Triad was close to closing it's doors. State Farm canceled all my polices because I weld. Not just the shop, but home owners and rental. Canceled at mid-night then informed next A.M. I was with them 35+ years!!.

Unbelievable! Did you find another carrier?

I went with Allstate for personal needs but the shop and welders insurance is still in limbo. The quotes are trickling in slowly. until I get this fixed, I should not build any exhaust. Do not trust State Farm, They are not a good neighbor. ps. they would still insure my cars, I told them to stick it up your exhaust pipe.

I work with insurance...jfyi - Allstate is the worst of the worst of large carriers. Watch out! Sorry to hear about SF. Bummer.

T

State Farm never did me any favors and cancelled me outright when my dumb-ass son backed into a neighbors garage door. That's with no claims or violations in 10 years. They also tried to royally screw a friend until he got an attorney and beat them into submission. I will never do business with them again.

Allstate may be the worst, but they were the only one not overly concerned about me welding. I tried every out fit in town. remember, at that time I had no insurance and did not have time to pick the "best".
on another note, State Farm knew I bought the business in 2002. the wife and I went together and they had no issues at that time. when she canceled me, she denied knowing anything about it. that was a flat out lie.

Understand. That is too bad and very poor on her part. Glad you have coverage now...

Tony

That's too bad Dave, I hope you find a better insurance agent soon. I'm still looking to get an exhaust from you for my 1.8, let me know when you start welding again.

Jsaum

I'd like to see the statistics that indicate welding is more dangerous than smoking - hmmm, trying to think of the last house fire I heard about when someone fell asleep welding and caught the house on fire?

As for State Farm, well, was hit by one of their clients, it was an extremely painful and unprofessional 5 years before things were put to rest. Definitely not a good neighbor.

Hope you get it worked out soon.

Get on line and file a complaint against the agent! Washington state has tight regulations about the conduct of every insurance agent including their ethics. The fact that your business practices was shared with the agent and now they deny knowing about the welding in an ethical conflict and they should loose their license. Look up Washington state insurance commissioner and you'll find the complaint form

All depends on the agent. My agents up here we're a pain to work with. Changed to my wife's small town agent and it's been super easy (thus far).

Best of luck with the new coverage. Sometimes modern business doesn't make a whole lot of sense. It would suck to loose a great group like Triad.

Panel Billly - With a "He said, she said" grievance, Dave will never get anywhere - certainly, licenses will not be lost. What truly matters is what is written on his certificate of insurance for the business. Trades practiced are coded within the insurance trade and will generally be verified each year on renewal. It is unfortunate but I wouldn't encourage someone to spend time and energy towards a predictable outcome. Dave, I sent you a PM reply earlier...follow-up with those brokers one by one.

Tony

If you don't bitch, then the commissioner has no bases for denying an agent or business from operating in the state. The complaint process is the only way there will be a change. There are no "insurance detectives" who hunt out the bad guys.

Dave's experience is small potatoes compared to what I went through with State Farm. As our attorney said when he filed a complaint - the State will just add it to the mountain of complaints against them...

Allstate sucks and I would NEVER and I mean EVER give them a penny.

I had Allstate for coverage on my car back in the 90's. I was involved in a MVA which the car ended up being a total loss. I still had a loan out on it and guess what...
When it came time to file for the loss I was told by Allstate that they had no record of me being a customer. Say what I told them. How about the 5 months of billing they sent me (which I had all in hand with a policy # and coverage info) I was told I was not on file with them. Oh I went off and I even provided them the billing statements, and all the cashed checks showing I was covered by them.
This took about 3 months to get resolved and that was making calls just about every other day. I finally got fed up and told them I was hiring an attorney to sue them. Yeah they finally paid up then. They figured I was just going to go away when I was not getting anywhere . They thought wrong.

They will try to stick it to you whenever they can and some actually let them get away with it. I was lucky to have all my documents saved as evidence.

That being said anyone that uses them you better be ready in case you ever have to make a claim. Whenever I hear a friend say Allstate this is the story they get.
Best of luck.

I recommend looking for an independent agent who handles carriers specializing in small automotive and manufacturing businesses.
It took me years, but I have liability insurance (and garage-keepers coverage for customer cars as well) at a very good rate nowadays.
The insurance carrier also handles race tracks and other racing fabrication companies, so I don't have to worry about them canceling me when they discover I do something "scary" for work.

Thanks to all for the feedback. I am worried again about allstate, but I can cancel at any point. I bought some time to work this out. I don't think I am the only person with a welder in my garage....

I have welders in my garage. Now with that being said, I am only using my welder for personal use. My insurer is well aware of what I have, and what I am doing with them. Since my garage is detached it is covered for way less then the house. But then again it's a garage.

My carrier past and present made my get rid of the woodstove and insisted on a direct vent (sealed, so outdoor intake) heating system.
They also made me build an outdoor separate fuel storage shed, basicly just a cheap plywood box away from the buildings.
They were cool with welding as my separate shop is steel inside and out.

Did they give you a safe word?

I had Travelers for my home insurance for over 20 years.
Never made a claim or did anything but pay them what they wanted..
Never late on a payment....
One day I get a notice saying they were cancelling my Insurance.
After reading through the legalese crap, all it said was we didn't meet "minimum requirements".
I called and talked to about 10 people before someone finally told me that it
meant I lived too close to the ocean and was too high a risk.

Took a few months to find someone that would issue a policy.
Turned out to be Fidelity, out of Florida. To them, Massachusetts was a low risk
versus Fla.
Had them till they were bought by a new company that
is a pain, but still insures the house.
I have been told they will not write any new policies here, so don't give them any reason to cancel us...

Liberty Mutual wanted to bundle the house and cars..
I laughed and told them they wouldn't touch my Homeowners Insurance.
He swore they would and then came back a few minutes later and said they wouldn't touch it.

I'm beginning to think that USAA is the best military benefit...

Can't speak for welding, but hurricanes and tropical storms have been problematic for many friends and co-workers, including those with USAA (military area here). In the fine print some refused to pay claims from named storms or specifically excluded tree damage in this highly forested region.

I'm with Erie, have been great for storm damage, been fortunate with no car claims, but looking at buying a welder for hobby use, guess I better read the fine print...

Why does your insurance care if you are welding? That doesn't make any sense. There are plenty of companies that will insure a manufacturing business, especially ones that weld. The rate shouldn't be more than about $1000/yr for millions in coverage.

Surely you didn't have your personal home owners and your business insurance with the same company?

Sure is

USAA is great. They cut the premium on my one car my son has in Colorado in half. I just received a check for $112. from them for being a good customer.
I do not deal ever with any company that has bad customer service. I asked them for renters insurance for my son, I was told he was covered for $45K on my home owners.

I bought a shop to store my cars in out of town. The only way I could get it insured was to add on my car and home. So far so good. Had a claim when a tree fell on wife minivan. But it is hard when it has cars in it it would seem. The broker I had worked with for 25 years refused to add on the buildings.

Good luck!

Wut?

I had the welding business insured with FARMERS. The shop (not connected to the house, 200 feet away) was under an attachment to my home owners policy. FARMERS insured the liability and the welding room only. FARMERS kept raising the cost to twice of what I started at. I cancelled and went to (believe it or not) a different FARMERS agent who went back to the $900.00 I started with years before. That is where I sit now but I'm waiting for the other foot to fall...

I would not rely on my home owners insurance to insure my business. They don't like to deal with that and may deny payment should you need it. However commercial insurers don't care about your house and understand the intricacies of your business. Look for a local independent insurance broker. They can find an insurer that can write your specific operation easily.