I am a long term customer and reading about the changes in Claims makes me wonder how a claim on my home if (I ever have one) would be handled? Can I expect a local SF employee to be the person who works my claim or will I be forced to deal with a call center rep? I am assuming the Proximity discussions refer to claim handling employees in field close to where.a loss is.
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umm, not a PR goon, I was pleased with my claims handling because the claim was overpaid. The independent who inspected the roof had no financial interest in reducing the claim payment because he was on a fee schedule. My % Deductible was covered by the overpayment. Isn't that what they teach new reps now, overpay to make it go away?
The truth is that claims service has tanked at State Farm. Everyone I know who has had a claim has had to deal very sub-rate service. The executives have destroyed our claims service.
Trust me; you'll be better off with just about any other insurance company.
So I see Tipsord's PR goons have found this thread.
Whatever company you have, whether you work with someone by phone, or in person, you should have a good claims experience if you are prepared. First: If a real tragedy occurs, take care of your loved ones first. Things can be replaced or repaired, but family is family. Second: You have the right, and an obligation under the policy to protect your property from further harm. Take some good photos and do what has to be done such as tarp your roof, repair a pipe, dry out your house (there are professionals that can do all of those thing). Third: Do your best to list out your damage in a logical way i.e. A tree hit my roof due to a wind storm. I had the tree removed - here are photos & the bill. There is a hole in the roof - here is the temporary repair bill and an estimate to repair it. There was water damage to two bedrooms on the 2nd floor and one room on the first floor.
Being organized gives the rep a good starting point. Also, there may be more damage than you first noted and a good claim rep will know to ask about adjoining areas, or rooms below.
Finally, your question was about claims. There are many conversations occurring on this forum, with only a small percentage related to claims. As far as I can tell, the company is still committed to handling each claim based on it's merits. Meaning, a claim will be handled in the best environment possible. If a field inspection is warranted, a local claims person should be assigned to work with you.
Just a FYI - I had a wind claim last fall and it required 2 inspections due to weather in our area. Other parts of the claim were handled by email & phone. I am pleased with how my claim was handled.
The true answer is --it depends.
They have a tiered system of stewardship, team-managed, etc.
Water losses are with stewardship. They are in-office adjusters. They will send a proximity Adjuster (local) to inspect the physical property and then turn it back over to the in office
Adjuster.
Weather losses are pretty much the same. In a larger catastrophic event (hail, wind, tornadoes, etc) you may encounter an External claim representative (IA adjuster).
Theft losses and smaller scope of damages you may have only in office --if they can phone scope it or get some bids.
The issue is regardless of who handles it --stewardship or team managed -is access to the assigned claim handler. Team managed is what it sounds like. Stewardship you will have an assigned Adjuster --who has a schedule each day when they have to be in a phone block answering calls on everyone's claims , portion of the day they work "tasks" --which may include calling on voicemails or on New or existing claims. The day is structured and monitored which limits the Adjuster in many ways.
There are great folks in the roles--metrics on how many calls they take, how long those calls take, how many voicemails they get a day, how many claims they close a day all take priority over customer service.
Proximity workers have some great people too. Though recent staffing changes have caused people to have extremely wide territories, greater claim volume, longer drive times and in many areas no ability to work OT--which is needed due to drive times alone.
In the end, there is still a lot of great, experienced people who could handle you claim. The issue is the stress, anxiety, pressures of metrics that the worker is under that would concern me more on well the claim would be handled.
Agents office won't know. JGH was correct, you'll deal with both at some point. You will most likely deal with multiple people throughout the process.
Fantastic question! If you have concerns about how your claim will be handled, please contact your agents office, as they represent the company. What you may read on this forum represents the best and the worst in the internet. You can not be sure if you are getting an answer from an actual employee, or from some troll.
you'll deal with both