Caution - Stay away from Stonegate Insurance

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krazykuda

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I tried to save some money going with Stonegate Insurance and it just bit me in the @ss...

I had an accident in the end of January and they still have not given me a settlement on my damages... They inspected the car two weeks after the accident and after making many calls and trying to be patient, I have now lost my patience with them...

My rental car coverage was only for 30 days and now I am going on two months and they are not agreeing to cover the extra rental car coverage even though they have been the hold up...

With eating the cost of the extra month of rental car insurance alone, I could have went with a better insurance carrier... Not to mention that they only pay $28 per hour for body shop labor when the going rate is $52 per hour...

I have to return the rental car next week and they still have not issued me a settlement check.. I finally got their offer and had my brother look it over... My brother is an insurance adjuster for one of the more popular insurance carriers and found about 6 - 7 items that they left off of the estimate...

They are only writing it up for "recycled parts" ie: I have to go to junkyards and buy used parts instead of using new and they left a few issues off of the estimate:

1. Bumper bar is body color no paint time

2. no overhaul of front bumper

3. no refinish hood underside of R&I of insulator

4. no edging of fender

5. pull should be at frame rate

6. missing time to aim headlamps and fog lamps

7. since no blends how about color tint time


Now they want to schedule another look at the car next week with me... This will be the third time that they have looked at it... How many times does it take to get an accurate repair... Besides most of what we brought up is standard blending when using recycled parts and they need to be painted/blended to match the rest of the car since they are a different color than mine...

THey originally looked at the car two weeks after the accident... After not hearing back from them after two more weeks, I called and asked what the status was... I got a call on that Friday from an 'estimator' from that company and he said that they did not write down the mileage when they looked at the car originally... I told him that it had around 120 or 125 k miles on it and he said that 120 k was good enough for him...

That next Monday I got a phone mail from him asking me for the mileage on my car... WTF??? We just took care of that last Friday...

So then at six weeks after the accident they had to go to the body shop and have someone take a picture of the dash with the mileage on it... It still took another week and a half and many phone calls to get the first round estimate...

Since I want to use my own body man and not one of their 'fly by night lowball' shops, I will have to take a one time only payout and no other adjustments will be allowed... So I need to be sure that they cover all the work necessary as anything that is missed will come out of my pocket along with the difference on labor rate that they do not cover...

I have requested to talk to a manager many times and they only relay the message to the adjuster and the manager does not call back... I finally left a voice mail for the manager to call me herself to discuss this and finally got a call back today... She will not agree to cover the extra rental car and leaves a vague statement that I have to submit the receipt for the rental car... That's fine, but I can't get the receipt for the rental car until I turn it in at the end of next week as the rental company has a limit on how long that you can keep a rental car...

So I have to cover the whole rental car cost until I submit the receipt and they get around to paying me with no promise to cover the extra month of coverage....

My brother has told me that his company issues settlement checks within 4 days of inspecting the car at the most, there is no need for it to take many weeks...

There should not be a need to inspect the car again as we are only pointing out that they need to cover the cost of labor and paint to match the different color body panels to the ones on the car... ie: If the hood that we use is gold in color and my car is silver, the bottom of the hood needs to match the top of the hood and rest of the car, same with using a recycled fender, the inside door jam area needs to be painted so it matches the rest of the car...

They are also quoting the frame pull for the frame that holds the front bumper at their low ball shop labor rate instead of frame pull labor rate which is more...

I am also considering contacting the state insurance board and BBB concerning this matter...

Don't make the same mistake that I did and don't get lured in by the lower premium, as if you need to make a claim that will be eaten up with their low ball labor rate and lack of performance in settling the claim in a timely manner... It will cost you more with their delays and lack of paying current labor rates where the better shops will not work at....
 
Sorry for the problems you are having. I see where they have 1.3 stars on their reviews and they are out of Illinois. I had some serious problems with a life insurance company out of Illinois, and I ended up contacting the attorney general of that state and filing a complaint. As soon as that office contacted the insurance company everything went smooth as butter. Hope that helps.
 
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Sorry to read Karl, LOTS of good points you bring up. I admit I wouldn't have thought of the shortcuts they're using to screw you over.
Good luck!
 
I feel ur pain Karl. But I must ask: why didn’t u get insurance from ur brother. Kim

I had homeowners insurance from them on my Detroit house... when it was broken in while I was moving back to Chicago and they stole all the copper water pipes (I had them replaced a few years before that), the air conditioning unit, and stripped out my new two stage furnace, plus a completely full tool box and some stereo equipment from the basement that I hadn't moved yet, they accused me of making a false claim and asked for waaaayyy more information than they were entitled to know...

They wanted me to fill out forms giving all my bank accounts and balances in them, tax returns, etc... - which is none of their business... They wanted more information about me than I keep myself...

I could have sued them, but I the attorney that I was using didn't want to pursue it...

Plus being in Detroit, I discovered the break in at Christmas when I came back on the holidays and when I called the police, they refused to come out and make a report.... It wasn't until my visit that April that I was able to get a cop to make a break in report and the insurance company found that suspicious...

That's not suspicious, that's Detroit...
 
Holy hell, u have had more than ur fair share of bad luck. I would of dropped them too. It seems all the insurance companies want to take ur money, but sure the hell don’t want to reimburse u for a claim. Kin
 
Holy hell, u have had more than ur fair share of bad luck. I would of dropped them too. It seems all the insurance companies want to take ur money, but sure the hell don’t want to reimburse u for a claim. Kin

That's how they operate. The only bigger scam I can think of is Obama.
 
Our house insurance went up by 35%, approx $1300 up to $1800 a year. Zero claims. Thought it was a typo and called them(Cooperators). Nope new rate is accurate due to them having to pay out so many "weather/disaster" claims. Mother Nature....
Dropped them and found a company for$1000/year.
 
Contact your state insurance commission and file a complaint against them

Sometimes it takes 4 or 5 “reinspections” before a final estimate is arrived at
 
Wow.... I bet that company uses contract estimators in the field. Hard to say what you will get. Your warning heeded....

Our house insurance went up by 35%, approx $1300 up to $1800 a year. Zero claims. Thought it was a typo and called them(Cooperators). Nope new rate is accurate due to them having to pay out so many "weather/disaster" claims. Mother Nature.... Dropped them and found a company for$1000/year.
Insurers raising rates after high losses in an area, regardless of your personal record, is normal. Sometimes they 'withdraw' from some markets that way, though they really do not fully leave, usually because they want to still write other types of policies in that area. 30+ years ago, our auto polices in northern IN doubled... our agent was honest about it: They had been suffering high losses in the NW IN & Chicago area, and just wanted to reduce their exposure. I did like you.... got another policy. Inconvenient, but nothing personal.

I've had no problems with State Farm in VA. We have not had a lot of claims so they make money from us. Repaired my '07 CDT for $5k after I slid backwards on ice into a steel NF gate post.... (The NF sets those babies in DEEP LOL!) No issues, no problems; I chose the repair shop from their long list of decent shops and they did some things at my direction with no issues/questions. Used doors did not bother me since they were only 2-3 years old. I did not need a rental so that complication did not arise.
 
Yeah, I knew this kind of "game" is played by insurance companies, just very surprised at our 30-40% increase(some were higher).
I still have my auto insurance with same company and have been great to me. Similar scenario as you with having a truck door replaced with a used one. Mint door so no squawking from me.
Insurance company said I wouldnt qualify for multi discount due to cancelling house policy. 5% discount lol
Wow.... I bet that company uses contract estimators in the field. Hard to say what you will get. Your warning heeded....


Insurers raising rates after high losses in an area, regardless of your personal record, is normal. Sometimes they 'withdraw' from some markets that way, though they really do not fully leave, usually because they want to still write other types of policies in that area. 30+ years ago, our auto polices in northern IN doubled... our agent was honest about it: They had been suffering high losses in the NW IN & Chicago area, and just wanted to reduce their exposure. I did like you.... got another policy. Inconvenient, but nothing personal.

I've had no problems with State Farm in VA. We have not had a lot of claims so they make money from us. Repaired my '07 CDT for $5k after I slid backwards on ice into a steel NF gate post.... (The NF sets those babies in DEEP LOL!) No issues, no problems; I chose the repair shop from their long list of decent shops and they did some things at my direction with no issues/questions. Used doors did not bother me since they were only 2-3 years old. I did not need a rental so that complication did not arise.
 
Happens regularly. In the SE USA with the Houston storms/floods and the one in the FL panhandle, the re-insurance companies took a beating and so the rates are going up in a lot of areas. I tell folks all the time on the Outer Banks of NC.... it has to come out even with a profit in the end.... otherwise, no insurance.

Unless you want gov't controlled insurance. Let's see:
  • O-care: Through-the-roof rates for all the social program stuff; the bulk of the taxpayers subsidizing a few. The payment subsidies aren't coming from the excess premium collections LOL.
  • Federal flood insurance: Beyond broke after Katrina and whacked again with 'cane Sandy and then Houston.... rates going up there too. But that will stay broke since the politicians keep mucking with it to buy votes. When it collapses for goof, expect to pay higher taxes some way or another.. there is no other financial backup.
So there are your choices.

Sorry, KK... I got off course.... hope your situation gets better..
 
That's how they operate. The only bigger scam I can think of is Obama.

So somebody disagreed with this. They either think insurance companies are not a scam, or they like Obama, or both. No further comment. lol
 
Jesus Chrysler. Is this for a daily driver modern car? How about some pictures. I use
J C Taylor, Upper Darby for the Coronet (agreed), and Hartford full coverage for both modern Mopars, but have yet to have a claim after 30 years and would not know what to expect from either.
 
So somebody disagreed with this. They either think insurance companies are not a scam, or they like Obama, or both. No further comment. lol
Maybe from someone who is too shy to go to N&P. LOL
 
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