farmers getting sued for favortism

[steve g]

I talked to a farmers adjuster today while I was on a loss, he told me that they were getting sued because some adjusters had been taking contractors out with them on the job and the insureds felt compelled to use the contractors as a result, he also stated they are not allowed to say anything bad about a company or to in any way recommend a company for the repairs. he told me flat out 6 mos ago he could throw a contractor off a job, but said his handd are tied now and is very limited in what he can say, apparently this is company wide and has been put out via a memo to all adjusters. so maybe a lawsuit or two can have an impact. I can't tell you guys how happy this makes me. the butt kissing and back scratching has gotten to a point of being ridiculous, infact I make it a point to be on every loss the same time the adjuster is there to keep work from being diverted to their butt kissing buddies. I wish all of us would get together and file a hellacious class action lawsuit to put an end to all of this. adjusters who I had never done any work for, would black ball me, all I ask is to be treated fairly and the same will be returned. maybe this will go along way toward calling a truce between the independents and the large insurance companies

 

[Ed]

Be careful of what you wish for. We are on the Farmers and Foremost programs. We don't do much work for them becuase they don't write a lot of policies this far east, but they are without a doubt the pickiest, most stringent and definitely the most difficult to work with of all of the vendor programs we are on. I dread it when we get a Farmers or Foremost loss.

 

[Desk Jockey]

We do next to no work for Farmers.

They are tighter than tight and see us all as a commodity. Never have done much work for them, don't care to either if it's just a problem.

 

[topnotchman]

I agree also, Farmers isn't great. I dread the jobs where they are the insurance company. We went round and round on standard billing prices, like pulling teeth. And always get the line of "well Serv pro charges this" Or "This is how Service Master charges" I aint Service Master!!! I actually canceled my car insurance policies through them because of how difficult they are.

 

[SMRBAP]

I talked to a farmers adjuster today while I was on a loss, he told me that they were getting sued because some adjusters had been taking contractors out with them on the job and the insureds felt compelled to use the contractors as a result, he also stated they are not allowed to say anything bad about a company or to in any way recommend a company for the repairs. he told me flat out 6 mos ago he could throw a contractor off a job, but said his handd are tied now and is very limited in what he can say, apparently this is company wide and has been put out via a memo to all adjusters. so maybe a lawsuit or two can have an impact. I can't tell you guys how happy this makes me. the butt kissing and back scratching has gotten to a point of being ridiculous, infact I make it a point to be on every loss the same time the adjuster is there to keep work from being diverted to their butt kissing buddies. I wish all of us would get together and file a hellacious class action lawsuit to put an end to all of this. adjusters who I had never done any work for, would black ball me, all I ask is to be treated fairly and the same will be returned. maybe this will go along way toward calling a truce between the independents and the large insurance companies

Steve, who initiated the lawsuit, HO or restoration firm?

I just had a Nationwide agent "if you don't use one of these two companies, we won't stand behind the work" me out of a job that was mine, (8yr previous custy) and it was a monster 18-20k loss, and I lost 5-6 man hours dinking around with it today.

The husband was out of town and the wife folded under this rat of an agents strongarm tactic.

 

[tmdry]

Why not just collect the full amount from custy first than deal with insurance? We don't have to obey insurance nonsense, they can say whatever they want, there's nothing in their insurers policy that states insurer has to get 3 estimate and or go with company a/b so insurance can stand by work. When HO calls to file a claim, one of the first things the IC tells them is to get an agreement or estimate with a contractor. I've seen cases where IC will tell HO that even tho the HO is a contractor they will not hear them out, as if they don't care what the HO has to say, yet the IC wants to tell the contractor that the HO should go with A or B company? As mentioned above, adjusters are not allowed to tell HO to use any companies, they can only refer them, but not say "you should go with so n so", that is not allowed. You can contact your state if you see this happening, the same goes for retired lawyers that work for the state as mediators, they are not allowed to take any sides.

I was in the roofing industry for many years dealing with this BS, it's always the same thing when it comes to claims, i've always won at litigation/mediation with the state. They can go that far if they choose to, but i doubt they would for a residential flood claim. If they do the insurer and contractor that has an agreement with insurer always win, at least i always did. Documentation and facts wins over their BS.

 

[WISE]

Fred,

How many vendor programs are you on right now?

Thanks
WISE