[segmondy]

"Through this incident I've learned people should instead contact their home insurance company and get an approved list of vendors to choose from."

I don't agree with this. Never contact your insurance company unless you plan on filing a claim, just asking for this list is equivalent to a claim.

If you have a valid claim, your insurance can't force you to use a list of vendors. You can choose any vendor you want to. The vendors work/cost must be appropriate.

[bluGill]

See your policy - there may be limits on what vendors you are allowed to use. There is typically a large choice, but it isn't everyone.

I agree though, don't call unless you are sure you will file a claim. If the item is regular maintenance don't file a claim if you can. That is if you need to replace your roof and discover hail damage you could then claim and get a replacement roof, but your insurance will go up. Insurance is for major issues where you wouldn't expect to pay that price but it might happen (fire..), hail is borderline - a roof that is almost new that needs to be replaced makes the costs (a second time in 5 years...) unreasonable, but if the roof is already 20 years old it should be normal to pay to replace it even if without the hail you might have got 10 more years.

[larrik]

I dunno, if you need one of these companies, it's often better to just let the insurance company send who they want.

I wouldn't call pre-emptively though, no.

[bluGill]

These companies often have bad customer service, so that isn't always the answer either.