Saturday, October 2, 2010

Blue Water Insurance Doesn't Help!

We are Frustrated, Angry, Ticked-Off, Pissed!
Someone tell me why we even bother buying insurance?
Merengue was struck by lightening the night of August 26th.  We emailed Blue Water Insurance the next day to notify them of the situation.  They responded by sending us a form to fill out and instructions to get 2 estimates on repairs.  We were told we shouldn't repair or buy anything until we heard from them.  They also told us that the approval process could take about 7-10 days.  It has been almost 4 weeks since we submitted the forms.  To make matters worse, we sent 2 emails this week to ask for an update on our claim.  Blue Water Insurance hasn't even given us the courtesy of a response to either email.  

Our policy is now due for renewal.  Are they waiting to see what we'll do?  We refuse to throw good money after bad.  We have been their customer for 4 years and spent thousands of dollars on insurance, more then the repairs will cost.  If they aren't going to honor this claim why would they think we would want to renew our coverage with them?

Another boat was also struck by lightening on the same night we were.  They called their insurance company the next day and their insurance company called the marine surveyor in Grenada and scheduled an appointment.  They didn't have to do the legwork like we did and they are currently repairing their boat.  The survey showed they sustained $30,000 dollars in damage!  We can't even get Blue Water Insurance to contact us or approve a survey much less make repairs!  It's a good thing we are still planning on staying in Grenada for a while.  What if this happened while we were moving the boat south?  We would be without instruments and our system for obtaining weather reports.  This is a safety issue.  Does anyone have any suggestions on what we can do?  Who's the watchdog for the insurance industry?  We need help!