by "Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever" (rustanddust)
Published 06/15/2017 at 14:45
by "Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever" (rustanddust)
Published 06/15/2017 at 14:45
No Tags
STARS: 2
I’ve spent the better part of three weeks fighting with an insurance company over a sub $1000 collision claim. This is, for all intents and purposes, a paltry sum to an insurance carrier, given the average claim checks in somewhere around $2600. The terrible thing is, they’ve cut all their own staff estimators (who used to write terrible estimates I had to fix, but they were easy to work with), and are now expecting the shop to write an estimate, take photographs, document the claim, and email all of it to them so they can give it all to someone who knows fuck-all about collision repair to butcher the estimate.
To set the stage: 2003 Corolla LE, gets rear-ended by another small sedan (referred to as vehicle B from here forward) that was hard on the brakes trying to avoid the collision. Front end of vehicle B tucks under the Corolla’s rear bumper reinforcement, splitting the bumper cover, and pushing in the lower rear body panel/rear floor pan. Nothing major, no frame rail movement, just an impact to soft, non-reinforced sheetmetal where it’s not really designed to be hit. Light frame pull on the pinchweld, some hammer and dolly work, and some paint, in addition to a bumper cover. Pretty cut and dry, easy claim. Not for these assholes. Company calls me back to let me know they rewrote my $1100 estimate down to $150. They completely removed all repairs to rear body and floor from the estimate (said they didn’t have images to support writing the repairs, but they did), found a vendor who lists aftermarket parts (but doesn’t stock or sell any, they just list them to generate phone calls and attempt to capture sales that way) with a $100 bumper cover, and didn’t even write for me to paint the bumper. I questioned whether they’d confirmed availability of the bumper (said they had, and obviously hadn’t, as it’s not available and there’s no one with the name they provided as a point of contact employed there), and how it is that they couldn’t see the damage to the rear body.
They finally relented, and acknowledged that yes, the rear body and floor are in fact damaged, and added those repairs to the estimate, as well as adjusting the price of the bumper on the estimate to one that’s actually available for purchase (after four days of daily phone calls that nearly pushed me to request a conversation with a supervisor).
Then this afternoon the IRS decides to inform me that my most recent employee withholding filing has the wrong address or name listed, but it doesn’t. It’s the same name and address that we’ve been filing under for years, so I get to call the IRS between the hours of 3:30pm and 1am EDT to resolve the issue. By my (admittedly poor) best calculations, that seems to be standard working hours if you’re in the middle of the Pacific.
Now, for the bright part:
I’d commented on a deer on the side of the road that was being somewhat comically memorialized while the county takes their sweet time to collect it’s carcass. I didn’t drop off flowers yesterday on the way home, as it was pretty stormy, and I think the winds plucked the “Get Well Soon” balloon off of his leg, but the “Thinking of You” balloon is still carrying the torch.
TLDR: Fuck insurance companies, fuck the IRS, LOL dead deer with a balloon. I needed to vent.
"Smallbear wants a modern Syclone, local Maple Leafs spammer" (smallbear94)
06/15/2017 at 14:57, STARS: 3
Otherwise known as: why ANYBODY dealing with insurance companies (whether for auto repair, construction or medical) will slash their prices for people who aren’t going through insurance.
"Future next gen S2000 owner" (future-next-gen-s2000-owner)
06/15/2017 at 15:18, STARS: 1
I spent 20 minutes conversing with a fellow who was confused about how a piece of metal was neither a skin nor structural according to him. On the plus side, he wrote the quote for $700 more than the autobody shop. No deductible for me.
"ITA97, now with more Jag @ opposite-lock.com" (ita97)
06/15/2017 at 15:24, STARS: 1
The memorialized deer is the funniest thing I’ve seen today. Thanks.
For the insurance problem, I’ve run into that issue before when working through the at-fault parties company. I’ve ended up twice filing a claim through my own insurance company who was willing to compensate my fairly for a totaled car (the first time) and repair costs to my own vehicle (the second time). Each time I had to initially pay my collision deductible, but my own insurance company then entered the subrogation process with the at-fault party’s insurance to recover their costs. Under New Mexico law, I was entitled to the first $500 my insurance company recovered from the other parties insurance to recoup my deductible, and neither could be considered at-fault claims against me for rating purposes. Both times, it was the way to go after banging my head against the wall for a few weeks trying to work directly with the other guy’s insurance carrier. I got my deductibles back a few months later, and both claims were dropped from my CLUE report once my insurance company recovered from the other guy’s insurance company.
"Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever" (rustanddust)
06/15/2017 at 15:30, STARS: 1
I wish I could’ve talked the customer into it (I’m the repair shop). Unfortunately, she was an older woman, and dead set on the fact that “this person hit me, their insurance is fixing my car.”
I’ve talked more than one customer into filing against their own policy and allowing their carrier to subrogate back against the at-fault party, especially when their carrier only uses OEM parts and the at-fault carrier has a hard-on for cheap aftermarket replacement parts.
"Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever" (rustanddust)
06/15/2017 at 15:48, STARS: 0
You’d be surprised how often I end up educating people that are supposed to be trained in this industry.
Had an insurance carrier write to repair a rear floor pan on a late model Caravan. They use a weird design, it’s a laminated steel “tub”(essentially stamped steel then cast over with a plastic type material) that glues to the frame rails and makes the “pocket” in the back, where the third row seats fold into. It’s not a welded and painted panel, as is found on 90% of the vehicles on the road. The problem was, the metal had flexed to the point the laminate cracked and popped off of the steel, and there’s no way to reproduce/replace the coating. Yes, I could’ve straightened the steel and shot some rubberized undercoating on it, and it probably wouldn’t have rusted. Unfortunately, the customer pays the insurance company to have their vehicle restored to pre-accident condition in the event of a loss, not restored to “functional”. Anyone that looked at the vehicle would’ve known it had been hit, and had a half-assed repair done, diminishing the value.
It took me awhile to finally get his head wrapped around what he was looking at, my technician glaring at the adjuster and shaking his head the whole time. The number of times I’ve had to bite my tongue from saying “well
you
fucking fix it, then” is astounding.
"Funktheduck" (funktheduck)
06/15/2017 at 16:09, STARS: 0
You have people pick up dead deer? They just leave them and let the buzzards take care of things. If they’re actually in the street someone will drag them out (no idea if it’s just people or actual government employees) but no one takes them away.
I had a deer jump a guardrail into my car. It was just before a bridge. Stayed there until it was totally eaten by scavengers and rot. It was at the exit just before mine so I saw it every day.
"Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever" (rustanddust)
06/15/2017 at 16:18, STARS: 1
If they didn’t pick up the carcasses I’d need to run a snow plow year round. I’m in the mountains in Virginia, fairly close to West Virginia. We kill a lot of deer with vehicles here. (2016 statistics show a 1 in 41 chance of drivers hitting Bambi).
"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti)
06/15/2017 at 17:43, STARS: 0
A girl tapped my wife’s bumper and scuffed the unpainted lower plastic valence. I told the insurance company I wanted $1k and I’d replace the lower vamence myself. I didn’t even worry about getting an estimate anywhere. They said they could give me $800. I got the check the next day.
What insurance company is screwing with you. They usually just pay up for anything under $1k.
"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69)
06/16/2017 at 07:32, STARS: 1
insurance companies are no different here, that’s why i’m debating if i’ll renew my car insurance next time.
"Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever" (rustanddust)
06/16/2017 at 08:20, STARS: 1
You’re right, insurers typically don’t scrutinize sub $1000 claims. Hell, agents used to have draft authority for anything under $1000, but a lot of carriers have revoked that to funnel all claims through the main office as opposed to being handled by the agent directly.
I’d rather not say what company it is for a few reasons, but it’s one of the bigger insurers (national TV advertising campaigns, etc). I don’t think it’s company policy that was the problem on this one, I think the individual that was handling the claim on their side is rather inept. I doubt she’s ever had any field training experience, or estimating experience. I’d be willing to bet that they gave her a rudimentary 1-2 week course on reviewing shop written estimates (where to cut items off of the estimate to save money), and that’s the extent of it. She probably doesn’t understand how energy travels through a vehicle, how secondary damage works, why trim needs to be removed in order to paint properly, etc.
"Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever" (rustanddust)
06/16/2017 at 08:24, STARS: 0
For quite awhile I carried legal limits of liability only (pays to fix other parties car, but not mine). It was cheaper, I was driving old clunkers when I was a kid, and I work in a body shop, I could fix most anything myself over a weekend if need be.
Once I’d reached the age where I was no longer penalized by the insurance companies for being young (25ish as a male in the US), I bought something halfway decent, and finally got full coverage.
"pip bip - choose Corrour" (hhgttg69)
06/16/2017 at 08:32, STARS: 0
the car i have is worth so little any knock now will cause it top be a write off, the cost of my insurance is about just over half the cars value and my cars value is $200.00
"Rust and Dust - Oppositelock Forever" (rustanddust)
06/16/2017 at 08:50, STARS: 0
Thats pretty much where I was at. What full coverage would cost me in a year would more than pay for my car in full at the time (I drove shitboxes, or totalled vehicles I’d rebuilt myself). I couldn’t see the point in paying my cars value every year, just in case it was damaged.