American Family Insurance Complaints

by Guest » Thu Jul 03, 2008 10:40 am
Guest

Guys..its truly interesting to see so many people have expressed their grievances at this fraud forum.

It needs a lot of guts to stand against frauds & I'm amazed to see a couple of you have really done that. I still remember the day (Dec, 2003) that my fiance went on to see the American Family Insurance representative & got a car insurance policy for us.

It was quite a shock for me when our car got stolen after that. American Family seemed quite proactive to meet the claim initials as we were to shift from that place the next day.

A couple of days later we were being consulted by their rep about the residue of our claim which according to them could not be met due my fiance's felony conviction since 2 decades. What they had to say was that American Family would not have covered him at all in case they had this information beforehand. They had given us an ultimatum that if he withdraws the claim he would be free or else they would seek legal help & see that he gets a sentence.

In mid-2004, my fiance got convicted of insurance scam. It was evident that the applications submitted by American Family Insurance to the attorney general were fraudulent. Once he recalled the signing procedure, he never remembered the agent asking him about his felony conviction. The agent must have submitted the paper works for which he had obtained my fiance's signature. The applications with us were left blank for those questions. My fiance was up with 1-6 for 2 folds of insurance fraud..I haven't read much about the american family insurance complaints but any advice would be of great help to people under such circumstances!

Thanx.. Amy_LV

Total Comments: 90

Posted: Fri Nov 20, 2009 01:35 pm Post Subject:

I don't know of any (captive) company that doesn't also refer to their agents as independent contractors.

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 03:35 am Post Subject:

I don't know of any (captive) company that doesn't also refer to their agents as independent contractors.



I don't either. State Farm, Allstate, Farmers... they're all independent contracting environments, and they're all captives. Like AmFam is. State Farm makes you go to meeting, Allstate makes you go to meetings. Farmers makes you do lots of things. So does EVERY captive.

The idea of independent contracts don't suit many individuals well. They think it sounds good at first, but then discover things they didn't think of when considering the position in the first place. There's something to be said for going with certain carriers over others, but that's not the discussion.

Do recruiters commonly put "lipstick on the pig?" Yup. Do they suck in unsuspecting chumps? Yup. I work with some of them and the turnover is humongous. I also work with the high-end captives and their turnover is pretty much non-existent. Again, not the forum.

Here's my point...it's obvious to me that anyone complaining about any particular company in these forums is able to get online. If you can get online, it kinda makes sense to me that if you found this forum, you have a least a modicum of ability to search for stuff online. If you have the ability to search out stuff online and you possess a teenie-weenie bit of intelligence, it figures that you would, maybe, do a little checking on the company you're about to put your future into. There's so much information on AmFam floating around in cyberspace...I just did a search on "American Family complaints" and:

1 - 10 of about 31,800,000 for american family complaints - 0.30 sec.



Thank you Google. Here's another one:

1 - 10 of about 7,860,000 for state farm complaints



Ooooooh...comparing State Farm to American Family in terms of sales and market penetration is like comparing General Motors to Kia. Not even close...and State farm has 1/4 the complaint citations on Google. Does that tell you something?

InsTeacher 8)

Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2009 12:42 pm Post Subject:

Jobvent.com is a good source for looking for 'sour grapes', but also if you weed thru the mess, you can find some good information.

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 08:15 pm Post Subject: AMFAM Screwed me over

my fiance and i were driving to get dinner and a lady turned left into us. It was our right of way as she didn't have a turn signal. She hit us in a Dodge ram and totalled my Chevy malibu. I had an eye-witness who saw everything and told AMFAM that they were at fault. I got told by "misty" that it was denied and we couldnt do anything but take it to court....

-Poor College Kid
aka
Good Driver[/u]

Posted: Wed Dec 02, 2009 10:15 pm Post Subject:

I got told by "misty" that it was denied and we couldnt do anything but take it to court....



Misty is an idiot, pure and simple. Every insurance policy has language that states what options are available in the event a claim is denied. As a matter of fact, many current policies don't allow you to sue; they require arbitration instead of litigation.

You don't need to sue anyone at this point. If you could tell us the specific reason for denial we could probably help you some more. Insurers are required to deny a claim in writing and you must be provided a copy of the written notice.

So...what did they say was the reason your claim was denied? Please give us the exact wording as found in your denial letter. Thanks!

InsTeacher 8)

Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2009 12:42 am Post Subject:

Every insurance policy has language that states what options are available in the event a claim is denied. As a matter of fact, many current policies don't allow you to sue; they require arbitration instead of litigation.

Easy there Lucky, this OP is third party if I'm reading the post right :wink:


Sorry Good_Driver but your post is well...lacking

It was our right of way as she didn't have a turn signal.

You do not get a 'right of way' because another vehicle didn't have turn signal on...Was this a controlled intersection? What EXACTLY happened..

I had an eye-witness who saw everything and told AMFAM that they were at fault

Unless your eyewitness is a traffic court judge, (and even then.. :roll: ), they can't "tell" AMFAM that they are at fault, it doesn't work that way..the other driver could have a witness that said the opposite. Now where was your witness and what did they see?

I got told by "misty" that it was denied and we couldnt do anything but take it to court....

My guess is that Misty doesn't think her insured would be found at fault in a trial situation. And she denied you based on the investigation, that would be the only reason she would tell you that you would have to secure a judgement for them to pay.

Ok, let us try to help you...tell us exactly what happened in the accident.

Also, did you file this with your carrier? If your carrier paid the ACV (actual cash value) of your totaled malibu under your collision coverage, then they would go against AMFAM to get your deductible and their money back..then....if the adjusters couldn't agree on liability then it would go to arb..which is binding.

While I'm at it what state did this occur in? Perhaps a 49/51 comparative negl. state?

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 07:09 am Post Subject: auto insurance fraud

I got into a accident, the other driver hit me, I filled out paper work sent it back in to your company. never heard anything more, a year later I get a paper fromAfni saying I owe your company over 2,000. How can you just pick a date to get in touch with a person and tell them thay owe x amount to recover what you payed out to someone who lied about what happened.I was never told what she said happened,why?What I want to know is how can you ask me to pay for something I did not do, nor do or did I want any monies to repairs to my car.

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 11:42 am Post Subject:

pginwolf, I have no idea who this "you", and "your" is you are referring to, I do know it's no one here. :roll:

Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2009 01:53 pm Post Subject:

What I want to know is how can you ask me to pay for something I did not do, nor do or did I want any monies to repairs to my car.

The other person was at fault, you file a claim and don't hear anything for a year? Why do I think there might be just a little bit more to this story? You then think someone here is responsible? Yeah... something is just not right. :roll:

Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2010 08:44 am Post Subject:

Just a short follow-on to something InsTeacher wrote above.

Insurance companies are in business to make money. (All businesses are in business to make money, some just don't figure out how to do it. McDonald's figured it out by selling fried dead cow parts they claim are hamburgers [what part of the cow is the angus?], fat sponges they call french fries, and paint remover called soda pop.)

Insurance companies stay in business by paying claims. (But they don't have to pay claims they are not entitled to pay.)

Insurance laws force insurers to act quickly in evaluating/paying claims or be in danger of losing their authority to do business as the result of unfair claims practices. It can and does cause human beings in the claims department to make mistakes in haste -- and insurers will usually make things right as needed. If they do delay in the payment of a claim, they had better have a good reason. Like the fraud is so obvious, even the three blind mice would spot it. And, on occasion, they have been found guilty of acting in bad faith. No excuse for that.

Insurers often pay claims they know they shouldn't just to avoid any accusations of being unfair, then conduct a more thorough investigation of the claim, only to discover fraud on the part of the insured or claimant. The money may have been paid, but the crime is still a crime. If convicted, the offender can be ordered to pay restitution to the insurer. That's why state laws generally require insurers to notify the Dept of Insurance within a short time (60 days in California) of discovering or suspecting fraud.

Wrongdoing on the part of an insurer makes for bad PR, and gives all of us as agents a black eye (even if we don't represent that company), not to mention disgruntled policyowners. But one look at the facts, and you'll find that there is far more wrongdoing being perpetrated against insurers than the other way around.

In California, home to more insurance fraud than any other state (some $16,000,000,000+ in a typical year), it is believed that up to 50% of all auto insurance claims are fraudulent. No wonder our auto insurance premiums are significantly higher than most other states.

So temper your rush to judgment on insurance companies. They all do a pretty good job. Some are a little better, some a little worse. Imagine, for a moment, what things would be like without insurance.

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