ANY QUESTIONS RELATING TO AUTO CLAIMS?

I will try to answer any questions relating to auto claims...

I was recently rear ended, Farmers is the insurance company that the driver that hit me had. My car was 2 months old!! Brand new. When I purchased the car, I put $10k down so my payments would remain low, with the economy and all, I don't want to over extend myself. Well, now, with what they are offering me, my payments are shooting up about $103/month!!

My agent who works for Allstate has been advising me on what I can do.

I did my homework and got together about 30 vehicles for sale in my area, I did some averages, and Farmers is about $1000 lower than what I am coming up with. They are telling me that they have a large data set and are confident that I would only lose court costs if I pursued a law suit.

The adjuster (no offense to anyone under 40!!) is a little gum popping twenty something year old and is very rude and has an attitude. I went to her supervisor, who, was really nice but also refused to budge. I asked him for his supervisor's contact information and he refused to give it to me. When I asked him if he was refusing to give me the information, he kept saying that he has complete authority. I was persistent and he then told me that he now considering not even offering me what they were offering me, but only give me the salvaged value of the vehicle. When I asked him to confirm that I was understanding correctly, that because I wanted to speak to his supervisor, he was going to offer me less, he then told me that he was withdrawing his statement and would have to disconnect if I had no other questions. I told him I still had a question, his supervisor's contact information. He still refused to give me the information.

What can I do??

Go to the department that governs the insurance companies for your state. The consumer is supposed to be protected by this state agency. Send them a letter of complaint, names, dates & times, quotes, etc.; I wish everyone else would do the same who has these types of issues. Enough squeaky wheels all together may cause a change, let us hope! In the future, memorialize your conversations by faxing the recap and attach your fax transmittal.

You failed to mention what type of vehicle you purchased. The reality is that your total loss settlement is based on the Acv(actual cash value) of your vehicle at the time of the loss. In todays car market, many makes and models have suffered a greater than normal depreciation due to the current soft market demand.If you really think your offer from Farmers is low, you should ask them to pay your deductible upfront and use your own carrier to handle your loss. That way you would you could use the appraisal clause in your own policy.

I am having similar difficult getting a realistic actual cash value for my vehicle.
The appraisal software that is used is completely illogical -- using six different values per thousand to adjust for differences in mileage. Ranged from $11 per thousand to $85 per thousand depending upon what outcome they wanted.

They also used arbitrary and capricious adjustment figures for take values,
baseline adjustments, and various features of slightly different vehicles.

They also say that because your vehicle is privately owned, and not dealer owned that its actual cash value is lower. In short -- there is no such figure other than how they decide to gerrymander the numbers. I believe threat of law suit is all that will get them to cooperate or to run it through your own insurance company.

BTW, I am sure this site is monitored by claims department of Farmers -- how could they be kept off, so we can't aways reveal exact information. Unless the web master can prove to us otherwise -- see the paranoia that corporate behavior like Farmers proves is true.

And yes, I have gum popping, arrogant young jerk iso of his bonus for low balling my claim. They are so incrediblely rude. I suppose they deserve the treatment they get. It's like the entrance to Dante's Inferno -- the toxicity of it all.

I used to work in total loss. Put your email in the next post and I will give you all the info you need.

I am having some trouble with a claim being handled in Southern California. I would like to write to Farmer's management.

Can you please tell me the names of the:

LA Manager
California Manager
Claims VP

Thanks

We have the glass deductible exclusion clause in our policy, which I originally thought meant there WAS NO deductible for broken glass, but which I now understand apparently it means there is a $100 deductible (for everyone's future reference) instead of whatever your overall deductble is. Anyway, when our Toyota Prius' driver's window was smashed, apparently in a theft attempt, Farmer's sent their repair service right over (actually I did not even agree to this, I thought they were sending an adjuster first to just examine it and I would be able to pick my own repair service afterwards), who proceeded to try to replace the window with a substitute aftermarket replacement. The car at the time was only about 5 years old and still had the original glass. I immediately called my agent complaining that it would reduce the resell value of the car, and was told that if I wanted OEM (which the guy had on the truck) I would have to pay the difference in the part price. Is this legal? If I had gone to my OWN replacement company would I have been able to get it replaced with whatever type I wanted?

Well yes and no. Yes, you could have replaced the glass with whatever you want, but, Farmers would pay the AM price. Read the policy-LKQ clause. Also, it would not and did not reduce the value of your vehicle. 3RD, the agent has nothing to do with it, is it the claims dept that does this.

I was in a car accident in Nov 2010 have had 8 months of Physical theropy and alot of pain, for my pain and suffering Farmers offered me 1040.00 dollars, I had 7000.00 in medical bills, am I being unreasonable to think my pain and suffering is worth more?
My atturney also seems like he's working more for Farmers than me, has there been any cases where the oposing atturney have gotten kick back offers from Farmers Insurance?
And what do you think my case is worth?

It depends on what type of treatment you got. Was it PT or Chiro? If it was, those dont carry much weight when it comes determining your compensation. Was it diagnostic? By this I mean X rays, Cat Scans, etc.. They carry almost no weight. If you went to PT or Chiro and your treatment last more then 8-12 weeks, Farmers will say you overtreated and wont even take it into consideration. Unfortunately, most of the time, they are correct, it was overtreating. If you had surgery, than that is a different story. I would say the fact that you still hurt would go to tell you that whatever your doing, is not working.

Your attorney knows these things better than I do and probably doesnt care. Once you signed up with him, he gets his % of your settlement and it does not matter how much it is, he still gets it. Times this by several clients and you will see why you have been scamed by him. It happens everyday. You cant really believe insurance companies are afraid of attorneys. They dont even care about thier employees.

I was injured in a head on collision Nov 2009, just 3 days after I had sold my long term self employed business, and before I started a new traveling sales/teaching position (also SE)

Top recover I had PT, exams, specialists and finally hand surgery due to the teriffc strain and impact to my body. ( Plus other medical issues caused by MVA, now permanent limitations) after a year of not being able to work I finally applied for SSDI, was denied, and got it on 1st appeal. After the accident I was Dx with cancer, it was easily resolved, with minimally invasive surgery, no chem or post surgery Tx, and I am comsidered cured & fine. Now that I tried to settle in May 2012 they are saying I have to prove it was the accident that caused my disability and not "my other medical conditions".

They demanded my own Dr. provide proof in writing connecting the two.
I gave them a brief but correct letter fmor my Dr. that showed I have lots of oongiing issues due to the MVA.
Farmers rejected this as not proof enough.
1. In the SSDI forms it says you own DR. cannot say you are disabled, qualified to be, or why. I sent them the SSDI info showing they cannot ask for this determination.

2. They claim my "other medical conditions" caused the disability. I am 63 now, and most my age have some mild medical issues. When you apply for SSDI you must list every single thing possibly wrong with you.

3. on my SSDI denial it clearly states I have no medical issue serious enough for disability, not cancer, mild arthritis, the accident, etc. 87% of all claims are denied on the first try. I appealed with more info.

4. SSDI ALWAYS considers everything in a persons life from age to SE, years of work, all medical facts. So Farmers asking for a SINGLE proof it was the accident is not possible to provide. They know how the system works with SS. I contacted The Center for Disability Rights in NYC, and leaned how the whole SSDI system works, and how insurance companies try and use it against you.

When I appealed to SS I explained I had sold my store, had a NON-compete contract for 10 years to not enter the same business again, so after 25 years as SE I had NO business to go "back to:. and I was in the highest old age bracket- most likely to get approved as considered 'untrainable'. And I could NOT physically do the new work because of the MVA. I most likely qualified for SSDI for these 3 reasons: MVA-age-unable to do relevant past work

I have just sent Farmers a copy of the denial letter showing no medical issues, a copy of the SS acceptance letter of my claim that a MVA disabled me, and asked Farmers to tell me what medical issues they see as serious enough, and I will provide any lab tests, surgery reports etc. to "aid" them. I asked farmers to please settle in 'good faith', but have not threatened lawyer, etc.

I am now waiting for Farmers to answer. I pointed out thatr my total claim- all losses P&S, etc amount to far more than my remaining UIM of only $70K which I am asking for from my $100K policy. ( Farmers took $30K off the top the at fault paid me-it was his full coverage)

I am also trying to get their SSDI "reason of approval" from SS, but they have not answered in 2 weeks.

What else can I do to 'prove' it was the MVA? How else can I settle my claim they can't weasel around?

is there a way to find out the claim number or policy number associated with a Restore prepaid mastercard using the card number itself or the card reference number. There is no name on the card except valued customer.

1) I was hit by a car on my rear bumper. I exchanged insurance info with the one (Person A) who caused the accident. ( I had Farmers and A had Safeco)
2) After a few days, I was contacted by a Farmers agent "B", and she told me that "A" filed a claim on me. "B" told me that she confirmed "A"'s information with Safeco. I explained the cause of accident and "B" also agreed that it was 100% "A"s fault.
3) I was contacted by my local agent "C" saying that Safeco would cover only $300 among $1300 of the estimate. My deductible was $1000.
4) I called Farmers agent "B" and said that I would contact Safeco myself because I didn't do anything wrong.
5) I called Safeco, and "A" was not in their system. She had fake insurance and suddenly a different Farmers claim agent started to contact me.
6) I received $1300 from Farmers since "A" was an uninsured motorist.

There is something terribly wrong with what happened to me, but I am not sure where to report this to. No one seems to be interested in fraud by insurance companies.

I do not know whether it is related, but after a year, suddenly my premium was increased from $260 to $400.

Can you give me some advice on this? I try to forget it, but it just feels very very wrong...

My car was stolen and then totaled in a crash.
When I filed my claim with Farmers they told me I only had liability coverage and there was nothing they could do to help me.
When I signed up ...a trainee took all my information.
I informed her that my car was leased and needed full coverage. She apparently only gave me liability to keep my cost down. Now I am stuck with a 35000 bill for a brand new lexus and No way to pay it and still have no car. My agent admitted to me that he didnt check my policy before signing off on it.
Is there anything I can do???