Pekin Insurance
reviews and complaints

I've had Pekin insurance for a number of years now for both home and auto. They have very reasonable rates and are easy to work with. I would definitely recommend giving them a look.

Pekin Insurance be all over the place with their prices, man. They be telling you one thing, but then they go and charge you something totally different. Like, they said my deductible was gonna be $1000, but then they hit me with a bill for $2400. And to top it off, when I had a loss and needed them to pay out, they straight up refused. Can you believe that?

I had they're insurance on my business, autos, home, personal autos, everything for over a decade. We had an attic fire. They even insured Pekin Stove Shop that caused the fire. Nothing but a battle, had to sue them. I wouldn't recommend them to insure a dead dog, Curt Markley.

My bill was due on the 28th, paid it on the 30th but they didn't get it from the bank till the 7th of July. Holiday and COVID, I am guessing. Went to pay the most recent bill and was informed my policy was canceled and got dropped. Wouldn't recommend Pekin to anyone, I've been with them for 5 years or more and have always paid my bill.

The company dont call back, dont take responsibility for its wrong doing and actions. Tries to price gouge you, wont return phone calls from the head office in I. They try to get you on a payment plan instead of paying full. There gilling invoice has no balance of what is owed if on a payment plan. They try and blame everything on the agent when its the home office and the board members.

Pekin Insurance ain't that reliable when it comes to settling claims with their clients. One of their clients bumped into the side of my car while I was waiting to park. Even though I had pictures showing scratches on their client's rear bumper and dents on my front and rear passenger doors, the Pekin adjuster and their boss said I hit their client's car. So, they denied my claim. I tried telling them that it was physically impossible for me to cause the damages I had and the damages on their client's rear bumper without their client backing into me. But after two weeks of dragging their feet, they still denied my claim. In my opinion, this insurance company is pretty lousy and needs to be looked into for their shady practices.

Every month, Pekin Insurance sends my Bank automatic payment claims, and my Bank always accepts them. They say one of the claims is for renter's insurance for an apartment I haven't lived in for two years. The other claim is for a car that doesn't work anymore (or have a license), and I want to add it as a second vehicle to my current auto insurance company. But I can't because the car doesn't meet the local emissions requirements. Pekin won't let me cancel either policy and keeps taking money from my checking account without my permission. I tried using their customer service on their website, but it doesn't work because they don't have any record of me as a customer. With all this confusion and trickery, I'm just glad I never had to make a claim.

I've been with Pekin Insurance for more than 15 years, and I've paid around $60k during that time. Besides some unfortunate incidents like storm damage to my home (not my fault), two deer collisions (welcome to the wild), and a hit and run that we never solved, I haven't made any other claims. The two deer accidents involved cars valued at less than $5,000 each. The storm damage was caused by a powerful storm, so what can you do? Today, they canceled my policy because I had too many auto claims. It feels like they took my money all those years and left me hanging. Their customer service used to be really good, but now it's no better than a late-night 7-11. It's hard to reach someone competent without waiting days for a callback. My son also had Pekin Insurance, and they canceled his policy over 8 times for non-payment, even though they were supposed to auto-draft his account. I wouldn't recommend this company to insure a Tonka truck. They are a poor company, and if they keep treating their customers like this, they won't have any left to pay claims to. If you enjoy terrible customer service, inept billing, and a company that pretends to be something it's not, then this is the company for you!

I've never seen an insurance company as bad as Pekin Insurance in my whole life. Someone insured by Pekin hit my car while I was stopped at a red light and completely wrecked it. I've had to argue with them about money for missed work days, payment for a temporary car, and now, after 5 months since the accident, 2 months after chiropractic treatment, which messed up my back and my finances, they are just now reaching out to me about the chiropractic payment. I'm sure it won't be a fair payment either. The person handling my claim from Pekin is really bad at their job and seems to just make up payment amounts. I even asked to see the company's payment policies and they didn't want to show me. They're also always on vacation for some reason and hardly ever answers their phone. I really hope no one ever gets hit by someone insured by Pekin because you'll have to fight for everything and won't even get a fair payment in the end. Like the other person in this review said, I wouldn't trust these people to insure a dead dog. They really don't care about you or your needs when their insured hits you.

I filed a claim with Pekin Insurance on August for some damage to my roof and ceiling caused by a storm. However, I didn't hear anything from the claims department for several months. I got really frustrated and threatened to report them to the ComplaintsBoard.com. Finally, after several more months, a claims representative named Gabrielle *** came to inspect the damage. I showed her my roof and ceiling, but then more months went by without any progress.

Eventually, I received a check, but it was only for the roof. Just the roof, nothing else. I made countless calls and sent numerous emails, but Gabrielle *** only got back to me to deny that we had ever discussed fixing the ceiling. She claimed that I had told her I would fix it myself, which doesn't make any sense because I had already filed a claim for the storm damage. We didn't communicate for months after that.

I reached my breaking point and decided to call a contractor to get an estimate for the repairs. It was a simple and straightforward process. I sent the estimate to Gabby, but once again, I didn't receive any response. Frustrated, I threatened to report them to the ComplaintsBoard.com again via email. This time, Gabby responded and said she couldn't read the estimate. She claimed that she had called the contractor to get another estimate, but that was a lie. I called the contractor myself, and he confirmed that she had never contacted him. He even said he would testify to that in court. I sent a clear breakdown of the estimate, but neither Gabby nor Pekin responded.

Now it's March 28th, and I've had enough. Eight months is more than enough time to resolve this issue. I believe that local news channels in Phoenix, such as channels 3, 5, 10, and 12, would be interested in airing my story.

This review is quite long, but it's worth reading. They offered more for my tires, but the total amount remained the same, so I don't understand why they gave me more. Their insured driver ran a stop sign, failed to yield, and was only slightly over the speed limit according to my black box information. However, they say that I am 10% at fault. My 2006 SRT8 Chrysler 300 is completely destroyed, and they are undervaluing it. I can't select "Not responsive" as an option in this Google review, but I must say that Pekin Insurance is responsive. They are undervaluing both their insured's claim and mine, according to what her sister has told me. This contradicts what they claim about keeping premiums low for their customers. However, I must give credit to Pekin for being responsive. From the first call, they understood that my vehicle is rare and sought after, and they asked for the black box information. I was hesitant to provide it because I knew I was close to the speed limit, but David *** assured me that liability wouldn't change unless I was going "like 120 MPH" or something extreme. I reluctantly agreed but asked for their insured's information in return. The black box information showed that their insured didn't stop at the stop sign and only slowed down to 7 MPH before entering the intersection, failing to yield to my right of way. I had no stop sign, yet they still claim that I am 10% at fault. David *** lied to me. I responded strongly and used profanity, questioning if Pekin drug tests their employees, and requested an escalation. However, he didn't escalate the issue to a supervisor at that point. After over a month and multiple requests, they finally sent me their insured's black box information, just as David *** had promised. The black box information clearly shows their insured's negligence. Additionally, I provided a statement from NTB proving that my tires had 88% tread life remaining, but they only added $149 for four tires. It took a long time to receive their insured's black box information, but I did receive responses from Pekin. Unfortunately, they didn't answer my questions, except for asking again when I would be going to their impound lot. Mr. and Mr. F have also failed to explain the offer I received and how the numbers add up to the final total. The total of my last offer was the same as the previous one, which they had given me before adding a little extra for my nearly new tires. These tires had enough tread wear to slightly reduce my car's speed by 1-2 MPH, yet they want to hold me 10% liable for their insured's failure to stop, slow down, and yield. I have requested another escalation. All I want is to be in the same position I was in before the accident. However, they offered me less than the lowest valued car, which had more miles and looked worse in the pictures, including the interior and exterior. They even had to compare it to 2007 models with higher mileage and worse condition, which sold for a couple thousand more than their offer to me. I'll let you decide if Pekin Insurance is the right company for you.

I have attached the document for your reference. When I made the first call, they came to my place. I wrote a supplement plan afterwards, and the amount was $174. I have been waiting for the check. Then, on 10/28, the bank statement showed $226.40. On [protected], it was $201.41. That is not the $174 amount.

When COVID-19 started, I called this insurance company and asked them to pause the insurance that was being deducted from our account for my husband's Workmen's Comp. They declined, even though he was just sitting on the couch for three months. Then, when I tried to cancel it, they continued to withdraw money from my account for 10 days after I requested the cancellation.

To Whom it may concern: I am asking you to help me out here. I haven't received the service I expected from Pekin Insurance, and I haven't been compensated properly based on the premiums I paid for the policy and its extensions. I'm requesting $160,238.63, and I'll explain why below. There are several parts of this claim that were not fulfilled as per the policy I paid for. Please refer to the attached Written Explanation of Complaint for more details.

On 9/4, I cancelled my auto insurance with Pekin Insurance. But guess what? On 9/10, those sneaky folks at Pekin went ahead and took $54.36 from my account without even giving me a heads up! Can you believe it? I mean, sure, maybe they were only supposed to deduct part of the payment for September, but that doesn't give them the right to snatch the whole amount from my checking account. And get this, my insurance agent in Bloomington, Illinois didn't bother to mention any of this when I went to their office in person on 09/04. Can you say "communication breakdown"? Sheesh!

We've been dealin with an auto accident claim for 4 weeks now. After 2 weeks they came back with an offer to pay 60% of the damages. After 3.5 weeks they were able to adjust to 75% of the damages statin they don't "feel" they are entirely responsible. After a lengthy discussion with their 3rd party appraiser yesterday we reluctantly agreed to take 75% of TOTAL damages-body and mechanical as the tie rod snapped when our auto was hit. Today, *** told our insurance agent that they would NOT pay mechanical as the tie rod could have snapped regardless of the accident/impact. According to the mechanic, this is simply not true. The tie rod would not have snapped without the impact of the accident. This has been 4 weeks with NO resolution. Pekin is not backin up their claims with facts but rather "feelings." This is not an acceptable way for an insurance company to treat the damaged party.

On 8/13, our dryer caught fire. We called Pekin Insurance to fix it on 8/19. Earlier this year, we hired someone to clean our dryer vent and inside of the dryer. The GE guy said the fire happened because there was too much lint that wasn't cleaned properly. We told Pekin Insurance about it and the person in charge, Mr. said he would send someone to check it out. Later, he left me a voicemail saying that we didn't need an investigator because it costs too much. He asked me to send him the papers I had, so he could decide if they would pay for it. On 10/3, I sent all the papers to Mr.. On 10/6, he said they wouldn't pay because there wasn't enough proof about what caused the fire. He didn't do his job of investigating properly to handle my claim fairly and save money on the inspector.

My home got messed up by the big storm in August . The wind wrecked my roof, siding, and inside stuff, not hail. I called Pekin and they sent their own person, ***, to check it out. When she came, she agreed to pay for the damage in the master bedroom. She also looked at the outside damage and told me to get estimates for fixing it from my own people or from Pekin's preferred providers. She didn't want to replace my roof or siding. So, I hired my own roofing company and adjuster to work with Pekin on this wind damage claim. Pekin agreed to replace my roof and fix the damage in the master bedroom. They replaced the roof in November . The claim wasn't closed because my adjuster asked Pekin to assess the siding damage from the same storm. After going back and forth for months with Pekin (including *** and her boss), they didn't agree to our request for assessment of the siding damage. Now, in December , *** and her boss aren't responding to my adjuster and my roofing company. Now she's saying it was hail damage, not wind damage, and that Pekin doesn't have to pay for the inside damage from the storm. Pekin still owes money to my roofing company for the new roof, and they still need to pay for the damage in the master bedroom like they said. When *** came to my house, she said they would pay for the inside damage from the storm. All we want is to get the money we're owed and close this claim. It's obvious that *** is just messing around and holding up the claim for her own fun. I don't want this insurance thing to turn into a big fight if it doesn't have to.

Pekin Insurance settled on a claim with me in writing and promised payment. They sent me a check that I couldn't read, so my bank sent it back. I tried to reach out to ***, Pekin's Regional Business Manager, to get a new check, but Marie hasn't returned my call. I contacted Pekin and spoke to a Representative who connected me with a different Regional Manager. The Regional Manager called me at 7:45am today and was really rude and unprofessional. I told him that Pekin misspelled my name on the check, even though I gave them the correct spelling before they issued it. I also told him that they put someone else's name on the check, even though I don't have a joint account with them, so neither of our banks will accept it. The Regional Manager didn't care that I had a useless check and my bank wouldn't honor it. He said it wasn't his problem and I should deal with my bank. He said I already signed a release when they gave me the check, so it's not their issue anymore. When I mentioned that I would contact the ComplaintsBoard.com and file a complaint with the commissioner's office, he told me to go ahead and make sure to mention that I signed a release. I have 12 recorded calls of Pekin giving me a hard time about settling my claim. After 5 months, they finally admitted their mistake and promised payment (I recorded the call). Now they won't honor the payment or issue a correct check. I would advise anyone to never do business with Pekin Insurance. Stay far away from this company. I will keep filing complaints until this gets resolved. Companies like this need to be exposed. I've dealt with 3 Representatives so far: first, the claims adjuster who was really unprofessional, shady, and unethical throughout the whole claim process. Then, two of their Regional Managers who were very rude, arrogant, and ignorant on the phone.