You don’t want unhappy customers. No one does. When disaster strikes, though, sometimes it is hard to please everyone.
Texas is still crawling with people who don’t think they were treated too well in the aftermath of Hurricane Rita which came to shore ten years ago but is still wreaking havoc in the state’s insurance market.
With claims topping $2 billion it is a safe bet that insurers weren’t too happy either, with many actually packing up and leaving the southeast corner of the state. While most customers were probably treated fairly enough, those who feel insurers dragged their feet or didn’t do everything they could to make homeowners whole and happy wasted little time in filing complaints and lawsuits.
As of September, roughly 2000 complaints had been filed with the Texas Department of Insurance, and of those the Department determined that almost two out of three were justified, resulting in insurance companies coughing up nearly $27 million to policyholders. There were also hundreds of lawsuits filed by disgruntled policyholders.
Consumers have always had a love/hate relationship with insurance companies and that is never more true than when they need insurance the most.
“Make sure you’re insured. You need to be prepared for everything,” said Angel Murphy, whose home was destroyed—but insured—and who lived in motels for more than a year in the aftermath.
