Insurance people ....rant

[xavsbud at sprynet.com (David Winchell, II)]

T,

Not sure about Michigan law, so this may be different up there. Hope it
helps.  This happened in South Carolina, so I am sure some laws will be
different.

I had a car of mine hit that was unoccupied (sitting legally on the street
in front of a residence.) The other driver was clearly at fault. When his
insurance company began giving me the same B.S. I started digging into South
Carolina Vehicle law.  I discovered the statute that covers incidents just
like mine and copied it.  I then found cases that supported my thoughts as
to how it should be handled. (It took me about two weeks total to get
everything together.)  State law required the at fault to bring the vehicle
back to pre accident condition or to find an equal replacement that was
satisfactory to the claimant. The cool thing was that I found several cases
where the claimant was awarded monetary damages for loss of value as once
the vehicle had been damaged the value was now affected and this was covered
in the "pre accident condition."  

The insurance company began jerking me around from the first day.  I had a
four door mid size sedan that their client put the trunk into the back seat.
For a rental vehicle they tried to get me into a geo metro (not kidding.) I
was in sales at the time and there was no way I was going to show up to
sales calls in a metro.  Pushed the issue and called my insurance company
who gave me the proper law to state to them.  I was driving that afternoon
in a full size sedan all on their bill.  Next they tried to force me to
total the car. That is when I started digging into law and precedent to find
out what I was entitled to.  

I got three quotes from independent body shops and submitted them along with
documents from Kelly Blue book that showed the amount of depreciation I had
lost due to the accident once the car was repaired as well as copies of all
the law and cases I had researched.

After eight weeks of giving me the run around on everything, I was called to
the company's office in the state after we had reached a settlement that was
to my liking.  They paid all the rental bills, travel expenses (Gas and
hotel and a per diem for the days needed out of town, my car was hit in
South Carolina and I lived in North Carolina at the time,) the average of
all three repair estimates as well as for the depreciation that I had
sustained as a loss on the vehicle due to the accident.

Stick to your guns, Bro.  Don't let them push you around.  Do some research
into the state laws and document everything you find.  The law is your
friend. It is there to protect you, but you have to know what it says.

Dave

David Winchell, II
84 Scirocco BBS Turbo
79 Callaway Scirocco
04 .:R32 DBP
04 Mini Cooper S
00 Silverado (For sale)

-----Original Message-----
From: Neptuno [mailto:neptunonc@yahoo.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, October 11, 2006 10:59 AM
To: Scirocco-L
Subject: Insurance people ....rant

So just got off the phone with the ajuster and they are giving me the run
around. The first ajuster stoped his estimate of the car at what he
considered was 70% value of the car $1007 That covered a new fenderf and
according to him reparing the door and side 1/4 panel too....I would say
sure, but I dont see anyone doing the work and getting right for that money
Lets go back to the 70% that mean that another 30% is $300.....   I'll be
damn if my car is worth only $1300 for an 82 with prestine history. Never
been hit and 128K Original miles for a car that is 24 years old. NADA marks
that car at $2300, but they dont use that they use CCC and that means that
they use a company that last year was involved on a out of court settlement
for millions of $$$$ dollars for underpaying people for their vehicles.
That car has original red interior in perfect condition and is a monowiper
car 2 things that for the S2 can only be found in the 82-83 models not to
mention the Cirrus
 gray used only until 84.5 IIRC....    
  Screw me!!!!.....I like to see them getting me a car in the condition that
it was in before the hit for $1300. A car that will take me across the
country without living me stranded on the way!!!!!
   
  Fookers....Im so tired of getting screwed by the powers that be. ThOSE
SOB's want to either gime me th $1000 for a half ass job or Total my car. I
told hom to do a fair market research on the car. By wich it mean that they
will do not much of anything. I wonder how exactly will he do that.
   
  I am pissed and this shit just eats at my stomach!!!!!!

 			
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