In July of '95 we bought our first new home since we had been married (in '88). While we were in the process, GMAC Mortgage said it was time to get the insurance taken care of. My boss at the time, Mr. French, told me about his agent (whose name I won't give here). I called his agent and bought a premium policy, 100% full replacement in any case. The insurance was paid for at that time by personal check, which was cashed within 7 days. We moved into our home when it was completed in late July and got the policy in the mail in August.
On November 1st we were broken into and lost over $12,000.00 in personal items, some of which were not replaceable (jewelry handed down from my wife's grandmother and some items of her father's; he passed away in April of '95). When we called in the claim, our agent's office told us to bring in all the appropriate papers and a list of things stolen and damaged. We did this and were treated great by the girls in his office. That was the last of the good treatment.
A few days later I got a call at work from Allstate's underwriters. They stated that the insurance had been cancelled on October 30 for non-payment (this was on the 13th of November). Four years later, after lots of grief and time off work dealing with lawyers (mine and theirs), we went into depositions with everyone involved. We found out that they had forged documents, forged my signature on many documents, and destroyed several more. We learned this from two separate people who had worked the case in late '95 and early '96 and have since left the company to work for other insurance companies.
When we finally got to sit in federal court in Oklahoma City in front of a judge for a possible settlement, the company's lawyer offered me a measly $5000.00 settlement. We in turn said no. For all their lying, cheating and illegal activities, we would take no less than $250,000.00 (ha ha ha), like that's a reasonable amount.
We finally settled on a figure over three times what it would have cost them in the first place to pay the claim in '95.
These folks are shady, crooked liars and will break all the laws they want to deny your claim. My advice to everyone who has this company for their insurance needs is to switch to any other company.
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