My wife and I recently switched automotive and home owners insurance from American Family to Geico/Stillwater Insurance. The reason for the change is that we found a better deal that would save us money versus our previous insurance company and the Geico rep looked at our policy and said that he would basically duplicate what we had. With our previous insurance company our house's basement was covered in the case of a flood. The Geico insurance rep told us time and time again that we would be saving money for an identical policy, however we recently experienced above average rainfall and our brand new finished basement (less than 1 yr old) had nothing but standing water in it. We spent over $20k on this basement and even got an upgraded motor installed for our sump pump.
The morning my wife realized the basement was flooded she asked me what she should do. She called Stillwater Insurance and the rep working immediately a number for one of their water, fire, and flood companies that would come out and extract all of the water and repairs. The Stillwater Rep also told us that we did the right thing by calling them and that this licensed agent coming to our house will be able to take care of us. She also claimed that one of their adjusters would be calling us within 24-48 hours to schedule a time for an assessment of the damage. My cousin who worked in that industry and has all of the same equipment called and asked if I wanted him to come over and do it for free. I told him that the insurance took care of it and they are sending a guy to our house right now. When the Service Master response team showed up they said that they already have our policy number and everything is covered under the insurance policy. Therefore they started ripped carpet up, putting holes in walls, and drying out the basement.
On the following Monday Stillwater's Insurance rep (the same one we spoke to before who called in the response team) tells my wife that water damage to our basement is not covered under our policy and they won't cover it. I immediately got on the phone with Stillwater and asked why they called the response team and told us an adjuster would be calling (which they didn't). Stillwater's rep told me that in order to have water damage included in your policy you have to add that to your premium. The problem was that we had that in our last policy with the company we were with before, not to mention that had the information for adding coverage to our policy to cover water damage been disclosed to us by the Geico rep we would have made sure that was added.
Now Geico and Stillwater are pointing the fingers at one another saying that the info should have been disclosed and that it's neither one of their faults because Geico puts the blame on Stillwater saying that the adjuster determines the damage and Stillwater is pointing the finger at Geico saying that they didn't disclose it. Anyhow, we're in a mess of a situation with now a concrete floor and a huge bill that we're going to have to pay out of pocket.
All of this is due to the lack of communication between reps and having no system to answer their clients questions. When we called Geico they should have made sure that we were covered first off, then the rep from Stillwater should have been able to immediately pull up our policy and tell us that it wasn't covered before they submitted a response team to come fix it and tear up our basement.
Both Geico and Stillwater are liars and now we're out of a lot of money and my 16 month old daughter lost a bunch of toys and has no where to play. It's honestly not even about the money, it's the principle that we got ripped off by not just one but two idiots that doesn't have a clue what they are doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Stillwater Insurance Group Reviews
My wife and I recently switched automotive and home owners insurance from American Family to Geico/Stillwater Insurance. The reason for the change is that we found a better deal that would save us money versus our previous insurance company and the Geico rep looked at our policy and said that he would basically duplicate what we had. With our previous insurance company our house's basement was covered in the case of a flood. The Geico insurance rep told us time and time again that we would be saving money for an identical policy, however we recently experienced above average rainfall and our brand new finished basement (less than 1 yr old) had nothing but standing water in it. We spent over $20k on this basement and even got an upgraded motor installed for our sump pump.
The morning my wife realized the basement was flooded she asked me what she should do. She called Stillwater Insurance and the rep working immediately a number for one of their water, fire, and flood companies that would come out and extract all of the water and repairs. The Stillwater Rep also told us that we did the right thing by calling them and that this licensed agent coming to our house will be able to take care of us. She also claimed that one of their adjusters would be calling us within 24-48 hours to schedule a time for an assessment of the damage. My cousin who worked in that industry and has all of the same equipment called and asked if I wanted him to come over and do it for free. I told him that the insurance took care of it and they are sending a guy to our house right now. When the Service Master response team showed up they said that they already have our policy number and everything is covered under the insurance policy. Therefore they started ripped carpet up, putting holes in walls, and drying out the basement.
On the following Monday Stillwater's Insurance rep (the same one we spoke to before who called in the response team) tells my wife that water damage to our basement is not covered under our policy and they won't cover it. I immediately got on the phone with Stillwater and asked why they called the response team and told us an adjuster would be calling (which they didn't). Stillwater's rep told me that in order to have water damage included in your policy you have to add that to your premium. The problem was that we had that in our last policy with the company we were with before, not to mention that had the information for adding coverage to our policy to cover water damage been disclosed to us by the Geico rep we would have made sure that was added.
Now Geico and Stillwater are pointing the fingers at one another saying that the info should have been disclosed and that it's neither one of their faults because Geico puts the blame on Stillwater saying that the adjuster determines the damage and Stillwater is pointing the finger at Geico saying that they didn't disclose it. Anyhow, we're in a mess of a situation with now a concrete floor and a huge bill that we're going to have to pay out of pocket.
All of this is due to the lack of communication between reps and having no system to answer their clients questions. When we called Geico they should have made sure that we were covered first off, then the rep from Stillwater should have been able to immediately pull up our policy and tell us that it wasn't covered before they submitted a response team to come fix it and tear up our basement.
Both Geico and Stillwater are liars and now we're out of a lot of money and my 16 month old daughter lost a bunch of toys and has no where to play. It's honestly not even about the money, it's the principle that we got ripped off by not just one but two idiots that doesn't have a clue what they are doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!