Why is the Fire Chief Calling Me?

I never like getting those calls.  This case was no different. The time was about 6 pm, and I wasn't in the office.

My client is freaking out because he doesn't recall if the trailer is insured. More important; are the thousands of dollars worth of contractors tools inside the trailer insured?

I had to wait until the following morning before I could check the policies for him. My fear was that there had been a prior cancelation. I checked the auto policy to see if the trailer had coverage. It did!  Next, I checked the contractor policy that we had on file to see what tools we had insured. It WAS canceled for non payment of premium!

I called my client to gather some details and go over what I had found out. 
He started in by saying that the fire had only scorched the outside of the trailer. None of the tools inside were damaged.  I almost fell out of my chair in relief.
When I told him that his policy had canceled for non payment, he almost fell out of his chair! "Really?" he says to me. "I thought I had paid that bill".
This is the exception to the rule. This client was extremely lucky that it wasn't a catastrophe. That's the only way to sum it up! He told me "I would be out of business right now"!

We often get calls from customers that have a claim to make, but they have NO coverage because of non-payment of premium. There is no worse feeling for the customer or for us!

Insurance carriers don't have remorse when a customer doesn't have coverage for a claim. It's a happy day when they don't have to pay!
The customer is the one that feels the pain.

In order to prevent these situations from happening we offer EFT, or automatic payment from the checking account. We can make a call to the carrier to see if it's possible to pay a lower amount.  We will look at all the options in order to prevent a policy cancelation.

www.jmdins.com for over 37 years J.M. Doherty Insurance Agency, Inc. "steering you in the right direction".
Thank you!!