State Farm a good neighbor?
Hardly!

Like a good neighbor...? Hardly!

Like a good neighbor...? Hardly! State Farm is not there when you need them. Rather, regardless of how long they have known you or how many years you have been a dedicated customer, they will drop you in a second if you actually use the insurance you are paying for.

In our case, we've had our car and homeowners insurance with the same State Farm agent since 1989, and I personally have had my car insurance with State Farm since I was old enough to drive (around 1985). Our homeowners insurance was recently dropped by State Farm for a legitimate claim on our house. A water main broke under the foundation and was not only causing damage to the home but was wasting a lot of water giving us an astronomical water bill. It had to be fixed immediately. The houses in our area were built with shoddy polybutylene pipes. Nearly all the houses in our neighborhood have had to have their houses completely repiped due to breaks under the foundation. Over the years we have been in our home we have had plumbing problems but never bothered to call our insurance agent except when it was something we couldn't take care of ourself. A pipe cracked or we had a leak, we called a plumber and had it fixed. The city was turning up the water pressure in the neighborhood causing some damage to our neighbor's plumbing, so we called a plumber and had a regulator added to our water line to keep from having problems. We didn't claim these things on our insurance and accepted them as part of our responsibility as homeowners. We are not insurance abusers by any stretch of the imagination.

After the water line break, we called State Farm and they sent out an adjuster. He told us that we would be better off repiping the house rather than fixing the broken line as other things would continue to break and we would have further problems down the line. Our plumber told us the same thing. The adjuster also said that if we had the house repiped and sent proof to State Farm, in the form of the plumbing bill, we would have no further problems and would not be dropped. He explained what our insurance would and would not pay for, what our financial responsibilities were, inspected the damages, cut a sample of our damaged carpet and spoke with our plumber who had already begun work on the house. We were fairly distraught as we didn't know how were were going to be able to pay for all of this. Thankfully, we later received a check from State Farm for around $2,900 for damages. We were thankful to have the financial help.The amount didn't come close to paying for all the damage, let alone the complete repipe, but we understand it's part of our responsibility as home owners.

However, to our surprise and despite what we were told by the adjuster, we received a letter in the mail a month later informing us we were being dropped by State Farm for "your claim activity". On top of that, they are raising our car insurance rates since we are no longer a multi-policy holder. To be fair, we have had a few minor claims since being with State Farm for the past couple of decades, three of which were due to water damage, one that was due to a freak wind and hail storm that damaged everyone's home in the neighborhood. We had a water damage claim in 2004, one in 2006 and the most recent 2011. This is the reason we decided to get the house repiped so we wouldn't have any more plumbing incidents.

Insurance is the only business in the world where you get penalized for using the service you are paying for like you are suppose to use it. It doesn't matter the years you've been with them, it's just cold and calculated business. They are not there to help, but rather to collect your money. If you need to actually use your insurance, regardless of the circumstances, chances are you will be dropped. To make matters worse, the other insurance companies don't want to pick you up because, 'you've had a claim in the last three years.' So much for the "good neighbor". So much for 'insurance'.

The 'good neighbor' is only an advertising catch phrase and far from the truth. State Farm Insurance is a scam. Buyer beware.

http://consumerist.com/2007/06/like-a-good-neighbor-state-farm-wants-to-steal-your-money-and-send-you-to-jail.html

http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=2824

http://statefarmsucks.homestead.com/

http://state--farm--sucks.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/State-Farm-Sucks/103921623026319