CORY'S STORY
Why I Believe In Doubleday Insurance
June 23rd 2012 was a day that would change our lives forever. We arrived home from the town celebration at 12 am. We were woke up by the kids at 1:30 am to them yelling that the house was on fire. As we ran out of the house we saw that the inside of the living room ceiling was on fire and after running around to the front of the house we watched in disbelief as the entire house became engulfed. After almost five hours, four fire departments and over 150,000 gallons of water our house was in a charred mess.
Standing next to the rest of my family and half of the town we stood there wondering what our next step was. How do we start to rebuild? The time was 6 am and I decided to break the news to our insurance agent. It was at this point where people started saying "watch out for the insurance company." I called the office number and wrote down their emergency phone number thinking it's just going to be an answering machine anyways. To my amazement when I called the number it went straight to Chris' cell phone and he said to me, "I'll be there in twenty minutes" which I didn't think was possible knowing that I had woken him up.
In less than 20 minutes, Chris was at our house already making multiple calls on the way to line up a hotel, and contact the insurance company adjusters. Chris told us from the very beginning that we shouldn't worry and that he will be by our side every step of the way. Chris went above and beyond that morning taking me to the one hour optical and lining up a rental car for us. While Chris and I were at the eye doctor Lew showed up to the house. When he showed up my wife informed him that Chris had already been there, he understood but wanted to come there personally and see how everyone was and offer any help that might be needed. Two days after our house fire we were informed that the water line to the house was stuck and had to be turned off in the basement. Upon further investigation the basement had about 8 feet of water in it. While in the process of pumping out the basement a gentleman in a new shiny Lexus showed up. Basically the long and short of his conversation was that he would fight our insurance company to make sure that we get what we deserve. I asked him how they made any money by helping us and he replied that they only took 10-15% of the settlement with the insurance company but that they normally get an additional 10-14% from them. I am not good at math but this didn't make a whole lot of sense to me. I called Chris and he said that this is the house fire version of an ambulance chaser.
WOW I can't say how many times Tracie and I said that though this entire ordeal. Chris arranged for us to meet with the insurance adjusters from Travelers and made sure that he would be there too. This was HUGE to us. We were worried because of the horror stories that everyone had told us about insurance companies and we already knew that Chris was a man that we could trust with our lives.
Sherrie and Stephen were our insurance adjusters. Sherrie is from Olathe, KS and Stephen from somewhere in PA, which to us didn't make much sense why they would bring someone from so far away to look at our house. Their reasoning being that the damage to the house was so extensive that they needed to get someone that did this all the time. This immediately caused us concern. How were people from other states going to treat us? Once again this was another time that we feared everyone had cautioned us about. We couldn't have been more wrong. Sheri and Steve spent three days going through our house on the hottest days that we had in Iowa. They surveyed all of the damage and sat down with us and explained to us in terms that we understood and treated us as though we were old friends. It was at this time which we fully understood how Chris was our saving grace. Chris, Sherri and Stephen took all of our phone calls; emails promptly and never seemed bothered. Before Sherri left she fronted us a check.
I found Chris by accident, he was a referral from a co-worker and I had decided to "shop" at multiple agents before making a decision. When I met with Chris we went over the coverage that the other company had quoted. Chris was a little bit higher but also pointed flaws in the competitor's coverage. Homeowners insurance isn't something that you're particularly interested in when you are 27 years old and especially fine print. I have thought back to that day hundreds of times in the last year thanking the Lord for Chris. I didn't look at the ALE coverage (which I had never heard of) or the multiple other coverages that Chris included. I asked him "which one should I go with". He pointed at one of the policies and that is the one we ended up with. Little did I know that he had quoted things that would take care of paying for the hotel while we looked for a rental house. It also paid for the the rental furniture and rental house. (Little known fact, you can rent anything from a spoon to a washcloth).
On June 23rd 2012 we lost everything but we made it out safely. Doubleday Insurance, Travelers Insurance and ALE made it as easy as possible when you have to deal with a house fire. So a huge thank you to Lew and Chris, Stephen and Sherrie at Travelers and ALE Solutions. There isn't one thing that we could complain about with any of you. You all made a very tough situation an easier one to get through and we'll forever be grateful.
