American Family Insurance Group
Reviews and Complaints

I live in Spanish Fork, Utah. There are 5 driving adults in the house I live in. All of us switched to AmFam (thru Costco) about 2 years ago. We all recently received our new bills for upcoming 6-month premiums. Mine, alone, JUMPED from $277 to $457 -- 65%! The others are similar.

I have been driving for 50 years (age 66, and perfect health), no at-fault accidents, no tickets, no lapses in coverage, no late insurance payments, have not moved, and "excellent" credit (similar circumstances to the other 4 driving adults in this house). In other words, none of our circumstances have changed in the past 6 months. I have NEVER seen anything like our price hikes! I (and the other drivers in my household) am an Insurer's dream client. Is this not "price gouging"?

I had been with american family ins. For 16 years. Had my company ins. Workers comp. And commercial ins. With them and 2 homes, 2 cars, 4 atv's. And we had $8,000 homeowners claim and we never had a homeowner's claim in 16 years. They would not renew our homeowner's policy ie. (cancelled us). There is no loyalty within the insurance industry. American family ins. Beware of filing a claim. The agent didn"t fight for us but he did quott us a policy over twice what we were paying.. Thus we went with another company and took all our insurable properties with us. Buyer be ware

My daughter was at Lake Afton here in Kansas and locked herself out of her car. She filed a claim online around 3:30 p.m. yesterday, August 17, 2022. Her name is Brittany Behrens. The ETA was 60-90 minutes. Over 2 hours passed, and still no one showed up. The battery in her phone was dying. She called me. I called Am Fam and was told the tow company had to work an emergency and was given a 30 minute ETA. I called the Tow company (J & R Towing) and they said they don't go out to the lake. I pleaded with them to help my daughter. They said they would call the insurance company and would call me back. No call. I called them at 6:08 pm and 6:32 p.m. I even called Am Fam Claims at 5:49 pm and 6:52 p.m. I pleaded with them to help her and it was starting to get dark. I think someone finally showed up around 8 p.m. (or maybe it was later). This is totally unacceptable! She had to wait over 4 1/2 hours! Because of her frustration in waiting someone to show up, she starting hitting her car, which caused dents in her car. No one should have to wait 4 1/12 hours for service that is as easy as unlocking a door.

I purchased my home in the summer of 2018. This purchase was a home that I rehabbed and put a lot of work into. Four years later I found myself in a position that I had to make a claim from storm damage to replace the roof on my home and detached garage along with a storm door and porch light replacement from the storm. As the home owner I did my do diligence of acquiring 3 bids from roofing companies, made my selection and proceeded with the claims adjuster that I was not impressed with. Of course American Family wanted to fight me on replacing the roof and just wanted to do a repair on a 24yr old roof! After insisting on a replacement based on the advice and professionalism of all three roofers I was given a bid for replacement. But my estimate of replacement was a far cry from my bid. I was then informed that I had an ACV policy. I had no idea what that was nor was I made aware at the time of purchase of my policy! I have since learned that from the start the AMF had deemed my roof in poor condition due to its age in their drive by inspection. Any roof over 15 yrs they won't insure with an RCV policy. I was never provided documentation of any kind nor was I verbally informed! Which robbed me of the opportunity to take the situation to the seller. I am in a situation that I have to have my roof replaced and I do not have the funds myself for this kind of repair! I have gone up the chain three levels and I have gotten no where! This is completely unacceptable, unethical and AMF has completed dropped ball and needs to take accountability for this catastrophe! Why would I purchase a home put all kinds of work in it and then under insure it?! I am not stopping unit this wrong gets made right! The agent in Excelsior Springs, MO needs to take accountability! BTW I have bought & sold several homes and even built a how house and have never experienced anything like this! Also I sure add that my mortgage inspection states my house and roof in good repair! This is very unique policy that should have been clearly explained and was not and I as the future buyer should have been made of the AMF insurance standards for insuring a roof/home and I was not!

My vehicle was parked in a private parking stall while I was at work with my client .your unlicensed insured party back there jeep at high speed into my van .I lost my job due to no rental vehicle. So I'm out a job and the placed used parts on my new van .they don't return calls left several messages for them to call me .they claim no diminished value .yet I just lost 1500.00 value on my van due to accident that American family insurance party is a 100% fault .

I filed a claim after finding hail damage on my roof. I was told by the Adjuster that he would be here on May 10th at 11 am. He called my wife and showed up an hour early not giving me enough time to get home. I luckily was able to get home just as he was getting down from my roof. My roofing contractor was there at the time. The Adjuster told me there was hail damage to 3 windows and also to a gutter but none to my roof. I called my Agent upon the Adjuster leaving. She briefly spoke on behalf of the Adjuster. She told me that she would call him, and if she didn't like the answers she heard from him she would call his supervisor. I asked for another adjuster to come out and give me a second opinion and she said "We can do that since you had your roofing contractor out there." Upon calling a couple of other Am Fam agents they said I was getting my chain yanked and that is not a thing." It is one week later and I have not heard a word from the Agent who said whe would call me back. Her secretary called me on Monday 5/13 to ask how my claim was going. She obviously had not talked to her boss about this . But she promised me that she would make it her top priority the next morning. And here we are 5 days later and not a word. I have not recieved anything as far as denial notice, hell I haven't even been given any paperwork. The only info is the original claim #. Very dissapointing the information. My neighbor 2 houses down is getting his roof replaced and mine was denied. Very unfortanate. Especially when the adjuster took his area to check under a tree.

House fire Jan. 13, 2018... Adjuster has become very combative and is refusing to pay the going rate/bid for my contractor's work. Example: Contractor is charging $6, 000 for a certain job. Adjuster says no, I will only pay $4, 000 for that job. Again, this is NOT betterment. He's doing this on more than one bill... I just want my house put back the way it was, and now it's going to be coming out of my pocket.

My agent is Bob Pratner in Colorado front range area. What a snake! We flooded and had all kinds of other damage as a result - no coverage. Hail destroyed the roof. Adjuster photo'd all the good areas and denied the claim. Bob promised rate adjustments twice and they came through. If you want to see what a gold old fashioned con artist looks like in real life, visit Bob's office and shake his hand.

I obtained the insurance from the company www.amfam.com. I was surprised that when I got the neck injury, the rep from the company was angry and told me that this insurance wouldn’t cover such injury. I was shocked and couldn’t believe in this crap. I asked this guy for what I have been paying all this time, but he started to diddle-daddle. Be aware that their insurances are total ### and useless things.

American Family Insurance's client crossed an entire lane and hit my 1996 Grand Marquis with 61, 000 miles. Before this accident this vehicle had no previous damage to the body and ran mechanically sound. First American Family Insurance tried claiming that my family was 10% at fault and we could have avoided their client from hitting us after their client crossed an entire lane on a two way street with parking on both sides and hit our front left bumper directly perpendicular. I couldn't believe how arrogant the agent was on the phone at first but then after i argued this for an entire day he finally said sorry because he thought it was a 4 lane highway?!?!?

Already being frustrated with this company as a victim of their client's doings i came to find that they are trying o total my vehicle claiming my vehicle is only worth $2, 200.00. The agent never sent me a valuation process until my insurance company requested it and she then only sent tit to my Insurance agent and he then had to forward it on to me. I read in to the fine print of the valuation process and came to find even more frustrating news. American Family is using 2 vehicles and comparisons; both vehicles having moderate damage to the body and one vehicle having 180, 000 miles and another with 146, 000. Keep in mind my vehicle has never been in an accident, had no body damage prior to this incident and only has 61, 000 miles!

Not only are the comparisons a purposeful manipulation but so is the 3rd party formula they use via AudaExplore. This 3rd party company gets its information from 3rd parties and guarantees no accuracy to any of its information!

Going on,

This formula rewards a half cent per mile for the differences in mileages between these specific vehicles and claims that this is straight from the State of Ohio. I can't find this information anywhere else other than the fine print of this document. I mean could you imagine being at a car lot and having a salesmen trying to sell you the vehicle with 180, 000 miles for only $595.00 less than the one with 61, 000 miles?

180, 000-61, 000=119, 000X.005=$595.00

This is a crime and I pray that an attorney of some sort reads this and decides to do the right thing and puts a stop to this companies wrong doing. This vehicle was given to me by my Grandparents when my son was born and they bought the car brand new in 96 for $22, 000.00 Now this company is saying that the years spent keeping the car in this type of condition is only worth $2, 200.00

I have been a customer of AmFam for 20 + years. I recently went into the local office (Stacy Phillips agency) for a quote on two new work trucks that I had just purchased for my business. I wasn't greeted by a friendly face, orwas kindly asked to have a seat. Instead, was just told to "hang on, be right there" by this person named julie; that weighs about 300 lbs and no personality. After about 10 minutes of waiting for this person to get off the phone, which was obviously a personal call because i overheard talk about a food recipe, I was finally asked to have a seat. In the next few minutes, during the conversation about the quote that I needed, she must of picked up her personal cell phone at least a dozen times. And then her personal phone rang from an incoming call, and she actually answered it. I was patient for about another minute or two, before having gotten enough of having to wait on this person to get done giving her personal matters priority over my business with AmFam and left. My advice to all is simply find a more respective agent for your needs that will give you and AmFam the respect that they both deserve.

Date of Loss: 5/28/2012
Policy - American Family Insurance
Type of Loss: Wind and/or Hail
Date Contacted: 6/01/2012
Date Est. Completed 6/11/2012
Extension Requested 9/14/2012

It is my opinion that throughout this entire process American Family Insurance has vigorously tried though out this entire process to deny this claim. The first battle was with Scott Narrell - a contractor hired by American Family Insurance in response to the overwhelming number of claims filed in this area after the May 28th 2012 hailstorm. He showed up without a ladder and without so much as a business card but proceeded dispute our claim. If my father hadn't driven three hours to be present with me at this time, I know without a doubt that I would have been steam rolled as his manners were belligerent and quite nasty. My dad continued to try to follow up with him in order to obtain a prompt acceptance of my claim. The claim was accepted 06/11/2012.

On 6/28/2012, the contractor who had submitted our first estimate - prepared a new estimate, as he realized that the scope of the work was much larger than he had previously realized. We promptly submitted this new estimate to my local insurance agent - Shane Cass. Again, American Family Insurance as represented by Catastrophe Adjuster Nelson Stegall was reluctant to give approval. Once again, we had to fight to get this claim resolved. It involved several phone calls and possible threat of a lawsuit to get them to accept this additional settlement amount. On 07/18/ 2012 - they finally sent a letter approving settlement amount. By this time, however, our local roofing contractors were flooded by overwhelming demand for work - I went from being somewhere at the front of the line to way in the back.

Local quality contractors were working at least two to three months out and each time I contacted them I was informed that they were still two to three months out. They would show me a stack of proposals and contracts that were ahead of me. Eventually I was told that requests for work were pushing new projects into the Spring of 2013. I could do nothing but watch in frustration as many of my neighbors homes received new roofs and siding. At that point in September both my father and I were advised by various local contractors as well as a local American Family Insurance Claims Adjuster / Inspector that it is not recommended to have an asphalt roof replaced in colder weather as it affect the quality of the roofing work. They explained that we should resign ourselves to waiting until after the upcoming winter.

On September 14th, 2012, I sent a certified letter to American Family Insurance Group - Catastrophe Claims Service informing them that due to the catastrophic nature of the hail storm of 5/28/2012 followed closely by another local natural flooding disaster and combined with the difficulties that we encountered trying to resolve this claim - it was very unlikely that we would be able to secure a contractor within the one year time frame. I did not receive any notice from American Family Insurance regarding my letter but I did receive a voice mail message asking me to call a 1800 number. I stopped in to talk with my local American Family agent - Shane and he told me that he had received a copy of my letter. I asked him if he knew why I was being asked to call his corporate offices and he told me that his company had questions about my expressing concerns about going into winter with my roof not being repaired. I told him that my local contractor had assured me that my roof would be ok until Spring. He told me that was what they needed to know and that it was fine. I left his office assured that everything was taken care of.

The prolonged winter weather in this area including record cold temps and snowfall prevented hardly and roofing work from beginning until May. I repeatedly contacted the roofer who had been recommended by the by the American Family Claims Adjuster / Inspector and he told me that he would take care of it. He asked me if I had contacted my insurance company and explained my need for an extension and I told him that I had. He assured me that I had nothing to worry about and he would get to it as soon. I called him repeatedly trying to pin him down and get a contract signed with a start time and completion date. I eventually had to let him know that I would have to contact another roofing contractor if he didn't act.

I signed an estimate/contract with my roofing contractor and gave him a down payment on the day his company began working on my roof on July 29th. On Friday August 2nd - my roofing contractor asked me to call Christy Hemmy of American Family Insurance @ [protected] ext 70931 to confirm that the work was being completed and to go ahead and release the rest of the money for my claim. She informed me for the first time that American Family Insurance would not be paying on my claim because the one year deadline had passed. I told her that I had submitted a request for an extension. She readily acknowledged having received it but that they had not accepted it. I told her that I had not been informed of this position previously and asked her why? She told me that she had tried to call me twice this past Fall and that I had not called her back. I pointed out that I never received a letter and that I believe it should have been a certified letter so that they could have assured that I had received this vital information. I also told her that I had stopped by my local agent’s office around that same time and that he had assured me that it HAD been accepted. I asked her why my request for an extension was denied and she told me that it was because all requests for extensions need to be signed by the contractor and have an estimated starting date and finishing date. This was another bit of information that I was just being informed of.

This has been a debilitating, emotional roller-coaster for me. I had a full blown panic attack after finding out that American Family was refusing to pay on my claim - I sobbed in my local American Family Insurance agents office (much to my embarrassment) - I told him that I have a disability which causes me to struggle with deadlines - communication - and that if his company is playing gotcha then people like me will always lose.

When I informed my contractor about my phone call with American Family he was very sympathetic about it. He told me that American Family Insurance is the only one denying claims on such an arbitrary basis. He suggested that I contact the Minnesota Insurance Commissioner - which is your office. I hope that you can help. He told me that he believes that I will eventually receive claim money but that it will take time and that he can not afford to pay his crew and would have to pull his guys off of my uncompleted roof unless I could assure payment.

We had a huge ice storm in our small town, Carter Lake, Iowa several months ago. All the other homes have been repaired for weeks and months. Our Home Owners Association - the Shoal Pointe HOA- had contracted with American Family Insurance for insurance coverage. We are still fighting to get our claims fairly resolved. No one else in the entire community has experienced the reluctance and the delays, slow response and general difficulty we have had with American Family. Other companies have long since settled with home owners. Other homes are long since repaired. Months after the ice storm, our block still has broken windows, damaged garages, pocked siding, and broken decks.

Our HOA will NOT be using American Family Insurance again. We strongly recommend others look elsewhere as well.

After beng a loyal customer to Am.Fam for nearly 20 years we (my wife and I) recieved a letter informing us our rate was increasing. Now mind you our history with this company in almost 20 years we have had 2 auto claims and 1 home claim. Another claim supposedly but I can't figure out how they even considered it a claim. We called them and said we wanted to make sure we didn't have hail damage to our roof being 9 houses on our street had to be relpaced. So they sent out an inspector and he of course said "NOPE" you don't have damage. Then these idiots stated that because we had our roof inspected, it counted as a claim?! WTH! So then we get a letter about 2 years later. Stating that because our credit score was low (with this economy who's isn't?) they were going to raise our rate nealrly 24%. WOW lets kick a man while he's down. So I called around and guess what. STATE FARM doesn't base your rate on your credit. Nor should anyone. They act as if you have had some finacial hardship your going to commit a crime or you have already done it. I say if you have had this done to you... SPEAK with your wallet. Even if it cost a little bit more in the beginning put companies like American Family out of business. Just my 2 cents.

sincerely
LH in Indianapolis

I wish to submit a complaint about American Family Insurance and will do so on other sites besides this one. I was involved in an accident last week where I was parked parallel besides the sidewalk (in a parking space). I looked before I opened my driver’s side door and did open it but not fully because I didn’t want to have someone hit my car.

I turned to get my purse and to tell my children to wait until I go around to the other side to open their doors when my driver’s side door was hit by a vehicle who was trying to park in a space in front of my car. The metal on my door on the bottom is peeled up now and jagged. We exchanged insurance information but did not call the police (something I now regret). My insurance company (Geico)took my statement, the other driver’s statement, took pictures of both cars and said I wasn’t liable and the other driver was.

American Family, whose claim adjuster I had difficulty reaching and would exchange phone messages and with whom I didn’t feel really showed much professionalism, left me a message yesterday that they found me liable and I would have to go through my own insurance to pay for it.

American Family Insurance never took any photos of my car I don’t feel conducted a thorough investigation. Geico did. Geico has told me that if I want them to take care of it I need to pay my $500 deductable (they have to replace the door which is over $1, 000) and then we can go to arbitration with American Family Insurance to recoup my $500 which I intend to do.

I did nothing wrong. My car was parked, I didn’t open my door on the other driver it was already adjar. I plan to file as many complaints as possible about American Family Insurance. I totally feel they were in the wrong and they are just trying to avoid paying my claim. I hope those that read this will seriously consider not choosing American Family for their insurance needs. They will not pay out.

My complaint is with American Family Insurance adjuster, Steven W. Fejfar. On Jan. 19, 2011 I was backed up in the lane at West Walmart, in Sioux Falls, when I noticed a Black SUV that was parked diagonallly from me starting to back up. I honked my horn and proceeded to go forward as much as I could without hitting the rear of the car that was parked next to me to avoid the car coming at me. He didn't stop and hit my rear bumper and cracked it. The driver, a Mr. Terry Hunter, apologized and gave me his insurance info and said the adjuster would be in contact with me. I wanted to call police but he said we didn't have to since it was in a parking lot. (My mistake). The insurance adjuster, Steven W. Fejfar, called the next day and recorded me saying all this, only coming to the conclusion that American Family Insurance will not pay for anything. I am filing a complaint against this adjuster, who I believe had his mind made up from the beginning he was not going to pay anything. I believe because I was a woman driver I was discriminated against and since Mr Hunter had no damage to his car---they were just going to say both cars were backing up and neither saw the other. That is not what happened and I did not say that on the recording. I was well out in the driving lane and say him coming at me. I was not backing up when he was backing up. I was going forward trying to avoid him.

american family is terrible to deal with on accidents. i was a CLEARLY not at fault driver in a wreck with an american family insured driver. i have gotten the run around from the amfam claims adjuster since and they are now at 60/40. (them accepting 60 % responsibilty) me and my insurance said hell no and we are now going to arbitration. in the mean time no rental car and my truck is at least another two weeks away from being done. the adjuster was like a robot and could have cared less about doing the right thing, not to mention the names i called him and what i said went in one ear and out the other. since my incident, i have heard lots of bad things about american family. i can only say what comes around goes around. please don't inlist american family for your insurance needs and i hope you never have to deal with them.

I was involved in an accident around mid October of 2010, after a few days I was asked to give my testimony on the accident. That was over a month, I have been unable to contact the agent assigned to my case, and have recently found out that I will not be able to until the beginning of next year. From what another representative told me, all of the required information concerning the accident has been submitted to their offices, but no one has done any work on it. At the very least I expected to receive a phone call with an update after 2 weeks, but it has been left onto me to call them in order to find out anything.

I am currently in the process of "trying" to contact the manager of the office, but it seems like I may end up having to visit their location. I wanted to get the damage fixed to my car before winter hit to avoid further damage, but the way things are going this may not be the case.

On 03/28/2010 My 2007 Sebring was stolen and wrecked front, back and side. The appraiser came out and wrote up the paperwork figuring that there was $8950.00 and it stated a TOTAL LOSS. He then drew a line across the total loss part and then asked what shop do I want it taken to. He said it was welll within the repairable limits. a few days later after the shop took the car apart they asked for him to come back out and take another look. This took him 4 days to get around to do.
My rental car coverage ended 04/28/2010 and today is 05/08/2010 and my car still isn't repaired. There is a problem with the electrial system and the car has caught on fire twice after working on the airbag wiring harness.
I thought that it couldn't get any worse untill I was reviewing the estimate and noticed that the appraiser inflated the value of my car by over $2000. by adding options that I didn't have. My car is listed on NADA and Kellys Blue book for about 9000.00 but by him falsly adding to the American Family estimating audatex that I had tinted windows, leather seats, MP3 player and much more, this jumped the value of my car to 13K. So they didnt have to total my car.
I have complained said company with no help. They only have the appraiser call me back the next day with a line of BS.
I just wish that they would have totaled my car and I could have been done with it, as it stands right now I am stuck paying $25.00 a day for a rental car because they wouldnt extend it.
Please if anyone is thinking of changing to them... dont. You might have a nice agent but they arent the ones that you turn to when you really need help.