Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving
From: eoates@us.oracle.com
Subject: Re: Seeking advice on claiming insurance money
Organization: Oracle Corporation, USA
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 22:00:21 GMT
X-Disclaimer: This message was written by an unauthenticated user
              at Oracle Corporation.  The opinions expressed are those
              of the user and not necessarily those of Oracle.

In article <1992Jul24.031006.15912@scifi.uucp>, njs@scifi.uucp (Nicholas J. Simicich) writes:
> In article <11050051@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM> bruno@hpfcso.FC.HP.COM (Bruno Melli) writes:
>>> A friend of mine has full coverage of a Honda Accord with All State.
>>
>>Must be open season on Accords...  My wife just got rear ended yesterday
>>while waiting at a light.
>>In any case, she called her insurance (farmers) and they told her, if you
>>want us to follow through we will take out the deductible. If you call
>>the other car's insurance you should get the full amount.
>>
>>She called the other insurance and they said they will send an adjuster,
>>and he'd write her a check.
>>
>>Knowing that it is much easier to give money to an insurance than to
>>get money from them I have a question related to this accident:
>>
>>I told my wife to go tho the Honda dealer before the adjuster shows up
>> and get an estimate of what it would cost to repair. 
>>What happen if the adjuster offers a lower price ? 
>>Who can you turn to if they refuse to meet the Honda shop estimate ?
> 
> My wife was driving at reasonable parking lot speed next to a row of
> angle parked cars in California, when someone backed out into her.
> She was driving a beater at the time, and it did no significant damage
> to her car, but banged the other one up pretty good.  At the time, the
> man driving the other car admitted fault, and they swapped addresses
> and insurance agencies.
> 
> She was quite surprised when she got notice that the other company had
> filed a claim for the full amount of his damage against her.  It
> seemed that he claimed that she was speeding, and that he couldn't
> avoid the accident.  On the basis of his accident report, his
> insurance company had estimated that she was 70% at fault.  She ended
> up having to go to the stores near where the accident occurred and get
> someone who remembered the accident to tell the insurance adjuster
> that she hadn't been speeding.
> 
> Just a few weeks ago, she was stopped in a parking lot waiting for a
> space to free (vulching) when someone backed into her.  This time, she
> called the cops and insisted that the officer look over the scene
> before she moved her car.  Sure enough, the other party's insurance
> company tried to claim that they had both been moving at the time of
> the accident, and that they wouldn't pay anything.  Then they offered
> to pay 50% of her damage.
> 
> She went to one of the State Farm on-the-spot claims settlement places
> and they tried to pressure her into taking the check right then,
> claiming that "it was a very liberal offer", and "if you wait, you
> won't get any more".  They offered a quarter of an estimate that we
> had in hand.  (To be fair, the car was finally fixed, by a dealer, for
> half of that estimate).
> 
> She walked out on them, and called them on the telephone, and asked to
> speak to that person's supervisor.  She pointed out some
> inconsistencies in their story (their accident report not filled out
> by the driver, damage not consistent with a mutual collision, police
> report inconsistent with the story in their accident report).  She
> made it clear that she was not going to settle for less than the full
> cost of repair plus the cost of car rental.  They mailed her a check
> for the full amount within a week.  Implicit with this payment was an
> offer to pay the full cost of the repairs if they exceeded their
> estimate, but they were going to talk to the repair shop.
> 
> Now, in NY, you have the right to go to the shop of your choice.  We
> decided to go through a dealer where we had the car repaired
> regularly.  The insurance company can (and did, in our case), look,
> hard, at the work the shop says that they are planning on doing,
> suggest alternate procedures, and so forth.  With that sort of
> scrutiny, the shop reshaped the panel rather than replacing it (using
> one of these new techniques that doesn't involve filler) and I have to
> admit, it looks good.  Saved them $1000 bucks.  I believe that you
> also have the right to OEM parts for any repairs.  
> 
> But you may find that you are getting a real high pressure sales
> tactic from the adjuster.  They may wave papers and releases and a
> check under your nose, and threaten you with delays and non-payment if
> you don't take it right then, no matter how clear-cut your case is.
> It is their job.  It is also their job not to go to court if they are
> wrong, and being rear-ended at a light is pretty clear cut.  My wife
> thought her case was clear cut, too, and they still tried a fast
> shuffle on her.
> 
> -- 
> Nick Simicich - uunet!bywater!scifi!njs - njs@watson.ibm.com
> SSI #AOWI 3958, HSA 318, NAUI #14065
> Join the movement ---  turn 'to bush' into a verb.

My most recent experience in NorCal indicates two things about dealing with the
other person's insurance company: it pays to have a good agent on your side (it
is worth a few extra bucks to go with a company that has actual agents rather
than faceless phone order stuff or gigantic companies like Allstate).  If the
other guys insurance Co. gets sticky, walk out saying, "My <name of co> agent
will be in touch."  Sometimes that alone stops the BS.  I didn't have to resort
to that with CSEE insurance co. - when they offered "compensating claims" when
their insured ramed me, I said, "No thanks.  It was 100% her fault.  Here is
exactly what happened, here's the name of the witness in my car at the time. 
Pay up."  They did.

Ed Oates
(My opinions, not Oracle's)
Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving