My husband and I bought a home in St. Albert two years ago, and his parents stayed living in his Edmonton home. We needed coverage for our new home, and our realtor recommended Plains Insurance for quick and simple. They were quick and simple. So simple, that when it came time to renew our Edmonton address coverage, we emailed some questions and got a response right away with a quote from Plains Insurance. We signed and paid for the year shortly after.
I cannot possibly explain the nightmare this could have turned into. I received the renewal info and thought it was odd that it only had our St. Albert address on it - not the RISK address in Edmonton. I thought this was odd, so I called Plains and spoke with Adrienne. She mentioned the St. Albert address but could not find the "Risk address" anywhere in the system for about fifteen minutes, my guess was that she likely went through past emails to find the initial quote/address we received by email last year.
She said the system had the already insured St. Albert address as the risk address, but assured me that it was still insured as the Edmonton address and said the price was the same because of this fact. She said new paper work with the proper address attached would be sent out shortly, BUT THE PRICE WOULD BE THE SAME.
Imagine my surprise when three days later I went to pay the insurance for this year, and was informed that with the POSTAL CODE change, the rate went up almost $100 dollars. Uhmm... postal code change? Now I'm confused. So my Edmonton home WAS NOT insured for the last year, but rather you somehow found a way to insure my St. Albert address TWICE? No, Adrienne assures me there would have been no issue had we been in the unfortunate situation last year where we might have had to file a claim against the Edmonton home. She says they would have just told SGI about the mix up and they would've covered it just the same... I'm not sure if y'all have had to make an insurance claim against a property in the past, but it is literally ANYTHING BUT EASY. She further went on to say that if we had updated the last years forms postal code, we would have to pay more because of the price difference - this makes zero sense when you are claiming there would have been no issues in the case of a claim. Insurance companies want their money - they don't care if a broker made a mix-up with the wring postal code. If an insurance company can get out of paying, they will - and I wholeheartedly believe this would have been a way out for them. Call it a hunch, I don't think Plains would have covered us in that event.
This was a nightmare experience, made worse by being charged almost $100 more than my initial quote for something that was the mistake of the brokers. The only thing that would have made this experience worse, is if something had happened to the home in the last year, and I genuinely don't even want to imagine what that would've been like.
Furthermore, when I gave Adrienne the info to pay, I asked if I could be refunded the unused portion once I find someone else to go with (she knew how unimpressed I was with this mess). She proceeded to ask me (in her usual condescending tone) if I would like a cancellation slip emailed with my receipt to make it easier. Obviously, but I think you ought to know your customer service is SERIOUSLY lacking. I requested a cancellation slip for each property, and will start looking for quotes elsewhere immediately. read more
