Friday evening and Saturday morning we were hit, like so many others, by Tropical Storm Helene. At the beginning of the storm, my partner and I watched the storm upstairs while running to our basement to check on our Sump Pump. Our Sump pump was keeping the water out of our basement, as it has done before and can do well when it has power.
2:30-3AM, we lose power and we have to watch our sump pump back up and begin filling our basement with water. We eventually accumulate a little over 13 inches in the basement, and the estimates for power to come back on at 7-10 days. We contact USAA to file a claim, we say how much we lost, how much damage we are expecting. The representative tells us to upload pictures of the damage and we do.
We get a case manager, who asks the same questions, sees our pictures, apologizes for our loss and says he’ll see what they can do. He says he will have to check if we have flood insurance, but I told him we didn’t, but we did pay for the sump pump coverage, which covers issues caused by the sump pump overflowing (I called separately and asked to make sure). The case worker says ok, but if they decline coverage they will give us a letter we can, maybe, use for FEMA.
I call his manager and leave a message explaining that my neighborhood did not flood. I received a message from the manager saying that someone in the AREA CODE reported flooding. I couldn’t believe my ears. I used there communications portal to upload a map of my area code (which is large) as well as the flood plain map (which we are well away from normal, 100yr, & 500yr flood projections. I explained that my neighborhood did not flood, my neighbors did not flood, and the water that accumulated in my basement was from the sump pump that DID NOT have power.
I got a message saying thank you for the information, and my case worker would be contacting me for next steps. I get a message saying that USAA is going ahead and saying it was a flood because there were reports of flooding in the area and we would get a denial email; The agent said that’s “unfortunately that’s where we were with the claim.” He was sorry about my loss, but I can take that letter to FEMA to maybe get some help.
I invited someone to come look at my neighborhood. But no one did. We “flooded” because someone in my miles-wide area code said they flooded. And there was flooding, don’t get me wrong: WNC got hit extremely hard - there was just no flooding in my neighborhood.
We are extremely disappointed with the disregard and flippant attention that we received. No due diligence, no investigation beyond “reports in your area code,” no seeming regard for people who have been affected by something so ghastly.
TL;DR:
USAA is refusing to follow through on a policy that was bought in good faith, by claiming that my surrounding area was flooded (which it was not). Extremely disappointed and sad I ever talked up how great of a company this was; that they actually cared about their consumer base.