Alejandro Portugal Insurance

Well I put in a claim about 5 months ago for damage to our 5th wheel. Another resident in PDO ran into it and did just $50.00 After I found out who did it and questioned her she admitted doing it and told me she also had Alejandro insurance. So I go to him to make a claim and he sends an adjuster out who takes pics etc.

Then it starts; we go in to get the money and get the run around over and over again. Now after 5 months we finally got paid but I sure do find it strange that the check came directly from his personal account.

I am not sure but I have to believe the money I paid was not used to pay a legit insurance company. If it took 5 months for $50.00 how long would a major claim have taken.

As a disclaimer I am not sure that he in fact did anything wrong but I know that I will be changing the Insurance dealer I use.

Wood Spinner said:

As a disclaimer I am not sure that he in fact did anything wrong but I know that I will be changing the Insurance dealer I use.

That would be a good idea, read the following: Alejandro Portugal Insurance - Topix

Why I stick with Rosie at ProAlliance :)

This is the 1,001 reason why you should buy from Rosie Glover -Pro Alliance.

I might have way fewer clients than Portugal, but at least mine like me! Seriously, my clients are a joy to deal with. Below is a conversation I had with a guy I was introduced to at Lat 31:
MIKEY RIGGS: “Meet Rosie Glover, the person you should bebuying your insurance from…give him a card, Rosie”
GUY (as I handed him the card): “Well, I’ll take your card, but I’ve been with Portugal for over 20 years and I see no reason to change. I’ve never even had a claim.”
ME: “I understand and compliment you on your loyalty.”
ME AGAIN (ala Columbo): “By the way…do you happen to have his cell phone number?”
GUY: “Whose cell phone number?”
ME: “The guy from whom you’ve bought insurance for the last 20+ years”
GUY: “ha ha, I doubt anyone has his cell phone number”
ME: “Well you’ve only known me 5 minutes and you’ve got mine. Feel free to call if you need anything”
GUY’S WIFE (to him): “We’re switching”

I like to know that I have Rosie's number in my phone. When my son went down to Mexico over spring break I told him that if anything happens call Rosie. Gave my wife and I peace of mind to know he could call someone.

Rosy will also talk with you about ANY questions you have about Rocky Point, Mexico, Condo Association insurance, general rules and laws. She is great!!!

I'm glad i caught this post. We come down all the time and I've been wanting to switch to Rosy. Now I have the contact info :-)

Several years ago the Mexican govt cracked down on credit unions at the behest of the banks. The money of the depositors was seized. In order to file a claim to get your money back you had to show how you acquired the money by showing appropriate income and tax records. Several of the very large depositors could not do this more because the money deposited was not declared as income than any other reason. If you couldn't prove the source of the money you were denied a claim. It would be similar to the IRS doing a net worth evaluation on a tax evader in the states who declared little income but lived a large life. Rumor has it that Mr. Portugal was a despositor in one such credit union and took a huge financial hit. If that is true maybe he was never able to recover financially.

Jeeezz. for fifty dollars, Playa de Oro won't be getting any biz from the girl you schook down to admit the dirty deed, also I think the insurance company has the same mutual feelings about letting a big fish get away.

In 20 years I have never had a problem with Alejandro Portugal Insurance. I have only had 2 claims with him and on average it took 2-3 months to get paid.
Whenever I am in the office he always comes out and chats with me for a while.
It does seem different that for the auto insurance we make the check out to him ( been like that for 20+ years).
My homeowners insurance is always paid to the company.

I have met and like Rosy, I will have her give me a quote my homeowners this summer. But I am still very comfortable with Alejandro and he has given me his cell #.

We were with Alejandro for many years when Playa Elegante was still open and we bought an annual policy. The last couple of years we started getting the run around from him every time we had a question or claim. We switched to Rosey two years ago and we couldn't be happier. Even though we only buy a few days worth of insurance a couple times a year, she treats us like her biggest and best customer.

50 bucks????? you should have jut TPed her 5th wheel and hiested her bbq grill

fasteddy said:

I like to know that I have Rosie's number in my phone. When my son went down to Mexico over spring break I told him that if anything happens call Rosie. Gave my wife and I peace of mind to know he could call someone.

Hey Eddy, next time he comes down, let me know he's in the neighborhood. I actually had a mom ask me once to swing by Playa Bonita daily and make sure the daughter's car was there because the kid promised to use taxis around town.

I use to have Rosey and moved to Alejandro Portugal...I have had him for years and no issues......with previous did not get treated good but I am sure I will get all kinds of negative remarks now....everyone has their opinion

El Tiburon said:

Several years ago the Mexican govt cracked down on credit unions at the behest of the banks. The money of the depositors was seized. In order to file a claim to get your money back you had to show how you acquired the money by showing appropriate income and tax records. Several of the very large depositors could not do this more because the money deposited was not declared as income than any other reason. If you couldn't prove the source of the money you were denied a claim. It would be similar to the IRS doing a net worth evaluation on a tax evader in the states who declared little income but lived a large life. Rumor has it that Mr. Portugal was a despositor in one such credit union and took a huge financial hit. If that is true maybe he was never able to recover financially.

Whether there's any truth to that or not...he's recovered quite well.

brokenwave said:

In 20 years I have never had a problem with Alejandro Portugal Insurance. I have only had 2 claims with him and on average it took 2-3 months to get paid.
Whenever I am in the office he always comes out and chats with me for a while.
It does seem different that for the auto insurance we make the check out to him ( been like that for 20+ years).
My homeowners insurance is always paid to the company.

I have met and like Rosy, I will have her give me a quote my homeowners this summer. But I am still very comfortable with Alejandro and he has given me his cell #.

While I can't imagine a situation where a claim would be paid out of my account, we do ask my clients who aren't paying with credit/debit cards to write the checks out to me. The insurance underwriters and I settle up every month and what I've collected (minus my commission) is deducted from what they owe me.

happygirl said:

I use to have Rosey and moved to Alejandro Portugal...I have had him for years and no issues......with previous did not get treated good but I am sure I will get all kinds of negative remarks now....everyone has their opinion

I wasn't aware. I hope you don't get any negative remarks for being honest. I don't know who you are, but am sorry you had a bad experience with us.

Hi Rosy,

I heard that the you had provided insurance for Bella Sirena and that they are now back to Portugal. The way rumors spread I wanted to clarify this info if it is wrong since some info regarding the reasons for the change back to Portugal may be spreading in the community.

dry heat said:

Hi Rosy,

I heard that the you had provided insurance for Bella Sirena and that they are now back to Portugal. The way rumors spread I wanted to clarify this info if it is wrong since some info regarding the reasons for the change back to Portugal may be spreading in the community.

Some of my favorite clients live in Bella Sirena. I appreciate that they gave us a shot. I believe to this day that they had a better policy with a higher-ranked insurer and for a lower cost. I further believe that most owners at resorts are good and have the best intentions.

What (technically) happened:

There was a big storm and lots of units reported damage. Because that policy was important to me, I made the President of the adjustment company and two of his adjusters make the trip to Peñasco along with my rep at the company, who came from Juarez. We toured each building and saw every bit of damage they had. HOA insurance is specific to "common areas" and not meant to replace insurance that owners should have on their individual condos. HOA policies have a much higher deductible. All Hydro claims have a deductible equal to 1% the total insured sum and a co-pay of 10% the amount of the claim.

So...if a building is insured for $5 million, damage would have to be more than $50,000 for the insurance to begin to pay. If the individual owner has his place insured with structural coverage of $50k, then the deductible is only $500 bucks.

NOTE: Deductibles and co-pays for Hydro are the same industry-wide.
NOTHER NOTE: Before an underwriter pays on a Hydro claim they check the National Weather Service. A storm would have to be an "anomaly" or phenomenon more severe than is normal for that time of year.

Portugal was standing in the wings (and no one reading this should be so naive as to think he doesn't have people working for him at each and every resort) saying that if the policy had stayed with him, the claims would've been paid. I doubt they would've, but his saying so had the desired effect. The policy was cancelled in the first month or two and the balance of the premium was returned.

What I think (actually) happened:

Anyone here who owns in Princesa knows how fervently Portugal intends to defend his turf, despite the well-known fact that healthy competition greatly benefits consumers. The only thing about the whole situation that wasn't staged...was the storm. Can't prove it, but no one can convince me otherwise. It's okay though...I'm one of those people who thinks doing the right thing day after day will get me not necessarily what I want, but what I should have. I want to be where I'm supposed to be, do what I'm supposed to do and have what I'm supposed to have. If there's any backstage goings on to keep me from gaining business, all I know is that the truth eventually comes to light. I couldn't care less about the rumors.

Of all the resorts, I have a higher percentage of the business to be had in Bella Sirena. Through all that mess I didn't lose a single client...instead, I gained several. Same thing happened at Princesa.

Okay, Dry Heat...you've been duly informed. Now go out fully armed with Truth and squelch that crap that's flying around!

PitiquitoRosy said:

Some of my favorite clients live in Bella Sirena. I appreciate that they gave us a shot. I believe to this day that they had a better policy with a higher-ranked insurer and for a lower cost. I further believe that most owners at resorts are good and have the best intentions.

What (technically) happened:

There was a big storm and lots of units reported damage. Because that policy was important to me, I made the President of the adjustment company and two of his adjusters make the trip to Peñasco along with my rep at the company, who came from Juarez. We toured each building and saw every bit of damage they had. HOA insurance is specific to "common areas" and not meant to replace insurance that owners should have on their individual condos. HOA policies have a much higher deductible. All Hydro claims have a deductible equal to 1% the total insured sum and a co-pay of 10% the amount of the claim.

So...if a building is insured for $5 million, damage would have to be more than $50,000 for the insurance to begin to pay. If the individual owner has his place insured with structural coverage of $50k, then the deductible is only $500 bucks.

NOTE: Deductibles and co-pays for Hydro are the same industry-wide.
NOTHER NOTE: Before an underwriter pays on a Hydro claim they check the National Weather Service. A storm would have to be an "anomaly" or phenomenon more severe than is normal for that time of year.

Portugal was standing in the wings (and no one reading this should be so naive as to think he doesn't have people working for him at each and every resort) saying that if the policy had stayed with him, the claims would've been paid. I doubt they would've, but his saying so had the desired effect. The policy was cancelled in the first month or two and the balance of the premium was returned.

What I think (actually) happened:

Anyone here who owns in Princesa knows how fervently Portugal intends to defend his turf, despite the well-known fact that healthy competition greatly benefits consumers. The only thing about the whole situation that wasn't staged...was the storm. Can't prove it, but no one can convince me otherwise. It's okay though...I'm one of those people who thinks doing the right thing day after day will get me not necessarily what I want, but what I should have. I want to be where I'm supposed to be, do what I'm supposed to do and have what I'm supposed to have. If there's any backstage goings on to keep me from gaining business, all I know is that the truth eventually comes to light. I couldn't care less about the rumors.

Of all the resorts, I have a higher percentage of the business to be had in Bella Sirena. Through all that mess I didn't lose a single client...instead, I gained several. Same thing happened at Princesa.

Okay, Dry Heat...you've been duly informed. Now go out fully armed with Truth and squelch that crap that's flying around!

I can say that Rosy did absolutely nothing wrong - her policy was better, except that Portugal had a rider that he provided that apparently would have covered the damage - or so I've been told. Personally we have our policies with Rosy and would never change.

happygirl said:

I use to have Rosey and moved to Alejandro Portugal...I have had him for years and no issues......with previous did not get treated good but I am sure I will get all kinds of negative remarks now....everyone has their opinion

Happygirl, I respect your opinion, but your negative remark about ProAlliance Insurance is extremely vague. Your comment "did not get treated good" leaves me with nothing but question marks. Would you care to elaborate? I'm sure there are two sides to every story.

Landshark said:

Happygirl, I respect your opinion, but your negative remark about ProAlliance Insurance is extremely vague. Your comment "did not get treated good" leaves me with nothing but question marks. Would you care to elaborate? I'm sure there are two sides to every story.

You know, I too would love to know what we did to you. Landshark, I was so focused on the fact that we had a (rare) dissatisfied customer that I didn't pay enough attention to the wording. Not treating someone well is a different thing altogether than having a client upset because a claim took too long or walk out the door because the cost was lower elsewhere. We aren't perfect, but we don't mistreat people. Happygirl, you really should go ahead and tell us what you're talking about. I can take it. Also, you say that after leaving us you've been with Portugal for "for years" now. How long ago were you insured with us? Please don't feel like you're under fire...I'm sincerely glad you posted and would like to better understand.

The thing i worry (speaking from total ignorance as usual) about Mexican insurance is whether any of it is worth a crap if we get "the Big One" a super hurricane might make the policy uncollectable.

jerry said:

The thing i worry (speaking from total ignorance as usual) about Mexican insurance is whether any of it is worth a crap if we get "the Big One" a super hurricane might make the policy uncollectable.

To be honest I never even thought of a hurricane coming to our little drinking village, The sea does good damage little by little, build the best sea wall if beachfront...

jerry said:

The thing i worry (speaking from total ignorance as usual) about Mexican insurance is whether any of it is worth a crap if we get "the Big One" a super hurricane might make the policy uncollectable.

I'll even add to that point... what happens when the majority of the developments along sandy beach are insured with one carrier. do we honestly believe that one carrier would be able to pay at least half a billion in claims? maybe it is best to go with the carrier that does not have all of the properties insured with them. The whole point of a master policy for associations is to cover a big (but rare) claim. No more is it important than the ability to pay such a claim. Of course every carrier will show you their numbers and tell you that they are able to financial handle such a hit. The question is though, if they insure everything up and down sandy beach (as an example) can they really handle such a catastrophic claim in a reasonable time period?

Look no further than Florida for your answer, Dry Heat. In Florida, for example, you must purchase a separate policy for wind coverage. Due to major hurricanes and massive payouts, there is now basically only ONE insurer that writes any kind of wind insurance in the state - Citizens. And you pay oh-so-dearly for that coverage. Interesting read at this link concerning Florida insurance.

But yes, I tend to agree... when only ONE insurer more or less owns the market, you have to wonder if they'll be able to make good in the event of huge event/many many payouts.

So when was the last time a giant hurricane hit PP?

Rosy, what's the best time and way to get a hold of you. We'll be down all next week and want to meet with about insuring our place in Cholla.

we are over due and our historical record of the area is sketchy pre 1945

And let's not forget about the potential for tsunamis with the fault line that runs through the Sea of Cortes!

Hurricanes in RP, Yes they do happen, (and so do water spouts).
Last large one was September 1997 Hurrican Nora. It dropped 8 inches of rain.
On Pinto Point there were roofs hanging from the powerlines.
My rolled roofing was peeled off and I lost 2- 1100 liter water tanks that had water in them.
My neighbor below me had his whole 50ft long timbered patio lifted over the house and landed against house and rock wall, it almost killed the owner.
The barrio along Samuel Ocana was leveled from that one, when they rebuilt, it was 100 times better than the shacks that were leveled.
Hurricanes do happen.
I also pay extra for earthquake insurance.

mis2810 said:

And let's not forget about the potential for tsunamis with the fault line that runs through the Sea of Cortes!

Or earthquake damage. Already have had some minor damage and heard about neighbors with similar problems. I doubt anything in RP was engineered to hold up in even a mild earthquake.

Bob Oso said:

Rosy, what's the best time and way to get a hold of you. We'll be down all next week and want to meet with about insuring our place in Cholla.

Office from the States: 602.773.1031 US Cell: 602512.1601 Office Mexico: 388.6624 MX cell: 638.386.9081 PS. Once more the "enter" button isn't giving me a line break. What am I doing wrong?

PitiquitoRosy said:

Office from the States: 602.773.1031 US Cell: 602512.1601 Office Mexico: 388.6624 MX cell: 638.386.9081 PS. Once more the "enter" button isn't giving me a line break. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks Rosy, We'll be in touch with you mid next week.

Bob Oso said:

Thanks Rosy, We'll be in touch with you mid next week.

The best thing is to contact Paty. I'll be going on a secret mission next week, but if all goes well, there'll be exciting news to report sometime in the not-to-distant future. If not, then I'll regret having said even this much. Email [email protected]

PitiquitoRosy said:

The best thing is to contact Paty. I'll be going on a secret mission next week, but if all goes well, there'll be exciting news to report sometime in the not-to-distant future. If not, then I'll regret having said even this much. Email [email protected]

OMG, what a tease you are! Now I'm dying to know! BTW, Daniel and I stopped by your office a couple Saturdays ago. Unfortunately it was while you were on the air, but we did here send out Saludos to us. We giggled like little kids hearing you say our names while we were driving to the Malecon. Anyway, I stopped by to get the copy of the magazine with our pictures in it, but Paty didn't know which one it was. Maybe I can find it online? Was Alo Magazine? Or En Sociedad? Or something else? Thanks!

I know, I know, but your going to want to shoot me Melissa, It's Boomerfest!! Where the heck is Bill Hale that started this thread that I had to take a loranezpam after all the "Acts of God".

mis2810 said:

And let's not forget about the potential for tsunamis with the fault line that runs through the Sea of Cortes!

Not to mention the volcano...

playaperro said:

I know, I know, but your going to want to shoot me Melissa, It's Boomerfest!! Where the heck is Bill Hale that started this thread that I had to take a loranezpam after all the "Acts of God".

Please tell me you're kidding or I'll have to take an alprazolam. :cheers:

The volcano theory is interesting.....very interesting indeed! El Pinacate - El Popo.......coincidence? I think not!........"el"

I have had an obsession with El Popocatepetl for years. It's been an interesting couple of weeks huh, Russ?

mis2810 said:

I have had an obsession with El Popocatepetl for years. It's been an interestinf couple of week huh, Russ?

Under the Volcano: a modernist masterpiece | Books | guardian.co.uk

I have that book and started reading it a few years ago, but for some reason it didn't hold my attention. But thanks for reminding me, I'm going to try again! :smile:

mis2810 said:

OMG, what a tease you are! Now I'm dying to know! BTW, Daniel and I stopped by your office a couple Saturdays ago. Unfortunately it was while you were on the air, but we did here send out Saludos to us. We giggled like little kids hearing you say our names while we were driving to the Malecon. Anyway, I stopped by to get the copy of the magazine with our pictures in it, but Paty didn't know which one it was. Maybe I can find it online? Was Alo Magazine? Or En Sociedad? Or something else? Thanks!

I knew you'd be the first one to jump on that...and Julie the 2nd! Email me an address where I can send you a copy before they all walk outta here.

Lets hope the big Rosy surprise isn't Taco Bell is coming to town. Hmmm what else could it be?
Amusement Park on the beach...I like that one
Medical school opening ...would be great
Dog cloning clinc opening soon....good as mine are getting long in the tooth
Big lard processing plant opening...hey it is Mexico so we can't have enough lard

jerry said:

Lets hope the big Rosy surprise isn't Taco Bell is coming to town. Hmmm what else could it be?
Amusement Park on the beach...I like that one
Medical school opening ...would be great
Dog cloning clinc opening soon....good as mine are getting long in the tooth
Big lard processing plant opening...hey it is Mexico so we can't have enough lard

nope
nope
nope
and nope