Insurance question

[TexasRancher]

Okay, I had a question, and this is just me yakking here while passing the time. I am meticulous about my insurance needs. Every other year I go over my policies for house, auto, etc.. and make sure we have the coverage we need, the prices are correct etc.

So, I keep reading these folks that make claims on their drones like "eh... I called them.. got a check.. went out and bought 2 for the cost of that... found the old one...sent it off and fixed it... paid for two mistresses.. blah blah blah"

You get the idea...

So, I do not understand something...I have made 1 major claim in.. well, call it "a lot of years".. lol.. ..we had a hail storm years ago right after buying a new house.. both cars and the roof bashed in.

Now, I do not remember my coverage costs going up after that, so how is it a drone could raise coverage costs on a house etc? I get it.. they all track claims...dad sold insurance all my life, had my license at one time...but a $1000 drone?


Other question, how could someone crash a drone, get paid in full, buy a new one, fix the old one, and State Farm not go "hhheeeeyyy wait a second..."...or better yet, who the heck in their right mind would SAY the got it back?

So, really.. who here has had to use their policy?

Who here has had to use it more than once?

What were the effects of having done that?

Just curious.. read a series of posts on fb and went, "that cannot be real..."

Russ

 

[BD0G]

I have been insured for quite some time with StateFarm Personal Articles policy on my Mavic Pro.
I have never filed a claim for the drone and hope to never have to.
Its nice to know its in place should something happen.

I do not expect that they would honor a claim for the second and third (etc) drone losses. I see it as "one and done"

I am sure there is a small percentage of people that are fine with what is basically insurance fraud.

Its illegal , morally, and ethically wrong!

I have made a substantial claim on my home insurance do to a theft of a cargo trailer and all of its contents and my policy premiums have not gone up by any large measure as a result.

Statefarm will not issue a personal articles policy for drones or related hardware in California. Care to guess why?

 

[TexasRancher]

lol.. not touching the CA thing, but yea.. my thoughts exactly. I did not want to ask on FB where I saw the post, but my first thought was that I would feel guilty as heck if that were me and they just stated it all as if it were matter-of-factly... don't understand that. My policy, as with other policies, is for peace of mind. Sure, if I do something totally stupid and it crashes, you bet.. going to use it.. but I fly safe. Still, stuff happens.. and may have to use it one day, but I hope never to have that issue.

I would be mad as heck if I had a policy canceled for making a claim, big or small, hence why it has to be something major like 30k worth of auto and roof.

Anyway, was curious if others had made claims and, if so, multiples.

I know, if I lost a car due to it being "totaled" and I thought I could fix it, I would offer to buy it from them. Just surprised by that post is all.. call me a boy scout, just seemed that, after a while, things like that hurts all of us.

R

 

[tcope]

People can claim anything that they want on the Internet. I'd not put too much weight into it. The Personal Article Floater/Policy pays the limits when the property is a total loss. Your house should/would do the same. What you made a claim for were repairs, not a total loss. That is part of the difference. As far as people getting over paid on their claims, it's possible but unlikely it was a large amount over. Usually State Farm will ask for receipts to back up the amount you are placing on the item. What is probably happening is the person is insuring the drone, the controller, batteries, etc. They file a claim for the loss of the drone and the adjuster does not look too hard at the actual loss and pays the full amount. Perhaps the person then goes out and buys just the drone for a lot less. That is really the fault of the insurance company.

As far as a claim increasing other property policy... it's possible but unlikely. Yes, 1st party property claims are tracked but small PAF claims don't hold much weight on things like homeowners policies. Again, it's possible but not likely. I won't go into much detail but statistics show that a person who files a claim is more likely to file another claim. But also carrier want to know the total amount of the claim in order to determine their exposure for future claims. This is why 1st party claims are tracked.

 

[TexasRancher]

Oh, I understand all of that, just stuck at work and the day is dragging, cold.. and I wish I was out flying....saw that post and felt chatty heh.

Still, I am with BDog, I would just feel bad...but, such is life.. can't fix everything heh.

So, now back to being bored .. lol.. oohh.. time to youtube! lol

R

 

[DrStrange]

The insurance is more of a liability issue more than if you personally damaged your drone. For that they have DJI Care. I would never pull a claim if I caused damage to my drone because I was doing something crazy/dumb.

 

[Arnezie]

The insurance is more of a liability issue more than if you personally damaged your drone. For that they have DJI Care. I would never pull a claim if I caused damage to my drone because I was doing something crazy/dumb.

It’s not at all liability insurance it doesn’t cover any liability. It’s an insurance policy and honestly State Farm won’t loose money on this and if they do they would re-evaluate the policy’s insurability. If someone wants to commit insurance fraud then that’s on them I’ve made a great career on people doing dumb stuff. For me it’s piece of mind and I hope to never use it but I wouldn’t fly without it just like I wouldn’t drive a car without insurance. Crap happens and sometimes it happens to good people.

 

[Neebles]

It’s not at all liability insurance it doesn’t cover any liability. It’s an insurance policy and honestly State Farm won’t loose money on this and if they do they would re-evaluate the policy’s insurability. If someone wants to commit insurance fraud then that’s on them I’ve made a great career on people doing dumb stuff. For me it’s piece of mind and I hope to never use it but I wouldn’t fly without it just like I wouldn’t drive a car without insurance. Crap happens and sometimes it happens to good people.

This is exactly why I have it. After hearing about all the DJI refresh nightmares this give me peace of mind. Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure DJI refresh is a great program but has its limitations, especially for the cost. For 23 bucks a year, I can fly stress free. If something happens to my drone, and I can’t recover it, I know I won’t have to jump through hoops to get another one. Does this mean I’m purposely careless? Not at all. Does this mean I can fly over water and not be stressed out that something is going to happen the whole time? Absolutely. Insurance isn’t a ticket to be stupid, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

 

[Anthony Viscomi]

Absolutely. Insurance isn’t a ticket to be stupid, but it’s nice to know it’s there.

Great statement!

 

[BD0G]

It actually is a liability insurance of sorts. If I decided to turn off obstacle avoidance and fly in Sport mode right into the side of a building I could state EXACTLY that on my claim and it would be covered and replaced.
Stupid yes, but covered none the less. As is Fire, Water Damage, Theft and a multitude of other scenarios.

The reason I know this is I asked this exact question of my Insurance Representative.

It covers the drone in totality! Including batteries , charger, case, extra props, interface cables, etc. If someone wanted to claim multiple batteries and lie about loosing them I am sure Statefarm would not question it. Is this a reason for doing so. No way! Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should!

The only thing it does not cover is the device used to connect to the drone. Tablet , Smartphone. S
tatefarm had a rash of over abuse with people dropping thier cellphones or loosing them and then filing a claim so they no longer insure those items individually. One can claim it on thier Home Insurance , but the deductible is 1000 dollars and that would nullify any benefit of a claim to replace the device or devices.

This is what presents a problem for me as I always have one or multiple tablets to fly and if it were a case of theft I would have to "eat" the cost of tablet replacements. So I enable find my Ipad and hope for the best if that scenario ever presents itself.

 

[BD0G]

Bragging about a fraudulent claim over the internet on a popular Social Media platform is a fast way to have an insurance adjuster investigate your claim more intensively.

If I was a "nanny cop" I would search for the persons Facebook account and contact details and then report them to Statefarm with a link to the posting. I will let Karma work its magic instead.

 

[Arnezie]

It actually is a liability insurance of sorts. If I decided to turn off obstacle avoidance and fly in Sport mode right into the side of a building I could state EXACTLY that on my claim and it would be covered and replaced.
Stupid yes, but covered none the less. As is Fire, Water Damage, Theft and a multitude of other scenarios.

The reason I know this is I asked this exact question of my Insurance Representative.

It covers the drone in totality! Including batteries , charger, case, extra props, interface cables, etc. If someone wanted to claim multiple batteries and lie about loosing them I am sure Statefarm would not question it. Is this a reason for doing so. No way! Just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should!

The only thing it does not cover is the device used to connect to the drone. Tablet , Smartphone. S
tatefarm had a rash of over abuse with people dropping thier cellphones or loosing them and then filing a claim so they no longer insure those items individually. One can claim it on thier Home Insurance , but the deductible is 1000 dollars and that would nullify any benefit of a claim to replace the device or devices.

This is what presents a problem for me as I always have one or multiple tablets to fly and if it were a case of theft I would have to "eat" the cost of tablet replacements. So I enable find my Ipad and hope for the best if that scenario ever presents itself.

if your agent is telling you that this is liability insurance you need a new agent

 

[BD0G]

Ill take that on advisement . Thank you.