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Testimonial Section

Insurance coverage prevented disastrous fire loss

 IN THE MIDDLE OF A WARM, BREEZY NIGHT LAST JUNE, Eleanor Bousquet was awakened by her neighbor’s voice calling to her. When she looked out the bedroom window, all Eleanor could see was a wall of orange. She and her husband Paul along with their two dogs escaped through a back door. Eleanor’s 87-year-old father was trapped in his duplex apartment on the second floor. Fortunately, firefighters arrived quickly and escorted him down the stairway off his bedroom deck. The fire that destroyed the Bousquet’s home, a renovated mill house not far from the shores of Stevens Pond in Manchaug, started in a summer kitchen, a small building adjacent to the house.
The Bousqets had spent the evening there with friends. After they had gone to bed, a short in the wiring of an antique Coca Cola machine apparently started the blaze. Because of the direction of the wind, the couple didn’t smell the smoke. As soon as the fire was under control, Paul phoned the couple’s insurance agent, Steve LeClaire. The Bousquets have been customers of The Benjamin Agency for 33 years.

 “I remember it was a Saturday morning, about 5:00 a.m. when the phone rang at my house,” said LeClaire. “ I quickly threw on some jeans and a t-shirt, and sped down to Manchaug. I had to groggily borrow a pen from the fire chief to take down all the information, but those poor people had been up all night!” “Steve was at the house within the hour,” Paul says. So was a small army of the Bousquets’ friends and family who helped rescue some of the couple’s valuables. “There were pictures drying all over the yard,” Eleanor says.

Almost all of the contents of the house were lost, though, including both the Bousquets’ cars parked next to the outdoor kitchen. Fortunately their homeowner’s policy with Arbella Insurance Group covers the cost of replacing their home and its contents. While a new home is being built, the couple is living in a trailer on site, provided by their insurance company. “So far, everything has worked out well; there were no injuries and we received a check to help with expenses right away,” Paul says.


Car accident claim spotlights agency’s superior service

LAURA LADD’S BRAND NEW NISSAN ALTIMA WAS NO match for a truck delivering ice to the convenience store where she works the early morning shift. The driver apparently didn’t notice the compact car and backed over it. Ladd’s very bad morning became a little brighter when she called Steve LeClaire. She recently had switched her homeowner’s and automobile policies to The Benjamin Agency because her former insurance agent “never made me feel like a satisfied customer,” Ladd said. In contrast, LeClaire told her exactly what information to get from the driver of the delivery truck and filed a claim for her with the truck’s insurer. LeClaire worked with Arbella, insurer for Ladd’s car, and she immediately received a check to pay for repairs. But it was a week before the insurer of the delivery truck appraised the damages and another week before repairs were made.

Ladd’s story didn’t end there. After she got the car back, she found it wouldn’t start on the cold, damp mornings when she needed to be to work by 5 a.m. So, it was back to the appraiser and body shop for the new car that was spending more time being repaired than on the road. Eventually it was determined that the car’s computer system was crushed in the accident and it was replaced. The difference between the “no hassle” approach of her own insurer and agent with the other insurance company was striking, Ladd says. “The service I received from Benjamin was personal and professional. It really makes a difference.”
 

Rebuilding after a fire: Insurance agent’s advice helped ease the pain of loss

IN THE EARLY HOURS OF A SEPTEMBER MORNING FIVE YEARS AGO, Mike Moss watched helplessly as flames engulfed the two houses he owns next door to his truck servicing business in Millbury. One of them, a renovation project Moss had invested hundreds of hours of his own labor along with thousands of dollars, burned to the ground. The other sustained considerable damage. Fortunately, the house under renovation was vacant and the tenants in an apartment in the second house escaped without injury.

Yet, even today, it’s still hard for Moss to talk about the loss. “It was scary,” he says. “I didn’t know what I was going to do.” One of the first things he did was call Steve LeClaire, his insurance agent, who quickly notified the insurance company and then came to the site of the fire. Within a couple of hours Moss and LeClaire were joined by the claims adjuster from Travelers Insurance Company who gave Moss a check to cover the cost of cleaning up the site. Moss continued to receive financial support as he undertook reconstruction and repairs. “The insurance company was outstanding,” he says.
Steve LeClaire and Mike Moss As a longtime client of the Benjamin Agency, Moss originally bought coverage from LeClaire’s grandmother Mary Benjamin. He had updated the insurance policies for his buildings on the advice of Bob LeClaire, Mary’s son in law, who took over the agency along with her daughter Betty, after Mary retired. “He convinced me to increase the limits of the policy,” Moss said. “At the time I wondered if it was worth it, but after the fire I realized it was.” Moss’s insurance policy also reimbursed him for the loss of income from rent while repairs and reconstruction took place.

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