Auto Insurance claims - Are people unreasonable in their expectations?

I am always dismayed and surprised when we have threads where someone on here or one or their friends or loved ones has a car accident. It seems that there are several responses, normally characterized as:
1. Lawyer up – often from the same people who are always complaining that we have gone soft and are a litigious society.
2. Never happy with the payout offered.
3. Always asking for loss of value based on current value even though they have no intention of selling the repaired car until it’s worth way way less than its current value with or without damage on the Carfax or whatever.

I’ve never had any of these issues in my apparently careless incident filled life. Back in about 2010 or 2011, I was hit in my full comp Volvo by a guy driving a car without permission, it was still a family hence I didn’t call it stolen although that may be a technicality. All on a suspended license. He was fine but left the scene in the back of a cruiser wearing pretty cuffs. At that time I had AllState insurance. The car he was in flipped and rolled, my Volvo had about $8k in damage. Insurance covered it all, no question, no issue, no pleading, no rate increase. I got the Police report for zero cost and repairs were OK'd the same day as the assessment with one phone call from the repair shop to the ins company, even though it was not one they usually work . All new parts were used, no take offs or aftermarket reproductions.

Another time (06) my 01 Focus ZX3 (AAA Insurance) car was totaled in a low speed accident. This time 100% my fault on private property. The accident was on a Monday lunch time and I had a check in my hand for more than I was expecting that Thursday, only four days later.

Even my accident in the Boxster (1999 car back early last year) was easy (Freemont Ins), the only reason it took so long was every time they removed something they found more unexpected damage and had to contact the insurance company for the OK. The insurance company valued my car at more than double what I did and agreed to everything. No arguments, no hassle.

I can never understand why other people have so many difficulties and complaints about auto insurance. Remember, each of the incidents was with a different company so it’s not that I have a single great company or an awesome broker I deal with.

Why have I never had an issue, yet everyone else on here seems to be unhappy with their insurance?

Do others have unrealistically high expectations? Do they see it as an opportunity for an easy hand out? Am I just too easy going?

This isn’t meant to criticize or comment on any one person or incident in particular, I just don’t understand why I never seem to have had these issues.

I think people have an expectation the insurance will make them "whole" again. When you're still paying on a car and it gets smushed and you end up with no car and very little money after the balance of the loan is paid off it's hard to feel anything but pissed off.
Alternatively, the insurance company never said they'd return your car to full value, they just said they'd fix it. If it's worth less because of Carfax, then.....that's really not their problem. I've personally had a pretty good experience with insurance (other than having to pay it) because I have terribly low expectations and those have consistently been beaten.

Maybe they had a bad experience with insurance (or friends who have) and it's made them cautious/aggressive?

Girl in my neighborhood on the way to school plowed into the back of my truck that was parked on the street. Her insurance called me to setup an appraisal and sent me to a bodyshop who had a rental truck ready when I arrived (originally had a sedan, but told them I'd be traveling that weekend and needed a truck, they replaced it no problem). Truck ended up being fixed and repainted within 4 days and they offered to bring it to me if I couldn't make it to the shop.

I won't say I was surprised at the service, but it was refreshing that they made it that easy to deal with. Interestingly, I called the insurance company and ended up switching to them all based on how they interacted with me.

-Rob

I dont know. I only had to go through insurance twice and never had a problem, Allstate and State Farm.

In 2006 some smartass stole the seats of my then brand new Honda S2000. Allstate wrote me a check for $12700 for seats, top, floor mats, one seatbelt and the shift knob + labor. I took the money, bought the parts myself and fixed it. I was happy.

In 2014 my wife was rear ended by a guy with "no insurance". I went to the scene and wrote the VIN and license plate of the car along with pictures. Called State Farm and by the next day they told me to not worry and take it to a body shop and have it fixed, they would pay. The day after they called me back and told me that thanks to the information I had given them they found the other driver's insurance company. They said they would recover my $500 deductible. A few months later I got a check for $500. Excellent.

I shortly after changed to Geico after almost 10 years with State Farm as I could not stand their stupid agent. To this day I feel bad about having to switch as SF was great, unfortunatly any time I wanted to add/remove a car was total pita as I had to go and see the agent. She would not do it over the phone and her hours are crap.

BTW, I dont think I've had many bad dealer experiences either so maybe I am too easy going ...

mazdeuce wrote: I think people have an expectation the insurance will make them "whole" again.

That's an excellent point. Insurance is meant to fix it, not make you whole, although TBH in all three of my cases I've felt I've been more than made whole.

In reply to Slippery:

Good point on the deductible. With the Volvo I was never even asked to pay the deductible so didn't need a refund. the other times it was clearly my fault so I paid the deductible without complaint.

Slippery wrote: BTW, I dont think I've had many bad dealer experiences either so maybe I am too easy going ...

Ditto, but I order cars to my specs. Only a couple of times have I bought off the lot, but that's only because they had what I was prepared to order and wait for just sitting there.

Maybe because nearly every time I've had to deal with someone else's auto insurance company they tried to screw me? I start out nice and I'm reasonable, but I do expect to have my car returned to the state it was prior to getting hit. I don't expect brand new parts to get put on my used car, but I do expect it to look & function the same way it did before.

I also expect if it is totaled, to get paid the fair market replacement value. I've shut down a few low baller agents by asking them to find a comparable car in my area for the price they are offering. That usually shuts them up and they cut me a check for the proper replacement cost. And hell yes I'm going to ask for diminished value. In a world where CarFax and AutoCheck exist, that accident has a real impact on my ability to sell the car or trade it in. So what if I'm not planning on selling it tomorrow? Maybe I'll get in a bind next month and need to sell it then, that loss in value is real.

The only times I've had good interactions with an auto insurance company was when it was my own claim on my own car.

Because insurance is a market watch game where they are assuming risk vs reward with your premium money in stocks bonds etc earning them money. The less they have to pay out the more interest or return on their market investment. So why wouldn't they want to lowball everybody?

I'm currently in a position where I have yet to be paid out from a bodily injury loss from 11/15. They have offered a sum of money but it's significantly less than what I can recover under my policy. So why are they being low balling dickwads? Your guess is as good as mine.

Having just been through a claim, I have an opinion: The insurance company did fine, once they quit towing the wreck to places where their adjuster couldn't find it. I thought the payout on the total was low, but fair (I didn't try to negotiate). What really got to me was communication. It was sixteen days from the collision to first contact. In that time, I left two messages with my claim handler, that were not returned (I checked to ensure I hadn't written the number down wrong). I also was not told when the rental car was to be returned. I asked the adjuster, and he said ask the claim handler. I responded that I had not heard from her at all since the day of the accident, that I had her supervisor's email, and intended to leave a positive review of the adjuster, and a negative of the claim handler. She called within minutes. I had to repeat several times "Just please tell me when the rental car is due". The answer was five days from the adjuster's filing the claim, not five days from me receiving the payout. This is fine for me, but a to working stiff, I think three weekdays (or less) to find and purchase a replacement car is a little short.

End mini rant. Short version: insurance companies need to stay off my lawn.

Sigh.... Where's the damn eye rolling smiley face thingy?

I've had two accidents, both of which I was 100% not at fault, and had mixed experiences. First one I filed through the other guy's insurer and had a great experience. They were super responsive, payout was more than fair (in all honesty probably double what the car was worth), let me extend the rental while I searched for replacement, ect. I have nothing bad to say about Donegal.

My most recent experience, back in November, was a mixed bag. I bitched a lot at the time about what I got paid, and maintain my position that I couldn't replace it at that value, but it also wasn't that far off in the scheme of things. I also made out pretty well parting the shell and got a free LS1/T56 out of the deal (albeit at the expense of much of my own time and labor.) What pissed me off more than anything though was the terrible customer service. The adjuster was an shiny happy person at times and the claims rep was completely unresponsive some days. I understand they're probably busy as anyone else, but still I don't think a call back within the same day is an unreasonable expectation.

You can always pay for more coverage!

It don't use these guys, but have seen the ads.

I've had 3 cars totaled out by insurance - 2 Caravans (1 bought new, the other lightly used) and a Neon (new). Since we don't drive excessively, and spread the mileage over a number of cars, we tend to keep cars a long time. I do the majority of maintenance, I know their flaws and strengths, and I keep them reasonably clean.

That means in every case, with their histories, the individual cars were worth much more to me than any reasonable market value could be. So I feel I lost on both of the cars I bought new. The other driver's GEICO adjuster for the accident with used 2000 Grand Caravan actually gave me decent value for the total, reimbursed the new headliner and some other recent maintenance on top of that, and sold me the hulk back for a very cheap price.

When I hit a deer in the E46, my State Farm adjuster put together a very detailed estimate for very thorough repairs, and cut me a generous check. I cashed it, got the windshield replaced, bought a knockoff kidney, and ignored the rest of the damage (which was very minor - a couple wrinkles here and there).

I've had State Farm for 30-years, since I got my license at 16, like most other things it seems like the individual agent/agency makes most of the difference. Almost 20-years ago I moved to a different county, and shortly after received a letter that I'd been switched to a nearby agent. He was oriental with surprisingly poor English, but his staff was great. However, about 10 years ago(after moving back to my original county) I received a letter that his agency was under new management, and that's when problems began.

It was obvious from the start that he was more concerned with his bottom-line than helping me find policies that fit my needs. I actually switched to a local independent agent for some of our policies during that time, but he was actually worse in that regard.

I still have our auto coverage through that same agent, but since moving SF doesn't offer homeowner's down here, so we found a local agent - and they've been absolutely incredible! Seriously, without any prompting I received a call from our agent last month that she'd not only noticed or homeowners policy was increasing ~$500, she'd found another carrier that was going to save us an additional $700! As soon as the kids are off our auto policy(next year), I'll be transferring all my coverage to our new agent.

TLDR; It's largely about the people you deal with. A good agent can work on your behalf with the carrier when you have a claim, if they choose to do so, and often help expedite or otherwise sway things slightly in your favor.

On the "make you whole" front, it depends.

If I'm filing a claim with my own insurance (collision, say), they are not obligated to make me whole. They are obligated to do whatever my insurance contract with them says.

If, OTOH, I was hit by somebody else and I am filing a claim with their insurance company, then that company has contractually assumed the obligation to make me whole that was incurred by their driver.

That said, personally I'm in favor of buying good insurance, using my collision policy to fix my car, and letting my insurance company collect from the other driver. That's worked out well for me in the past, but I'm not the type to try to squeeze every penny by going with the absolute cheapest company around.

I got hit last year. I was stopped at a red light. What made me angry was that her insurance company forced me to come to them for an estimate during normal business hours.

I have a job during normal business hours, and my vacation is precious to me. I expected to be compensated for my time if they were unwilling to come to me, but they didn't see it that way.

pushrod36 wrote: I got hit last year. I was stopped at a red light. What made me angry was that her insurance company forced me to come to them for an estimate during normal business hours. I have a job during normal business hours, and my vacation is precious to me. I expected to be compensated for my time if they were unwilling to come to me, but they didn't see it that way.

I got hit and the person had some no name insurance company. I figured it was going to be a PITA, but they sent an adjuster to our house, I happened to be home for lunch when she showed. She look some pics and left me a check to cash if I thought it was fair. Awesome service.

I am going thru the final dealings with another company. Some guy tapped my wife in her NC Miata. We got it fixed OK, but I asked for diminished value. It was a car that although 6 years old, only had 21,000 miles and a clean car fax. He tried to tell me he ran it and the accident didn't show, but I had just got the car back from the body shop. They next offered $250, I told them I would think about it and just told them to cut me the check.

Will I get $250 less when I sell it? Who knows, but if there are 2 identical cars for sale at the same time and one has a clean record and one has an accident on the report ( even though it was minor and documented with pics) the one with the clean car fax would sell first.

I've had 3 of my cars hit, none totaled. Wife has had 2 cars totaled, one was her fault.

Each time the insurance company has given a fair or more than fair amount. Insurance has been easy to deal with every time... even on one claim where the other driver claimed she didn't hit my car.

That said, the most valuable of all 4 of those cars was around $6000.

Probably you hear the negative/crazy stories more than the mundane, run of the mill ones where everything goes ok.

In my many years of driving I've had 2 incidents, both others' faults, both minor fender benders. Their insurance paid in both cases with no trouble and the obvious minor inconvenience.

That said, I would escalate up the ladder up to and including lawyer if things went sideways in some accident claim.

It may be unfortunate that we're a litigious society but that's the game, and basically you are 'forced' to sue if they won't give you what you think is fair.

My two dealings with insurance claims have been painless and positive...

It's the rest of the insurance company experience that makes me despise them. State Farm (10% monthly premium "adjustments") and AAA (stupid policy cancellation) will never get my business again.

They are slimy businesses that are, unfortunately, a necessary evil in this world.