From: njs@scifi.uucp (Nicholas J. Simicich)
Subject: Re: Seeking advice on claiming insurance money
Organization: Nick Simicich, Peekskill, NY
Date: Fri, 24 Jul 1992 03:10:06 GMT

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.
Newsgroups: rec.autos.driving