Auto Insurance Rant

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Err
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Auto Insurance Rant

Post by Err »

The roads in Southern Ohio were icy Monday. I was on my way to Athens for work and the roads turned to crap once I hit Athens Co. I got behind two slower moving cars going about 30 to 35. I was on a flat part of the road to I looked in my driver's mirror and was about to turn on my signal when I saw an early to mid-2000's Avenger flying in the left hand lane. I stayed where I was and the next thing I knew, I was looking at the Avenger almost perpendicular to my driver's door. He was sorry and asked if I was hurt. I wasn't and after looking at the damage, I grabbed my cell and started looking up the number for the Highway Patrol. As I was trying to call, the guy who hit me asked if it would be okay to just give me his insurance. I said, "No. We're writing this up." The guy was cited and the officer told me that the driver had to call his wife to get the insurance number. Once I had his name and Geico insurance number, I went on to work and then called Geico.

This is were my salt levels rise.

Geico has a terrible voice menu system. It acted like it couldn't hear me half the time. I ended up saying, "Operator" and finally getting a real person. The first person took down the information, put me on hold, and then dropped the call. The second person acted like they couldn't hear me. The third person finally got the ball rolling but it was a 37 minute call. Most of this is do to the number I received not being a valid Geico number. However, they did find a policy under the guy's name and address and assigned an adjuster who called me the next day. That same day I get a call from a repair shop in Columbus wanting to make arrangements to tow my car (90 miles!) to their shop for repair. They would also set up the rental. While I'd rather have a local shop perform the repair, I'm just glad the car is getting fixed at this point. On Wednesday, when the shop was going to pick up the car, I got a call from them stating that the repair is on hold due to a "Coverage Investigation". He also asked if I'd made a claim with my insurance (Grange) and I said no. I told him that if I have to pay for the repair, I'm using a local shop. Just a few minutes ago, I get a call from the adjuster telling me that they can't get a hold of the guy and to verify the crash report number.

I also got the crap scared out of me last night when I got the mail. On top was a letter from a lawyer. I thought, "great, I'm being sued." It was just an ambulance chaser. They was another letter from a different form underneath.

As it stands now, I'm guessing I got hit my an insured driver. In Ohio, you're supposed to carry liability on all motor vehicles. From what I've read of my policy and Ohio law on the subject, uninsured coverage (which I have) only covers Medical and property damage. I'll have to pay for the repair. I could take the guy to court but I'd have to pay the fees and would most likely never see the money as there is no enforcement of payout.

This is the damage: driver's door, rear quarter panel, wheel and tire. The later is really annoying as these are my Blizzaks. The tread is cut where it meets the sidewall. Most likely it won't cause issued but it needs replaced. I estimate the damage at ~$1,000 taking into account the wheel, tire, repair, and labor. If I end up paying for it, I'm only going to replace the tire even thought the wheel is scratched up. I only use these tires 3 months out of the year.

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FlyingPenguin
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

Post by FlyingPenguin »

I know you're probably trying to avoid having your rates go up, but its a heck of a lot easier to file a claim with your insurance company and then let THEM collect from the other guy's insurance.
"Turns out I’m 'woke.' All along, I thought I was just compassionate, kind, and good at history. "

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Executioner
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

Post by Executioner »

I agree with FP. Let your insurance company deal with the other driver and their insurance. I have never been involved in disputes between insurance companies and damage. You pay them a lot of money, let them do the work.
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reno
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

Post by reno »

I agree bad news is if or if not you report it to your insurance company .your insurance company will find out .there will be a report added to a national data base . no matter what its a moving accident (im sure you know this)
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psypher
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

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Don't be scared, your rate won't go up just because of this. Rates go can and do go up even if you aren't in a accident. You should get quotes once a year anyways. Outside factors beyond your control, so really, don't sweat so much. I can tell you from experience, if you try on your own, they will take advantage of it. I once tried to deal directly with the insurance company of the lady that hit my car. Company was shady as hell. No address. I had to use some Google Ninja skills to locate them. The place had like a small standing waiting room that just had a camera and an intercom next to the door. Some guy comes out and saying good news, we have a check for you. It was for like $1500 (when the estimate was like $5K). I turned them down and told him he'd be hearing from my insurance company. As I was leaving, the guy had the audacity to ask me how I found them. I was like "why, are you trying to hide?". Anyways, I went through my insurance company, State Farm and while I had to pay the deductible upfront, they did refund it as soon as they collected from the insurance company. See, State Farm will have lawyers dealing with this and they won't take shit from some piece of shit insurance company.

As for the shop, you can take it anywhere really. After the estimate, they will contact the insurance company and figure it out. Obviously don't sign any work approval. It's up to the insurance company to approve the estimate before they can do the work.

Here's some other Interesting bit of info on my accident. State Farm at the time offered a lifetime warranty on the work if you used one of their shops. At the time I did because the shop banked at my wife's bank, so I "thought" the guy would do a good job. I learned from that day that a dirty body shop = shitty work. Fast forward like 10 years later and I want to sell the car. It was a rear end accident, so they had to fix the bumper and realign the trunk/repaint it. Well it was a bad paint job and you could see it sort of blurry/faded. Anyways, I found a shop near by (really nice, clean, very professional) and they were the ones that reminded me about the lifetime warranty. So I contacted State Farm and they approved all the work. Keep in mind, this was a car I was selling for $10K and it cost them like $6K to redo all the work, but the dam car came back perfect.
Last edited by psypher on Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
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psypher
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

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Err
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

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I'll give my agent a call Monday. It just sucks to turn it in to my insurance because I had to turn in a $5,000+ claim on a deer strike 2 months ago. Blasted thing busted the radiator. It was also in the shop for a month and they had to pay for the rental. The 2018 Toyota Camry is nice by the way but my Challenger rides better.
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psypher
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

Post by psypher »

Err wrote:I'll give my agent a call Monday. It just sucks to turn it in to my insurance because I had to turn in a $5,000+ claim on a deer strike 2 months ago. Blasted thing busted the radiator. It was also in the shop for a month and they had to pay for the rental. The 2018 Toyota Camry is nice by the way but my Challenger rides better.
That's different. In that case your insurance had to pay out for the repair. In this case, trust me, if someone else can pay, they will make sure they pay. All you are doing is having them use their "muscle", to go after the other company/guy. They may pay to get you taken care of, but they will go after Geico to get their money back.
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Err
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

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Update 1/17/18: Yesterday the repair shop Geico chose to fix my car called and told me that Geico called him to let me know that the guy that hit me probably didn't have coverage at the time of the accident. I think it's BS that Geico couldn't call directly. I called my agent, explained what happened, and started a claim. I have a $500 deductible which makes so sense but what else can I do? I'm now waiting on an adjuster to call. It's been a day and I haven't heard from them. However, we've been under levels 2 and 1 emergencies due to the snow and cold the last couple of days so I'm giving them a bit of leeway.

In Ohio, you are required to have liability on your car. However, the only thing you have to do when you get your license renewed (every 4 years) is sign a slip of paper stating you have it. They don't even ask for your insurance company's name and policy number. What's the point then? I feel like I'm the one being punished.
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

Post by FlyingPenguin »

If he's uninsured, I assure you your insurance company will sue him and put a lien on him. That's what they do.

Evense here. In Florida (especially South Flotida). We're all required to carry uninsured motorist protection. In Miami it's a good bet less than half the drivers are insured. Here you ARE required to give proof, and insurance companies have to notify the state if you lapse, but somehow they still manage to play games.
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reno
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

Post by reno »

I know a couple years ago I looked at Michigan auto insurance price to Florida. thought why not seeing we own property in both state's . Michigan rate was about 1/2 to what it be in New port Richey. then the agent gave me a price for same coverage in Miami that rate was like double that of New Port Richey.
at the time I was paying $1400.00 per year in Michigan. New port richey was $2450.00 and Miami $4800.00

im still insured in michigan !!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Err
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

Post by Err »

Update 1/24/18: After 2 days of trying to get a hold of my adjuster because satan forbid they actually call back when they said they would, the final verdict is that this guy doesn't have insurance and they can't get a hold of him. I'm out $500 plus whatever the tire will cost me since it will be prorated. As a bonus, I get to take time from work to get the estimate and such taken car of.

:mad
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reno
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

Post by reno »

small claim court !
ps . "Im glad not had a claim in years .I have heard some Insurance company's are prorating tires. companys like Progressive and Geico . I have never been prorated before when I filed a auto claim . I sure hope I never have to fine out to.but with that said it's why i have never gone with those 2 company's also heard not so nice things said about Allstate .
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Err
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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

Post by Err »

Finally got an estimate. There is a lot of labor involved because of the rear quarter panel damage. I'm now waiting on my insurance company. What sucks is that I probably won't have my car for a month.

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Re: Auto Insurance Rant

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Update: This is becoming a nightmare. The car finally went into the shop on Feb 12th. I'm now driving a rental and while driving home on Friday, I remember to check the due date. I didn't notice when I got picked up that the car was due Sunday so I call Enterprise and then leave a voice mail with the adjuster to extend the rental. Today (Feb 20th), I call the shop and find out there is a dispute. The insurance company cut the labor in half and only payed about $1,600 of the bill. I call the adjuster and get a voice mail (that's all I ever get by the way) and ask what is going on and what am I supposed to do with the rental. It's now about 20 to 5 so I guess I won't here from them today.

I honestly don't know what to do. I'm probably going to have to pay the shop to get my car back plus whatever they don't cover on the rental.
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