Wawanesa Customer Reviews
Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company is a Canadian insurance company that currently does business in California and Oregon. They started as a mutual insurance company for farmers in 1896. The name comes from their town of origin, Wawanesa, Manitoba. According to their website, one of their founders, Charles Kerr, hand-wrote their first policy for a thresher.
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Reviews (7)
Randy B
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I have had Wawanesa car insurance for the last 10 years, I have been very happy with their service and prices the entire time I have been with them. They have great customer service and the rates cannot be compared to in my opinion.
I did have an accident last year, which was the first and only one in the time I have had the insurance and it was my fault. My rates did go up slightly because of it, I was a little disappointed that they did go up considering I had never had an accident in the last 10 years. I would guess the same thing would happen with most other companies as well. Shortly after the accident I spoke with a representative and they showed me a couple ways I could save money and now my premium is back to what it was before the accident. Very good company overall. I would recommend that you at least check them out when shopping for Insurnace in California.
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Anna A
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They handled my car claim above my expectations, but the medical claim was a nightmare. They were shady and manipulative in their handling my medical from the get-go. After having great adjuster for my car, I knew I was going to get screwed by the way the medical claims adjuster was trying every angle not to pay my claim, and she succeeded through deceptive practices. She was like a wolf in sheep’s clothing, pretending she was on my side working for me, but in actuality was using my trust against me. She uses people’s ignorance to manipulate people, and never fully informs people of their rights. She only intimidates and uses information that can used against people. NEVER AGAIN!!! Her conduct discredits all the good that came from the car claims adjuster because it reflects the entire company, not just a department. They treated my car better than they did the person driving it and paying the insurance premiums.
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Todd Taylor
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Up until today, I thought they were fine. However claims department just screwed my over.
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Anna Heaslet
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I have been given partial denial for repairs on my vehicle that are the result of indirect damage from a car accident on 3/29/11. The damaged part on my car is the engine control module, which in Mitsubishis, is not a part that usually ever has to be replaced. I have spoken to all 12 Southern california Mitsubishi dealerships from San Diego all the way up to Long Beach, and not one had sold one of these parts in more than two years, if ever. They also all say that this is a very reliable part in an eclipse, but that the violent jolt of the impact can cause serious damage in computer parts like these, and that there is no way that the damage was a coincidence. The adjuster is saying that it is a coincidence that the control module was damaged at the time of the accident, and that it was just mechanical failure. He actually told me on the phone that, “we shouldn’t have to pay for that, its expensive!” It took me 25 days from the first and last time that I spoke to my first adjuster John Hearst to get ahold of anyone at Wawanesa regarding my claim, no one would even return my messages. My car has been sitting in the shop in pieces for 20 days.. in pieces just sitting there. It took 13 days of the car sitting in pieces to even get the first partial denial. The manager of the collision center that my car is at has taken over handling my claim on their end, and completely backs me up. The adjuster says that he is denying this repair “based on my opinion, and my opinion is final unless you decide to take it to the next level.” Well, I am a licensed insurance agent working for Farmers Insurance, and I know my rights, and have proceeded to take this matter to the next level because this has definitely reached bad faith claim status. All that I asked was to be treated fairly and have my car restored to the same condition it was before the accident, which is my right as stated in my Wawanesa Policy. Neither has happened with this company, and I am very sorry I hadn’t switched to Farmers before this accident, because none of this would be happening right now.
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Ann
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I have had Wawanesa for 17 years and never had to use it. I finally had to file a claim recently for a minimal repair. I did exactly as I was told to do and got a quote from their service provider. Their provider and my mechanic only varied in cost by approximately $60. Suddenly, my adjuster looked into the repairs from their same provider and somehow talked them down to half the cost, using cheaper, not the same dealer parts. Then they said they would not cover the cost of us using our regular mechanic since they found cheap products elsewhere. Then, when trying to contact a supervisor on the issue, it took her a week to get back to me and she had an ATTITUDE! She was not apologetic for waking up my baby by calling 6 times in row while I was trying to put him to sleep. She was also defensive of the adjuster rather than helpful with me. Now I understand why they are so cheap. Paying a bit more money a month is worth peace of mind, good service, and dealing with nice people. I am dropping Wawanesa. I am appauled by the attitude of the supervisor. The adjuster spoke like a cars salesman, “I’m saving you money and I’m saving us money.” Nope. You’re not saving me a penny. The cheap comes out expensive in the end. Rudest, most non-helpful company ever.
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Chris Hannam
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I have been with Wamanesa for over 20 years and never had a claim that was my fault. My husband and I were recently in an auto accident, which we were zero rated for the accident. The incident happened on Feb 25, 2012. Right from the start we advised out adjuster we wanted our car repaired. She sent out her appraiser, who first told us our 2006 Epica was only worth approx 5000.00, we did some research and found these cars went from 12000.00 – 7950.00. He then told us he wanted to take our vehicle to the dealer to get an actual price to repair. However, when he got the vehicle in there he then told us he stopped the strip down as the car was an economical write off. Our adjuster has been less than pleasant to deal with, all we got from her was attitude. We wanted to keep our vehicle and have it repaired, however they made this impossible. We were offered 4000.00 plus the car. The ACV value they put on the car was 7765.00, which meant they were charging us 3765.00 for us to keep the car. They told us that the drop the labour rate down to 25.00 an hour when you keep your vehicle. So they wanted us to pay 3765.00 for the car but sold it to the juck yard for 1550.00 a difference of 2215.00. We in turn bought the vehicle from the junk yard for 2600.00 and had it repaired. Because they did not do a complete appraisal and went on the assumption that they dash bar was damaged, they car would have been repairable. Then to make matters worst they have delayed doing the permit work to get the vehicle permit transfered into their name and getting it ready for the salvage yard. THANK GOD WE WERE NOT AT FAULT because I would hate to see what kind of treatment we would have received considering the nightmare we have just gone through. Not one penny is coming out of their pockets. Can you believe we even got attitude from the adjuster when she found out we were buying the car back from the junk yard. Then the adjuster told me on Monday the paper work was ready for pick up by the salvage dealer but when the salvage dealer called was advised by Wamanesa the paper work was not ready. The car has been repaired for over a week and we still can not drive it due to the delays created by Wamanesa. BUYER BE WARE!! I would rather pay more than to receive the treatment we have from Wamanesa!! They are great at collecting their premiums but LACK CUSTOMER SERVICE!! VERY RUDE AND UN PROFESSIONAL PEOPLE!!
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Scott W
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For my auto insurance (which only consists of cars), I use Wawanesa insurance. I’ve had them for over 5 years now and as far as I can tell, they are a decent provider with decent benefits. I insure my 2000 convertible Toyota for about 50 a month which covers liability, collision repair, and theft. I’ve had more than a couple of incidents that involved my insurance.
My first car under that insurance, a 2003 Toyota Matrix, was hit multiple times. One was my fault, and one was a hit and run. Each time I paid my deductible on the insurance and had the damage repaired. At one point I forgot to pay a parking ticket and my license was even suspended. My insurance bill took a pretty big hike and I was paying almost double what I’m paying now.
Lucky, a year of good driving habits and no marks on my record got my yearly payment reduced. Backtracking to before that – each time my car was hit, it was handled in a different way. Once, Wawanesa sent an inspector out to my place. This would be the guy with the company logo on the polo shirt and a clipboard. He took a visual inspection and then drove on back to the office.
Another time, I actually had to drive my car to an inspector to get another visual examination. I didn’t mind that since I had actually moved 100 miles away from my original location. My insurer has a decent amount of locations in the major cities of the U.S. – so that’s a plus. Switching cars on my insurance is pretty straightforward and hassle-free and I was able to handle it over the phone.
One thing I must say: I wish I was able to register a car using my insurance company, instead of having to physically go to the DMV. A couple of my friends have policies that allow them to basically register a car over the phone or at a local office. They completely skip the hassle of spending a day in the DMV.
I’m not too keen on how well my insurer covers valuables or stolen goods in my car. I haven’t had a valuable theft in any of my cars so I’m not too worried about that. I AM, however, worried about getting my convertible top slashed. The deductible will probably cost as much or less than the repair, and my payments would go up.|
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