Sad to hear the good people at Timbernation had a fire (and no insurance).

That’s tough. Looks like it happened in October and they have almost finished the rebuild.

https://www.timbernation.com/

It's good they exceeded their goal in donations. With the extra money, maybe looking into some coverage would be in order, unless Chris doesn't believe in that kind of thing. 

All the best,
Nonoise

With the extra money, maybe looking into some coverage would be in order, unless Chris doesn’t believe in that kind of thing.

Every business, every residence should carry fire insurance when available. 

Every business, every residence should carry fire insurance when available. 

But who would expect a pile of timber to go up in flames?

Guess they're uninsurable now. Like a Christmas turkey looking for life insurance.......

Good people..  sorry to hear about this.

Really? A go-fund-me because a company is too irresponsible to have insurance…

I feel for them but really have no sympathy for not having insurance.  Anyone in business needs insurance.  I find it deplorable that a Go Fund Me was used to pay for damages.  The insurance on my home is almost $1800.00.  Perhaps I should cancel it and use Go Fund Me so people can pay for my short sightedness?  If you can't afford insurance, you shouldn't be in business.

@anotherbob,   +100

We pay over $100,000/year for insurance. It's just good business.

@stereo5  -- Agree 1 Million Percent

I retired at age 55 after a fantastic 30-year career owning an Insurance and Financial Services corporation.  I met some wonderful people over the years, and took pride in knowing my efforts helped thousands of companies and individuals AVOID a sad situation like this.  I hate this event happened to people that I'm sure are "good folks" -- but, if a business owner refuses to pay for a product that makes sure their company can rebuild from a tragedy, continue to pay the salaries of its employees, and protect the legacy and the untold financial resources that has been pumped into it, then I'm going to question the decision making, soundness, and reliability of that company's products and warranties.

I'm sorry if that sounds callous and "mean", but for pete's sake...manufacturing a wooden product and not having business insurance to protect you from fire, water damage, dust explosions, or other hazards common to wood products companies???  That is utterly and mind-boggling absurd.  As @lordmelton said above, good luck finding an insurance carrier now that will touch you with a 10-foot pole.  And if you do, your premiums will make the pre-fire quotes look like chump change.  One of my favorite insurance quotes fits this situation to a tee:

"The time to call State Farm in order to buy home insurance IS NOT when the fire is coming down the hallway..."

Maybe they couldn't get insurance. Our previous insurance company kicked us to the curb because we made a claim. 

I have sympathy for people going through tough times. Some of you are smarter than you are wise. 
 

Why is this on this forum? 

@wolf_garcia +1

Yes, it's probably the prohibitive cost.

Greed rules in the insurance world; and claims repudiation.

You guys are really pathetic. I posted this hoping you guys would reach out and donate.  I'm in the insurance industry for 40 years and no one understands this better than me.  This was a recent new purchase and in the transfer, the insurance stayed with the prior owner and wasn't moved over.  A miscommunication and oversight and theyre being w/o cover was not on purpose or by design to save money.  It was just  miscommunication.  You guys suck.

@cerrot, perhaps the Audiohon community would be more sympathetic is you gave some context in your original post!  There is a big different between having no fire insurance by choice, and having fire insurance lapse due to an unfortunate oversight.

This was a recent new purchase and in the transfer, the insurance stayed with the prior owner and wasn't moved over.  A miscommunication and oversight and theyre being w/o cover was not on purpose or by design to save money.  It was just  miscommunication.  You guys suck.

Maybe if you didn't omit that important tidbit in your original post, you wouldn't have gotten the responses you did and wouldn't have to tell guys how they 'suck' for sharing their opinion on the incomplete information you initially provided.

This is unfortunate, but it's ridiculous to beat up on working class folks who are just trying to practice their craft and make an honest living. Meanwhile, we all subsidize expensive homes in flood and hurricane areas. That's where the outrage belongs. Been going on for years. https://www.cagw.org/thewastewatcher/beach-houses-owned-rich-paid-everyone

Even if it was an intentional decision, I would have a hard time looking down on someone who made a decision to not carry insurance if they are willing to accept the risk and consequences.  The insurance industry is corrupt, greedy, and sorely in need of regulation.  What they regularly get away with is criminal.  They specialize in how NOT to pay claims and spend incredible amounts of your premium dollars accomplishing that thousands of times every day.  Sickening.

Had the OP told the entire story about the insurance mix up, I would have been more sympathetic.  Here is a fact:  none of us suck.  What sucks is not getting the entire story and then ragging on the ones who disagree and show no sympathy. 
 

I can relate to the mix up as I had a not so similar run in with Farmers Insurance.  On Dec1, 2022, my mortgage holder paid my new homeowners insurance in full.  The bill was due Dec20th.  On January 3, 2023, I received a letter from my insurance co stating if my policy was not paid within 10 days, it would be cancelled.  Yesterday, Jan5, I spent close to 3 hours on the phone with my insurance co and the bank holding my mortgage.  Long story short, Farmers never received the payment, the bank put a stop payment on the check they issued an then did NOTHING!   While I was still on the phone with the bank, they told me they issued a new check and were overnighting it to the insurance co.  What a coincidence that they just happened to be issuing a new check while I was on the phone. I checked last night and the check was dispatched. 
 

What galls me is if I had given up and not spent 3 hours on the phone, I would be screwed.  The bank and insurance co should have worked this out and I should not have had to get involved as there was plenty of money in escrow and the bank should have followed through.  If something similar happened to Timbernation, then I take back what I said. 

So is Audiogon going to be used as "tragedy central" now? My wife was the chair of our region's United Way. We give more to charity than most people earn in a year and I personally have volunteered my services completely free of charge literally hundreds of times...do we suck for not contributing to some random business that doesn't know what they're doing? No fire safety sprinkler system? Has no roof repair safety skills? Self inflicted money issues are exactly that, kids with cancer will get my hard earned money well before any small business who somehow "forgot" their insurance. Keep your guilt trip to yourself as it's just insulting and really lame, and certainly does not belong in this forum.  

I gotta +1 that!

Is this the Timbernation that makes hifi racks?

$7000 is such a small amount of money. Maybe they didn’t lose much?

Wow!  This Internet thing is out of control.  Perhaps we should hunt it down and kill it.  I came for audio enlightenment and leave with the feeling fraud has been committed.  I want a refund for the assault of occult logic 

Everybody have a nice Zoloft day.  I know I will.  Cheers

I agree with WolfGarcia as this is not the place for this type of discussion. However, Mr. Cerrot  I was in the '' insurance business '' a little bit longer than you were and depending upon the circumstances as we working with limited information here ; depending upon when the loss occurred this could easy fall under the agent's E&O otherwise know as Errors and Omissions Coverage. I digress because as you noted ;  '' no one understands this better than me ''. If this was in fact the case,  then Timbernation will be taken care of although as well all know this could take some time. But to start a ; Go Fund Me for this business well that is beyond the realm of acceptability as least for me and I have a great idea ; I will start a Go Fund Me because I am suffering due to the fact that I can't afford new and better speakers........when will that madness end. Enjoy our music and get your facts straight in the future.                

Someone dropped the ball.  How did the new owners get a mortgage without proof of insurance (assuming a mortgage)?  In the US, don’t most business property insurance policy’s include an anti-assignment of benefits clause in the contract, therefore, prior covered could not be transferred to the new owner.  

What I don’t understand is the Go Fund me goal was around 7 grand.  Does this mean that Timbernation didn’t have even 7 grand available to do the repairs?   If that is the case, then they are truly operating on a shoe string budget and it is not a good way to run a business.  That tells me a lot. 

Interesting thread.

Chris’s machinery is from an era of well built brick outhouse, extremely reliable and not so easy replaceable. I’ve set up wood shops from sales thru service and everything in between since 1999. I spoke with him a couple years back and in that brief conversation believe we’d conversed more about wood working than Audio. 

Unfortunate :-( 

What irks me most are those who steal a man’s lively hood, his (tools.) I’ve landed many easy sales on such a unfortunate set of circumstances. A guys gotta regroup and retool. 

I just sent 10 grand to garebear.

It was just  miscommunication.

You were in insurance business and still you miscommunicated with the folks on this forum? That information you provided would definitely set the correct tone for responses.

.......thanks WolfGarcia much appreciated and now I am only $40,000 short. So please help my cause and also continued thanks for all of your generous donations. I also need a dedicated room built for my system as well.