Why Insurance Companies Suck

We had a little fire incident - that thing called the Monument Fire, which some people may recall.  Filed a claim, and after some f**king around by the "restoration" company, managed to get the damages documented, and we were paid, damages fixed, etc.

So of course the next shoe to drop was...what will happen to our premium?

Answer: MORE THAN DOUBLED.  And heck, to my mind, we weren't even talking about a major claim - the house didn't burn down, after all, just some stuff outside like water tanks, a fence, 192 oak trees, etc.  (And no, we didn't try to get 192 mature oak trees replaced.)

I started scouting around for alternatives and got quotes from several reputable companies (and better yet, not from any I was advised to avoid, like Farmers), better rates, and they all said the fact that we filed a claim really only accounted for about a $50 difference in the quote.  So I called our current company and got a different story, namely that filing the claim completely explained the huge increase.

What's sad is, I'd probably have just shrugged and said ok, fire, premium went up, all the companies are charging more now (or denying coverage), just take it.   It's still a relatively decent deal in the cosmic scheme of things.   But it rankled anyway.  My company, whom I suppose I shouldn't rat on specifically so I'll just use initials - AAA! - just seems to be taking advantage of the situation.  So phooey on them.  They were good to us when they needed to be, but this little maneuver loses our business.  So there.