Erie Insurance and my roof that has hail damage

I was told by Farm Bureau that were not paying my claim, because of an inspection said I had zero damage. Yet I hired an independent inspector that had nothing to gain, and said he cannot believe I was told I had zero damage. I have damaged gutters, damaged rails, minor damage to my metal roof, yet the only comment my agent said was if my roof was replaced I would have to pay the $2500 deductible, of course I would I going to spend that much replacing / repairing my handrails and gutters. If life has been taken out of my roof, it is no different that damage to my vehicle, I paid to have it covered, and if some act of God or individual damages my property a customer should and have the right to have it corrected regardless. That is the risk an insurance company makes when that collect your premiums

Some of you people are very uneducated when it comes to claiming you have or do not have hail damage. If a roofer comes to your house, inspects your roof and says you have hail damage, you MUST consider this: THEY ARE THERE TO MAKE A SALE!!! They could care less if your roof has legitimate storm damage. These unethical roofers are the reason your premiums are high and you have to deal with aggravated adjusters. Just because a hail storm went through your neighborhood, it does not mean you have damage. My brother works hard as structural engineer at being fair and honest. So, stop slamming insurance companies and engineering companies. You are only angry because your claim did not get paid. You would be praising them it was paid.....and probably would not have posted those praises on this site. Lesson 1: Quit letting salesman get on your roof. It will have "damage" every time. 

 

Billy

I'm a former Erie agent. Although Erie treats their independent agent's like captive agents, pay as earned with lower commission and tend to continue and extend coverage WITHOUT ever receiving payment which is bad for an agent who works for 10-15%, they treat their insured' s likely royalty. Heck. I have witnessed them pay undeserved claims! Roofs are a wear and tear item. JUST because the roofing and siding pirate's show up and. Want to sell you a "free" roof, doesn't mean you deserve or need one.

I am and ex-Erie adjuster. 

Let me start by saying that personally speaking, I let the insured pick who they wanted to inspect the roof and have that person/company to meet me there to go over what was wrong with the roof. If needed, I would have the insured's person/company of choice to meet with me and our roof expert to hammer out the details. Now that's the way a claim SHOULD be handled. I can tell you that Erie does not train, they OVERLOAD their adjusters to the hilt. To the point that we had NO LIVES outside of work. We would put in minimum of 60 hrs/week, topping at 80 + hrs/week. Michelle S. was my supervisor at one time and I can tell you she has no sympathy for either the insured or the adjuster. She didn't care that your claim might be denied or paid or whatever. She didn't care that we were working that many hours to keep our heads above water. I have NO SYMPATHY for Erie or the Charlotte branch, they were VASTLY understaffed and did nothing to improve things. They lost several good adjusters that tried to do the right thing but did nothing to improve their customer service by hiring the appropriate amount of staff. Thank goodness I made it out of there.

my roof experience is word for word as dave schnell

I think its a little fishy that all these issues are in one area. My story is 180 degrees from the above. Erie has paid 2 claims for me and 4 more for my family and we have had fantastic customer service and claims service. So much so that I made a life change and opened an Erie Agency. I have never heard any clients say any of this stuff. We have won the JD Power award 3 years in a row for claims and customer service. So my advice to anyone reading this is do your home work and look at the details of each claim on here and then make up your mind. Erie is customer focused and there is a reason that a claim doesnt get paid and most of the time its because of fraud.

I will contact the law firm and call the numbers in the above bogs to add my name to the class action law suit. We all need to have Erie exposed for their unlawful practices. This behavior of Erie and their HAAG roofing engineers has to STOP. They have the worst insurance company around when it comes to paying claims. They will lie and their roofing engineers and HAAGs will lie as well. Erie and that AAA technology all need to be put out of business and these Erie HAAGs need to be suied and exposed as well. NO ON GIVE UP lets fight this company to stop these unlawful practices of denying claims.

I have storm damage and Erie Insurance are not paying for the roof repairs. I have had four different companies tell me I have damage. AAA technology was sent by Erie and claim that the damage was stress and mechanical markings not storm damage. AAA technology is the worst. The adjuster refuses to admit there is damage. I had a roofing engineer look at the roof that proved damage and had pictures that was better then Erie. I found that AAA will take pictures of things other then the damage and take pictures far away so the pictures are not clear. I plan to file a complaint with the Attorney General office and the Insurance commissioner. I plan to also contact Action 9 to blast Erie and AAA on television. Everyone needs to file complaints with as many agencies as possible to have Erie Insurance investigated for their unfair business practices. I also plan to file a law suit against them. A class Action suit would be nice. This company needs to be shut down and out of business. Their adjusters are nasty and tell lies in the paper work. AAA technology also lied on paper work when sending the report. DO NOT USE ERIE INSURANCE and if you have them, DROP THEM FAST. Erie Insurance is the worst company in America. Erie has nasty adjusters, nasty customer service, use scare tactics with customers, lie on documents, lie about things they are said over the phone or during an inspection and they hire these roofing engineers that will lie for them and this is why they force you to believe you have to use these engineers they send out. DO NOT believe Erie if they say you do not have damage but Fight for your rights by writing the insurance commissioner and the Attorney General's office in your area. Use all your resources to fight this bad company and illegal practices that this company has.

I also had serious hail damage to my roof. Set a claim with erie insurance. They sent out an adjuster and in less than 10 min. on the roof stated I had no hail damage. But two roofing companies stated I did. Erie insurance then sent out an engineer from Donan Engineering. He told me I have damage, but Erie came back and told me I do not have hair damage. 

Two neighbors across the street had there roofs inspected and it was determined they had hail damage and the insurance paid to have the roof replaced. But I did not. Hmmmm I am now searching for a better company. Erie does not care. They want there premiums but will not pay a claim. I have never claimed anything in 10 years of having insurance with them and now after a claim I am treated like crap. The Adjuster showed up an hour and half early. The office people at Insurance One in Wadsworth Ohio treated me like crap.

Erie has changed their practices, as of recently. I am in fact a contractor that replaces storm damaged roofs. Before i was a GC I was a independent insurance adjuster. Which means i did claims for almost every insurance company. They now have several third party assesment companies, the best being AAA roofing technologies. I have known them for years, and have never met a more knowledgable and professional group of men. Well that is when storm damage is involved. I went from zero of twenty-one claims in 2009 being approved when Donan was involved, to a much more reasonable approval rate for 2010 and 2011. 

As far as storm damage is concerned, yes there are less than ethical companies out there. Shingles are designed to withstand the elements, as they age though it does become much easier to damage. There are several things that can prematurally age your roof also. Lack of proper ventaltion is one of the main factors. As with most other aspects of life though you should not allow the bad apples ruin the name of other good companies. Ask for referances that are more than a year old in your area and most importantly listen to your gut. Remember that asking your insurance agent or company may not always result in you knowing the truth about your roof. Insurance companies while usually pretty fair, are a business and the make money by keeping it. I have been on both sides of the fence concerning this topic and can see where people feel like either the contractors are theifs, and the other side that would say the insurance companies are. There are some theifs on both sides, use common sense and ask as many questions of both sides as possible you'll be fine.