Avoid State Farm!

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DBMaster

DBMaster

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I'm sure a number of you have State Farm auto insurance and are happy with it. Neither I, nor any member of my family are insured with SF. But, I have a little story to relate that may give you pause, at least in Texas, before choosing this company as your insurer. My daughter and three of her friends, all students at Texas A&M in College Station, TX, were driving home in the wee hours of the morning of March 16 (I know, bad idea). The owner of the vehicle - a 2004 Jeep Liberty - was the designated driver and was sober. While on State Highway 290, at around 2:30 am a 54 year old man, driving a 2004 Toyota Camry with a BAC of 0.195 hit them head-on while driving the wrong way. He was killed instantly. All four of the young adults were seriously injured. My daughter was the least injured with "only" a fracture right tibia, cracked ribs and sternum, broken C2 vertebrae, and various lacerations. She did not require the ICU time and surgery that two of the others did. Thank God, she has made a full recovery (who really knows until later in life?). To get on the with the story, the guy did have insurance. He was the sales manager at a used car lot owned by his brother and the car was a company car. So, there was a personal and company policy to cover this accident. State Farm's adjuster attempted to contact the kids by leaving voice mails. My daughter's cell phone was damaged in the accident and she didn't even have access to her voice mail for days. State Farm decided that since two of the kids returned their calls they would simply pay the entire proceeds of the policy to TWO our of FOUR people that they knew were injured. So, my daughter has the stop loss on the health insurance that has to be paid as well as at least an extra semester of college expenses since her semester effectively ended halfway through while she recovered for two months. Most recently, my attorney was having to go through mediation to try to collect from her friend's underinsured motorist coverage and she apparently can still fall back on the same coverage in my own policy as a member of my family. My attorney assures me that no matter how sickening SF's behavior was it is totally within Texas law. She said that SF obviously cares nothing about protecting the guy's estate. If he had anything substantial his estate could easily be sued at this point. But, in Texas you can't go after house, land, or vehicles. We are not looking to get rich, just to be set straight. What's the point of having insurance anyway? Thus far, my daughter has collected less than $2,000 from her friend's personal injury protection. That's not even enough to reimburse us for doctor's visit copays (neurologist, orthopedist, physical therapy). We are confident that eventually we will get expenses covered, but not without the attorney and my own auto insurance company, which had nothing to do with this. So, if you value the financial solvency of your estate, beware of State Farm!
 
So sorry to hear of your Daughter's injury. Few of us realize the immense risk of ordinary driving. I pray she will have a complete recovery. But rest assured, State Farm will indeed pay. Any competent attorney will get those expenses if it is possible. I have had them here for over 4 decades, we have had serious accidents and totaled vans, etc. One time we even ran a work truck through a house! Each and every time SF paid for everything, far beyond my expectations. No complaints...
 
I bet you could hear the same type of story about any insurance company.. I have state farm, and will continue to use state farm, as the other insurance companies are $200 more a month.
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
So sorry to hear of your Daughter's injury. Few of us realize the immense risk of ordinary driving. I pray she will have a complete recovery. But rest assured, State Farm will indeed pay. Any competent attorney will get those expenses if it is possible. I have had them here for over 4 decades, we have had serious accidents and totaled vans, etc. One time we even ran a work truck through a house! Each and every time SF paid for everything, far beyond my expectations. No complaints...
This, we've had State Farm for 20 years, and my mom worked personally for them for the last 6 of them. They've always treated us well, paid everything without hassle. I also have my IRA, and life insurance through them as well as my auto. There are few companies I trust as much as SF. @OP If you think that sort of thing is confined to just one insurance company, I'd like to ask you something. State farm is a mutual company (unless you are with Fire Company) and most other insurance companies are for-profit corporations. It's the same reason I choose a credit union over a traditional bank. Mutual Companies and Credit Unions exist to act in the benefit of their policy/account holders. Unlike banks and publicly traded insurance companies, which exist to fill the coffers of their shareholders. That being said, I do sympathize with you and your daughter, and hope that she makes a full recovery.
 
State Farm has paid. The full $250,000 value of both policies was already paid out - just not to all injured parties. It was basically first come, first served; you snooze you lose. This may be more of an issue with Texas' insurance regulations, which are extremely company friendly. State Farm knew its policyholder was deceased and they knew they would have to pay so they just did it quick and dirty and washed their hands. Even the best organizations sometimes mess up, I suppose.
 
Not the type of phone call anyone wants to get at 4:00 am, that's for sure. Again, I am SO grateful that she's alive and not paralyzed. All the kids were wearing seat belts, too. When I saw photos of the car and video from the Houston news I thought it was a miracle that anyone survived. Too many wrong-way crashes happening in this state. It's literally a weekly occurrence.
 
Glad to hear your daughter regained her full health and that hopefully, your woes will be sorted for you soon! I have had State Farm since I started driving and my family before that for their whole lives. When my Dad totaled his truck (and later died from complications from the injuries), State Farm was 'johnny on the spot' and handled everything. Through the years, I have had two major crashes (totaled vehicles), neither my fault, and neither of the other drivers had insurance. State Farm paid everything and went after the other drivers. Any chance your experience was due to the agent's handling of the case? If there is anything negative I can say about State Farm, it is the variation of agents (and not just the personality part, but the functionality part) and they have had (at least in my experience) a major influence on how the case went. I have had three agents in four decades (LA, TN, & TX) and they were all vastly different in how they handled claims.
 
It was the adjuster. I guess that the laws in Texas allow for that sort of lack of due diligence. I pretty much figured that some would come to the defense of State Farm. My former in-laws have been policyholders for decades as well. I don't plan to drive wasted, but if I did expire in a car crash caused by me I sure would like to know up front that my heirs could be sued because my insurer didn't care enough to pay the injured parties equitably. Even if they apportioned the payments based upon the level of medical expenses that would have been better than paying only half the claimants.
 
Sorry about that. One dead drunk at the least to not hurt anyone else. No health insurance to cover this?
 
I think you need an attorney. With it being a company car you can go after the business assets along with his personal assets. There may be an umbrella policy also. The place that served him last? With that high a BAC the bartender who served him must have known.
 
Your insurance company can pursue State Farm with a subrogation claim for their losses with your daughter's medical expenses. People think that having 100,000/300,000 in liability coverage is enough, but when you have 4 people badly injured, $300,000 can disappear very quickly.
 
Originally Posted By: dave1251
Do not read the facebook comments attached to the story!
I don't see any comments. Possibly ABP in my browser has blocked them out.
 
Originally Posted By: Donald
I think you need an attorney. With it being a company car you can go after the business assets along with his personal assets. There may be an umbrella policy also. The place that served him last? With that high a BAC the bartender who served him must have known.
Very good suggestions. My attorney and her staff have been all over this. Tort reform in Texas limited maximum pay out for these types of incidents to $250,000. That's why, when it happened, companies like State Farm and Farmers - who were about to "leave the state" started advertising on TV. They have not been able to get enough information to determine where he was drinking. They have no legal basis for getting his credit report so, if he paid by CC, we can't get copies of his bills. Also, you can't go after houses, cars, or land. And, his brother owns the dealership. We think he may have had controlling interest, but cannot prove it. Plus, the reported value of the inventory is only about $58,000. Funny how I discovered all this stuff about the guy online as well and noticed that the dealership's inventory dropped by 50% (number of vehicles in the month after the accident). I personally spoke with the guy's brother. Both he and the wife swore the guy didn't drink. So, either they are liars, or, the guy was a closet drinker.
 
Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
People think that having 100,000/300,000 in liability coverage is enough, but when you have 4 people badly injured, $300,000 can disappear very quickly.
How true your words are! Do you know, that in Texas, minimum liability limits were just raised in 2013 to $60,000 (total) per accident. Before that it was 40K. What a joke! In some areas of the state - Corpus Christi, for example - it's estimated that 40% of the drivers have no insurance. There are no serious penalties for not having it so many decide they "can't afford it." The state calls the requirement "personal responsibility." Too bad that a good percentage of the citizens of this state that everyone thinks is so great choose to shirk said responsibility. We have tons of deadbeat dads and one of the highest illegitimate birth rates in the country, too.
 
Originally Posted By: dave1251
Do not read the facebook comments attached to the story!
Good thing I am not a Facebook participant. Waste of time. I don't give a fish about what anyone else thinks. I can't even count the number of times I was driving home at 3:00 from various places when I was a college student. I saw many on the road that I knew were drunk, but I never encountered a wrong-way driver. The wrong-way driver, in this case, had a daughter a bit younger than mine from a second marriage. A44hole.
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Not the type of phone call anyone wants to get at 4:00 am, that's for sure. Again, I am SO grateful that she's alive and not paralyzed. All the kids were wearing seat belts, too. When I saw photos of the car and video from the Houston news I thought it was a miracle that anyone survived. Too many wrong-way crashes happening in this state. It's literally a weekly occurrence.
a speedy recovery to your daughter.
 
Originally Posted By: DBMaster
All four of the young adults were seriously injured. My daughter was the least injured with "only" a fracture right tibia, cracked ribs and sternum, broken C2 vertebrae, and various lacerations. She did not require the ICU time and surgery that two of the others did. Thank God, she has made a full recovery (who really knows until later in life?).
Should have State Farm looked at the initial injuries, and knowing that it wasn't going to be enough, and that four different parties are involved (instead of four members of one family) then said 40% of the policy coverage to the most injured, 25% to the other two, and the final 10% to your daughter, as the least injured? I don't know. I'm just wondering. A good lawyer should be consulted with to see if the business who actually owned the car needs to shoulder some of the responsibility here as well. I haven't looked, but I believe that I also have uninsured/underinsured coverage on my policy that would kick in for something like this, once the other driver's coverage is exhausted (if there is any at all). I don't mind carrying this, as I ride a motorcycle, and bodily injuries to a motorcyclist can get very expensive, very quickly.
 
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