Progressive Insurance

Is Not What they CLAIM to be! 

My eldest daughter is one of the hardest working people I know. She started a PTA at her kids school, she works full time. She is the VP of softball for the South Highline American Little League and District 7 VP of softball. Her husband was violently attacked, and had a severe head injury and she became the primary bread winner. Her youngest daughter, my little granddaughter, has life threatening allergies and Asthma, so when she gets sick it's a run to the hospital. My daughter never complains and keeps doing the best she can. 

We never expect emergencies, but if you're responsible you prepare just in case. My daughter is one who understands that sometimes trees fall on your roof and take out your house. That too has happened to her. So, she pays her insurance premiums for life's unforeseen events. You would expect when you pay your insurance through a company like Progressive, that they would take care of the big events. 

Progressive now owes her $37,370.00 and they are refusing to pay. They have strung her along, cost her thousands and she still has no kitchen after 6 months.

The Kitchen Nightmare

that started from a cracked pipe 

Then...

Progressive Insurance Company's 

Underwriter: Homesite 

Denied the Claim!

I have seen each bit of documentation that is referenced in this email. Nobody should have to go through a battle like this. Progressive is a million dollar company, they could afford to do the right thing. You decide... would you want an insurance company that behaves this way?

Time to Take a Stand Against

The Injustices of the World...
This is one of them! 

Thanksgiving my daughter noticed a pool of water on her kitchen floor dripping from her kitchen sink and opened up the cabinet and it was flooded. She called Progressive her insurance company and filed a claim. They had a claim open from a month earlier in the basement due to pipes backing up. Old house. Old pipes. 

Her adjuster Mark Dutra visited the property and assessed the cause of damage was due to a leaky faucet. Hmmm... The picture shows water damage in the back wall is a bit more significant and was unlikely a leaky faucet could have caused.

December 8, 2018 Mark sent an estimate of total repairs for $3556.82 and was at the time not going to replace all her cabinets, or the counter tops, or the sink, or the faucet, or the flooring. At the time of the estimate my daughter asked about code upgrades. He said there should be nothing that requires code upgrades but she was covered up to $74k.  Code upgrades was something she paid extra for, in the event a problem like this happens and she has to bring something up to code. 

December 19, 2018 she provided Mark with a copy of her weekly groceries as Homesite (underwriter) was reimbursing her food expenses for anything above $275 per week, for loss of use of her kitchen.  At the time he never mentioned that there was a time limit.

Homesite ordered a mitigation company to come pull the cabinets and the flooring and remove all asbestos found. This was scheduled for December 26, 2018. Christmas day she had to pack up all of Christmas and empty her kitchen. Not the way to celebrate the holiday with little ones. 

The mitigation company "ordered by Homesite" is called Service Masters. They pulled out all the flooring, counters, and cabinets and damaged remaining cabinets that needed to be pulled as a result of the damage. She provided photos to Mark on January 2, 2018. 

He then agreed to replace all cabinets and counters and sink and faucet as service master had demolished everything.

She did not receive an estimate to include cabinets until February 9, 2018—5 weeks AFTER her cabinets were pulled.

February 13, 2018 she forwarded the email communication confirming the actual cause of the water damage to be a cracked pipe behind the sink, verified by a contractor. She asked Mark to address the drywall damage and mold. She received no response from him. 

February 16, 2018, she forwarded the contractor's estimate to Mark and then on February 24th, received an email response from him thanking her. 

She has not received any reimbursement for any contractor paid invoice that she’s have submitted to Homesite... Six months now! 

After demolition, they discovered that there was electrical damage due to the water from the cracked leaky pipe that started this. She engaged Custom Electrical to inspect and it was determined that none of their electrical work was up to code. 

STOP WORK ORDER! 

March 5, 2018 the city of Des Moines stopped work on her project because they did not have a building permit. Her adjuster never advised her that she needed one. They just sent the demolition company out to rip everything out. 

March 7, 2018 she received a revised estimate to include cabinets, counters, and flooring--10 weeks AFTER her kitchen was demolished by Service Masters. Electrical was not included.

Time to get management involved when the agent becomes hostile and aggressive on the phone, and was non responsive to emails. Oh... he also stopped paying the grocery supplement per her contract, and she had no idea as to why.  

She provided Conor Hales, Mark Dutra’s manager, a copy of a letter from the Custom Electrical Services indicating the assessment that their current electrical system was not to code and presented a fire hazard. She was later asked for further information from the electrical company to describe the scope of work that was completed, the cost, and what still has to be done. She provided that documentation on May 25, 2018 

Homesite engaged an additional adjuster named Jovan Cruz. She came out to inspect the project site and I sent her all communication and photos to address her questions on March 28, 2018. 

On March 31, 2018, Mark sent her an email saying that there would be no further food reimbursement due to length of the project. At no time was there ever a scope of work timeline established, and it was never communicated that the loss of use was for a specific time period. Especially when the delay was in now way in her control. 

At this time they were still on a stop work order from the city because they didn’t have a building permit (fault of the adjuster’s lack of information) and were in the process of fulfilling the application requirements. He also cited that he hadn’t received documentation that he requested which wasn’t true because she replied with copies of all documentation and correspondence on April 2, 2018. 

She had communicated to both Conor and Mark that she was uncomfortable having phone conversations due to Mark’s aggressive nature. She emailed them both re-iterating this on April 4, 2018, and followed by another email on April 5th. 

She also provided Mark with the receipt for the building permit on April 5, 2018. She did not receive a response until June 11, 2018, at which time he denied coverage of the building permit. However, this was something that was required by the city because Homesite ordered Service Master to demo their floors down to sub boards.

June 5, 2018 she had to re-engage Conor Hales due to Mark's non-responsiveness and point out that she had already supplied him with information that Mark was requesting.

June 6, 2018, she sent an additional email with documentation she had provided Jovan Cruz (the supplementary adjuster they sent out). In the email correspondence, Mark argued about the photos. Her contractor then confirmed the details in photos.  

April 9, 2018, 

she filed a complaint with the 

Washington Insurance Commission

April 9, 2018 she emailed Mark, Conor, Jovan, and the contractor to confirm documentation received and re-iterated that she had an added policy endorsement that allows for up to 25% of the value of her home to be covered for code upgrades. Something that she paid extra for in her coverage. 

April 10, 2018, her contractor sent an email with a picture indicating the purpose of new framing as identified in his estimate and is another item that a building permit necessitated.

April 10, 2018 the contractor, Mark Dutra, Conor Hales, and she had a live conversation to go over the status of the claim. In which they could not explain why they were not able to provide prompt and timely responses, or provide reimbursement on items that were covered, or explain the delay in providing coverage for the building permit and electrical work. Conor sent a recap of the conversation with a list of items they needed from her as well as the report from Jovan Cruz. 

April 11, 2018 Jovan sent an email with all the building permit documents and requirements, as well as shared my communication with the city. 

April 19, 2018 Jovan sent Mark additional permit documentation and the contractor kitchen estimate that he had never responded via email and provided this to Homesite. She then sent Mark an email indicating that she had not received payment on receipts she had sent on April 4, 2018. 

April 20, 2018 Mark sent her a list of things he still needed, which again included some items my daughter had already sent to him. 

April 27, 2018 my daughter sent Mark all the building permit documents again, I think the 4th time in roughly 2 months. 

May 7, 2018, she sent Mark the receipt for the Engineers work that was required by the City of Des Moines in order to get the building permit required for the work in the kitchen, due the water damage from the cracked pipe behind the sink, because they ordered her floors to be removed to the sub-floor. 

May 7, 2018 Mark followed up with a request for more invoices and documentation he needed. 

May 11, 2018, she provided Mark and Conor with a copy of the plumbing invoice that confirmed the cause of the damage was due to a cracked pipe. 

May 25, 2018, she provided Mark and Conor with a copy of the Dumpster invoice for reimbursement and the letter from the electrical company confirming expenses and the scope of work. 

May 29, 2018 Mark confirmed he received the electrical letter but ignored the dumpster invoice. She emailed him asking for confirmation that he received the dumpster invoice and he has yet to respond. 

June 11, 2018, Mark and she had a conversation in which he stated that all the required electrical was not covered, that the building permit and engineer work required for the building permit would not be covered. Only the plumbing and electrical permits were going to be covered. And sent the most recent estimate of work. 

June 11, 2018 she sent Mark an email addressing Homesite not covering the building permit and engineer work required for the building permit. She included attachments she had sent multiple times and a forwarded message from the city indicating that she could not get the plumbing permit without the building permit due to the work in the kitchen to include the floors being removed by Service Masters. 

She has sent her paid contractor invoices to Homesite for a total of $22,116.90 and has not received any reimbursement.

She has not received reimbursement for the building permit, engineer work, or dumpster rental. For a total of $7089.33

Total electrical cost so far is $8164.00... and that may not be over.

$37,370.00 out of pocket!

They are now 6 months without a kitchen.

She has Insurance with Progressive

and they won't reimburse her! 

As my daughter says, 

“This has been a terrible experience. All the delays are due to the insurance company/adjuster’s lack of responsiveness and lack of understanding how permits work. The company has also cut off loss of use reimbursement due to the length of project work but that is the result of them not responding in a timely manner or advising us that we needed a building permit, then arguing that our insurance didn’t cover the building permit. Oh... and the fun part... "

"Progressive doubled 

my annual premium!"

Progressive and Homesite

Shame on you! 

Please Share this post with everyone you know!

If business's are going to treat people this way

then we should warn and protect each other.

Enjoy the Journey...
Speak out! 
XO Karlene