You Won't Believe This One!!!
An acquaintance of mine had their home in the city insured by Grey Power. They moved to a small tourist town about 200 miles away and insured the new home with them. In the summer, they opened a small craft store in their garage.
One day, they got a call from Grey Power asking if they ran a craft shop in their home. They said they did, and were told "You aren't insured to operate a business in your home. It is going to cost you $XX a month extra for the added coverage." (The insurance was to cover customers in case they got injured on their property).
They wondered how the insurer knew about the craft shop - the only way they could think of is that someone from the company went around checking their client's properties and saw a 2' x 4' sign they have by the side of the road, but the odds of that happening seemed highly unlikely, so they asked the agent how they knew about the store.
"Google Earth" was the reply.
The company looked up Google Earth's street view of her property and saw the sign!!!
I think this a gross misuse of Google Earth and doubt it was ever intended to be used that way. I am certain they are also using the satellite views of policy holder's properties looking for any additions to the home, garage or modifications to the property itself that they can use to raise your rates.
This person got the last laugh on them. Had the company not called, they would have continued on with them, but since they had, they decided to check out other companies and their rates. They found one with the identical coverage AND the coverage for customers for almost $100 less and dumped Grey Power. That phone call cost the company thousands of dollars in future premiums.
An acquaintance of mine had their home in the city insured by Grey Power. They moved to a small tourist town about 200 miles away and insured the new home with them. In the summer, they opened a small craft store in their garage.
One day, they got a call from Grey Power asking if they ran a craft shop in their home. They said they did, and were told "You aren't insured to operate a business in your home. It is going to cost you $XX a month extra for the added coverage." (The insurance was to cover customers in case they got injured on their property).
They wondered how the insurer knew about the craft shop - the only way they could think of is that someone from the company went around checking their client's properties and saw a 2' x 4' sign they have by the side of the road, but the odds of that happening seemed highly unlikely, so they asked the agent how they knew about the store.
"Google Earth" was the...