Anyone in insurance? Have question on claim

[MadMaxx]

Is anyone here involved with auto insurance claims by any chance?
Someone damaged my supra the other day, and I started the work on the claim yesterday. I need some questions answered from a non bias POV

 

[LIVIPER]

Post the questions and lets see if we can help.

 

[MadMaxx]

Well I think I got it straitened out (sorta).

I had damage to my supra, vandalism. There is a huge gash down the side of the car w/ a pretty deep dent, among other things. Things like 2 big dents in the bumper (where it was kicked), damage to the paint on the bumper/hood/top/hatch, etc.

Now, they split it into 2 claims. One for collision (since something "hit" me) and another for comp (vandalism). They told me that is the only way they can do it, although the chances that both incidents happened seporatly on the same night are pretty much nill in my mind. The only thing that ***** is that I'm out the deductable for 2 claims now (1K total for both). I just wanted to know why they split them up, since I now have 2 deductables to cover.

 

[Janni]

I can't belive that's correct. This should be a comp claim pure and simple - your car wasn't moving..... it's vandalism and collision is really for when YOU hit something. I'd fight it - IMO they are jerking you around.

 

[LIVIPER]

I agree with Janni. I think they are jerking you. If I had to guess, I think they suspect that the damage of an 'accident' has been intentionally made worse. Otherwise, the logic just doesn't make sense. I know that's not the case, so fight it.

 

[malcoll]

If all the damage is from one vandalism incident, then it is not two claims. Their question will be... can you prove the damage to the bumper is from vandalism at the same time as the damages to the side.

 

[MadMaxx]

I didn't understand it either. My claims agent said that because something hit the car, it's considered collision. Everything else, comp. I'm still fighting them.

The claims adjustor came out today to look at the door only. I don't like the guy, he was like "yeah, that was probably there before" kinda crap on some things. It may be a 13 year old supra, but these things don't grow on trees. They are rare, and no one beats on a MKIV supra. Sorry, just isn't going to happen. I flat out told him I have hi-res pics from less than a week ago that will show zero damage to all the areas that are now damaged.

As far as prooving when the events took place, that's impossible However, by the same token suggesting that they are two seporate incidents is pretty hard to swallow too from a logical point of view.

He has to come back out tomorrow for the bumper/hood/targa paint damage. I'm making them replace both headlights, as what ever is on the hood etched the plastic pretty bad. I just friggin polished these too (with pics no less LOL) a week ago.

If I don't agree with his findings, I can fight it right? I just don't like this guy so far. But I guess that's his job, to try to get as low of a cost for the insurance company for the repair.

 

[SnakeEye]

Raise the flag on that stink...
good luck getting things sorted out.

Should something like that ever happen again why not call the PD for a report as you
would then have some documentation in the case of another doubting insurance adjuster.

 

[Ulysses]

If I don't agree with his findings, I can fight it right?

Yup,

You can take it to the repair shop of your choice. Hopefully one that does real good work and one that works on high end cars. Tell them you want all original parts. Might be hard to do with a 13 year old car.

 

[MadMaxx]

They're going to be pissed when they learn what OEM costs are on new supra sealed headlights LOL.

As for the PD report, I originaly didn't realize that the damage was beyond the side scrape. As I was on the phone and doing the inspection, I started finding and documenting things

 

[MadMaxx]

I think they're trying to lowball me on this one. The estimate for the rest of the paint work is looowww. Things like the headlights, they have listed "cleaning". I highly doubt you can polish out these marks, the're etched into the plastic pretty deep. Imagine spraying aircraft striper on plastic, that's what it looks like (I know, because I made that mistake once). I think they should be replaced, I hope the body shop does too.

Also, the 2 deductables thing is ********. I don't know how to go about fighting it.

 

[Shelby3]

After having my car totally destroyed last summer by a mechanic I can tell you that you need to keep elevating who you are dealing within your insurance company. I ended up with the VP of Allstate in the state of Texas before I got what I deserved. It's a pain, but it is the lower level people's job to give you as little as they can get away with.