Erie will say anything

November 14, 2011 

 

Erie Insurance 

100 Erie Insurance Place 

Erie, PA 16530-1104 

 

To Whom It May Concern, 

 

I am praying that this concerns someone! On April the fifth of this year a large tree fell on our home during a storm. As instructed we contacted our Insurance Company, which we had with Erie Insurance with Jeff Demo from the Charlotte, NC office. Later in the day Dave Mendenhall a adjuster from the Greensboro, NC office came by. There was nothing he could do because the damage was over twenty five thousand dollars, he would have to call a major damage adjuster . The same day Gregory Brett Chapel arrived and immediately wrote us a check for five thousand dollars. We were informed by him we needed to locate a company to remove our remaining belongs from the house. He recommended Paul Davis a company from Kernersville, NC, which we called and retained them the job. Our next step according to Mr. Chappell was to find a tree company to remove the tree from the house. Arriving fifteen minutes after Mr. Chappell was a representative 

 

 

 

 

from “ Fraley Tree Company”. Mr. Chappell stood off with themselves for forty five minutes or so talking. Feeling the urgency coming from Mr. Chappell we decided to let Fraley have the job. Mr. Chappell stated in front of four witness, which are will to give sworn statement, he said, “the insurance will take care of the tree “would cover the cost of the tree, In fact he told the represenitive from Fraley to sent him the bill directly, this also in front of witnesses. Five or six weeks went by and then Mr. Chappell called my wife and wanted to meet her at her office and settle. He didn’t ask that I be there. For six weeks we were without a copy of our policy, as ours were destroyed in the disaster. In the mean time we had contacted the North Carolina Insurance Commission because we were so confused and never been through this type trauma before wanted to know where we stood on a certain issue. When this happened Mr., Chappell’s attitude changed toward me, I guess that is why he only wanted to meet with my wife. When Mr. Chappell enter my wife office he had a look of shock on his face. Mr. Chappell had two check’s with him. One made out to two parties, Mr. Farley’s Tree Company and my wife and myself in the amount of eight thousand and five hundred dollar. When I question him about the statement he had on at least four occasion, “ The insurance would take care of that, send the bill directly to him”. He stated he was not allowed to do that, (strange). I ask him where the money was coming from he stated, “ from your structure”. The caught me by surprise because I had not been informed prior to this. We had three or four riders numbers on our policy so I ask him to please explain the to me and he stated, “I can not because he did not know what the numbers stood for” and yet he was wanting us to settle the claim By this time I was feeling like something was going on, my trust level was beginning to fate, but little did I know the largest surprises were yet to come. The other check for the amount, after eight thousand and five hundred was deducted for the tree. Was one hundred and eighteen thousand dollars. I questioned why the amount was so low, seeing our house was insured for one hundred fifty three thousand plus replacement cost. That is when the next surprise came. The replacement cost was held back until we finished the house. We were to keep receipts until we had spend the one hundred and fifty three dollars, then the replacement cost would be released. I question why we had not discussed this before and I was told I had a policy, I should have read it. One thing you must remember we are not insurance adjusters, we do not understand the term logy . When I looked at the policy and had to keep turning back to A to see what B meant I was totally confused. Concerning the replacement cost he stated, “ he would pay it to us in thirds, first third when we started, second when we were half through and the last third when we finished. I questioned him about this because he was acting like a mortgage company. He stated, “ I talked to the mortgage company and told them it would be much easier if they let him handle that part. I shared with Mr., Chappell on several occasions that I was planning to pay the house off and nothing was ever said, We left the meeting and proceed looking for contractor and the work started on the house. We used the monies from what he gave us and the monies from the two other structure on our property, knowing we would be getting the replacement monies later. We paid the house off and paid the contractors as they went. I sent Mr. Chappell the receipts as we went but I began to notice that the only monies coming back was for content. I called Mr. Chappell and he informed me for the first time during these proceeding, even though I told him what my plan were, that the money for paying the house off did not go toward the one hundred and fifty five thousand. In my opinion he withheld this decision, for whatever reason, un