Theft/insurance alert

Wildcard Ky

Southern culture liason
Joined
Feb 15, 2004
Posts
3,145
A friend of mine just learned this lesson the hard way this weekend.

They are building a house, and have the usual construction insurance. Thieves broke in this weekend and stripped all the copper from the house. Wiring, pipes, etc.

He called the insurance agent this morning, and standard construction insurance DOES NOT cover this. All costs associated with replacing the wiring and plumbing will come out of his pocket.

If any of you are thinking about building a home, you may want to investigate this aspect of insurance.
 
We don't have construction insurance. It wasn't worth the money. We live on site instead.
 
Insurance companies are slime, and the people who work for them little better. The abysmal record of the insurance industry is the biggest reason why I believe universal health care is going to begin within a generation.

Everyone you meet has a story. A doctor I know, the one who began the clinics in the bateys in the Dominican Republic that I participated in for so many years, has an old house in Surry, Maine. It has slates for roofing. A good roof, slates. My grandmother had them. They last eighty or a hundred years, and then begin to fail. Slates were coming off this doctor's roof. They slide down, acquiring spin, and sail off into the air at the eaves. Spinning sharp sheets of rock! They can really cut people up, and they fly in curves like poorly designed Frisbees. Then, of course, the roof leaks.

The adjustor came. He said, the company definitely covered this sort of thing, the policy was going to cover it. But, he said, each slate tile was a separate incident. Thus, each tile cost less than the deductible, and there could be no net payment.

The doc frowned at him. He stood his ground. "Then," he told me, "I told that man to get the hell off my property! He didn't believe me and began to repeat his story! 'Get the hell out!' I said. "and when you get to your office, you will send me someone who will assess this and pay. Because you ARE going to pay. Go on! I told you to get the hell out! Go! And send me someone else.'"

The doc chivvied him off the property, and received a 'phone call from a supervisor. He reamed out the supervisor, as well, and had his lawyer deal with them, after that. Once they'd fixed the roof, he cancelled the policy and went elsewhere.

Why?

Because no one would say something like that, ever, unless they knew full well that if it worked, they'd be a hero in the office. That company's culture was to attempt to cheat, firstly. If it worked, they won. That's the culture of most insurance companies.

I went in for a colonoscopy. My GP arranged it at the hospital's outpatient unit.

The insurance company, CIGNA, who are assholes, denied my colonoscopy on the ground that it was Workmen's Comp and therefore they were not liable.

They also denied the office visit ith my GP. The code he used was a non-medical code, they said, and they didn't pay for things with that code. Whereas the policy stated they paid 90% of routine office visits, which that one was. Once we got that straightened around (and the code was the ordinary code for an ordinary office visit, such as they receive a thousand times a week) they denied my office visit because the GP wasn't on their approved list. Well, he was. They lied. I had to persist with these assholes -- CIGNA-- for six weeks. They did ultimately pay the agreed amount as per contract, but as the their actions show, the FIRST thing they do is to deny the claim on some random basis. I mean, Workmen's Comp! For a colonoscopy!

They charge incredible premiums, they refuse to cover "pre-existing conditions," and then, when the bill comes, they throw a random lie at it to try to welch on the bet.

They actually are thieves. All of them.
 
Don't get me started on insurance...but wait! Isn't insurance part of the free market? Darn it! I keep forgetting about how perfect the free market is. Perhaps someone from the free-market-booster-club could come by here and put a positive spin on your friend's unfortunate reaming.

Re: the copper. You can thank the War on Drugs for that. These addicts have found copper to be an easy source of quick money. Up in Phoenix, they're actually going along the freeway and pulling the wires out of the freeway lighting system, miles at a time. They also go into almost-finished houses and pull the appliances. They'll do anything for a buck. When a guy has a $200 a day habit, and no job, something's gotta give.

If I couldn't live on the construction site, I'd either hire a security guard to watch it, or install burglar alarms. The make them wireless now, so you can set them up before the house is wired. The sad part is, if the authorities caught you camping out on a construction site without an occupancy permit, they'd probably run you off. Although I believe in the necessity of government, sometimes I wish they'd just mind their own freakin' business.
 
Insurance Company won't agree to Fees

I had a call from my lawyer this morning regarding my Medical Negligence claim.

Apparently, she cannot find a Neurologist prepared to give evidence on my treatment because the Insurer won't agree to their fees!

We have until October to file the claim and cannot file without a Neurologist report. I'm gob-smacked to say the least. I'm not sure what the next step will be.
 
Re: the copper. You can thank the War on Drugs for that. These addicts have found copper to be an easy source of quick money. Up in Phoenix, they're actually going along the freeway and pulling the wires out of the freeway lighting system, miles at a time. They also go into almost-finished houses and pull the appliances. They'll do anything for a buck. When a guy has a $200 a day habit, and no job, something's gotta give.

It's not the war on drugs. It's China and India. China and to a lesser extent, India are driving prices up on all base metals. Copper, steel, lead, etc. The prices on all of them have skyrocketed just as much as oil has in the last several years, but oil gets all of the press.
 
I missed something here, how are China and India driving up the costs of base metals?
 
I missed something here, how are China and India driving up the costs of base metals?

Increased demand. Same as with oil. As the American Dream reaches around the word, our American dream turns into a nightmare. Ironic, eh?

The local market for stolen metal is supposedly driven by meth heads, but that could just be the local media pimping for the police and sheriff's departments.
 
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