Mellody M.

First I want to mention I had been an Allstate customer for 17 years for both my car and house. After a mild and remediation service that I had hired noticed I had hail damage on my roof. I called my agent several times and to no avail he did not respond. Afterwards, I contacted Allstate directly and a third party roofing company came to inspect the damage. After he was finished, he connected me to the Allstate appraiser only to be told Allstate had approved $534 in damages so I will be receiving a $34 check since I have a $500 deductible. I told him not to bother since I don't want a claim on my record. I had received the check anyways so I called Allstate to complain. I was told there is nothing they can do because of state regulations. However they said next time I should contact my agent and he could walk me through it. Long story short, when my policy came up for renewal the premiums skyrocketed due to the claim on the roof. Allstate insisted it was not the case and again I should contact my insurance agent. I did try calling several more times to no avail. So I shopped around for insurance only to find out I have been overpaying approximately $1,300 more in yearly premiums. As for that agent I couldn't get a hold of, he had died a month prior to putting in for the claim. I was not contacted about this until 3 months after his death. Google Allstate and it has a ton of negative reviews! Even the American Association of Lawyers wrote an article about their deceptive practices.

A few years back, I hired a caregiver from Care.com. It happened to be one the most horrifying experience I ever had. So much so that even 3 years later I scan news stories hoping that this company will someday cease to exist. The caregiver I hired for my elderly mother had left in the middle of her shift without any warning. I came home to find my mother in bed the CPAP machine on scared out of her mind unaware the caregiver had left. Quickly I got my mother out of bed and took her to the bathroom where I noticed fecal matter was smeared all over the seat of the toilet. After cleaning it up, I helped my mother with her pants and found fecal matter all over her butt, thighs, and legs. Apparently my mother had an accident before she had her nap. My mother had limited mobility so none of this could have happened without the caregiver knowing about it. That same day, I called the caregiver to fire her. Then to my surprise, the caregiver shows up the following day as though nothing had happened. When I told her again that she was fired, she said I couldn't because my mother needed her. After having a few words, she finally left. I went back into the house to calm my mother because she was in a panic knowing the caregiver was there. Afterwards, I picked up the phone to call the police but before the call went through, the police were at my door. The caregiver called the police on me from the front of my house stating I had physically assaulted her. They had interviewed all my neighbors asking if they had witnessed this encounter between her and I. They had but did not see any physical alteration occur between us. Regardless, I was informed to find coverage for my mom then check into the police station for booking later that day. When I had arrived, the officer was sympathetic to me. He was suspicious about the caregivers story so until he investigates it more, he will not charge me for now but every night I would have to check in at the police station. A week goes by and the charges were dropped. The officer couldn't give me any details but he did lecture me about background checks. I was surprised since Care.com supposedly had done one and I check her references (unfortunately the references were from individuals, possibly friends instead of businesses) I called Care.com to ask for the background check and her credentials. Immediately I was removed as a member and was told it was "being taken care of." I did a background check myself only to learn Care.com did not do one at all. She had priors and went by 17 different aliases. Not a day goes by when I don't think about how dangerous she was. Even though there has been a number of lawsuits against Care.com since my experience, I still read posts from people who claim Care.com is negligent with vetting their caregivers. See Emily's post on this website. I hope this serves as a warning. Even if the company has poor billing issues, how much attention to detail are they paying to the quality of care our love ones are getting?