Melanie and Cal seemed like fairly upstanding folks with a noble mission in their role of IPA, but they should probably outsource their customer laison. They seemed like awesome, enthusiastic advocates right up until I was under contract with them and had gone past the three days cooling off period where you can cancel. Then their tone changed, or at least Melanie's did. She is rude, impatient and lacks any ounce of empathy. She sure does write good stories on facebook though. Apparently she lives with privilege and has never been inconvenienced by storm damage to her home. I didn't actually talk to Cal at all until he came out to inspect my house and damage. After that, I (the client) seemed to become an inconvenience, particularly to Melanie. Requested information and clarification was generally not forthcoming. Absolutely NO confirmation that any documents they requested was received, or correct, or even looked at unless I specifically asked. Any responses that I did receive, were short and terse. Deadlines and time frames were given, but if they were not met, no explanation was given for that, either. Cal actually did bother to tell me that he wasn't going to make enough money on my case to recover his expenses, which I suppose explains why they didn't want to be bothered. But if that is the case, then they should not have accepted my case. Seriously. Why even take on a client if you aren't going to give it 100% and then treat the client as an after thought? If they only want to accept cases that are worth a certain $$ amount, then they should stipulate that up front, instead of fronting as defenders of the underdogs. Unfortunately the reality is, hardly anybody wants to do business with rural folks who aren't millionaires, and these ones are just more of those ones. The processing of my claim by insurancebusters actually took longer than the initial claim, which was denied, and only resulted in it being denied again. Cal was correct in his verbal assessment that the insurance company wasn't going to pay and I am going to have to sue them. But I thought it was his job to try to avoid that. I could have (and in hindsight, probably should have) handled the reconsideration myself, but I had a lot of other things going on and on top of that, I hadn't been feeling well. I had hoped that for a fee, I could have some of the burden lifted. Unfortunately, it resulted in more work and more delays. Unfortunate. I felt throughout that I had absolutely not a clue where in the reconsideration process we actually were, and whether or not my claim was progressing, whether my evidence was even considered. After my claim was denied the second time with this firm representing me, they did not even bother to contact me to tell me so. Of course, not even an apology, not a suggestion as to what to do next. Nothing. This is, I suppose, why we are advised to request references. I failed to do due diligence on this firm before I contracted with them. Perhaps it would have been revealed had I done so and followed up on that aspect. read more
