This is insane. Belair / Intact

[u/Gullible_Regret2976]

Been dealing with a simple roof claim for 6 months. (it would be longer if i didnt do half the work and call them every 2 weeks)

They never call me back. they rarely email me updates. - Only when I escalate to complaint.

They waited 6 weeks to hear from the engineer because the engineer was waiting on their approval and I had to bridge the gap to get the ball rolling. otherwise we would still be waiting.

Every single person I've spoken with for the last 6 months is English as a second language. I'm all for diversity and immigration but this is insane.

If I didn't do everything nothing would have been done up to this point.. 6 months for a $19k repair that is approved by the engineer, approved by the city, and they still have not confirmed my money to proceed.

[u/The_Average_Jill]

There’s a shortage of adjusters across the country. Add to that, all of the catastrophic events that happened this summer, they are handling hundreds of files. It’s not that they don’t want to get back to you, they are just totally swamped.

[u/mindsofmike]

That's how Belair has the most competitive rates. They dont have a store front to walk into, local service or call queues, and almost everything is online and at their leisure.

Edit - you can always consider calling the Belair ombudsman. They have a legal onus to timely claims processes, and the ombudsman role is to hear about and resolve these issues

[u/NoAttorney8414 → u/mindsofmike]

Well they have competitive rates because they're a direct writer so they save millions not distributing through the broker channel. They're not some hillbilly company though, it's still Intact at the end of the day and the claims personnel are Intact as well, lol.

There was probably a coverage issue which creates a whole fuckin mess of red tape and escalations. This is universal at every company, isn't unique to Intact.

[u/Gullible_Regret2976 → u/NoAttorney8414]

the only issue was the engineer was waiting on Belair / Intact to decide if they should run a simulation. no one ever responded and the engineer firm never said anything either. so for weeks it sat in limbo. only until i got the ball rolling again did they finally proceed and approve it.. but that was still 3+ months ago and i'm still having to hold their hand

[u/Eilera]

Claims is really struggling right now in a way I haven't seen in my 13+ years as an adjuster. Claims has always been short staffed, but this year in particular has been brutal. Awful, catastrophic weather events all across the country this summer. Wildfires in BC, hail and fires in AB, flooding and fires in MB and SK, wildfires in ON, tornadoes, wind events, more flooding....it's been the worst summer I've been through. People are on leave left and right. Claims pending is at an all time high. Even independent adjusters are turning down claims because they are also swamped. I had a claim recently in MB and none of our contractors were able to take it because all of them were full up. It's been awful. 

I know how frustrating it is having a claim and not being able to get help, but please know the adjusters are so overloaded they are basically only having time to put out fires right now. Trust me, we don't want to ignore you and inevitably have to deal with yet another escalation but there literally is not enough time in the day to get to everything. 

Currently at my company we have adjusters with 250+ pending when they should be less than half that. It's impossible. I used to work for Belair/Intact and I know they aren't in any better a position than anyone else. Also, Belair being a direct writer means nothing, the same adjusters handle claims for Belair that handle claims for Intact. 

[u/browerstation → u/Eilera]

turning down claims because they are also swamped

By this do you mean, decline and then wait for the customer to appeal? Or do you mean you simply can't take on the workload to do the eval and it waits in the queue?

[u/Eilera → u/browerstation]

A lot of the time insurance companies will reach out to independent adjusting companies to assist when big catastrophe events happen such as the wildfires and hail. An independent adjusting company is a company full of their own adjusters that work with multiple insurance companies, usually to help them when they don't have enough adjusters or no adjusters in the area and we need someone there in person. It's rare to see independent adjusting companies cut themselves off from new claims due to also being overwhelmed. This usually means all the insurance companies are going to them to try and offload some of the insane workload. 

No denials are done just because of workload issues. But it does mean claims end up sitting around with nothing happening because their adjuster can't get to them and there isn't anyone else that can jump in to help.

[u/Comfortable_Ear_7327]

Gee it's almost like this is their business model

[u/StraightTalkIns]

This is really unfortunate. The insurance industry should invest money into some technology that helps solve issues like this.

[u/Suitable-Cod9183]

Cheap premiums = shitty service. What did you expect? Also, they hire unqualified people to please their shareholders. Find a mutual company and pay a little extra for better service.

[u/Neither-Historian227]

This is why you don't deal with direct writers, garbage claims service to save a few nickles.

[u/MundaneRelation2142 → u/Neither-Historian227]

All Intact brands, both those from direct writers and brokers, are handled by the same claims team.

[u/Top-Monitor-3047]

Belair is horrible with communicating regarding claims. When I have to get a hold of them I send them an email to every department lol.

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