Dear Ray, Roy and Sbeau,
This little note started out as a reply to Sbeau regarding my post about agent's coverage knowledge versus an adjuster's coverage knowledge and turned into an apology letter for some of my abrasive behavior. If I can be of any service to anyone in this community please feel free to let me know?
Sbeau - Well I do not disagree with you at all. I was very annoyed when I made this post about a lot of my personal experiences in the insurance and contractor sectors of life and as a result I made this stupid post. Which is actually, thus far, being much better received by the adjuster community than it deserves to be.
I wanted to become an adjuster a very long time ago but could not get hired due to my lack of adjusting experience. Then I took a large amount of training classes but still had no adjusting experience. So I got into roofing sales because I wanted to get some construction experience in order to become an adjuster.
Well then after meeting a large number of adjusters, one IA with 36 years experience and another Staff with 20 years experience, and actually becoming friends with them and I speak to them both at least 5 times per month, my opinions about a lot of things have changed.
First I understand the frustrations that an out of work person (adjuster or whoever) must go through. My staff adjuster friend with 20 years experience told me about a friend of hers who is a former co-worker who quit being a Staff adjuster with Travelers to go into roofing sales full time.
My pal the IA with 36 years experience would tell me how hard life is for him due to a lack of steady adjusting work. My agent friends would gripe about people not paying their premiums due to the hard economy and other agents would complain about their loss ratios going up because all the out of work contractors are knocking on doors selling roofs in order to survive.
So I understand life a lot better now. I am just trying to survive like anyone else during these hard economic times. I have been on many scopes with adjusters as a contractor and I would be quiet and observant for several reasons.
1. First I wanted to watch how each individual adjuster scoped a loss for educational value.
2. Secondly I did not want to delay or interfere with the adjustment process. In my case the majority of my claims were roofing. Sometimes there would be siding, gutters, interior ceiling and walls needed to have drywall patched or replaced, plus seal and paint. Other than that 98% were just roofing alone and 1 claim had some flooring damage to the rug due to a roof leak as well as drywall, paint, etc.
At this time I managed to get certified on Xactimate and I am going to do whatever pays me the most. If I can get hired to handle claims and I am not currently earning more money selling roofs I will handle wind/hail claims.
Anyway.... I am just trying to say I apologize if I offended anyone.
Most Sincerely Yours,
John Merchant