Azorian

Where it comes to adjusters you have three basic varieties. Staff Adjusters, Public Adjusters and independent adjusters.

Staff Adjusters work directly for the insurance company on a salary basis, they get the company car, 401K, medical, dental, laundry and equipment cost reimbursement etc.

Public Adjusters who are licensed by the department of insurance of one or more states to handle claims on an individual basis and are hired directly by you like a "private investigator", their wages are based on a percentage of your total claim and you owe them that based on your final collection.

Independent adjusters work for a firm and are contracted to the insurance company based on personnel needs, IAs answer directly to an independent firm and are paid as i have outlined in the OP.

Now... just like there are quack doctors... there are bad insurance adjusters. go figure

I can tell you right now that with the level of scrutiny under which my firm placed its adjusters (must log an attempt to reach a claimant once every 24 hours until contacted, must have an appointment scheduled within 7 days or 30 days depending on work load, must have the claim settled and closed before leaving the driveway dependent on circumstances, on site and corporate file reviewers checking up on our log notes for each file daily etc) it would have not been possible for one of "my guys" to show up 90 days late for the appointment, and if he had, he would have had his comat taken away, and would have been terminated and placed on the Do Not Rehire list immediately. i have seen it.

as for the $5K estimate for $27K worth of damage, it would not behoove me (or benefit my commission check) to write you a $5K estimate and move on down the road. So either (A) This was a staff adjuster who just didnt give a damn and was on salary no matter what he did (B) he just didnt know what he was doing.

I have seen first hand and can assure you that some of these firms and insurance companies alike WILL hire people who 2 weeks ago were delivering pizza in south Chicago and that has been their life's experience for work and all they have ever known. they dont know what hail damage looks like, they dont know about building codes or what the difference between roll roofing or Modified Bitumen is or how to tell the two apart. They dont know the difference between an A bend or a B bend in a gutter downspout... all they know is whats on the work flow they have in their car. and thats BS and gives the rest of us a bad name.

You cannot come and do this job well and make a great six figure living at it unless you self manage, are well organized and know construction to some extent. You dont have to be bob the builder... but if you arent familiar with how homes are built and how storm damage looks on certain materials you got no business doing this.

Yes... there have been a lot of folks i have told "it doesnt appear that you have hail damage to your roof" yes - it ****es them off because who wouldn't want a new roof on their home - which is one of the largest looming expenses for a homeowner - if someone else is going to fit the bill for it? and i am very open with customers about me having as much desire to see this roof completely obliterated as they do because frankly, the more damage they have the bigger my commission.

However - i have always always always said - give the roof a month or so to weather out and request a second opinion we will gladly come look again because any hail marks that might not be visible today will stand out clearly after several rain showers have a change to wash the marks out. in any case, i always show the customer photos of hail damaged shingles in the area along side photos of their roof that many times looked brand new.

I have been cussed out, threatened with bodily harm, i have been yelled at to get the expletive off someones property listening to profanity all the way down the driveway. one of my guys was forced at gunpoint to print a $50,000 check (which was subsequently cancelled and the customer arrested) i had a guy lay behind the truck to prevent me from leaving util i wrote him a check.

I have been sued on six separate occasions for misidentifying hail damage - and won each case based on the opinion of an independent engineer's testimony.

but yes... you had a crap adjuster, and thats unfortunate and it is a gamble every claimant takes when they call in a claim unfortunately these days