A Great insurance Experience

Insurance is one of those things that I dread... I know it is necessary but generally it seems that at some point it will be painful.... you have an accident and you pay up front in deductibles and / or after the fact in premium increases, your fault or not. You can say I am negatively predisposed to anything insurance. You could argue that this is irrational but for me it is what it is.

It was with some trepidation that I approached an insurance problem this past summer.

We were on our way to the Chicago area for a wedding and about two thirds of the way there a pair of motorcycles passed us (in an area with double yellow lines no less) and one of the motorcycles threw up a stone that struck our right hand windshield. Not long after I had a crack running from top to bottom.

I was not happy, not only because I had a broken windshield, but also because I had just switched insurance companies (and saved myself $450 in premium) and did not want to start the relationship with a claim within the first 6 weeks. I was also was a little worried that a low price could mean a harder claim process.

I called my agent and they referred me to the company's claim line. There I found that insurance 'farmed out' glass claims for a third party to manage.

I was initially uncomfortable with this as my thought is that the more fingers in the pot the more difficult a process will become. I was wrong.

I wanted to obtain the glass from the same source as the glass I had replaced the year before so that it would match as closely as possible. In talking with the third party claim service they indicated this was one of their suppliers and it would not be a problem. Maybe the 'process' was not going to be so painful after all.

All arrangements were made and the the glass was installed not long after and now my "too many hands in the cookie jar" dread returned. It so happened that though I obtained the glass from the same provider they did not supply glass from the same company as the previous glass. There was a one half inch difference in the tint band at the top that was quite noticeable and unacceptable to me.

I called the third party facilitator and asked them to hold payment to the glass provider as I was not satisfied due to the problem with the tint band. They indicated that this was not possible as their contract did not permit this, but they promised that all issues would be handled to my satisfaction.

Hmmmmmm... people are not as eager to solve issues once they have their payment. I had no choice but to accept their process.

I had several back and forth conversation with the glass provider and they finally agreed with me that the glass was not acceptable and that they would be sending a new one to match the left hand glass. In the end, they supplied glass glass from the same glass manufacturer that they had used for my left hand glass.

While all this back and forth with the glass supplier was happening, I was regularly getting phone calls from the claim facilitator to check that everything was getting handled to my satisfaction AND in a timely manner. Indeed, it was.

Though I had braced myself for a difficult process, it turned out to be a terrific experience all the way around. Everything was handled with great professionalism, and follow up was EXCELLENT by all parties. So who were these people?

Miller Insurance My agent. Marlene at Miller saved me about 50% on my RV insurance!
Victoria Insurance The insurance company. Performed excellently through a well picked third party.
Safelite They operate a separate division (Safelite Solutions) which handles glass claims for insurance companies. I cannot say enough about how well they handled my claim.
Coach Glass They provided the glass to the company that installed the glass. When there was a problem with the glass, they took care of it.

I hope I never have to deal with these folks again on a claim, but if I do it will be with a new attitude. Can you say terrific??

All these companies performed very well on this insurance claim and have earned my 'RV Things That Work' seal of approval!