newbies are always a pain in every field. I donated blood platelets today. Last Nov I had a guy going solo. I was not able to donate because he messed up on the needle stick. Got him again today. I sure remembered him but he didn't remember me until he looked at the chart. He messed up again today but not as badly. The supervisor was able to correct it.

As far as the labels go, I can understand why the kid checked. They have to justify and document everything. If the neighbor said they bought Van Heusen that are normally around $25 at Penneys that is one thing. If he says they were all Jos A Banks' $80 ones the adjuster needs some kind of proof. They actually will accept sales slips from your credit card. Since your neighbor didn't supply it the kid went the extra mile and looked through the rubble. Not everyone would do that.

I have dealt with restoration contractors a lot of the years. They pretty much know the market.

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What was so cool about it was that I was standing there watching this all unfold while Tony was getting progressively pissed off at this snot-nose rummaging through his shit. I was standing next to the contractor, and he whispered to me that the kid was a FNG and that whatever number he ultimately came up with would be meaningless, that this was his first job, and that the kid's boss had already told him (the contractor) to get his number together ( I really sensed he meant INCLUDING the personal property- a definite synergistic working relationship) and they would work from that (as in, very trusted) That seems to be what happened as an end-result.

You hit it on the head as far as going through the rubble. The contractor ALSO told me that the adjusters get cured from that sifting after they do it a few times. As he said, it is profoundly discouraging and tedious.

My recollection is that homeowners insurance is not profitable/VERY marginally profitable for the insurance companies. I actually got licensed to sell it here in PA as I had to, because I was the settlement agent for our (read-wife's 😆 ) manufactured housing loan business, and a large percentage of the time joe-blow-buyer would show up at the settlement table without insurance, in spite of being told we could not settle without it, so I had to write it, then and there. To this day I do not know how I passed those exams, I was NOT INTO IT. That was a mental/motivational chore for me. The classes were the only time I can remember trying to learn new material that I fell asleep in.

What do you think of the C&Z guy telling me Travelers is the best for insurance? He mentioned the actual policy, but I had this sense he was speaking of the adjusters. If the latter is true, I wonder if he was speaking personal experience vs. nationally.

When I was that snot nosed kid I wrote for the Travelers. We had them in our office for a few years before they decided a small town was not where they wanted to be any longer. (They had been in the agency for more than 50 years at that time.) What happened is the people in the ivory tower decided they would do much better in the rapidly growing suburban areas than in the more stable places. They closed down more than half of their offices and consolidated into a handful. They took an absolute pounding. Claims exploded. Consumers left by the droves.. Staff turnover was everywhere. They eventually bought out another company's personal lines book to replace the one they pissed away.

Their policy is fine these days. I run in to them every once in a while and they don't have the greatest prices around here.

Claims service is variable. Not only does it depend on which state they are in. (Every state had some bass monkey squeezing down hard on everyone below him/her. Some are more lenient than others.) It also depends on the adjuster. As you noticed this kid is scared to death to make a mistake.

My Traveler's claim story is this one. Now this is nearly 30 years ago. As they were pulling out of our office my secretary had a loss. Kids got into her car (it was unlocked.) and used a pry bar to open the glove box. Since it was plastic it busted. The repair shop said she needed a "new" dash. There was one at a local junk yard that they could get. It would cost (I forget the exact amount. It wasn't much.) $150. Travelers said no. the car had some age and they didn't want to but a "new" dash in. A shop nearly an hour away (They were thinking like a big city company) could weld the plastic on the dash/ glove box and it would be just as good. It would only cost $85. Of course they would not pay for her time driving there and back and her waiting for the work to be completed. They would only give her the $85 if she didn't want to make the trip. I bucked my complaint all the way up. Since I had almost no policies with them any more no one cared. It didn't matter what we had done for them in the past.

That is the problem with the biggest companies these days. They have lost touch with most of their consumers.

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This is such an interesting discussion!

I asked my wife an hour ago who we had our homeowners insurance with. She was NOT privy to my talk with C&Z. I never bothered to mention it.

She said, "Travelers". I asked her why. She said that DS and T (our local agents) placed us with them, as they are the "best".

She has them under standing orders to place us with the best insurance co's in the event of a claim. This is all news to me.

My vehicles are under "Farmers" Hers are not. Hers are under what is called, "National Penn" Since I do our banking and know how anal my wife is about that, I now see just how micro-managed our insurance situation is by her. e.g.- I had a snow-plow business, paid massive premiums, sold it, but get some sort of discount (still) because my troops didn't fuck anything up.

DS and T do know me by my first name when I call. They are a mountain range, tiny town, and a pain in my ass to get to these days. I often wondered why we stuck with them and they stuck with us, after we sold our business, and such. My wife is so very on this, lol I did not know.

You should consider placing your cars with the same company as the house. Here in IL many of the companies are not taking new home insurance with the cars too. They are jacking the prices on mono line home insurance.

The discounts are typically about 20%.

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Oh hell, I know that! Thats insurance 101!

This mis-mash we have going on is an apparently sophisticated way of maximizing the discounts accrued through previous business dealings and histories with the various insurance co.s, coupled with my whack-wife wanting full-tort on certain areas of insurable interest. I would recommend it to nobody. I would, however, recommend that anyone with a small business get the various insurances required through an independent agency such as you and the one we have. I would definitely "bundle" as Joe blow Harry homeowner, without a doubt.