Insurance Woes

I took my car to Mike Smith Honda. Christi, the service rep., told me she had talked to the technician, and the work would probably take longer than she had estimated. She asked me if I would like a ride home. I decided that would be best because I needed to call my insurance company. I am really disgusted with them and did not think the Honda dealer would appreciate me sitting in their waiting room and yelling and screaming into my cell phone.

I got a tour through the downtown area of Beaumont during the trip home in the courtesy van. This was the first time I have seen downtown since the hurricane. I did not see piles of rubble like we have in the residential areas. They are making progress. On the other hand one lane of Phelan was partially blocked because the piles of tree limbs are overflowing into the street. It is going to take a long time before this is all cleaned up.

Yesterday I called my insurance company to find out the status of my claim. It was a week ago Tuesday that the adjuster came and made his inspection. I was told they had received no report from the adjuster. I switched from the nice mode to the tough mode immediately. I told them my neighbors who are insured by State Farm are just taking their receipts to their agent without even seeing an adjuster and are being reimbursed on the spot. I told them I have been with USAA since 1965. I have been a homeowner since 1972 and never filed a claim. I told them I expected better treatment. I said the least they could do was immediately reimburse me for the expenses I incurred during the evacuation since I charged everything on my credit card and the bill is due.

I had made a copy of every single receipt and tallied everything on a spreadsheet and had given it to the adjuster. I read off the expenses. This nasty old hag that I was speaking to said we cannot pay for gasoline. We pay mileage. We cannot pay mileage for the initial trip to Texarkana. We cannot pay for the bottled water you bought at Wal-Mart. We cannot pay for the bottle of Tide that you bought at Wal-Mart to do your laundry. We will pay the $1.50 you paid for the coin-operated laundry. I was ready to scream. She said she would have to turn it back to the adjuster. I said how long will that be. She said three or four days.

I had my cell phone turned off yesterday. When I turned on my cell phone this morning, there was a message from the adjuster who is the USAA employee I was temporarily assigned to while they played their games with the contract adjuster. When I got home from the Honda dealer, I called him. He seemed very nice. He said he is going to attempt to get the report from the contract adjuster. I told him my feathers really got ruffled yesterday when that awful woman started nickel and dimeing me on my expenses and I needed to be soothed. He said if he cannot locate the first adjuster’s report he will come out here on Saturday and do the whole thing over. He said he would do the best he could to soothe me.