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On the evening of Friday, September 9, 2007 in a parking lot in Elgin, =
IL., a vehicle insured by the above insurance company struck our parked =
van and fled the scene. Including myself, there are two eye witnesses to =
the accident. The license plate of the offending vehicle was recorded =
and immediately reported to the police. Within minutes, the Elgin, IL =
Police Dept. tracked the plate down to a nearby residence where they =
discovered the vehicle parked in the owners' driveway. Upon further =
investigation by the police, they talked to the passenger of the =
offending vehicle who was at that residence and he admitted to being in =
the vehicle at the time the driver backed into our car and drove away. =
However, he claimed he only knew the drivers name as "Jesus" and that he =
had left minutes before. The police also discovered that the registered =
owner has a suspended drivers license. Neither myself nor the other eye =
witness could identify who was driving the vehicle that struck ours.
We reported the incident to Christina Kane at the above insurance agency =
when they opened on Monday 9/12/2007 and filed a claim to repair the =
damages caused by their insured clients' vehicle. The above insurance =
agency had requested copies of the police report and a letter stating =
the events of the accident. This alone is odd because any insurance =
agency can obtain police reports of their insured themselves. Later, =
they had also sent us a Founders Insurance form to fill out that =
resembled a police report. Some of the information they requested was =
our Social Security number, our insurance policy number, our coverage =
type, our deductable and where we worked. Needless to say, we did not =
give them that information as they have absolutely no relevant need for =
it. We have taken our vehicle to the body shop that Founders Insurance =
Co. suggested for an estimate. The recommended body shop seemed shady =
and had a large calendar with scantly clad women hanging in plain sight =
of the customers. I will say that my wife was uncomfortable with the =
establishment.
It has been over three months and in excess of 10 phone calls have been =
placed to Founders Insurance Co. checking on the status of the claim. =
When they actually returned our calls, each response has been that "they =
are still investigating it and can not reach the owner". To this date, =
absolutely nothing had been done to pay for the damages caused by their =
clients' vehicle. We have also filed a complaint with the BBB, The =
Illinois Division of Insurance and Professional Regulations, and the Des =
Plaines, IL. Chamber of Commerce.
It is in our opinion that Founders Insurance Co. is clearly avoiding =
paying a claim in their hopes that we would have our highly reputable =
insurance company take care of it. Regardless of who was driving the =
vehicle, the fact of the matter is that the vehicle that Founders =
Insurance Company insured, struck our parked vehicle in plain view of =
two separate witnesses and fled the scene. This form of business =
practice is fraudulent as far as I am concerned and should be eradicated =
from the insurance business.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
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On a follow up to this disgraceful company, they refused to pay any claim while finding a loophole in the system.
Should our lovely politicians decide that everyone must have mandatory healthcare, mark my word, you will see healthcare insurance companies conducting business just like Founders does. Take heed Americans!
Founders is the worst co. I have ever had to deal with. My son hit something in the road on interstate 80. It flipped up punctured his windshield destroyed the hood damaged the roof of the cab, bent the drivers fender and did a lot of other smaller damage. Since he is insured through Founders we filed a claim.
We took the truck to Westmont body werks as they are known for doing stellar work. Founders refused to send an adjuster to that location. They said we HAD to take it to one of their approved dumps(shops). This is an 2003 fully loaded Chevy silverado with low milage in perfect condition. Founders left the vehicle sit there for 45 days racking up storage charges of $50 per day. So, by the time they finally sent a guy out there they already owed Westmont $2250.
They did not respond to my sons calls or to the body shops calls.
After that they told my son that the damage is only $3500 dollars. Westmont said it was $8000 actual damage without the storage fees.
To top it all off they wanted to put an after market hood on the truck that did not even meet saftey specs. The reason we know this is because my son is a mechanic and his brother is a collision and repair tech.
It took almost 8 months to get everything worked out. At least my son had another vehicle to get to work. Oh yeah, they also would not cash out the rental fee as the policy states and that he pays for.
Time for renewal on the policy? They jacked up the total for coverage by $600 for a 6 month period. He had never made a claim of any kind against this policy except this one.