Farmers Insurance Review

A lovely old farm house outside of a small town, its cold and dark outside. The homeowner is out with family, seven cats are inside, along with four dogs.

The homeowner is in her early twenties, and she has spent years learning home-improvement. She has replaced most of the plumbing in the house, and was taking electrician courses so that she could replace the older wiring and lights in the house. She spent whole summers refinishing woodwork, and clearing out the old basement. She loved this house; it had been in her family for many years.

The homeowner pulls into her drive way and notices an orange light coming from the window on the side of the house. She is confused because she never uses that room- it has an old oven and washer/dryer... it's a utility room. She gets closer to open the front door and whoosh! air is sucked in and it's clear that it's a fire. She calls 911 the moment she realizes it a fire, then she rushes to get her cats out, the house is filled with smoke and is nearly impossible to see. She is panicked and crying-- she gets out of the house and tries to get into the basement thru the cellar door. It's on fire! But she can hear one of her dogs down there. She tries to body slam the door but fiery wood falls around her, and she instinctively runs back away from the heat to get air. She is running wildly around the house trying to find some way back in to save her pets. A few teenagers in a truck come down the road, they see her running around her burning house and come to help. Together they get to the older cellar door- which was dead-bolted and unused; there were heavy objects in front of it, inside the basement. The door was old, and thick, and the handle too hot. The boys took turns kicking and body slamming the door until it opened.

The army crawled through the basement because the smoke was too thick. They couldn't see anything, but heard a cat fly through the air on its way out of the basement. They called for the dog, which was terrified and hiding in the corner. They found the dog and got it out. The fire-fighters had arrived; they worked through the night into the early morning. The girl keeps trying to get in to save a cat, the sheriff was forced to restrain her. She was suffering severe smoke inhalation, hypothermia and was bruised, burned and bleeding. They hold her up in the back of an ambulance, and the paramedic gave her and her shivering, smoky dog oxygen masks. They rescued all of the dogs, but only found two cats.

A few days later she and her Farmer's insurance agent surveyed the damage, she had not seen it in the day light. She was absolutely devastated, everything she owned, beside what was in her vehicle, was gone. All the work she had put into her home was gone. There was hope that her cats had escaped and her hiding elsewhere on the property. That hope was gone when they found them; they had likely died of smoke inhalation. She broke down into tears; the Farmers agent gave her a hug and let her cry. She was so thankful of their kindness and support, she told everyone that even though she had experience this horrible tragedy it reminded her of how loved she was, and how kind people could be.

Her mother had been in and out of the hospital recently, but was looking on the bright side that at least everyone was alive and would celebrate the holidays together. Based on the insurance coverage that she had she could afford to build a new house herself. She really enjoyed home-improvements on her old home, and was trying to be positive about possibilities of a new home. She planned a simple ranch style home with room for her mother. Farmers were wonderful, they helped with the dogs vet bills, the RV that she would live in until she could rebuild, and they seemed so supportive.

Six weeks passed, she was adjusting to her new lifestyle, and coping with the loss of her cats and all her belongings. The holidays were fast approaching, and she and her mother received a call from Farmers on the Monday before Christmas. They were told that everything was in order and that the meeting was to basically go over the next steps in the claim process. They went in together, she was asked to wait in the reception area while they talked with her mother. For an hour and a half she waited, wondering what was going on, when she heard her mother crying uncontrollably from the room. She marched right in to comfort her mother- who was just recently released from the hospital, and still had a weak heart. She asked the insurance agent if they could have a moment to compose themselves, as she was bawling too over her mother's distress. The insurance agent refused, and instead asked her mother to leave so that he could talk to her.

Once alone he asked her to describe the events of the fire. She had tried her best to forget that night, she had given the account a number of times soon after it happened, and it was recorded. But she didn't want to cause any more trouble so she forced herself to relive that night, it was so upsetting. Then the insurance agent got in her face, questioning her over and over, introducing details that made no sense and trying his best to manipulate and confuse her. She didn't know what he wanted, she told him what happened but he was making her second guess everything. She was crying and frightened and didn't understand what was happening. Then he told her to retell the story of what happened again- this time to be recorded. So she went over it again while crying and so upset. Then he went after her again, alluding to her being an arsonist, claiming that they found propellants and other flammable items throughout the house. She was dumbfounded and asked what they found-he refused to give any further details. She racked her brain, she had a bunch of cleaning fluids in a box in the utility room; she may have had a thing of gas for the mower near the porch; maybe hairspray?

She couldn't believe this, why would they do this to her, right before Christmas. They were so supportive and helpful, and then suddenly blame her for arson! They had apparently tried to blame her mother for burning her daughter's house down just before she came in to comfort her crying mother. And just after the blaze they went after her father, who was divorced from her mother years ago, claiming that he may have driven all the way to her house to burn it down.

Basically, they are your supportive, friendly insurance company until you make a claim. So long as you pay your dues and don't ever need the insurance coverage you are fine, but if you lose your home and everything you own you will become an arsonist in their books. Now she has no idea what to do with the vet bills, the RV she is living out of, or anything, because Farmers is supposed to be paying for it.

I implore you not to get insurance coverage with Farmers-- unless you don't really need insurance coverage and have lots of money you would like to throw away each month.