We always seem to have more than our share of bad luck. In fact, we hardly get down about anything because we are so used to bad things happening.
About a month ago we got a direct hit from lightning. Lost most everything electronic in the house. The fridge, range, phones, ceiling fans, 3 computers, misc. computer equipment, 3 VCR's, 3 TV's, 2 DVD's, Home entertainment sytem, and who knows what else. All was covered by our home owners. By some miracle I unplugged all of the office (business stuff) and only lost the fax machine through the phone line.
Now, if you remember back a few months ago it took us forever to find insurance to cover us for both liability and equipment since we are home based. Finally found it through Auto Owners. When we got hit by the lightning I didn't even make a claim with them as nothing was worth the $500 deductible.
Then while we are replacing everything we had tons of boxes and packing materials that we were basically piling in the garage just in case something didn't work right or whatever. Well, wouldn't you know that the insurance companies fire inspector showed up, while our garage was turned upside down. We just about pooped ourselves.
Then today I get a call from our agent. Auto Owners dropped us, supposedly because they were under the impression that our garage was detached, which it is not.
My husband got layed off in March. We lost all of our health insurance so now we have to pay loads for that. We can't spend a load on insurance. We have called and talked to so many companies and agents it's ridiculous. The companies that offered us insurance other than Auto Owners wanted between $2500 and $4500 a year.
If anyone has any clue as to what I can do or names of organizations or something that I can call, please let me know.
I am so stressed I feel like I'm gonna puke!
Thanks.
[ August 28, 2003, 07:46 PM: Message edited by: Amy Brown ]
Posted by Bob Bond (Member # 26) on :
Hi Amy, This is Jennifer and I'm sorry all of this has happened to you and yours. You might want to check with one of your local Chamber of Commerce. I don't know about Florida but when we lived in California there was an agent that gathered small business owners to form a group for group health and other types of insurance. The only requirement was that we were a member of a Chamber of Commerce. At the time the city of Arleta was only $15 a year and about 10 minutes from us. Also some unions will do this for group insurance and for a while we were believe it or not, members of a masons union. This was all very legal and worked great until we moved out of state. Now unfortunately we pay around $900 a month for health ins as there is nothing like this in Missouri. Anyway, it might be worth a couple of calls. Best of luck. Jen
[ August 28, 2003, 07:39 PM: Message edited by: Bob Bond ]
Posted by Amy Brown (Member # 1963) on :
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for the info. I'm all set on the health insurance. It's the business insurance we are having the problem getting.
We got health insurance for my husband, daughter and myself for aroun $215/month through Humana. Maybe you could check them out.
Posted by Glenn Taylor (Member # 162) on :
Amy,
Check with ISA or SGIA. They may be able to help point you in the right direction and possibly help you get into some group rate for the industry.
Posted by Jeffrey Vrstal (Member # 2271) on :
Insurance: the longest four letter word I know.
I feel your pain. These guys are jerking you around. If you were paid up at the time, fight like hell to get what is yours.
My latest deal... I went with a local insurance company for business late last year. Hell of a package - they sold me WAY more than I need to operate. One of the things they sold me was coverage for "loss of data". Wonderful.
So, in July, I lost data. I lost 7 years of book keeping and 1.5 years of billing data. Backups were corrupted - DATA is gone. I do have tax info from previous years that can tell me what I spent or made on things, but I can't really do any kind of trending or reporting for the business from that. This years taxes will be a thing of creativity.
So, my insurance man comes in one day and asks for a set of mag signs. I say sure, but I'm a little behind... I'm rebuilding my systems so give me a day or so. He says fine and asks what happened. I tell him about the virus, he says "you are covered". Fine. What's it worth? How does the insurance company figure this... surely they must have some formula? He'll look into it. A week or so later he comes in and says that he will be no use to me... call the company. I call the company. They listen to the story and tell me they will get back to me. A week or so later, they call to ask more questions and tell me that they will turn it over to another company that they bought the coverage from. They call me back the next day and tell me that they will handle the claim themselves. A few days later, I receive a paper listing my claim number and the person who will be handling the claim. A couple days ago, I get a call from this third company that says they will in fact handle the claim and want to know the details.
Blah, blah, blah.
No one so far can seem to tell me if they have a formula to figure this out (I KNOW THEY DO)... so it's a wait and see situation.
They tell me that this is "all new". I asked "what if some guy broke in here and stole my book keeping (as if I was still doing it on actual paper in actual books) and took it down the street and lit it on fire"? Well, that would be vandalism and you are covered for vandalism. Hey, I'm covered for this too, just need to figure a value.........................
deep sigh............
Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
Amy
When we were home based, we used Cincinatti insurance through a local independant agent. Seemed to work for us.
