re: Auto Insurance Claim Fiasco Thoughts?

Hire an attorney and sue your insurance company. They'll tighten up.

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How in the world would I prove that?

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That is the point, unless you have video , or eyewitness accounts, you can not prove it happened while in the possession of the tow truck, and if you did prove it was the tow truck then that would be a claim against the tow truck and his insurance, not a piggy back on this claim, the 2 events or separate.

Have you tried contacting the tow truck company and see what they say?

I had a very poor experience with USAA as the victim of an accident that totalled a brand new vehicle, when hit by their driver.

Basically despite fact that their driver fell asleep at the wheel coming home from a graveyard shift and came across a traffic lighted intersection and hit my wife who was stopped at the light head on... they refused to pay. Turns out the driver was the boyfriend of the insured, so they wouldnt cover it despite vehicle being insured by USAA.

Had to file with my (reputable) carrier State Farm, who then sued the fricks who hit us and USAA. frick them.

The tow driver and the tow companies insurance would be liable if they cause any damage. They carry their own liability insurance.


And by your logic, you pay USAA to handle your claims, they chose the tow company, who ultimately damaged your car. Should you bare that liability? No, it should be on the truck.




When you initially reported the first hit and run, did USAA send someone out to inspect it as it sat? (I'm on my phone and didn't go back to the OP before replying, I'll go back and look and edit if this has been answered). I ask bc they may have a good photo of the rear of the car without any damage.

ETA It does not, dang.

I'm really wondering why they won't let you view the footage. Did the officer who competed the hit and run report get to view it?

ETA Again: Did you take any pics when you initially discovered the first damages?

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The tow driver and the tow companies insurance would be liable if they cause any damage. They carry their own liability insurance.


And by your logic, you pay USAA to handle your claims, they chose the tow company, who ultimately damaged your car. Should you bare that liability? No, it should be on the truck.

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Again, I'm just going by my experience as a project manager. If I'm the General Contractor (as USAA is essentially the GC in this role) and my subcontractor shits the bed, I don't get to pass that on to my client. I have to vet my subcontractors and make sure they're credible. The tow company they sent might not have been as the guy didn't conduct an initial inspection (which yal say is standard) and (IMO) he bumped into something while towing my car.

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When you initially reported the first hit and run, did USAA send someone out to inspect it as it sat? (I'm on my phone and didn't go back to the OP before replying, I'll go back and look and edit if this has been answered). I ask bc they may have a good photo of the rear of the car without any damage.

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No, they didn't send anyone out. The tow truck guy was the only one who came out to see the car. I sent pics but no one from USAA came to investigate the car.

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Did you take any pics when you initially discovered the first damages?

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I did, but it never dawned on me to do an entire inspection of the car (I know, as I mentioned previously, I'm an idiot). All the damage was on the front passenger side of the vehicle, and as it wasn't pinned up against anything in the rear I didn't think to take a pic of that (I always back into my spots so I just assumed the rear was fine as it wasn't pushed into the wall behind).

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I don't see how they're passing it to the client, you, when you have the option of trying to go thru the tow company (which will be a PITA, I know).

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But that's the thing, I've pursued it with the tow truck company, and they just deny deny deny deny. They tried to give me the runaround for weeks (this happened mid-February) hoping I'd give up.

After I finally pinned them down they had an adjusted come out and say they couldn't be sure the tow truck caused the damage because it "wasn't in the immediate location of the equipment". I asked what in the hell that meant, and he said that because the tow truck's wheel lift attached to my car on the front wheels, the damage to the rear of the car was outside the immediate location of the equipment.

Me while he said that to me with a straight face:



I told him I knew the damn hitch didn't do it, but that didn't mean it didn't happen while it was hitched up. He continued to repeat this "vicinity of the equipment" nonsense which is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

I guess I just disagree about them not passing it onto me. Again, I did not hire this tow truck company. I have tried to deal with them directly which, to be quite honest, is still a helluva lot more headache than I think I ever should have had to deal with given it was USAA's selection of this tow truck that resulted in my damage.

The damage from tow truck is not a UM claim so should be a claim against their carrier and thus their deductible or vendor claim paid by USAA under their vendor guarantee program.

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In my opinion this is all tied to the original incident. The tow truck company that USAA called for that incident caused this damage. This shouldn't be a second claim as it was USAA's decision to use this service in response to the initial claim.

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Then tell USAA if it wasn't the tow truck, must be part of the initial accident.