That OR post it in another thread?


Mark

 

Justin,

I wish that were true but not always. Last year I had a lady in an '08 Honda Accord get slammed in the back and pushed into another car.

The car that hit her was insured by Nationwide. (the owner's car was State Farm)

Because she didn't want to file it on her own insurance, she went through Nationwide.

They wrote up aftermarket taillights, aftermarket decklid, aftermarket bumpers, hood, headlights, turnsignals, front bumper and both fenders.

Oh, did I mention this car had 400 miles on it???

I argued with the adjuster for almost a week. When that didn't work, I called the customer and told them what was going on. She argued with with the adjuster for a week.

She then got pissed off and went to a lawyer.

Three weeks later, I got a phone call from the customer that we had to use aftermarket parts.

That shows two things. A) Nationwide sucks. B) Lawyers are useless.


Mark

PS. In the end, I won and got to use factory parts. I called up the supplement hotline and told them that the car was a Honda Accord SE and the aftermarket parts only fix the Honda Accord LX.


Can you say bullllllshiiiiiit? There is no difference but they didn't check it. Point is, there is no way I should have had to go through all that to protect the customer.

 

I used to work in a body shop, State law said that the insurance company, could not demand aftermarket parts, that was entirely up to the customer. We still had insurance companies try it, but they never got thier way.

Too bad that all states don't have similar laws.

Dave

 

I agree... the insurance companies have too much control. The problem is, if you're the insured, it's probably written in your policy and you don't know it.


Mark

 

I've never had a problem fighting it when I needed a car to be fixed. No way would I let them use aftermarket. If they were going to, I would be getting the body kit I wanted and they would pay for it. Don't stop until you're content with the outcome. Insurance companies act like badarses, but most of the time, they are just trying to save some money.

 

Ministrater, any updates?

 

I'd love an update also.

Mark,

What I love about insurance companies now is that they do the estimates. Back when I was working at a body shop, the SHOP did the estimates, then the adjuster would come out and look at it and ok it.

We just had a guy back into our R53 with a Cadillac. Cracked the bumper right where it goes into the metal bumper support, scratched the paint and scraped the bumper cover and broke the passenger side driving light housing.

All in all, the body shop's estimate was almost $1000. When the adjuster came out, he wrote it up for repairing the bumper cover and replacing the stripes on 1 side. He didn't notice the crack in the bumper near the torx bolt and the light housing. Of course not......Got a check for $604. What a joke.

I hope he realizes he's getting a supplement on that one.

 

Funny you should ask...I just got over the hump today by getting my wheels balanced for the third and final time.

The car is repaired and back to normal. They did a pretty good job although they put a four inch scratch in the hood. Ring on the finger? Wrench in the hand? Who knows but I had them buff it out a couple days later. It was in the shop for two weeks straight. One week to fix and paint the other week to wait for two rear wheels. The originals were sent off but were deemed irreparable. After getting two new rear wheels you could see a noticeable difference between the old and new so I had two more ordered for the front. My insurance repair rep had me go and deal directly with the wheel shop. Another few days and she's finally back.

As for the claim...The kid who was deemed at fault was not covered on third party vehicles and so his insurance company is not liable. My insurance company will now go after the kid to recoup their and my losses. The bottom line is, I don't get paid until they get paid in full, if they get paid at all. My rep gave me three scenarios of how this could play out, all of worsening degrees. No matter what, it could be a long while to see anything happen.

The body shop told me they could do a diminished value estimate for $375.00 after the car is done. So will the diminished value outweigh the time an trouble and is this value great enough to matter? I'm already trying to get blood from a stone...

 

Glad to hear you got things fixed up, but not getting paid for the damages, well that is just flat out wrong! I hope things work out for you and you find justice in the end.

 

So I was out of town when I got the call a week ago. State Farm is finally claiming liability. I told them to quit talking to me and call my insurance company because the kid's going to get sued by them! Maybe the kid (and his parents) got the letter in the mail and cracked the whip on State Farm. Who knows? Now I'm just waiting for a check.

I remember that day, the kid saying "it's cool" as he handed me his insurance card. This has been anything but cool.

The one good thing that came out of this is after being away from my mini for so long I had the chance to fall in love all over again. Cheesy but true! I love this car!

 

Wow. Heckofa story. I got clipped on the side of the road, but the really only whacked the molding and rear marker light. Sorry to hear about your troubles!