State Farm - After a claim

[R1Mavic]

The only catch with refresh is the drone must be sent back. If it can’t be recovered like crashing the ocean and the carcass is not found then your out of luck.

I didn't know that. It would have done me no good...my Air nose dived into a river.

 

[Rambler22]

I have a policy with alfa on my home and autos and they tell me that they don't have any kind of policy to cover my mavic pro.

 

[tcope]

Yah ... that’s not how insurance REALLY works my friends! You pay tons of money to get coverage, make a legit claim and if they payout your rates go up. Next if you file a second claim within 5 years they can flat out not cover you at renewal time or they put you in a higher risk tear at a higher rate. I just went through that discussion after a drone loss. This is scary because I could have lost my home and auto coverage as a result.

What you mention has nothing to do with what I stated.

If you sell widgets, should you not be allowed to charge the going rate for them? If you move lawns should you not be able to tell someone that you don't want to cut their lawn?

What I recommended to the OP was to simply ask another carrier if they will issue a policy. That has nothing to do with a renewal.

 

[Wade Gizzy]

At point of purchase I bought Square Trade on a Bebop2 (first drone), it ended up in the lake and drowned. I retrieved it and they replaced it with a refurbished drone. On my Mavic pro that I flew into the house with on a windy day, Square Trade repaired the discombobulated gimble/camera in about a weeks time! I bought both from B&H, in retrospect the policy was perhaps more expensive with higher copay, but in the end when I needed it, it was flawless!

 

[Inspirephil]

I have a State Farm insurance policy for both my Inspire 2 and my M2P here in Oregon. I had to file a claim in January for my Inspire 2 and SF paid off within 2 days and they DIDN’T cancel my policy. I am very happy with this insurance policy.
I replaced the Inspire 2 and both drones are still covered as long as I continue to make my payments.

 

[JakeRobinson]

Consider changing your home and auto to a different carrier, I use Erie, and I promise you that they will be less expensive than State Farm all things being equal. They quoted me $12 per year to insure my m2z and covered it for $2,000 no questions asked no proof of Crash no parts to be sent back stolen, crashed in a lake, every question I threw up is was the same answer, "it is covered"

 

[Seth P]

Try FTF flight to flight Coverage or try AMAs insurance

 

[kjcbid54]

Try FTF flight to flight Coverage or try AMAs insurance

I may be mistaken, but I think these are liability only coverage. This is not coverage to loss or damage to the actual drone. But again, I haven't researched these coverages completely though.

 

[SGM]

I realize SF branches serve under a main office and policies but seem to dictate their own business practices. I renewed for a new year and as luck would have it, had a mishap at that time. What blew me away was SF accepted my money and renewed, paid the claim and then informed me they would no longer cover since the claim was within the 1st year period (by 1 week). What upset me was they stated they would only give me 3 weeks coverage on the new year and then I would be dropped, refunding the unused portion of my $60.

 

[Milo187]

Yah I flew again for the first time after I lost my 2 week old M2P while on vacation flying way further than I should have, lost connection and poof gone! I have 3 drones (4 again once i replace the lost child) so definitely very nervous and cautious. My personal property policy didn’t have a specific rider for the drones so they didn’t cover it. I was debating buying DJI Refresh when I bought the Mavic and glad I didn’t because they wouldn’t cover this situation.
Now that being said I WILL buy it going forward because had I been able to recover the hull I would be all set.
My final comment is don’t be stupid and over confident like I was! I’m a 107 holder, know the rules, consider myself experienced and still made a costly error. I was not only a self inflicted victim of “it won’t happen to me!” but also lured in by the incredible range of the Mavic 2. I pushed the limits and my 4 bar signal strength dropped to zero in an instant. Unfortunately I was too far from the last known location to recover it before the batt died. Hopefully someone will find it and contact me with the info I had on the label. I was also REAL lucky it didn’t cause damage or bodily harm ... thank god!
Glad some of you out there can get cheap hull insurance so you can relax and have fun in this risky hobby.

 

[Milo187]

I realize SF branches serve under a main office and policies but seem to dictate their own business practices. I renewed for a new year and as luck would have it, had a mishap at that time. What blew me away was SF accepted my money and renewed, paid the claim and then informed me they would no longer cover since the claim was within the 1st year period (by 1 week). What upset me was they stated they would only give me 3 weeks coverage on the new year and then I would be dropped, refunding the unused portion of my $60.

Yup kinda what I was told by my agent on what could possibly happen!

 

[JakeRobinson]

Yah I flew again for the first time after I lost my 2 week old M2P while on vacation flying way further than I should have, lost connection and poof gone! I have 3 drones (4 again once i replace the lost child) so definitely very nervous and cautious. My personal property policy didn’t have a specific rider for the drones so they didn’t cover it. I was debating buying DJI Refresh when I bought the Mavic and glad I didn’t because they wouldn’t cover this situation.
Now that being said I WILL buy it going forward because had I been able to recover the hull I would be all set.
My final comment is don’t be stupid and over confident like I was! I’m a 107 holder, know the rules, consider myself experienced and still made a costly error. I was not only a self inflicted victim of “it won’t happen to me!” but also lured in by the incredible range of the Mavic 2. I pushed the limits and my 4 bar signal strength dropped to zero in an instant. Unfortunately I was too far from the last known location to recover it before the batt died. Hopefully someone will find it and contact me with the info I had on the label. I was also REAL lucky it didn’t cause damage or bodily harm ... thank god!
Glad some of you out there can get cheap hull insurance so you can relax and have fun in this risky hobby.

So, I thought the RTH factor kicks in if you lose contact? maybe it is somewhere between last known location and straight line toward return? Maybe it tried to return and ran out of battery but may be closer than you think? just spit balling.

 

[Thomas B]

I may be mistaken, but I think these are liability only coverage. This is not coverage to loss or damage to the actual drone. But again, I haven't researched these coverages completely though.

AMA membership gets you the liability coverage, but does include $1K drone insurance. Still, you’ll likely need more.

 

[SGM]

You know I fully understand the numbers just don't add up i.e. $60. per year with a $1000. payout if lost, it just makes me wonder if SF took some time to actually crunch the numbers before allowing drones as part of the personal article. It also made me think, if I was to loose, or destroy one of my cameras costing well over the $$$ mark, would they then drop me for the same, the answer is apparently no, since they offered to keep everything BUT the drone or controller. At the end of the day, I do understand where they are coming from , my issue (as I stated to the rep), "the fact you accepted payment for another year but wont even honor your end giving me the term paid for with only 3 weeks and leaving me out to dry". It's simply the reality of a new product insurance companies don't know how to cover at this early stage (my opinion)….Vent complete.

 

[Milo187]

So, I thought the RTH factor kicks in if you lose contact? maybe it is somewhere between last known location and straight line toward return? Maybe it tried to return and ran out of battery but may be closer than you think? just spit balling.

You are not mistaken and log analysis did reveal RTH but from what DJI reported back to me is that it either encountered an obstacle(s) that it couldn't avoid and stopped then the battery drained down before I could locate it in the sky to reestablish a link then auto-landed/crashed. My Airdata info did show a nice straight path back to home but nothing after that. It could have possibly flown in a completely different direction ... I may never know since I lost it while on vacation and only had a limited time to search. It is also possible that it took a bird strike since the RTH was set to 250' AGL and since I was disconnected from the AC I had no video to see it's last moments of flight.

 

[Milo187]

AMA membership gets you the liability coverage, but does include $1K drone insurance. Still, you’ll likely need more.

Correct me if I'm wrong but AMA will only cover hobby claims not flying under 107 or business activity.

 

[tcope]

You know I fully understand the numbers just don't add up i.e. $60. per year with a $1000. payout if lost, it just makes me wonder if SF took some time to actually crunch the numbers before allowing drones as part of the personal article.

perhaps not drone specifically but $2000 coverage for $60 to cover "camera equipment", yes. It is not just your $60 premium that they are collecting. They might be collecting 1000 people's $60 and only have one of those people file a claim. So it is $6,000 in premiums and they pay out $1000. Truth is, an insurance companies over-all expenses vs premiums is usually around 100-103% and they still make money.

 

[JakeRobinson]

perhaps not drone specifically but $2000 coverage for $60 to cover "camera equipment", yes. It is not just your $60 premium that they are collecting. They might be collecting 1000 people's $60 and only have one of those people file a claim. So it is $6,000 in premiums and they pay out $1000. Truth is, an insurance companies over-all expenses vs premiums is usually around 100-103% and they still make money.

Erie is charging me only $12/yr for $2000 coverage in PAP specific policy for replacement.

 

[tcope]

Erie is charging me only $12/yr for $2000 coverage in PAP specific policy for replacement.

I'd confirm if there was a deductible.

 

[DanMc]

perhaps not drone specifically but $2000 coverage for $60 to cover "camera equipment", yes. It is not just your $60 premium that they are collecting. They might be collecting 1000 people's $60 and only have one of those people file a claim. So it is $6,000 in premiums and they pay out $1000. Truth is, an insurance companies over-all expenses vs premiums is usually around 100-103% and they still make money.

Yeah, it's almost as if they're in the business to make money. /sarc LOL.