Frustrated re: jewelry insurance - negative experience, need new recs

[GreenFairy]

Unfortunately, I had the awful experience of losing my e-ring in early May - truly a "mysterious disappearance," like a bad David Blaine magic trick, one minute it was on my finger with my wedding band as I was dashing out of my house to my best friend''s bridal shower (I know!!! Talk about bad timing!), then once we had arrived all in a bustle and flurry to the country club, spent 20 minutes dashing around setting things up before guests arrived (complete with hands all in water-filled vases trying to set up the centerpieces and flower arrangments), the next I realized, once I sat down to catch my breath, I did that subconscious squeeze-the-fingers-together-ring-check motion, which was quickly followed by the sinking oh-my-god-you-have-to-be-kidding-me-where-is-my-e-ring??? feeling. I had my wb on, but where on earth was my e-ring??? I only ever put them on/take them off together, so why is my wb on my finger alone???

Without completely dissolving into a drama-soaked panic and creating all but a shower-ruining scene for my best friend, I looked for my ring but to no avail, telling myself that it was surely at home where I left it, and for some silly reason that I couldn''t (and still can''t!) wrap my head around, I had just put on my wb before leaving the house that day.

Unfortunately the husband wasn''t home for me to call so I had to wait on pins and needles all through the rest of the shower with that pit in my stomach, only to get home, dash through the door, and see an empty spot where my rings live when they''re not on my finger

We looked high and low in our house, for any nook or cranny where it could have gotten to, called the country club, surreptitiously spread the word among the guests to keep their eyes peeled, even emptied every single centerpiece and spread out every glass pebble looking for my ring, but no luck

the worst, most frustrating kind of loss - certainly no less heartbreaking than leaving your ring on a bathroom counter at Applebee''s off highway I-87 while you''re driving from Ohio to New Jersey to visit in-laws - and realizing your mistake 400 miles too late - but it is so, so, so frustrating to not even KNOW what the heck even happened to my ring and where it is/was/got off to!!!

But I digress - this is why we have insurance, right??? I wanted to get the ball rolling on a claim, or at least contact SF right away to make them aware of the loss, since I had heard horror stories about claims being outright denied because too much time had passed between te supposed date of loss and the date of contact!

So in the days after we determined my ring was definitely looking lost and gone forever, after much discussion between dh and I, we decided to pursue an upgrade after we contacted State Farm to get the claims process rolling. Well, talk about rubbing salt on open wounds - without getting into as much detail as I have already gotten into with how I LOST the ring, I literally found myself haggling over the value of my own ring with no less than half a dozen agents! Silly me, not reading the 8 pages of 4-point fine print on the insurance contract, thinking that because State Farm reviewed my appraisal (complete with an actual photo of ring ON the appraisal, reference to GIA lab report of center diamond, and measurements/weights/specs on all side & accent diamonds) and decided to insure it for $10k (round number), had me pay a premium based on $10k insurance replacement value, that somehow in the unfortunate circumstance that I actually needed to replace the ring, that I would be okay with accepting $5k (another round number) in replacement? Huh???

Sure, they tried to explain how that was actually fair for them, since my ring was *technically* insured at replacement COST, blah blah blah. I''m sure their case is totally airtight, but ethical??? Not in the least. If that sort of claims process is ethical, then I think I just saw Elvis picking up a new coffeemaker and some bath towels at WalMart yesterday

.

The story ultimately has a happy ending, through some miracle and/or grace of God I was able to find a State Farm-approved jeweler that was able to get me to my appraisal''s value in terms of replacement cost, and I was able to get my dream upgrade from there. But the whole process left such a bad taste in my mouth - you know the old saying, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me"? Yeah, that. But when I tried to contact Chubb (after reading here on PS about their "no-haggle claims policy"- sounded like a dream), they told me that they could not insure me since I had a recent claim!!! I told them that I found that somewhat disturbing, since isn''t a major reason one would seek to change insurers would be in response to a negative claims experience with a competing provider and looking for a new provider with a better reputation/better fit for their needs? So Chubb is out, at least for the next few months.

Until then, or if Chubb doesn''t end up panning out at all, can someone recommend their provider of an article policy that has a fast and fair settlement policy for claims like Chubb? It was just so frustrating, and daresay violating?, to go through what I did with State Farm, not only did I already feel terrible for having lost my e-ring and in such a DUMB way, they made me feel even worse while trying to seek a resolution on the matter, like I was petty or greedy for disagreeing with them when they tried to settle for thousands of $$$ less than what my ring was insured for!

Any advice, references, or anecdotes will be much appreciated

Thanks in advance!!!

 

[neatfreak]

Just to try to help...if you were to replace the same ring you had lost, what would the actual cost have been? $5,000 or $10,000? If the actual cost was $5,000 then what they did was fair...unfortunately appraisals tend to be very very inflated, which causes you to pay premiums on something you probably will never be able to collect on. That is why we often recommend making sure your appraisal is for actual replacement cost, or just a bit over to cover inflation. If your ring would have really cost $10,000 to replace, well then that IS really shady...I would be curious to hear exactly what your policy says about this that allowed them to pay out less than replacement cost.

But that being said...Jeweler's Mutual is another great company, but be warned that the same thing as above applies. Just because you purchase $10,000 worth of insurance for something does not mean that is what your payout will be in case of a loss. Your payout will be what the actual cost of replacing the item is. Otherwise everyone would vastly overinsure things and essentially make $ on any claim they make, which wouldn't be fair to the insurance companies or everyone else with insurance through those companies because their premiums would likely go up eventually because of all the "fraud".

But JM might not be willing to let you switch right now either if you have had a recent claim...insurers can choose clients based on risk and having a recent claim ups your risk level in their eyes unfortunately.

I hope you can find a good solution! Good luck!!!