Thank you.

 

Boosted,
Really sorry to hear about your ongoing struggles. Again, just trying to give insider perspective on this, as this type of stuff is what I do for a living. I think your frustration with Mercury is misguided. From what I've read in your write up, they've made a lot of good faith efforts to pay for the repairs to the car. They don't do the diagnosis or repair work, they just write the check. Since I don't have access to the claim file, I really have no way to know what information Mercury has or what opinions the appraiser wrote up for them. However, as a general rule of thumb I will say that they wouldn't deny payment unless they believed they had solid reasoning to do so. Again, it would be near impossible for me to try to speculate on specifics of your claim, since I don't know all the details. But Mercury isn't just denying it because they don't want to pay anymore. Subframes do bend in accidents sometimes, depends on the accident, but those suckers are usually pretty darn tough. If your accident truly did cause it to bend, then Mercury should cover it. For what it's worth, here's my suggestion.

It's totally up to you about legal counsel, but I'd shy away from it. If you find someone to take your case, you'll spend a lot of money on legal fees (which you won't recover) and I highly doubt you'd get anywhere. Try speaking to a physical damage supervisor at Mercury. Calmly explain your thoughts. Ask to set up a conference call with yourself and the experts who are supporting your position. If you or the shop have specific measurements they can give and/or photos, that's golden. You can also contact the state Department of Insurance (DOI) if you really feel Mercury is not handling it promptly. I can tell you for a flat out fact that they're much more concerned with the DOI than they are with a plaintiff attorney.

Again, I hope you don't take anything I'm saying the wrong way. As a car guy and an auto insurance claims guy, I'm trying to help give you information. If you have any questions, just ask.

 

Maybe your company is on the level, but can you say with a straight face that most insurance companies "act in good faith" when their customers get in accidents? Good faith to me is that I file a claim and after that everything is taken care of until my car is either
a) 100% fixed
b) I have a new car or a check for the value of the old one

In this case, neither happened, and based on the information we have, that is the insurance company's fault. They sent the car to an awful shop and held up repairs at the proper place. 2c

 

Absolutely yes, without a doubt. Can I sit here and say adjusters don't make mistakes? Of course not. They're human, and like everyone, they make mistakes. I've trained literally hundreds of adjusters, and it's beaten into their brain to pay what they owe and handle the claim in good faith. That happens across the board, I know that for a fact. Don't want to get into a long post here, as I don't want to hijack the thread. But I have utter confidence that Mercury isn't just denying it because they don't want to spend more money even though they know they rightfully owe it. They're going on something that is giving them a reason to not pay. While they're told to always pay what they owe, they also won't pay if they reasonably don't feel damage is directly related to a loss. Really can't use the angle of saying that the insurance told him to go to shop X, as it's the customers' choice.

Situations like this suck for all sides involved.