over a month still the insurance company has not been able to get an estimate. I can get an estimate in 15 minutes by making a few phone calls from the local greensheet.

I would like to comment on the appraiser’s behavior and attitude when he visited my business on the two occasions. The first time he visited he came inside took about 4 or 5 pictures and was done in about 2 minutes. I stopped him and said is that it? are you only going to take 4-5 pictures. He said yeah that’s all they told me to do. So I said well we have cleaned the place since the accident so these pictures that you are taking won’t really explain a lot. I then showed him pictures that I had taken on the day of the accident and he started taking pictures of my pictures. I thought this was ridiculous because I had already sent them these pictures so why is the appraiser taking pictures of my pictures. I urged him to stay and take more pictures of the cabinets and the pieces of glass lying around in certain places etc. but it seemed he was in a hurry so he left. So this is why I believe that Mr. Harvey thinks that "the property damage has already been repaired" because the appraiser failed to take pictures of everything like he was supposed to. Also this is the reason they had to resend the appraiser a second time which was about a month later. If the appraiser would have done his job correct the first time there would be no need for him to come a second time. Anyways the second time the appraiser was there he asked said some idiotic things and asked some ###ic questions such as, "where is the glass", "I don’t see any glass anywhere" was the appraiser expecting that I save the pieces of glass somewhere for him so he could come by a month later and inspect it. This is a place of business I cannot wait months for the insurance company to come and inspect. If they wanted to inspect everything they should either have come the day of the accident or the following Monday.
United Auto is not only handling my case with such disrespect, but many of my customers and close acquaintances tell me that UAIG is a terrible insurance company and they always handle cases like this. Our next door business neighbor Mr. Sal Ortiz who is a highly decorated Allstate insurance agent also tells me that UAIG is one of the worst companies that he has ever dealt with. Surprisingly even Mr. Sergio Forbes (the driver who ran into my store with his vehicle) upon his visit was surprised to see that the insurance company had still not settled the case. He said that he would go home and call the insurance company again and ask them what is taking so long.
After reading Mr. Harvey’s letter I am very disappointed with his response and his lies, and I must disagree with Mr. Harvey completely. Mr. Harvey states "This claim was handled properly any delays have been due to the alleged cash payments involved" I would like to remind Mr. Harvey that according to UAIG the claim is still being processed so it would be incorrect to say that the claim WAS handled properly. And again since the insurance company did not tell me to pay by check or by credit card or by any other means they have no further right to hold me responsible for paying in cash. So far everything that Mr. Harvey has said in his letter is not only incorrect but is lies. I believe that my claim is not being handled properly and any delays are due to the negligence of the insurance company.

My experience with UAIG was the absolute worst customer service I have ever experienced from any company ever, and that is not the worst part of my experience with this company. First off I was everything, but cursed out when I simply ask for a proof of auto insurance card by Isabelle, who would not give her last name. This incident took place on 12/11/10 at approximately 11:30 a.m., and ended up so badly, I immediately cancelled my insurance with UAIG, and did a stop payment of the eft draft from my bank. Which at the time I thought was obviously the right choice, but boy didn't that turn out to be a big misconception. On 12/16/10 UAIG still went in my account, and attempted to take the payment out of my account. This was of course interrupted by the stop payment that was placed, but to my disbelief UAIG did not stop there. On 12/17/10 UAIG went back into my account, raising the dollar amount on the payment. This allowed them to avoid the stop payment, and draft the funds from my account. So feeling as though, I had just been the victim of a cyber bank robbery. I immediately contacted my bank via telephone, and explained what had happened in its entirety. My bank advised me to come into the branch, so I could be further assisted. Once at the bank, I brought a banker up to speed on the incident in its entirety. The banker then asked me to get an UAIG agent on the phone. I assumed so the banker could get the other side of the story, as well as to see what procedures could be taken from this point. Once the agent was on the phone, the banker and UAIG agent begin to speak on the unauthorized banking draft. Approximately two minutes into the conversation between the banker and UAIG agent, the banker stated, "ma'am please calm down, you don't have to curse nor yell at me. I'm only trying to see where do we go from here, " to the UAIG agent. It wasn't until the banker explained to the UAIG agent that the bank would be making a claim against there company, that the agent appeared to calm down. Then the UAIG agent begin to explain, how it was everyones else fought this incident had happened except for UAIG's. The banker advised the agent that companies do this type of manipulation to the stop payment system all the time, because they know if they raise the price by even one cent more it will allow them access to the funds. Immediately following this the UAIG agent asked the banker to place me on the phone. Once I was on the phone the agent asked me to get a copy of the bank draft, a proof of my new insurance, and proof of cancelation, then have it faxed it to them, and it would be taken care of. Well today is 12/22/10, and it still isn't taken care of. However the UAIG proof of insurance, which I no longer need showed up in the mail on 12/21/10. So I guess in short UAIG is saying Merry Christmas Too Me in the UAIG way. However the bank has filed a claim. So I am eagerly waiting to see the outcome of there findings.

The same old lady ISABELLA!!! i have dealt with ...my name is Ernst after a short notice from UAIG i mist paying my insurance by 5pm on a Saturday by Monday i went back to the office my insurance had Ben cansled. usually they let you reinstated it she said they don't do that no more ..she told me i had to get new insurance i told her but my policy is brand new this is my second payment. she said you have no coverage at the moment Ernst!!! so i started a new policy dishing out $389.00 even though I'm feeling like A JERK I'm getting robbed..then she said to me Ernst policy price went up a little bit but don't worry about it, when i got home i started reading the papers the policy went from $125.00 a month to $195.00 $70 more monthly and a whopping $850.00 more then the previous policy ...what kind of insurance company does this kind of ripoff and gets away with it its straight up robbery ...i called them up and try to reason with her (Isabella) she yell at me too!!! she told me every insurance company went up Ernst!!!, and that was a lie because the first company i called gave me a rate better rate then my previous policy .. i call her again she told me she was busy with other customers she put me on hold and never came back ..i called again she answer the phone and told me Ernst if you cancel with UAIG they going to keep your new down payment ...i told her they can keep the down payment I'd be a bigger jerk to keep paying for this policy <<>> I WILL GIVE THEM MY POLICY.. ONE YEAR OF STRAIGHT BAD PROMOTION AND I WILL STAND NEAR THERE OFFICES TO WARN CUSTOMERS