My clients called their Allstate Insurance agent and asked, specifically, whether their household furniture and goods would be covered under their current policy during a move, that is, while transporting their property from one address to another. John Lingard said, "Yes, absolutely, you are fully covered." My clients then asked Lingard to send them that confirmation in an email so they would have written proof of this promise/guarantee. They told Lingard that they could purchase supplemental insurance for a nominal fee, but he assured them that it was not necessary, that their property was fully covered.
Once the clients arrived at their new address and called John Lingard to report the damages incurred during the move, Lingard said he did not know if they were covered or not. So they filed a claim, and the adjusters said they were not covered under some 16 perils of their policy. When they showed proof that Lingard had said they were fully covered, the adjuster called Lingard and coached him on what to say when my clients spoke to him again. When they called back, he said he never told them they were covered, then he tried to back out of his guarantee by repeating the same exact words the adjuster had said (about the 16 perils). He did not even know what a peril was.
This agent cost my clients over $14,000 in damaged property and denied his promise about coverage over and over again, until they told him they had an email that he sent to them that said they were covered. Then he tried to back out of it by saying that the email was not what he meant and that my clients should have referred to their policy regarding coverage. That is why people have insurance agents, to interpret the policies for them. Besides, my clients relied on his word to tell them the truth. After all, he had been giving them advice for 11 years, so they had no reason to doubt him.
In my opinion, instead of taking care of his customers, this agent lied and breached his verbal and email promise. If you are considering using him as your agent, you may also be out thousands of dollars, as my clients are. If you use him now, I would fire him. If not, run away.
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