State of Kentucky has filed against DEPP (Divers Equipment Protection Policy)

[Utila Simon]

For the back ground to this posting you can follow any one of three separate threads regarding this company.

Following complaints made to the Kentucky Department of Insurance by three Scubaboard users (myself, Glamourpuss and Farmerbob) I am very happy to announce that the Fraud Division of that office have now filed against DEPP, and specifically Deane and Dixie Lehrmitt. In an email to us, Special Investigator Michael Johnson said that the Lehrmitts attorney is to be appointed as a 3rd party administrator to settle our cases and make full restitution. Its been over three years since I suffered submitted a claim to DEPP and this case cannot be closed too soon for me now. Its been a very long and frustrating process.

My faith in the American legal system is restore, or will be when I get the rest of my payment!

Simon

 

[kwinter]

I guess this is good news. Unfortunately my policy was auto-renewed a month ago because I didn't have time to investigate alternatives.

 

[Sam Miller III]

What is the is this about?

Please explain in greater detail

Please identify the threads -posting mentioned

SDM

 

[drbill]

DEPP finally settled on my claim after 18 months... apparently they had sent checks to the wrong address. Not happy with their procrastination on my claim, but glad it was finally settled. I switched to DAN this spring.

 

[tridacna]

What is the is this about?

Please explain in greater detail

Please identify the threads -posting mentioned

SDM

Search DEPP Fraud

or: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/un...ent-protection-program-depp-buyer-beware.html

 

[Sam Miller III]

Most interesting!

Through out history of diving beginning with LA co long before the establishment of NAUI & PADI there has been insurance companies who have been established to insure diving equipment. Most have not done their home work and most have gone out of business due to excessive claims -- some legit some fraudulent.

Now another one probably on the way out of business

Most interesting!

SDM

 

[Utila Simon]

Sam, please dont think that DEPP are going out of business due to some lack of research in to the market. They are going out of business (hopefully) because of their history of acting in bad faith and (finally) the willingness of the Kentucky Insurance Commisioners office to get involved and take legal action to make them meet their contractual obligations. They have witheld thousands of $$ from their customers and it is starting to catch up with them.

 

[drbill]

Sam, nice to finally meet you at the SCUBA Show.

Agree with Utila Simon that the case of DEPP centers around a company that has been at times totally unresponsive to their customers, delayed settlements without reasonable explanations and generally been a bit shaky overall. I'm sure fraudulent claims are a part of the picture, but they didn't deal well with very legitimate claims either.

 

[Scared Silly]

Props to Simon for persevering on the issue which hopefully will get results for himself and many others.

FWIW I have some gear insured via a rider on my home owners policy.

 

[Gunrock]

Having viewed the other threads there is no shortage of people who have had problems with DEPP. I'm one of them. I've filed two claims over the years. In both cases it took a while to get my check but it did eventually come. I had to go to a camera shop and/or mail my camera to the manufacturer to get proof that it was defunct but that seemed reasonable, if time-consuming. Unfortunately the communication was so poor after my last flooded camera that I decided to cancel and go with the DAN company. (They quickly stopped emailing and they rarely answered the phone, then I received numerous "the check is in the mail" promises over at least 6 months until I finally received it.)
I didn't really feel they were acting in bad faith in my case, I just thought that it was a one-man (woman) show that could not keep up with the volume of policies and claims they received and probably needed to hire some additional help.
Anyway does someone have recommendations for other companies that insure dive gear, and specifically cameras against flooding? For as long as I can recall it's always been either DAN or DEPP. Now that we're all writing off DEPP that just leaves us with one provider. Usually not a good thing in any marketplace.