ComplaintsforBear River Mutual Insurance Company

• Initial Complaint

  05/14/2024

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  I contacted my insurance agent to change the account that my insurance pulled from. They pulled from the one that I removed the permission on in writing prior to them pulling it. They basically told me oh well. “We will give you a credit for the fee on our side but the fee from your bank is your problem”. They illegally ran an account after I had revoked my authorization in writing.

  Business response

  05/21/2024

  To: BBB Mountain West & Customer, 

  We apologize for the frustration you have experienced. We desire that all policyholders have an enjoyable experience when working with our organization whether the experience is with an independent insurance agency, or with one of our home office employees. 

  The event that triggered the complaint occurred as the policyholder requested that the company not draft his account according to the agreed upon draft arrangement. Unfortunately, our EFT draft process requires a 5-day prior notification (5 days prior to the draft date) in order to stop an EFT draft. We submit EFT bank drafts to our banking institution 4 days prior to the draft date. We were contacted two days prior to the EFT draft date and requested not to draft the account, unfortunately the file had already been transmitted to the bank. As a result, the policyholder incurred a fee charged to his account. We have issued a check to the policyholder to reimburse the bank fee charge. 

  Again, our intent is that all policyholders have a positive experience when working with our organization. Due to the timing of the draft process, we have in place, we were unable to meet the policyholder's initial request to not draft the account. With timely notification, this issue could have been avoided. We again apologize for any inconvenience this has caused and hope that the policyholder will have only positive experiences with our organization going forward. 

  Due to the above information, we do not feel that this complaint should affect our credit rating. If further discussion in needed, please advise. 

  Best Regards, 

   

  Daren *. H******, CPA

  Controller, Bear River Mutual Insurance Company

  Customer response

  05/21/2024

  
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  **** *****

• Initial Complaint

  05/30/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Starting about 2015 I received a call from Bear river asking for the birthdays of all of our kids. When 2018 came around my daughter ****** turned 16. We did call and let them know that she had a learners permit. However, she has not received a license at all. When I called and let them know that she didn't get a license, the said she has to stay on the ********************** anyway. I never got a reason just that all kids needed to be on the car insurance at all time after 16. A few years later my son ******* got his license so we never questioned it. when my other daughter ********* turned 16 she was added. I did receive an email from a ***** and he did ask about *********. However I did reply stating that she has a learning disability and will not be getting a license any time soon.I sent a message to them stating that our bill is getting to high and unless we can come to an agreement, we would have to find another insurance company. Our agent ***************** tried to explain that they don't add kids automatically. And that they only can refund 30 days of ******. ********* wasn't on long enough to charge us. Bear River billed us for about 5 years of her being on insurance. They also claimed that they have notes from a call that says to add her but nothing about removing her. I know I talked to someone multiple times after she failed her driving test for the 3rd time.I am looking for 4 1/2 years of them overcharging us.

  Business response

  06/05/2023

  Starting about 2015 I received a call from Bear river asking for the birthdays of all of our kids. When 2018 came around my daughter ****** turned 16. We did call and let them know that she had a learners permit. However, she has not received a license at all. When I called and let them know that she didn't get a license, the said she has to stay on the ********************** anyway. I never got a reason just that all kids needed to be on the car insurance at all time after 16. A few years later my son ******* got his license so we never questioned it. when my other daughter ********* turned 16 she was added. I did receive an email from a ***** and he did ask about *********. However I did reply stating that she has a learning disability and will not be getting a license any time soon. I sent a message to them stating that our bill is getting to high and unless we can come to an agreement, we would have to find another insurance company. Our agent ***************** tried to explain that they don't add kids automatically. And that they only can refund 30 days of ******. ********* wasn't on long enough to charge us. Bear River billed us for about 5 years of her being on insurance. They also claimed that they have notes from a call that says to add her but nothing about removing her. I know I talked to someone multiple times after she failed her driving test for the 3rd time. I am looking for 4 1/2 years of them overcharging us.

   

  It looks like their insurance agent added their daughter ****** as permitted in mid-2018 at which time she was not rated, though according to the customer likely made an assumption that ****** was licensed beginning in their 2019 policy term.  While the kids do need to be listed on the policy, non-driving children do not need to be rated unless they are permitted over age 17 or licensed.  The daughter ********* was not added as a rated driver, but listed as unlicensed temporarily.  We are able to refund the rated premium for ****** back to the beginning of the 2021 policy term, but we do not allow further as it is expected that customers review their policy declarations and after two years it is no longer possible to refund charges from a policy or system standpoint.  We were able to discuss with *********************, the policy holder, what we can refund and we have already applied a refund for the past 2 years and a couple of months back to their billing account.  

  We do wish we could refund more of their premium but historically it has been costly to maintain legacy systems to reprice customers for changes that have happened long past.  We believe this is a fair ask for customers to review their coverage with their agent and make any requests for premium changes in a reasonable amount of time and believe that two years is sufficient to do so.  

• Initial Complaint

  12/27/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Unanswered

  More info

  Its almost been 1 month now since filing a claim(s) for our stolen vehicle and items. The insurance we faithfully have paid for, for over 5 years (and never needed to use until now) have been an absolute nightmare to deal with. Run around after run around feeling like we have been scammed into paying for insurance to not knowing if they will even make us whole again. It feels like we have hit every road block and have to do adjusters job for them... its been a very frustrating and stressful process and we have no faith we will be made whole in this process. It feel so unethical to have paid Bear River so much faithfully for years to be covered in the unfortunate even we needed to use them. Yet when we have been through an unfortunate event needing insurance we feel they dont care and or are reluctant to help. One of our adjusters is now not even with the company and gave notice of their last day... yet they were assigned the case? Very suspicious business practices and SLAs deadline dates to follow-up with us were never met or attended. Also to make matter worse the cases were never assigned to the correct adjusters to begin with (from what we were told) so we have just fel passed around and very left in the dark with this entire process.

• Initial Complaint

  11/01/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  They refused to contact me. I have called and have a case number. And there adjuster ********************* not call me back.

  Business response

  11/03/2022

  Upon receipt of this complaint, we promptly reviewed the file.  It appears we did not have his contact information in the claim until 10/21/2022 but failed to reach out to him at that time. ****************** was contacted on 11/2/2022 and we have been able to resolve his questions and concerns.

• Initial Complaint

  07/19/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  i had car accident on june 8'th *********************************************************************************************************************** leaving messages and responding to the email. No one has called me back or emailed me back to anything i have sent.

  Business response

  07/20/2022

  Ms. Aarkin,

   

  Thank you for the chance to respond to the complaint from **********************.  

  This complaint is related to an auto accident that occurred on June, 8, 2022.  The adjuster assigned to the claim was out of the office and has since returned.  He reached out to ********************** today and discussed her claim.  It appears that both drivers contributed to the accident.  ********************** indicated to our adjuster that her insurance company agrees that both parties contributed to the accident.

  Bear River has offered to pay 80% of the damages related to the accident.  She also has the option of going through her insurance carrier to handle the damages to her vehicle and then her insurance carrier will send Bear River the supporting damage payments for us to review (subrogation). If the insurance companies cannot agree on the percentage each party contributed to the accident, then the insurance carriers will handle the dispute through intercompany arbitration.

  When the adjuster told ********************** our liability position, she hung up on the adjuster.  We sent a letter to ********************** today to confirm our liability decision.  

  She can reach out to me or the adjuster with any other questions.

   

  Sincerely,

   

  ***********************

  Casualty Claim Supervisor

  ************

  ****************************************************

  Customer response

  07/20/2022

   
  Complaint: 17591926
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************************

  Customer response

  07/20/2022

  Im honestly just wanting them to get better at contacting people instead of making people feel as though theyre not worth responding to when all I was needing and wanting was answers to my questions about the accident. Instead I got no communication from the claim person for over a week and it caused more harm to my mental state by not getting the understanding and clarification on the claim. Im needing them to be better in response to peoples claims instead of blowing people off when they call to ask questions about the claim. I dont need an apology. I need better understanding and the ability to get ahold of someone to help me understand. Its caused me more stress and anxiety by not getting any response from them until I went through BBB and escalated the call I had with their customer service center today. Instead why dont they let people know theyre intentions within the first 2 days of sending out an email to the customer and the customer giving them a call to ask their questions? I dont need a generic apology. I need to be able to contact them without feeling like Im being blown off and that its in important. DO BETTER!!! 

  Business response

  08/11/2022

  I spoke to ************************************* this afternoon.  She is aware of comparative negligence and the reason why.  Allstate is repairing her vehicle and will send a subrogation demand to Bear River Mutual to review.

   

  She indicated that she had a hard time contacting the adjuster.  I gave her my contact information in case she had any further questions about her claim and cannot reach the adjuster.

   

  This seems to resolve her issue.  No other concerns or questions from ********************** when the phone call was completed.

   

  If she does she is welcome to contact me

   

  Sincerely,

   

  ***********************

  Claims Supervisor.

  Customer response

  08/11/2022

   
  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩