Becoming Legendary Don't drown in the Quo

An Amazing Job!!!

I was reading a testimonial the other day about one of the coolest jobs on the planet. There is this Texas Public Adjuster company in Dallas called Abba Claims and they help people get the best insurance settlements from their insurance companies after some destructive event has occurred (fire damage, smoke damage, water damage, etc.). Anyway, I was reading up on their website and was blown away by this one testimonial that stated that the owner of Abba Claims took their case and worked it himself. The person behind this testimonial said that the insurance company had initially offered them around $17,000 as a settlement and that this offer was not going to be anywhere close to what they needed to repair their home. But, once Ches and Abba had finished their hard work for these clients, the offer ballooned to over $135,000. Can you believe that? If this family had not turned to this Public Adjuster, they would have been stuck with an insufficient amount of money but would have had to just deal with it. Instead they did their research and found Abba Claims who got them $118,000 more than they had been offered.

As I read that, I was first amazed at the jump in the offer given to this family. I mean, we are not talking about a few thousand dollars more, we are talking about more than one hundred thousand more. I wonder how that family must have felt when they first got the news of that increase. Did they jump up and down and scream? Did they just breathe deep sighs of relief? Whatever they did, I assume it was some sort of celebration that I would have liked to be a part of. This family now had what they needed to not only repair their house, but now they had extra money to upgrade what they did have. So cool, right?

The second thing that amazed me was how the insurance company came up with such a low offer in the first place. Did their independent appraiser spend any sort of time noting the extent of the damage or did this person just give a cursory look and assign a small amount to the case? I’ve heard that this happens quite often and it is just shameful. An appraiser examining a family’s home should take into account the family’s struggle and really work hard to make them “okay” again.

To close I just want to say, “Good job!” to Ches and all of those at Abba Claims. Your passion and care for your customers is exemplary.

Allen Plantation Shutters

I am not trying to be misleading by titling this article “Allen Plantation Shutters.” Truth be told, this blog is about finding the perfect plantation shutter company in the entire DFW area – it’s just that I happen to live in Allen. Now the question is: Did I find a company that produces and installs the exact shutters I wanted for my home? Is there a perfect shutter company for everyone? After my experience with a group called Sewell Shutters located in Dallas, I would emphatically say, “YES!!!”

Why would I give such a glowing recommendation?

Now I’m not saying that your experience with this company is going to be as fantastic as mine, but after comparing my experience with others who have used them, I personally think that everyone would be more than satisfied with Sewell Shutters. By the way, their website is www.sewellshutters.com if you want to check out their online space. The website has a ton of good information on it – exact descriptions of what their shutters are made with and how they custom fit each shutter to any size or shape window. Pretty cool info. But even cooler than their website is the fact that they offer a tour of their factory to anyone who wants to see their production for themselves. And if you take that tour, which is awesome by the way, you get a 10% discount on your future orders. I took advantage of that for sure. I figured “why not check out the total process that my shutters will go through in the production phase” and “why not save some cash?” This was a no-brainer to me and the tour showed me just how serious these people are about being artisans rather than just hourly workers. They are great at their craft and I couldn’t believe how friendly everyone there was – I believe they base their work on biblical principles and thus don’t want to embarrass God by producing and/or installing crappy stuff. Believe me – they are not embarrassing God. They are kicking some serious butt.

Anyway, I now have their plantation shutters perfectly installed in my kitchen and I absolutely love them. That’s why I am writing this blog – to let everyone know about how amazing this group is – I am rarely blown away by a company, but this one impressed me so much that I had to write about it. Hope my claims help you if you are ever in the market for plantation shutters.

With that, I bid thee adieu!

Advice I should have taken: Texas Public Adjusters

I don’t know what I was thinking. Actually I don’t think I was thinking at all. After my house caught on fire and left it almost completely destroyed, I was totally shocked. Everything that felt like my calm sanctuary had been turned into smoke and ash. I of course immediately contacted my insurance company and talked to them about what sort of process I needed to follow so that I could get my house back into working order. They were helpful on the phone and they told me they would be sending out an independent appraiser to determine the extent of the damage and also what amount of money would bring my house and its furnishings back to me. I thought this was great and felt like the insurance company was on my side. I trusted them to completely help me get back to a normal life. But I had some friends who had dealt with smoke damage in their home in the past and they gave me some advice I should have taken. They told me to carry a level of distrust into this whole process because the insurance company would not be completely on my side. In fact, they said that what their insurance company offered them in their situation was not even close to the amount of money that they would need to replace all of the smoke damaged items in their home. It was not a fair settlement offer and so they researched how to get some help from experienced Houston Public Adjusters so that they would have their own appraisers and advocates. After hiring a company to handle this for them, they ended up getting a whole lot more money in their settlement. They told me that I should get a Public Adjuster Firm on my team to deal with all of this fire damage.

But, I had never heard of Public Adjusters before and I guess I was so overwhelmed by the destruction that I blew this advice off. My insurance company had never done me wrong before – they had been fair with me when I had had car issues in the past and so I figured they would be fair with me now. But I was wrong and contacted a Public Adjuster too late in the process to get the settlement I needed to totally redo my house. So stupid, right? Anyway, I learned my lesson the hard way but I wanted to write this article to others who have to file all sorts of insurance claims as a warning. Take advantage of the services of reputable Public Adjusters in your area. They will be on your side and keep you from being taken advantage of. If you have any questions about these people, feel free to write me in the comments section. Thanks for listening to me complain. I’m out!