Steering, Insurance and Car Crashes

[Java]

I recently posted my wife's car accident, pretty routine hit and run, but the service we've received from State Farm has been beyond bad. I'm not saying anyone is a criminal, I'm just pointing out how this duck walks.

Accident happened on wed at about 11:00 am. My wife called Statefarm (44th and lowell in the safeway plaza) from the scene to get a shop to tow it to, they acted like noone had ever asked that before and said they'd have to call her back with a shop. I got there, we stripped her car, dealt with the police officer that responded (nice guy), stopped at a job, went home and still nothing. Called statefarm, they still couldn't give us the name of a shop, recommended we look online. WTF?? so we did, called a shop not too far from the accident and they took it in within the hour. We called statefarm again, and the agent was busy, the receptionist was useless again, and she couldn't even get us to voicemail. We finally spoke with the agent, gave her the info and waited. and waited. by friday still no adjuster at the shop, and the agent now tells us how busy they are, it'll be atleast another week before they can even evaluate it. WTF??? By monday still nothing, we called back. Then she told us that if we had it towed to a "premium" shop we could get it adjusted that same day, but at that shop it would be atleast another week still.

Steering, in insurance terms, is an illegal act where the agent has a buddy with a shop and tries to get all the business there. The way it is done is that when you bring it to another shop, like we did, they delay until you get frustrated, then they offer you to get it done right away if you bring it to the friendly shop. The shop we took it to, West Side Auto Body in Lakewood, ROCKS. They are family owned, take no crap and just want to do the job and get paid. We called them on wed, a week from the accident, and told himwhat was up. We wanted to make sure he got paid for storing it and such, even though they were moving it. He got pissed, explained "steering" to us, got on the phone, and within hours the adjuster was there and cut a check on the spot to fix the car. We went from a week or more due to "being busy" to a few hours with the threat of the law.

Here's the real kicker- if they had just helped my wife at the scene, or when we got home by simply giving her the # of the buddy shop, we'd be there, they'd be gettting paid and kicking back to the agent, and it'd be done. We shopped it out, and we're switching all of our auto and home insurance to Progressive the SECOND we get the car back, and it'll save us a bundle. I'm surprised how much, over 50% for the exact same coverage, almost $80.00 a month. and you get a $50.00 credit for doing it online.

[Brody]

Give LaDawn a call about the agent we deal with. We got full coverage on the cars, a lot more coverage on 4 homes, all at about half the price were paying.

LaDawn:720-371-8798

State Farm.....ahhhhhh what a joy to deal with. I USED to have State Farm. In fact I had State Farm from the time I was 16 until I was about 40. Here is my little State Farm story:

I endo'd my 77 F150 that I had done a huge amount of work on. I was down to making and installing a custom aluminum dash (should have done a roll cage first, but that is another story). Called them, called the police, got the rig towed back to town. SF said they would have an adjuster out to look at it ASAP. No call. Wait. Call them numerous times. Same run around BS that you got. I got pissed off, called a tow truck and rode with him to the adjustment office on a Sunday afternoon. I had him very carefully maneuver the very flat and trashed F150 on 38s to within inches of the double doors on the SF adjustment office so that any employee who worked there...and any customers had to go around to the back security doors to get in. I got a call before 8AM Monday.

"WTF is your truck doing parked in front of the doors?"
"Oh....you mean the truck I talked to numerous people at your office about the estimate for repairs on and never got a call back?"
".........................................Uh...You shouldn't have parked it there. Someone would have gotten back with you."
"Since I now have your attention, how about talking to me about my ******* truck? It happens to be the only vehicle I have and I have now missed a week's worth of work, as I have explained to anyone at State Farm I have actually managed to talk to."
"When can you come down?"
"I am on my way"
So I go down there with my receipts and build picture book in hand. Talk to the agent.
"We can only give you $1700 for the truck as it is totaled."
"Let me tell you how this is going to work. If you had taken the time to look at the truck, you would have seen that it is a customized truck that was in almost perfect shape. In this book, I have documented everything I have done to the truck, including all of my labor time, and all of my receipts. I have over $15,000 in receipts. The engine, transmission, axles, transfer case and entire undercarriage is near new. What you are going to do is write me a check for what I estimate I could have sold it for and buy the truck back on a salvage title. If we can't work that out right now while we are talking, the next person you are going to hear from and be dealing with is my lawyer. If my lawyer gets involved, I am going to go for every dollar amount in the receipts, all my labor time at XX hour, and anything else I can conceivably get."
Silence.....
End result, I got paid what I wanted. I promptly cancelled State Farm.

[Chris]

State Farm is good until you file a claim, sorry you found out the hard way.

[glacierpaul]

Sorry to hear that Paul! We have AAA coverage too, just a suggestion. American Family was awesome for us in our time of disaster/need.

[Heather]

I hope the rest of your experience with the claim is good, Paul. I'll bet it'll be a huge relief to switch insurance companies. I love their online account management. Recently, Chris was at the license plate place to get his tags for Frank, and needed the proof of insurance. I was able to log in, click around real quick, enter in the fax number, and viola - it was faxed to the desk of the person he was dealing with almost immediately. It's the little things...

We've never had to file a claim with Progressive (knock on wood) but their customer services is awesome (and in-country). Our State Farm experience was nothing but excellent, but I have a feeling that's because our particular agent in Boulder rocks, as she's been doing it at least since the late 70s/early 80s. I was with her since '87. Every time we called, it was either her or her assistant that answered, and she either knew the answer (experience), or got back to us right away. I don't know what it's like with that particular agent these days; I recently learned that my folks (who used the same agent) switched to Geico. Something must've pissed him off, as he's usually pretty loyal (he'd been with State Farm in CO for 24 years, and probably before we moved to MI in '87, too).

We had to move from State Farm to progressive when we moved to Kansas for 10 months. Here in Colorado, there came a certain point that they wouldn't insure Chris because he had a bad (four ticket) month (this was '03 or '04 if I remember correctly). So we got Progressive for him, and I stayed with State Farm. When we moved to Kansas, that state doesn't allow spouses to have separate policies, and since State Farm wouldn't insure Chris, I had to leave them and go with Progressive. We didn't bother to switch back when we got back to Colorado. State Farm insures our home. I've been wanting to look into Progressive for that, too, because of the additional discount but it's all automatic with our mortgage/escrow and I don't have time for trying (and learning how) to set stuff up. I should probably add that to my list. Saving money good.

[Cr33p3r]

Paul sorry to hear about that problem!
I had an accident back in 94 and had been with SF for 18 years they told me once I was home form the hospital that all that would happen is my rates would most likely go up. That was on a Friday, Monday Morning as soon as the main office opened the called me to inform me that they was cancelling my policy by midnight that same day due to the officer righting the report did it up as careless driving! SF then proceeded to mail a letter to my whole family that had SF and tell them that if I am ever caught driving any of their cars they will be dropped that same day! Total BS!!!! As for progressive I hope you have better luck as they are the company I went with after that and had nothing but problems with them.

[Chris]

They had no legal standing to that Sean though obviously they did it any way. This makes me wonder about experiences with insurance companies in general but that's another thread.

[Andrew]

Yes, state farm sucks. When I had them, they allowed one of their other clients to claim over $10,000 in false medical bills against my policy. Basically someone else hit my car in a parking lot - the collision was very minor, just a dent on my bumper and it scraped down the side of their car. They had all these medical bills for some reason. Bullshit. To top it off, I was default "at fault" since I was backing out of a parking spot. However, when the person hit my car I was completely stopped because I had seen them coming. Also they were driving on the far left of the lane when there was room for two cars in the lanes. They were also going too fast for a parking lot - well over 15MPH. More like 25MPH. So if there really was any medical issues, it's because they were driving too fast. The collision wasn't violent at all though either. But state farm didn't want to hear it.

I'm also with Progressive now. The final straw was this:

My rates went up - there was no ticket or accident preceding this rate increase. I called the agent and they said they were raising their rates in California (where I was at the time). The next day I heard a state farm ad on the radio saying that they were lowering their rates in California. That was that and I didn't renew the policy.

We had to file a claim last year with Progressive - my wife hit a deer. We took it to a shop nearby, have no idea if they were partners or not. Everything was taken care of very smoothly and I hardly had to do anything with them on the phone - just give them the info about what happened and where we had it towed. When the policy was up for renewal our rates actually went down, even with the claim. Of course this was considered a no-fault claim since it was an animal strike.

[Java]

Statefarm called last night to tell me they found the guy, he has no insurance and they're going after him... but we're on our own with the rental car and the deductible. I should back up and say we found out after the crash that SF had dropped rental car coverage on our Ford- since its an '03 it's too old?? But due to the "steering" we're asking them to pay for it. They gave us some BS about how they'll get the $$ from him in collections and down the road will reimburse us for the rental and the deductible after they collect from him. Ofcourse we get paid last, after the crash $$. I laughed and said "so the check is in the future mail?" which she didn't like... so I said I'll sue himmyself, what's his name and address... she said she couldn't tell me for confidentiality reasons. I blew up... and I'll stop there. We are switching to progressive today.

So we also got a letter fromn BlueCross / Blue Shield yesterday, our health insurance is going up by about $80.00 a month to just under $400.00 a month (we buy our own, and thats with a $10,000.00 deductible!). We called them, I NEVER use my health insurance except for routine checkups, all of which have been good. I can't remember the last time I was sick, I'm pretty sure it was 1997 in florida when I had a respiratory infection. Neither of us even has a prescription for anything. Feels like I throw the money away every month, and I'm wondering if I can find a strictly catastrophic policy and just bank the difference in premiums for that rainy day. I'm scared to have nothing because medical bankruptcy is the #1 way to go broke for life in the USA. So that is the next thing we're shopping out... some days I'm the bird, today I'm the windshield.

[Cr33p3r]

we found out after the crash that SF had dropped rental car coverage on our Ford- since its an '03 it's too old??

Man Paul they just keep hitting you left and right with BS, as for the confidentiality BS you can by law get that info from them, or the police department. I switched to Geico and have full coverage + rental & towing on both vehicles + extra coverage on the ranger due to all the mods. I know its overkill with both vehicles being paid off but why chance it anymore with all the people out there w/o insurance or some other major thing happening. Have you guys checked into Kaiser's medical insurance? We switched back to them 2 years ago and it has been good so far w/ 1 exception, when I went to the ER last December cause my throat was swelling shut the ER Doctor billed Kaiser for a 3 wire ECG which I did not get and when I called them about it they said I had to call his office for improperly billing my insurance, like hell its their money and they want me to do the leg work for them I don't think so! That is the only thing we had happen to us on their plan.

[Java]

Paul when your hit by some one with no insurance, you will have to pay your deductible and the insurance company will subrogate to try and get your deductible back. This is common practice will all company's in this situation. That is the advantage to have full coverage or if you have a liability only car you can always add uninsured property damage. That is coverage that protects your vehicle only in the event someone hits you with no insurance. As far as removing your rental car coverage I would ask them to provide some kind of documentation that you asked for it to be removed

That is what SF is doing, but I'm going to sue him myself in small claims for it, and for the rental car costs. We've started that process this morning. I just think it'll be a long wait for a cold f***ing day when SF pays up the deductible, and since I'm on my own with the rental car... along those lines they are asserting over and over that that car did not have rental coverage since we took out the policy on it in 2001. it's a 2003! that's the year we got married, all of our insurance was new then, and we didn't buy the car until 2004 anyway. We ALWAYS have rental coverage, it's essential for us to have cars for work. and yet that little discrepency in dates is the error, not the dropped coverage. Chain of fools, I'm hours away from being done with them.

[jesse05lj]

I feel bad for my mom. On her way to work this morning she got in a car accident. she has just been having a string of bad luck lately. she has full coverage but still car accidents are never fun.