Part 8 The many adjusters....

Adjusters, oh my...where do I even start....

SF, like a good neighbor...SF is there...or not. 

I would like to think, or I did that if I suffered a large loss, a fire, especially, that my agent, who is supposed to give a damn about us, would drive his sorry ass out to my house in the middle of the night.  I dont know why I think he should.  But hell, he wants us to protect our house, our family, our lives.  Course I guess he only gives a damn about our checks coming on time. 

Now has he NEVER CALLED, not even to this day, but he has NEVER CALLED us.  Did I mention that to this day, he has NEVER CALLED us.  Bastard!  I wont tell my dad his name cause he wants to go to his office, sign up for a ton of policies, and then ask if his house burns down, will the agent come out to his house...and when says of course, he wants to tear the papers up in front of his face, and say, you son of a bitch, you sure didn't for my daughter.  I think its kinda brilliant, but I wont tell my dad his name :)

Oh wait, his office did call us that day. Left a vmail for my hubby telling him that they had a check for him, an advance, and that we could come and pick it up.  WHAT?  I am supposed to drive to Woodstock, in my walmart clothes and my borrowed socks, smelly and sooty to pick up a check.  I should have...course then someone would have had to bail me out!  They didn't even have the decency to offer to bring me a check.  bastards.

So, day of fire...SF sends out J.  Now, insurance adjusters start out being able to approve small amounts of loss, and they have to work their way up.  They send us J, who was approved up to 50K.  Dude looked like a deer in the headlights.  He was about 12 years old and way out of his league!  I actually felt bad for him, until he started arguing with my husband.  bastard.  Dude asks me if $2500 was enough for the first check...um....I dont know, ITS MY FIRST FIRE.    Later, hubby and I are at no, not walmart, but at Home Depot buying masks and gloves and such.  Hubby beats me there and I see him stomping around the parking lot waving his arms up and down, obviously yelling at someone.  Good thing it was early!

Hubby had told J that deep freeze was in danger of becoming a public health hazard and it had to be removed.  J says ok and that they would give us $300 for the contents of the deep freeze.  Um NO!  Hubby explained to J that the freezer was FULL of meat and it cost a heck of a lot more than that.  J says, no.  Hubby says you ever buy  a quarter cow.  Its expensive.  J proceeds to argue that there could not be that much money in there or some crap like that.  Hubby offered to have J come over and put on protective gear and help hubby inventory it.  J says, I'm not going to do that.  etc etc...

Lets just say that was the first and last day that J worked on our case.  They we were assigned an Adjuster who was on vacation.  Of course she was.  So we were given a temporary adjuster.  S.  She agreed that meat is expensive and would give us $1500 for the contents of our freezer.  THANK YOU!  But that is all she did.  Hell, she was just on our case temporarily  and she didn't want to have to work and then have to update J2. 

Please keep in mind that our agent HAS NEVER CALLED US.  We have no guidance here, no one to tell us what to do or how to do it. 

***side note important for story...Now SF tells me that I have to interview contractors.  Um. I ask them for names since I don't know any companies.  They give me three.  First guy comes and and says they will seal the walls and paint.  Ok.  Please keep in mind, we have not seen if there is any damage behind the walls as they are still there.  I ask him, well, If I hang a new picture, and put a new hole in the wall, and there was damage in that wall, wont that smell come out?  He didn't answer me.

Second guys come out,  LOVE THEM SO FAR!  Owner of company E and S his minion come out.  2 minutes after S walks in the house, he informs me that this is not a major loss, its a large loss.  I always thought major was bigger than large, but I guess I was wrong.  He walks outside and calls my temporary adjuster, S and has me bumped up to large loss with a new adjuster. 

Third guy comes out and suggest that maybe he should talk to my husband.  His body is buried in my garden.  ssshhhhhh!  Dont tell anyone!

Now, contractor I dont even know has us bumped up to a higher loss and has us assigned a new adjuster.  Please note, MY AGENT HAS NEVER CALLED US AND NO OTHER ADJUSTER HAS COME OUT TO THE HOUSE YET.  We are still flying blind here.

I am thrilled, I have a real adjuster!  Finally, one that is not on vacation, that an handle our claim!

D comes out to my house, my personal property adjuster. M is my structure adjuster, his knuckles drag on the ground when he walks.

 She is wearing a nice clean white shirt, pressed blue jeans and high heal sandals.  We are walking around the garage and she actually says, oh lets not go there, its dirty.  ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME! (I am so NOT apologizing for swearing here mom)  I AM WEARING BORROWED SOCKS! (thank you JV)  I knew right then and there that this relationship was not going to work out. 

Later, 

I informed her that I needed a vacuum that actually worked and my kitchen aid. 
She told me that she had never had anyone want to replace so many items in the beginning. I'm thinking, really?  No one you have ever worked with had kids who lost EVERYTHING and where going nuts.  We needed a sense of normalcy and that is all we want.  Why in gods name do I have to explain myself to this moron. 

Guess what happens then...yup, she goes on VACATION.  Now I have another temp.  She says she will order my stuff.  I wait and I wait, and I wait.  Moron D comes back from vacation...I wait, I wait.  I'm not getting ticked off.  I am being patient.  3 weeks pass...I still dont have my crap.  GROWL!  Finally, I pull out my bitch, dust it off and put it on.  Temp tells me, even though Moron D is back on duty, to go and buy my vacuum and mixer from store X.  Temp tells me that its a little bigger than the one I had but it has the attachments I want.  And they have my vacuum.  So I go to store.  My vacuum is being discontinued, this is a floor model, its been used.  Mine was brand new when I bought it.  I'm not buying a used one.  I buy the mixer.  Its bigger than the one I had and more expensive.  I'm driving home and I think, WTF.  Why did I wait three weeks to get my mixer, and now I have one that I did not own for more money that I would have spent if they had just let me go out and buy one in the first place.  I have hubby return it.  bastards.  Next day, I go out and buy my damn mixer and vacuum. 

Apparently this woman, Moron D, also  did not believe in providing information.  Or maybe it was one of the secret spy things...I cant tell you that...its on a need to know basis?  I scanned all of my receipts(KLP's house again) then photoshoped them apart, put the date and amount on the top and saved them as .gif files.  Then I filled out their POS pdf form, the one that if you have to many lines it bogs down to the point of me wanting to scream, and emailed it to her.  She emails me back and says that's fine, but that the receipts should also have the line item number from the pdf form.  Would have been nice if she had provided me with that information before I did this.  So I reopen all 76 gif files and add item numbers.  I say, would you like me to send the rest of the expenses to you, there are a lot of attachments.  She says yes.  I do.

Apparently, this was to much for her to handle.  Next thing I know, hubby is on the phone with here cause I'm annoyed at something.*gasp* and she proceeds to tell my hubby how stressful it is to have to open all of the files and figure out how to print them.  WHAT?  STRESSFUL!  She is so lucky that she wasn't talking to me.  I would have handed her head to her after I tore it off and kicked it up and down the street a few times.  Stupid Bitch(sorry mom)

She tells hubby that I need to redo this and copy and paste all receipts into a word doc for her.  I say NO!  She also tells me that the eating out we did while homeless goes to the knuckle dragger not her and I have to re do those also.  DONT THEY HAVE A MANUAL FOR THIS SHIT.  I find out later, after I did not do as she asked, that she sent the receipts on to knuckle dragger anyway but didn't tell me.  If I had redone all of those for nothing, I swear I would have found her and.....I tell her I need money, I have justified the 10K I originally got and spent.  She sends me 1k.  Moron.  That was spent before I even got it, I just hadn't done the receipts yet. 

Next, I call her boss.  I'm am so done with these idiots.  Well, he was no better.  He keeps asking what can he do for me, to help me.  I keep replying I DONT KNOW, ITS MY FIRST FIRE!  bastards

Now we are done with their crappy pdf inventory sheets.  so I create an excel that looks just like it.  Hubby sends her example of it.  She cannot figure out how to print it so its on one page.  Sigh...hubby asks one question and puts to answers in the emails.  Says please choose answer A or answer B.  She creates answer C and never answers the damn question!

did I mention that my agent HAS NOT EVEN CALLED US YET!

Now, I refuse to even deal with Moron D.  So, I start asking my structure guy, knuckle dragging M questions.  He informs me that he provided me with paperwork when he met with us, and it explained how things work.  I said you did?  when?  He says, July 19th. I reply oh, you mean THE DAY OF THE FIRE??  I inform him that for gods sakes man, i was wearing borrowed socks(JV) and I didn't even remember getting paperwork.  He then suggest to me that I go out and buy a binder with tabs and suggests that I get a hole punch (sorry KLP) and put my important papers in it.  (he is buried in my other garden)  I let him finish explaining how to keep track of paperwork to me, all the while thinking how he would never talk to my husband this way, then I explain that I did go to the store, and I bought this really cool metal cabinet, with drawers and I bought hanging file thingys and folders to put in them and I even wrote on them.  bastard.  I wont talk to him either anymore.

Now hubby has had enough.  He calls OUR AGENTS OFFICE and lets them have it.  Next thing we know our agents office, NOT OUR AGENT calls and assigns someone to work with us.  Luckily they call hubby first, so he can soften me up.  Hubby rightfully explains that we need a liaison.  We need someone to help us with all of these companies.  To explain stuff and stuff.  I say fine, I'll talk to the woman, but I might not be very nice. 

So, she calls, I talk to her. I am polite, but at the end I did get testy.  I was explaining how the electronics company has taken advantage of me and screwed me over.  I rather tersely inform her that this would not have happened if I had an agent or adjuster that knew what the hell they were doing.

Next day, GodSend D2 calls me.  I now have a new adjuster!  Big surprise there!  J was fired, J1 never called as she was on vacation, Temp was kicked by contractors I didn't even know, and Moron D was fired.  Ok...lets just hope. 

D2 comes out to my house.  Sits with me for 3, yes, THREE hours.  We go over everything.  She is appalled that Moron D showed up dressed that way. Tells me that she has a box in her car with boots, gloves, masks etc.  I think I'm in love!

Later, I email her a couple of questions, made them very simple, bullet pointed them.  Guess what she did.  In red font, after each question, she ANSWERED THEM! 

So two months after my fire, AND MY AGENT HAS STILL NOT CALLED ME, I have an adjuster that knows that the hell she is doing and gives a damn about us.  She is checking with me, answering my questions and sometimes before I even ask them.! She says, you need money, heres 10K.  Its your money, do what you want with it, but when you replace something save the receipt. 

When this is all said and done, I hope that I still am in love and I add her to my Christmas card list.  I hope that I allow knuckle dragging M to live, and I cannot wait to report my agent to the Insurance regulatory board and the VP of Agents for SF.  I have his name and number!

MUHAHAHAHAHAHHA  You ticked of the wrong woman you bastard!  And dont you dare show up and my house now, I'll have you arrested for trespassing! 

I dont know if I have a part 8 yet...