ComplaintsforResearch Underwriters LLC

• Initial Complaint

  03/23/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On 6/29/22 ******* Trucking LLC signed a finance agreement for ****************** with AFCO. We made our last and final payment on 3/15/23 to AFCO. Afco sent the request to reinstate the policy without any lapse to the insurance carriers, however it was sent by snail mail and they may not receive it on time to reinstate our business. **** also sent the letter of reinstatement request by email, to our insurance agent, *************************, whose job is to send the information to the insurance carriers (via email asap) to reinstate the account and to prevent revocation of our authority. I spoke to ***************** on 3/17/23 and he claims he never received any emails from AFCO, so I forwarded him the email that they sent to me requesting reinstatement. Currently on the ***** website it indicates that our authority has been revoked as of 3/22/23. We have reached out to ************************* repeatedly to complete his job, so that we can book loads and operate our business as usual. ***************** refuses to contact the insurance carriers, claiming we owe him, the agent/research underwriters. We never signed any binding contracts with Research Underwriters. Our obligation is to AFCO and we have a zero balance. I have reached out to the intermediaries for the insurance carriers and they are not allowed to speak with us (the insured). They say only ************************* (the agent) can speak to them (on our behalf. I have no idea why ***************** designed the contract where we could not speak or receive information on an account where ******* Trucking is the insured and paying our money. ***************** including but not limited to Research underwriters need to submit the documentation to the insurance company via email. It has been 7 days since we have made our payment. It does not take this long for our agent to act on our behalf. He is clearly sabotaging our company and needs to complete his job. To our knowledge we have satisfied the balance due to reinstate our account.

  Business response

  03/24/2023

  The Insured does not understand the concept of "Financing" an Insurance policy. We made multiple efforts to explain over the phone and in writing starting in December. They were Cancelled by THE CARRIER, not Research Underwriters, for "Non-Payment" of premium. They do not seem to understand that they owed funds to the Carrier which were not paid since December, so the Carrier cancelled the policies.

  The Insured Financed their Insurance Policies with ****, a **************** They had a very poor history of payments and Late Fees and requests to get extensions with the **************** As a standard rule...When there is a certain amount of months left on an agreement (3 months), the *************** does not allow and additional Premiums to be added to the Agreement, so after that point, all changes need to be paid in full to Carrier. The Insured adding several trucks after this point and we explained in writing what was going to happen with payments. Then followed up with a call in early December. They were sent an Invoice for adding 1 Truck. They then proceeded to add 3 more trucks resulting in 3 more Invoices, again, sent to them in December and then again in January and February with no effort to make payment. They were NEVER told to "Not make a payment". That is a completely false statement.

  They made payment to **** at the last possible day in March, while Policies had already been requested by **** to be Cancelled for Non-Payment. They paid the past due amounts with ****, but did not and would not pay the 3 invoices for the additional trucks added after the Financing was no longer an option. Again - explained multiple times. This satisfied the **** agreement, who in turn sent a "Reinstatement Notice" to Carrier, and we made sure that the Reinstatement Notice was received in a timely fashion from ****, BUT Carrier was still owed for 3 Endorsements since December. It is up to the Carrier, NOT the AGRNCY, to accept the Reinstatement request, as **** is not aware of any additional premium due outside the Agreement. Carrier was still owed approx. $27,164, so they did not Reinstate. This outstanding balance was no surprise to the Insured as they were receiving Invoices since December.

  We made many, many attempts to explain the process and get payment to avoid Cancellation, but with no success. They simply did not pay the Premium due to the Carrier, so the Carrier Cancelled them. ********** did everything in its powers, to help the Insured and avoid Cancellation. But they would not address the Invoices that were being sent until it was too late. The Agent cannot be held responsible for the ********* financial problems.

  Customer response

  03/28/2023

   
  Complaint: 19635145
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  We have retained an attorney.

  There are multiple issues. We never signed a finance contact with Research Underwriters. *************************/Research underwriters is not at liberty to send us bills for the vehicles that he claimed were added 'outside of the finance contract with AFCO".

  During the first week of the AFCO's policy in 6/2022, we added vehicles. ****** came directly to our office to pick up the downpayment (never seen that in my life where an agent comes to you). We handed ****** the check in person payable to Research Underwriters for $21,508.46 as a downpayment for AFCO's policy, ****** rewrote the check for $21,208.46. AFCO states they only received $300 of that payment. I guess that is where the discrepancy came in, on the actual finance agreement. I have attached proof. There is no where of AFCO's website where this payment is reflected.

  ****** has yet to mention that he financed the vehicles outside of the policy (the one we have no finance contract for). The one he claims where only 2 installments were remaining on AFCO. I have also attached an email from ******, stating that our policy will not be reinstated unless we pay "his agency" and AFCO. 

  The last line of the email states: "So in order to request reinstatement, both our balances and AFCO balance needs to be paid."

  
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

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