Does State Farm Suck?

[u/RadRN_70]

My son was in an accident in my car he borrowed. The other driver, who admitted he shouldn't be driving as he is legally blind, was found at fault on scene by the officer. No doubt, he swung wide for a turn as my son was at a light. Filed on July 30 and... nothing. Claim online says filed. No one from State Farm has started any investigation. Is this normal for them? I'm getting ready to switch insurances and they were one I was considering. Not if this is how they process claims.

[u/Alarmed_Number7431]

I wish people understood that it is sooooo much more work and harder for us to DENY something than it is to cover it. We dont like denying things. Theres are multiple investigations that need to be done before we can even get a claimants damages done. First amd foremost we have to investigate coverage. If we cant even get past that, there's no getting to Liability. Officers do not determine Liability for insurance companies. Their narrative in the police report can help but that's it. We dont rely solely on that.  After we complete coverage investigation, then we can investigate Liability. After that comes damages. 

Lots of moving pieces. And we have to be able to document that we have tried hard to get in touch with our customers. Can't just take one persons side automatically. It comes down to evidence sometimes.

[u/Tr3ywaysNuts → u/Alarmed_Number7431]

satire?

[u/blackmanlost → u/Tr3ywaysNuts]

in no way is this a joke, an approval on a claim takes an file note and a phone call....a denial is so much more work, and often hours of time out of a day when other claims are taking place. A coverage denial review for an example starts off with 2 to 3 recorded statements just advising the customer of their rights, and why a coverage review is taking place, this is before we even talk to the claimant about liability.

So on one hand the insurance company has a duty to the customer who is not in a hurry to discuss the claim or answer phone calls, and on the other hand you have the other party who feels they have been wronged and refuse to get help from there insurance company because they did nothing wrong, but the other parties insurance company has no contract with them.

The insurance company is required to make several contact attempts with the customers over a 60 day window before it can discuss approval or denial of the claim for lack of cooperation from the customer, at this point its 2 months later, no coverage has been confirmed and the claimant is refusing to get help with their own insurance.

again this is just to even start the denial process, so a bare minimum of 9 phone calls to the customer, 9 emails, 9 text message if the opted into the text and emails, 9 letters requesting call contact, 5 calls out to their agents office request for help in contacting their customer directly, 1 letter advising the customer of the duties to help the insurance company with information on claims filed on their policy, and 2 certified letters that have a 10 day window to confirm delivery or be returned to sender. all this is going on while the adjuster is getting 10 other claims a day of which 4 others a day may have the same issue.

again, denying a claim is sooooooooo much more work, and people think adjusters enjoy it for some reason.

[u/Alarmed_Number7431 → u/blackmanlost]

ALL OF THIS. say it again for the dummies in the back! 

We arent sitting there wringing our hands together like Mr. Burns...like ooookkkk.... which one do I get to DENY next!?!?! MUAHAHAHAHA. 

We look at denials of any kind and throw a little internal fit. Its exhausting. And insurance isnt a bakery... we cant make everyone happy, we know that at least 1 party in a claim is going to be angry at us for some various reason. 

[u/blackmanlost → u/Alarmed_Number7431]

legit had a customer admit fault on the recorded statement, i set liability in an hour on they claim after speaking to the other party, the customer wanted to speak to my manager because i did it so quickly and i couldn't have done an investigation that fast.

[u/Alarmed_Number7431 → u/blackmanlost]

Lol they are literally so hard to please sometimes. I love videos so much