Group: Members
Posts: 4901
Member No.: 67
Joined: February 10, 2011
I recently went through several issues re my boat insurance and thought I would share my experience.
My boat/motor/trailer is covered under my Homeowners policy with T/D Insurance and has been in place since 2013.
Recently, one of T/D's Customer Service Rep.'s (CSR)told me I had no liability or loss coverage as my boat is 25 years old and they don't insure boats more than 15 years old.
My policy has a "catchall clause" which says watercraft are covered as long as they are less then 26ft and their power is 50hp or less. There is no clause in the policy that puts an age limit on watercraft coverage or any requirement for me to give them specific details on my boat (Actually, is 16ft and powered by a 40hp motor and I did give them the info. when they asked for it.)
Over a month or so, I tried dealing on the phone wiht various CSR' and got nowhere.
I have been retired for 25 years, but I worked in the insurance industry and know how to read a policy. As far as I was concerned I had coverage.
So a wrote a letter to their Complaint Area, outlining my situation. They responded I could only complain once my situation had been investigated, a response given and then I could could complain if I wasn't satisfied. They said thay had forwarded my letter to a Senior CSR to review matters. After 10 days the Senior CSR wrote me and confirmed I was covered for liability coverage, but not for loss, citing the age of the boat.
I then forwarded the Senior CSR letter to the Complaint area, explaining I was not happy about the "no" loss coverage and I believed T/D was incorrect in their interpretation of my coverage. They then assigned matters to a Senior Investigator who contacted me for some more info and then he wrote to me to confirm I did in fact have loss coverage and reconfirming I had the laibility coverage as well.
He apologized profusely for what I had gone through to get this resolved and they sent me a $50.00 Visa gift card for my troubles.
Score---SDCaller-2----T/D ins-0
I'm simply posting this so that if anyone else is insured with T/D Ins and having difficulties with their coverage, don't hesitate to get their Complaint area involved.
Group: Members
Posts: 3272
Member No.: 10648
Joined: January 17, 2016
Congrats on being a pain in the a## and sticking to your guns Ralph. They hope that people will accept their BS and just go away. I went through a similar but actual claim a few years back and had to twist them around so badly that they ended up overpaying me.....they have no morals but that only translates in me also having no morals when it comes to dealing with them.......Dire Straits has a song that comes to mind when I think of insurance companies..................."Money For Nothing"
Hats off to you sir.
PS....ever notice that insurance companies have the biggest and the shiniest buildings.
Group: Members
Posts: 632
Member No.: 18006
Joined: January 23, 2020
Congrats! So glad you didn't give up. Many of us would have.
It looks like your regular TD insurance CSR have taken a page out of the "Medical outside of Canada" folks play-book.... first thing. reject all customers claims, including including medical claims for spelling a drug wrong.
Group: Members
Posts: 4901
Member No.: 67
Joined: February 10, 2011
What I took from this experience, was that the T/D Customer Service reps. were poorly trained and did not know how to properly interpret the policy.
They didn't understand how the "watercraft catch all" provision applied.
If I had wanted the boat on a seperate "rider", which I didn't, then their underwriting provision of no boats over 15 years would have applied and they would have refused coverage.
They kept trying to tell me they did not have to put the exclusion/limitation in the policy as it was in their underwriting manual. As I explained to them, I had an insurance background and the policy I have is the contract I have with T/D and if you are going to exclude something, that exclusion MUST be in the policy. As a policyholder, I do not have nor do I want access to their underwriting manual.
The last gentleman I dealt with was very understanding and as already stated, resolved the issues in writing and those letters are now attached to my policy.
I commented to him about what I perceived as poor training for the Customer Service Reps. and he agreed with me and indicated he would be taking steps to solve that.
Group: Members
Posts: 121
Member No.: 16571
Joined: December 18, 2018
Sdcaller, good on you for sticking it out, you are definitely patient. Glad to hear that you got the customer service to actually do what they should have. I don't mean to change the topic, but I'd like to ask, what company would anyone recommend for boat insurance? Mine is about to run out, I've read that some smaller companies have better rates than the big names?
BOAT iNSURANCE, Issues with T/D Insurance
