In My Opinion...Insurance...Bah!

Some days seem more difficult that others when I try to deal with businesses.
I think that part of this problem is that this thing that I call ethics is now spouting either a completely different definition, or an reorganized interpretation.

Why is it so difficult to use insurance?
If you research it, you ask questions, and then you buy it, why is it that the company suddenly becomes non-responsive when you are trying to use the insurance.
Whether it is automotive insurance, credit card insurance, or insurance on your household, the companies cannot seem to get it right.

1) Someone backed into my car in the parking lot of a mall. Since I wasn't in the car, and did not see who did it, and the culprit did not leave me his/her insurance information, I had to submit the claim to my personal insurance company.
First the insurance company told me that I could take it where I wished. So, I drove the car around the corner to this guy who did body work. He was certified and had been in business about thirty years (30) in the same location. The insurance company said he cost too much. So, they told me to get three estimates. I did, and they still felt that the cost was too much.
The insurance adjuster wanted me to drive forty miles away to a place that she selected. And I did. I reminded her that I have car rental as part of my contract, and I would need a car. But, even though I have car rental as part of my contract, there was no car waiting for me. So, of course I had to drive 40 miles back home.
The adjuster came out to the house, again, to look at the car. This time she cut me a check for one third of what everyone was telling me that the repair would cost. And, to make matters even worse, she made out the check in the name of the company that I wanted to go to in the first place. Needless to say, I never cashed the check, AND I changed my insurance company after ten years of doing business with them. Of course, during the ten years, I never had a claim.
2) I have credit card insurance on my credit cards. If I am sick, laid off, or out of work, the insurance portion is suppose to pay the bill. It is suppose to pay if I die, too. Don't count on it.
I have been trying for the past three (3) months to get a form from the people I pay each month so that I can utilize the insurance that I purchased. I started out being very professional in my request. I used the proper salutations. I signed each letter with a flourish. It doesn't work.
I have sent them letter after letter, to no avail. I have created these wonderful form letters that help to reduce my frustration without resorting to the use of pejoratives. I did talk to a live person, once, and she told me to look up the insurance company on the Internet! I would probably to that, but I don't know the name of the insurance company.
Someone said it is suppose to be on my bill, but I pay over the Internet.
Besides, I don't pay the insurance company, I pay the credit card company. Why should I have to do all this work.
My next step is the the Attorney General of Ohio. If that doesn't work, then maybe I need to try the Attorney General of the United States of America.

3) We always have spring storms in Ohio. That is the norm. Every few years a storm will tear up someones roof. That is not surprising. But, what I learned this year is that I have a new insurance company. I didn't remember this. My agent said that my insurance company decided to leave the state of Ohio, because we were costing them too much money paying out claims. Okay, I can live with that, except that I am now in some sort of "plan" underwritten by the state of Ohio.
In my opinion these people are either idiots or some sort of sham company.
The obligatory early spring storm hit. Half the houses on my street lost pieces of their roof. Their insurance companies paid for new front parts, back parts, or side parts of the roofs' for my neighbors. Not my insurance company. They wanted to pay for ten (10) shingles. Now, of course I had submitted the three required estimates. Each construction/roof repair company said that we needed to replace the full front section, but would my insurance company agree? Noooo! Not my insurance company. What did they say? All I needed was ten (10) shingles.
So, I had the ten shingle replaced. The house looks terrible. It has lost some of its curb appeal.
And, with the first bad rain, we had some leakage, just like the three construction companies said would happen.
I hate insurance companies with a passion!

Dr. Mosetta M. Penick Phillips-Cermak