re: What you need to know about Auto Insurance and "Steering"

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Welcome to my world (every damn day)

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You must live a stressed life.

I don’t own a body shop. The money might make the stress worth it if I did. I’m a collision consultant, repair reinspector and independent appraiser.

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quote: Geico
frick them

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Geico is a damn good company. They’re growing pretty steadily and have very, very good rates if you have good credit and a good driving record. They’re almost unbeatable. Their reps are pretty knowledgeable and the company is FAIR.

I’ll say this, I’ve worked for a few insurance companies over the years and my insurance isn’t even with my company. Nothing against the company I work for, they’re just too expensive and Geico completely destroys the rate the company I work for (and most every other company) wants. I understand insurance and how it works so I don’t need an agent (I’m my own agent). Loyalty is good but what I’ve learned is that loyalty will only drain your wallet.

I can’t say enough positive things about Geico and I don’t even work for them.



The biggest reason people completely despise insurance companies is because the average person has HUGE misconceptions of how an insurance contract is supposed to work, when each particular coverage applies, and what is excluded from coverage, and most importantly - WHY.

If people knew the ins and outs of an insurance contract, nobody would hate insurance companies.

I’ll add that I would NEVER insure my home through Geico. They only work with very small companies that are on extremely shaky ground. They will tell you they only work with A-rated companies, which is true. BUT those companies they write homeowners through are DEMOTECH companies - an A-rated Demotech company is C-rated at best with AM Best. If Geico ever gets fully into the homeowners industry and underwrites/issues those policies as actual Geico policies, then they will be unstoppable. In my opinion, that’s the only thing holding the company back and stopping them from putting companies like State Farm, Liberty Mutual, and Allstate out of business. If Geico ever jumps into the homeowners market by underwriting/issuing directly through Geico instead of the crappy Federated National type of companies, WATCH OUT.

My wife was hit and it was entirely the other persons fault. I got a quote and contacted their insurance comapany. I said "here is the quote, send me a check". They said "we will contact the body shop and verify the quote". They called back and said "were willing to offer you 800 dollars less than the original quote and we are ready to send you a check". I said "send me what you have, I'm not agreeing to anything". They sent me the quote and removed the OEM parts and replaced them with aftermarket parts. The car is 8 months old. I told them I wouldn't accept aftermarket parts and I'm waiting to hear back.

In our last conversation I asked what they would pay me for diminished value. They were like "what are you talking about". I said "you know the payment for my car that's worth less now because your customer hit me, the payment spelled out in Louisiana state law". They were like "oh yeah, well come up with something".

Any advice?

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Any advice?

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Yes.

Here's a link to the calculation:

Feel free to call if you have any questions

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My wife was hit and it was entirely the other persons fault. I got a quote and contacted their insurance comapany. I said "here is the quote, send me a check". They said "we will contact the body shop and verify the quote". They called back and said "were willing to offer you 800 dollars less than the original quote and we are ready to send you a check". I said "send me what you have, I'm not agreeing to anything". They sent me the quote and removed the OEM parts and replaced them with aftermarket parts. The car is 8 months old. I told them I wouldn't accept aftermarket parts and I'm waiting to hear back.

In our last conversation I asked what they would pay me for diminished value. They were like "what are you talking about". I said "you know the payment for my car that's worth less now because your customer hit me, the payment spelled out in Louisiana state law". They were like "oh yeah, well come up with something".

Any advice?

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Next time they call tell them your wife keeps complaining about her neck, watch the attitudes change.

Insurance is a business and they view every claim as a negotiation, they will use every tactic they can to reduce or eliminate liability, delay payment, etc , including playing dumb, denying liability, using garbage parts to repair your vehicle.

I had State farm for 20 years, my family who knows how many years. I recently had a woman trying to pass traffic in the center lane hit me as I tried to make a left. I was driving a company truck not insured by state farm, other driver had state farm.

After she lied to the police about the cause of the wreck I showed them the video from my dash cam, they wrote her a ticket, said shes 100% at fault and sent me on my way, my biz insurance agrees, finally state farm looks at video and says you should have seen her speeding up the median from behind, you're 50% at fault.

Now my business insurance will go after them, I'll still have to fight for diminished value (4 month old truck). They know that simply by denying responsibility they can make it much more hassle to recover from them, increase the time before making any payment etc. They assume due to me not being injured I won't hire an attorney or pursue larger amounts of money so theres little down side for them.

After a good 20 year run I just cancelled all of my policies with them. No emotion, business is business, I'll let our business insurance do their thing and then I'll get one of our attorneys to start working them for diminished value. Maybe they will pay, maybe they won't, but they won't be getting any more of my money.

Most insurance companies somewhere in the long policy that you sign up for when getting insurance, have verbiage that states it is ok for them to use non-OEM parts on your vehicle to repair to “pre-loss” condition. That’s where they grab you by the balls. I know in your particular case, the accident was not yalls fault, and your not using your own policy. However, the at fault company may/can say, if you don’t like our estimate or agree with our estimate, then go ahead and file the claim through your own policy, and they can subrogate us. Your insurance then writes the same estimate with non-OEM parts because it is written somewhere in your policy that it is ok for them to do so.

DOV claim- there is no magical equation to figure this out. In my experience, one of the best ways to figure out the dov on you vehicle, is to contact/visit multiple used car managers and ask them what they would offer you for your vehicle if it had never been wrecked, and then what they would offer you knowing that your vehicle had $XXXX amount of damage to it.

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eitek1

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Minor= fender bender/cosmetic damage

Moderate=frame/body work

Major= near total loss

My insurance will use OEM parts I've already spoken to them about it. If I have to, I'll go through them and get them to subrogate them. They'll have to pay one way or another, I just figured this would be easier. I even offered the guy that owns the company whose truck hit my wife to pay for it out of pocket. He said he would and then stood me up 4 times when he was going to pay me. He was flakey as hell.

I might call around to a few used car managers to get that number.