I am a subrogation analyst for a third party company that handles claims for several large insurance companies. This means that we recover, or attempt to recover, money from the at fault party's insurance carrier after an accident occurs.
I have dealt with safeway on several occasions and each time I end up sending these files to our legal department for suit.
This is because Safeway (1) has denied every claim, regardless of liability, without any reason other than the "facts" of liability that they cannot and do not provide evidence for.
(2) fail to respond to phone calls and faxes,
(3) manipulate estimates to undershoot damages
(4) hold out on coverage decisions, thus forcing the decision to send the file to legal.
Safeway is most likely to fail to respond and/or vehemently deny liability, when the balance is perceived to be sufficiently low enough to be too costly for suit.
Safeway is not a member of Arbitration Forums, which is a third party decision making body, which will review and come to an impartial decision on liability and damages.
Therefore, they can deny all claims with impunity, if they feel they or their insured wont be sued.
Safeway is not alone in this regard, there are several substandard insurance carriers which behave in this fashion.
If you are considering buying insurance, please check with ambest.com and arbfile.org to see if your insurance company is substandard and if they are a member of arb forums. Otherwise, if you are at fault in an accident and have one of these carriers, the odds are that you will be sued.
The insurance company is bound by law to represent you, but you will be in court. Rather than having the case settled in arb forums, or by insurance adjustors acting in good faith.
Good luck and buyer beware.
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