Dear Editor,
I feel it’s my duty as a loving daughter to update everyone on what occurred with the above insurance company when last my mother wrote about her experience trying to get a fair settlement.
Not getting anywhere, my mother engaged the services of a mediator who would mediate on her behalf to get a decent settlement to fix her house. My mother, at that time, chose to be less vocal in the media because her case was under mediation and she didn’t want to have a less-than-favourable outcome due to her speaking out. I, for one, feel she should have written every week about the way this company treated her.
Even my mother’s mediator was shocked, during negotiations, at the lengths NAGICO went to teach my mother a lesson, employing less than ethical tactics to “shut her up.”
When NAGICO strong-armed my mother into accepting a less than a fair offer they included – which was never part of any negotiations – a non-disclosure or confidentiality clause. This shocked my mom and her mediator, who immediately saw this was their payback to my mom for talking about them. Even an insurance expert said this move was illegal, and the clause was added after my mom accepted NAGICO's pitiful offer.
My mom, of course, refused to sign the agreement. And hit back at them. Of course, she did. As her daughter, my mother’s most lethal weapon was her mouth and her ability to use her power with words to expose. Growing up with her, she used her words with lethal precision, often after we did wrong, to teach us some valuable life lessons.
NAGICO tried to stop my mom by flexing their financial muscles, backing her into a corner, where she had no choice but to accept and still not satisfied, they tried to suppress my mother’s freedom of speech.
Well, after much back and forth and NAGICO refusing to back down from taking out that clause, through her mediator, she signed under protest, maintaining all her rights. And not before filing a 2nd complaint at the Central Bank and emailing NAGICO's reinsurers.
I chose to write this letter because I knew that no confidentiality clause would ever shut my mother up. She fought till the end and even when she was backed into a corner, she still fought on.
And this is what I want to highlight about this woman. The lessons she taught us as children were simple. Fight for what you think is right; don’t let anyone or any company abuse you and speak out! Talk! Because by going public you may help more people in similar situations.
I’m proud to see my mom fight NAGICO – a so-called powerful insurance company that has no regard for long-term customers like my mother – tooth and nail using all the tools she had at her disposal. I’m proud to be the daughter of such a woman. And by doing this, I want my mom to now focus on rebuilding her home after fighting this 14-month-long battle.
I didn’t sign any confidentiality clause with NAGICO and I will talk how I want. By the way, did the airport sign such an agreement, our government or any of the other persons or entities you claim to protect and have settlements with? Hah! My mom was special in that regard, wasn’t she? She made you guys uncomfortable. And how do you pay her back? “Non-disclosure.” As much as you may say differently, you’ve never acted in good faith with my mother.
Well, it’s over now and I wanted to publicly thank all my mother’s supporters, Gromyko Wilson for being in your face about how you were treating her and her mediator, who worked hard on her behalf and saw from day one your goal was never to be fair with my mother, but to get back at her for using her right to free speech. But it’s all good NAGICO. My mother’s fight with you is over and you have certainly succeeded in paying her as little as possible and chasing her away as a continued customer.
My mother never loses. She either wins or she learns. And as much as she learned a lot from you, NAGICO, I know you also learned from her and what a mere woman can do to a million-dollar company. God forbid you have more customers like her. I’m laughing just thinking about it.
Now, who am I? If you didn’t already know NAGICO, I’m the first-born child of Mrs. Corinne Lejuez-Van Putten, soon to be ex-policyholder HOC…
Claire A. Van Putten
Daughter
