Auto Insurance H!#%#^!!!

[Chuckanut]

I have a car that was hit by another car while parked in the parking lot.

Ask me about the quality of service from Esurance (the guy who hit me) and State Farm (my insurance company).

Car was hit on 8/19. A claim was filed with Esurance on 8/20. Another claim was filed with State farm on 8/30 under my underinsured motorist coveratge. As of today (9/13) I have not heard if my car will be fixed or totaled.

Message me if you like.

 

[zinger1457]

You're fortunate that you know who hit your vehicle. I had a 2 month old Tacoma pickup that was hit in a parking lot while I was inside the store. The person took off and no witnesses. The deductible ($500) came out of my pocket.

 

[Chuckanut]

You're fortunate that you know who hit your vehicle. I had a 2 month old Tacoma pickup that was hit in a parking lot while I was inside the store. The person took off and no witnesses. The deductible ($500) came out of my pocket.

My deductible under uninsured motorist is $1000. I will get it back if the insurance company can collect from the guy who hit me.

Of course all this assumes the insurance companies will properly do their jobs at some point in time. 3 1/2 weeks have gone by and so far, all I know is that my car is in a salvage yard waiting for .

 

[Sunset]

My deductible under uninsured motorist is $1000. I will get it back if the insurance company can collect from the guy who hit me.

Of course all this assumes the insurance companies will properly do their jobs at some point in time. 3 1/2 weeks have gone by and so far, all I know is that my car is in a salvage yard waiting for .

Wow, I was expecting dent.

How fast was this person driving ?

Have you been phoning your insurance agent ?

 

[CRLLS]

I would be calling the Esurance agent and/or appraiser on a daily basis until I got action. I always get some action within a day or two after the accident, either a scheduled appraisal time and sometimes an actual check within a week or so.

I am a bit confused as to why 2 "claims" were made. I usually claim against the other driver (yes, I have been in several accidents caused by others over the years.) and simply notify my insurance agent of the occurrence and that I was filing a claim on the other driver's insurance. That way there is no out of pocket deductible that I have to deal with. I hope that there was a police accident report filed. Some states do not work this way and they are no-fault states.

 

[Amethyst]

Speed isn't needed. Many years ago, our car was hit in a crowded parking lot so hard it pushed the driver door right in - could barely open it. We are talking after-Christmas sale, not an empty space around.

B@$tard left no note, nothing - mall security was like Sgt Schultz "I see nothing."
Nationwide paid, and didn't raise our rates, I don't recall anything else about it.

Wow, I was expecting dent.

How fast was this person driving ?

 

[JoeWras]

Speed isn't needed.

That's for sure!

When a moving truck backed into my car at about 1/2 MPH, it totaled the car. The hefty truck's lift gate managed to scratch, break and mangle the front fenders, hood, bumper, headlights. The car was perfectly drive-able (daytime only), it just looked like it was in a cat fight.

Over $2500 in damage on a car worth about the same.

 

[Chuckanut]

@Sunset - My Camry was hit in the left rear corner smashing (not denting) the rear panel, bumper lights, trunk and trunk lid. And apparently bending the frame.

@ Crills - this is why there are two claims. My insurance agent advised me to file a claim with the other guy's insurance since I had a $1000 deductible on my policy. The other guy's policy should pay for everything. I am advised I might get the deductible back but it could take a long time. The other guy's insurance company tells me my car is totaled and we agree in a price. This takes about 10 days. They also cut off my car rental they were paying for. A few minutes later they call and inform me that their policy holder's max benefit is about $5,000 less than the value of the car and they rescind the offer. He only carried $10,000 property damage coverage. (Why in the world didn't they know that much earlier?)

The next day I file a claim with my company since I have under-insured motorist coverage. It's been 11 days since the accident. My company is supposed to get the car from Esurance. I hear nothing for a week and a half and finally call my agent at State Farm and ask that he intervene on my behalf. A few hours later the State Farm claims department calls and informs me that Esurance still has my car in their salvage lot, (this is a week and a half since I filed my claim with them) but they are going to get it ASAP. I wait a few days, hear nothing, and call my company again. Now I am told Esurance will release the car to them on 9/17 - a delay of a week. Why? Maybe The Shadow knows. I sure don't.

As of this message, I have no idea what State Farm will do or if they even have my car. Meanwhile Esurance has stopped paying for my rental car, and I have used up about 25% of my 24 days of rental car insurance I have from my policy.

Oh, one more thing. I have printed out a complaint form for my state's Insurance Commission. I guess I have a project for this weekend.

 

[jazz4cash]

I had State Farm for many years and they were awful about everything except when DW a
and DD had claims they were excellent. They are the ones you pay premiums to and they should make you whole within the limits of your policy ASAP and deal with the other insurance co.

 

[karen1972]

Depends on where you are, it took 3 weeks for me to get my car repair estimate in NC thru Liberty Mutual, I called around everywhere myself and that IS the best they could do, just a massive backlog. It then took over 8 weeks for the repairs to be done so in total I was without a car for almost 3 months, luckily I had car rental insurance (which is for 30 days) but if they can't get it fixed in that amount of time, they cover it anyway.

I can't say anything bad about LM, I literally just changed insurance to them and had only made 2 payments when we had the accident, $8200 in repairs, 3 months car rental and towing, cost me my $1000 deductible (it was my BFs fault) and no increase in premiums due to accident forgiveness. Everything was simple, it just took time.

 

[JoeWras]

I had State Farm for many years and they were awful about everything except when DW a
and DD had claims they were excellent. They are the ones you pay premiums to and they should make you whole within the limits of your policy ASAP and deal with the other insurance co.

Something changed about 10 years ago. I don't know if it was the CEO or new board members or what.

I loved SF. My old agent, a legend in this area, was one of the good guys. He sold his franchise in the late aughts. I guess he saw the crap coming.

SF really started playing games with us in the early tens. They made us sign official documents saying they could charge anything they wanted over the state imposed limits. (Something Amica to this day has not requested.) And the new agents seemed to have all kinds of new incentives.

They used to give actual mutual refunds in the 90s. Amica still does, kind of. But anyway, SF stopped with the checks in the early 2000s. Not sure if they still are worthy of the "mutual" name.

Good bye. It was nice while it lasted for 25 years. I had one claim in the mid nineties that was handled fast and professionally for a home insurance issue. I have no idea how it would go today.

 

[harllee]

I had a similar situation with my mothers car--both my mother's car and the car who hit her where insured by State Farm. Awful service, nothing was done, they gave my mother the run around and would not return her calls, a month or so went by. I told her I would help. In my first conversation with the State Farm claims guy I told him too much time had elapsed and they were mistreating my 85 year old mother and if they did not make arrangements to fix her car in 24 hours I was contacting the state Dept. of Insurance. Within 24 hours they had my mothers car at a repair place and it was fixed in a couple of days. I also got her several thousand dollars for pain and suffering and aggravation. Mother moved her insurance from State Farm to a decent insurance company (Amica).

Chuckanut, it may be time to get you state department of insurance involved. Also I would NEVER buy any insurance from State Farm, they are the worst.

 

[Bamaman]

An uninsured motorist pulled out in front of my wife on a rainy night and DW hit her. Did $5K damage to my car. State Farm deemed the people were uncollectible and dropped it.

Then they cancelled our car insurance after counting it as our fault--and reported it to Lexus Nexus as "our fault." My wife had earlier backed into a steel pole at Walmart and had a $3K claim.

Now our new insurance company is charging us double as "high risk" and we're having problems getting homeowner's insurance linked to the auto policy to get a 30% discount.

 

[athena53]

Oh, one more thing. I have printed out a complaint form for my state's Insurance Commission. I guess I have a project for this weekend.

I was going to suggest this. You may even want to contact Esurance again and tell them you'll be sending it if you don't hear from them or they don't take some other specified action by (date). Insurance departments track complaint ratios and insurers really don't like having complaints filed against them. My experience is similar to harllee's- the threat is usually enough to get them to snap to attention and settle the claim.

Sadly, I think customer service will continue to deteriorate. My neighbor, a longtime Farmer's Agent, had his commissions cut so many times to respond to consumers who are focused only on price that he had to let one of his staff go and eventually sold the agency. After that he moved into a smaller house in another town as well- a real loss to our neighborhood.

 

[Chuckanut]

Somebody at ER.org must like me or have the magic touch.

SF called me and they have the car. I may get a decision on repair/totaled by the end of next week. I guess there is some hope.

 

[JoeWras]

SF called me and they have the car. I may get a decision on repair/totaled by the end of next week. I guess there is some hope.

7 days from now after all this time? Really?

Erie managed that decision in less than 5 days from the accident date.

Come on...

 

[CRLLS]

I have SF and have had them for over 40 years. I have been at fault on 2 accidents. One was when I was 16 and was on my parents insurance. The other was maybe 30 years ago, when I pulled out of an intersection and was hit. The guy must have been speeding. He wasn't there when I looked. He was coming up a blind hill, around a curve. I have to use 2 hands to count the number of times I've been rear ended!

A week is a long time to wait for an estimate and decision. I'd ask the agent to put some pressure as it has been a long time. Not your fault. I wonder if you will ever get your deductible back since the other guy's limit is 5K short. I don't know if SF or you have first dibs on the 1st dollars from the other guy. I sort of understand the other guy's insurance stopping of the rental car. They have made the offer according to his insurance, any delay of action on your part is not their concern. I suspect that you could always sue him for the deductible and any incurred rental costs in small claims court. That is if there is anything to sure him about. Maybe his umbrella or homeowner's insurance would cover his uncovered liability?

Sorry about your bad experience dealing with SF.

 

[JoeWras]

A week is a long time to wait for an estimate and decision. I'd ask the agent to put some pressure as it has been a long time. Not your fault.

It isn't just a week! The accident was 8/19.

 

[harllee]

State Farm is jerking Chuckanuts around. If i were him I would report them to the state insurance Department. When my sweet 87 year old mother was hit by a car when she was stopped at a stop sign both she and the other driver had State Farm insurance. She called her local SF agent (she had been with them 30 years) and they told her they could not help her she had to call an 800 number for claims. They said agents no longer got involved in claims. She called the 800 number and no one ever called her back. She asked for me to help and I got SF's attention by telling them I would report them to the state insurance department and then they hopped right on it. State Farm is an awful company. The agents do not help on claims at all now. Put your insurance with a decent company like AMICA.

 

[Chuckanut]

State Farm is jerking Chuckanuts around. If i were him I would report them to the state insurance Department.

I was very near doing that this afternoon until I got the call.

Given all I have been through in the last few months, I am going to give them a chance to make it right in the next week or two (I still have about two weeks of rental car left).

Currently, I am recovering from a total knee replacement and that is my primary goal. The car is just plastic and metal. Well, so is my knee , but the rest of me is still flesh and blood. It's a brutal operation that takes a year to fully recover from. Right now I have to pick my battles.

I do appreciate all the advice and encouragement. And, the complaint form is safely tucked away. I am keeping that powder dry for the moment.

 

[nwsteve]

FWIW, also frustrated with poor State Farm service. We've been with SF over 40 years but recent rate jumps and service indifference couple with comments on this thread, made me shop Amica. Rates for Homeowners and Auto will have us changing to Amica when we return from our trip. Not only is Amica's base rate lower but when you account for the dividend rebate they are much lower. For example, for our 2016 RDX, $1000 ded, SF at $590/6 mon; Amica $561 base/$448 after rebate. $2Mil Umbrella SF-$311, Amica net $235.
Checking Consumer Reports, Amica at top of list with a 96 versus SF at 89.
Decision pretty easy for me.
YMMV