If you could make changes to auto insurance claims...

Many of you know that I am in claims leadership for an auto insurance company.  I am working on putting together my vision for claims as we go through 2022 and into 2023.  My primary focus is on customer service and customer experience.  After all, if our customers aren't satisfied there will be no claims for us to handle.  I can and have thought of plenty of ideas of my own.  I also think it's valuable to get input from consumers of auto insurance and ask what their wishes and desires are.  

This is an open thought exercise, throw any idea out there you've got.  I'm primarily focusing on service for our policyholders.  It's not that I'm ignoring service for people that our insureds hit, far from it.  However for the purposes of this discussion I'd like to focus on my paying customer.  If you had to file a claim with your own insurance company, what's most important to you?  What would make you a happy customer and want to stay with your carrier?  If you've filed a claim with your company in the past, no matter who the carrier is, what were your positive experiences?  What experiences made you cringe or say E36 M3, berkeley, dammit, jackass, bastard?

I very much hope we can keep the conversation constructive and not turn it into a "bash insurance companies" thread.  Filing a claim with your insurance company is never a "pleasant" or fun thing to do.  My goal is to make the experience as positive and efficient (for customer and carrier) as possible.

So....

Grabbing the popcorn. 

Here's something relatively simple and actionable, and essentially no cost-

If there's a state requirement to file an accident report, give that advice and find a way to make the proper form (I'm assuming it includes good instructions, it may not) available to the party filing the claim, along with the due date for completion. 
 

Out of a recent incident, Iowa DOT can't be bothered to put the most recent form up on their web site, but they do mail it back to you (with the correct form) saying they can't process the obsolete form.

Requires some local knowledge though. 

ddavidv said:

Grabbing the popcorn. 

If that's the direction it goes, so be it...but I'm putting faith in the GRM collective.

When I was 18 I bought an 88 Saleen Mustang that was totaled when the rear end broke at speed. The right axle walked out about a foot and I went into the sidewalk. The agent had insured it as a Ford Mustang. It took 3 months and over 100 pages faxed to show the adjusters (3) that this was a 1 of 1 car and their agent had messed up. In the mean time I made 3 $250 car payments and 3 $400 insurance payments. That's almost $2000 to not drive my car that had been decided to be totaled after the first week. The adjusters would not allow the shop to move the car after it had been dropped off even though the shop stated that they do not leave cars outside overnight. All of my personal effects and the entire stereo system was stolen which the adjusters denied was their fault. And later I hear another insurance company that the accident was due to mechanical breakage and should have been a "no fault" claim instead of being against me.

My third claim (with a different company) I took photos on my phone, forwarded the repair quote in email, had direct deposit in under a week. They had multiple avenues to file a claim. And it was very efficient. The one nitpick was the online form had drop down boxes and my scenario fit in two of the choices equally poorly, but in the end it didn't matter.

I guess the short answer is:

nobody should make multiple payments for a car they can't drive because claims is slow.

adjusters get moved around and it can be unavoidable but it shouldn't really be noticeable.

claimants shouldn't be penalized for making a claim when not at fault.

the claimant shouldn't feel like the adjusters job is to save the insurance company money.

Educate the people that Handel claims instead of having kids fresh out of college (or not) working for you.  I have got bad or erroneous information from people handling  claims so many times I don't trust what I am told at this point and make sure any instructions or response to my questions are via email so I have a paper trail proving I was given bad information.  
 

The biggest bit of miss information that I have been given is about insurance on a rental car. We are always told that you insurance will cover the rental.  This is not the case unless you have or you add a rider to you policy.  The second thing is that most insurance Companies  don't pay for rental car insurance. See where this is going?  So either you end up in a rental under the assumption that the car is insured putting you at great risk should something happen or you get the insurance assuming that it will be paid for and when you turn the car in a month later you are stuck with a $1500 bill.  It is slimey deceptive stuff like this that makes people hate insurance company's.  
 

Dictating the glass company I use. I would not let those idiots touch my cars again. Three tries to put one in with it not leaking with out success. Where do I send the bill for my time to deal with that. I ended up taking it to the local place I have used for years. Done right the first time.   It was cheeper  for me to pay for it out of pocket than loose the time wasted.  Insurance company's need to vet there preferred service providers better. Oh and then being lectured by said glass company that it was my fault it was leaking because I drove the car to soon. WTF. YOU HAD IT AT YOUR SHOP FOR 24 HOURS and released the car to me with the nice lady telling me I was all set.  
 

Called my agent and pulled all my policy's from that company (personal and corporate).  My agent asked for a copy of the invoice for the replacement and I got a check. I found out later she actually paid for it out of her commission.  
 

Fix the lie of a sales pitch that is selling that the mega corporation cares for you but when it is time to actually provide services they will try and do as little as possible using the most ignorant low paid employees as possible with out regard for my time or inconvenience when dealing with a situation that is already a inconvenience.  I usually end up more annoyed with the insurance company's incompetent employees than the actual situation that caused the claim. 
 

Implement agreed value policy's only. The whole negotiation about the value of your car thing has made insurance company's look like sleazy  scummy business that are trying to rip you off.  Set a value for the car each year at renewal time each year. If you don't like it negotiate the value of your car then and decide if you want to pay the premium for that coverage. Having to deal with that after an accident is borderline making you have to make financial decisions under duress. That should not be legal. 

In some 35 years of driving, I've made one claim - when I wrecked my Mini.  Insurance company was Hagerty.  They sent someone to the shop where it was trailered to, he determined it was a total, and I had the agreed-value check (minus buy-back, since I sold the car to a restoration mechanic I know) with a couple of weeks. No complaints, really. 

Honestly, my biggest complaint about auto-insurance is how it is done, period.  Insuring the car(s), modified by the driver(s).  This seems counterintuitive to me. The driver should be the insured person, with some modifications through the vehicle(s) insured.  Mainly, I'm salty about how I much I spend on insurance for cars I can only drive one at a time.  But that isn't what you asked about, so I suppose it doesn't really matter. 

Johnboyjjb said:

My third claim (with a different company) I took photos on my phone, forwarded the repair quote in email, had direct deposit in under a week. They had multiple avenues to file a claim. And it was very efficient. The one nitpick was the online form had drop down boxes and my scenario fit in two of the choices equally poorly, but in the end it didn't matter.

 

Tell me a bit more about that if you don't mind.  When did you take the photos on your phone (i.e. how long after you reported the claim)?  Did you use the companies app to take photos or did you take them on your own and e-mail them?  Did you have an option to upload the estimate, or was it e-mail only?  Did you have to fill out any "paperwork" (actual or electronic) to receive direct deposit?

Regarding making car payments during a total loss claim, that should be factored in when the total loss is paid.  For example, let's say you owed $10,000 and had $500/month payments.  If you made one payment before the total loss settled, you're new payoff would be $9500.  So if the car was worth more than that, you'd get the money back in a check/deposit.  Yes, there is interest, which carriers can't control.  If a claim takes too long, I am always in agreement to pay interest on the extra payment.  As for your premium payments, I agree...that's an underwriting function which I don't want to dive into because I'm not an underwriter.

dean, check your policy.  Many policies do provide physical damage coverage for a rental.  It would be under the "temporary substitute" or similar language.  It has a time limitation, but it's there.

I had an underinsured claim for an accident (rear ended) that resulted in 2 surgeries (fusion at c4-6 and repair to my damaged vocal chords from that surgery). It took more than 2 years to settle when it was clear what my coverage was and the actual damage to me. There was obvious foot dragging on the part of my company and they finally offered less that my coverage in spite of permanent damage that I suffered and 2 years of vocal therapy to mostly restore my voice. Should be a time limit on settling claims.

Stop with the preferred repair shop nonsense, especially trying to lie to people that you have to go there even if you're not at fault.

My wife made a claim about a month or so ago after she (sigh) ran a red light and tagged a Civic.  She filled out a form online, talked to someone on the phone, and that phone agent was able to switch to using text messaging which worked better for my wife's work schedule.  I haven't gotten the news as to how much they're going to raise our rates yet, but the claim filing part was pretty easy.

to the OP's question: the best possible thing is when adjusters / investigators can be available after the traditional "first shift" hours of 8am - 5pm.  Having a crashed car is a big enough tear-up to the customer's daily life.  I'd like to see insurance companies make the adjustment / investigation process the most non-intrusive possible. This hasn't been a problem for me in the last few years, as my insurance has a network of approved shops that take care of everything after I have the car towed to one of these shops.  Our Ody has been hit 3 times in the last 5 years, and we've been happy enough with the process each time.  We have Allstate and are paying Michigan rates for Broad Form Collision on 4 vehicles, so it's not like they're losing money on us.

dean1484 said:

Educate the people that Handel claims instead of having kids fresh out of college (or not) working for you.  I have got bad or erroneous information from people handling  claims so many times I don't trust what I am told at this point and make sure any instructions or response to my questions are via email so I have a paper trail proving I was given bad information.  
 

The biggest bit of miss information that I have been given is about insurance on a rental car. We are always told that you insurance will cover the rental.  This is not the case unless you have or you add a rider to you policy.  The second thing is that most insurance Companies  don't pay for rental car insurance. See where this is going?  So either you end up in a rental under the assumption that the car is insured putting you at great risk should something happen or you get the insurance assuming that it will be paid for and when you turn the car in a month later you are stuck with a $1500 bill.  It is slimey deceptive stuff like this that makes people hate insurance company's.  
 

Dictating the glass company I use. I would not let those idiots touch my cars again. Three tries to put one in with it not leaking with out success. Where do I send the bill for my time to deal with that. I ended up taking it to the local place I have used for years. Done right the first time.   It was cheeper  for me to pay for it out of pocket than loose the time wasted.  Insurance company's need to vet there preferred service providers better. Oh and then being lectured by said glass company that it was my fault it was leaking because I drove the car to soon. WTF. YOU HAD IT AT YOUR SHOP FOR 24 HOURS and released the car to me with the nice lady telling me I was all set.  
 

Called my agent and pulled all my policy's from that company (personal and corporate).  My agent asked for a copy of the invoice for the replacement and I got a check. I found out later she actually paid for it out of her commission.  
 

Fix the lie of a sales pitch that is selling that the mega corporation cares for you but when it is time to actually provide services they will try and do as little as possible using the most ignorant low paid employees as possible with out regard for my time or inconvenience when dealing with a situation that is already a inconvenience.  I usually end up more annoyed with the insurance company's incompetent employees than the actual situation that caused the claim. 
 

Implement agreed value policy's only. The whole negotiation about the value of your car thing has made insurance company's look like sleazy  scummy business that are trying to rip you off.  Set a value for the car each year at renewal time each year. If you don't like it negotiate the value of your car then and decide if you want to pay the premium for that coverage. Having to deal with that after an accident is borderline making you have to make financial decisions under duress. That should not be legal. 

The VAST majority of your complaints are centered around the agents not the "fresh out of college incompetent" claim reps. I know in the state of Oklahoma for State Farm we went through 5 months of training and had to get a state license before we were even allowed to handle a claim with a manager on the call. 

Agents are independent contractors and thus are not technically employees of the insurance company, but merely sell their products. 

Pro tip when it comes to communication with insurance agents GET EVERYTHING IN WRITING. Whether it be an email or other, if they give you incorrect information about a policy/coverages/etc, you will be able to use the phrase "detrimental reliance" to have your claim covered. 

To SKJSS, I actually think the biggest problem is that people don't read the policy, IE the contract they agreed to, and just assume everything is covered carte blanche with no exceptions. 

wae said:

My wife made a claim about a month or so ago after she (sigh) ran a red light and tagged a Civic.  She filled out a form online, talked to someone on the phone, and that phone agent was able to switch to using text messaging which worked better for my wife's work schedule.  I haven't gotten the news as to how much they're going to raise our rates yet, but the claim filing part was pretty easy.

How long did that take?  She filled the online form out to file a claim.  When did someone call her?  Did she switch to texting immediately?  Was everything done via text...i.e. give her statement of facts, talk about picking a shop, payment, etc...?  I'm very much interested in using text, just wrestling with the logistics.  

I used to have a terrible opinion of the car insurance industry, then this incident happened (not in the US): One day a woman in a CRV pulled out way too close in front of my Samurai and wrecked it (she admitted fault). I decided to declare the car totalled and put the write-off value towards repairs. The process for deciding the Samurai's value was entirely in the hands of the local Suzuki dealership. They decided it was worth $750 before the accident. The accident happened about a month after a guy was hounding me in a parking lot to shut up and take his $3750 for the Samurai, I would say that would be the lower end of a more realistic street value. There was no kind of appeal process there where I might be able to cite real-world sales prices, what the dealership said went. Then the CRV driver's insurance company did something rather crooked and tried to contact me directly to accept a settlement, at that point I lawyered up. Got a bit more money of out of whole thing in the end but not as much as the Samurai's street value. My opinion of the car insurance industry was surprisingly worsened.

Auto insurance is a Kobayashi Maru.   

"Hi, I crashed my three year old car that I paid $50k for new." 

"Here's a check for $20K."

"Boo."

Had more than a few claims through my own insurance companies over the years. Most have been handled okay since they were uninsured motorist claims.

I did get pissed a few years ago when a claims rep didn't bother to read the police report and notice it was a fatal motorcycle accident caused by the other driver. She berated me for not getting his insurance information at the scene. I told her the EMTs were too busy scraping what was left of him from the pavement for me to get close enough to find his wallet. I offered to send her pictures from the scene as proof. She STFU after that. But she was so hell bent on finding someone to subrogate against that her constant hammering made me lose my cool. It was all in the police report that I had already sent her and covered in my recorded statement. When an accident involves fatalities, there should be a certain level of bedside manner training for claims reps.

The last insurance company I had that really pissed me off I fired immediately after the claim was done. That one was Allstate. I was with them and I got hit by another Allstate driver. Total clusterberkeley of shirking responsibility. They basically ignored my calls and emails for weeks. That ended up biting them on the ass because I had rental coverage and was driving a rental on their dime. They paid for over a month of rental time before finally deciding to total my car. Plus my car had been accruing storage charges at the wrecker. They cut me a check for the Saturn that had been obviously totaled instantly, but dicked around so long that it cost them 2x the value of the car in rental fees and storage. What pissed me off the most was being treated like a third rate customer once they realized the other driver was with Allstate too. They went from "we're going to make this right" to "we hope you just berkeley off and go away" pretty much instantly.

As for business practices.

Being able to do as much as possible via the website is huge for me. I want to add cars, change coverage, tracks claims, all from my desk at any time. I haven't spoken to my actual agent in two years. I email her, she emails me, done. That part is great.

While I have numerous bile inducing claims with other drivers over the years, I will admit my most recent claim went....great. No arguing over repair amounts, no dragging my car around for quotes. I took pictures on my phone, sent them in, and they did an armchair quote via email that was more than satisfactory. Whole process took two weeks. I was ready for war...but peace broke out instead. Total opposite of my last claim experience, so there is hope.

SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) said:

wae said:

My wife made a claim about a month or so ago after she (sigh) ran a red light and tagged a Civic.  She filled out a form online, talked to someone on the phone, and that phone agent was able to switch to using text messaging which worked better for my wife's work schedule.  I haven't gotten the news as to how much they're going to raise our rates yet, but the claim filing part was pretty easy.

How long did that take?  She filled the online form out to file a claim.  When did someone call her?  Did she switch to texting immediately?  Was everything done via text...i.e. give her statement of facts, talk about picking a shop, payment, etc...?  I'm very much interested in using text, just wrestling with the logistics.  

I will interrogate for the details and report back!

The following double-standard:

Wife's car got hit 

insurance calls and says we are replacing the bumper but there was some preexisting damage so you'll have to write a check for $xx to cover it because of betterment - we can't make you better than you were before (even though already replacing the cover). 
 

but wait!  While we can't make you better, we can make you worse because we won't use oem parts - just the cheapest knockoffs. 
 

Things take a long time and the friendly awesome local agent and team have nothing to do with it, you instead get the lowest of the bunch apparently. I've had good experiences and bad, but it's altogether unpleasant and expensive.

slefain said:

The last insurance company I had that really pissed me off I fired immediately after the claim was done. That one was Allstate. I was with them and I got hit by another Allstate driver. Total clusterberkeley of shirking responsibility. They basically ignored my calls and emails for weeks. That ended up biting them on the ass because I had rental coverage and was driving a rental on their dime. They paid for over a month of rental time before finally deciding to total my car. Plus my car had been accruing storage charges at the wrecker. They cut me a check for the Saturn that had been obviously totaled instantly, but dicked around so long that it cost them 2x the value of the car in rental fees and storage. What pissed me off the most was being treated like a third rate customer once they realized the other driver was with Allstate too. They went from "we're going to make this right" to "we hope you just berkeley off and go away" pretty much instantly.

 

As for business practices.

Being able to do as much as possible via the website is huge for me. I want to add cars, change coverage...

Similar experience here with Progressive several years ago. Another Progressive insured got drunk and stuffed her S10 into the back of my wife's otherwise lovely '91 Camry wagon when it was parked. V6 car, ~170K, well optioned, generally clean in the way many 15-year-old West Coast cars are. After looking at the car, the local adjuster called me with an offer that barely made four figures. Much hearty laughter followed.

It got worse from there. They were unable to find good comps just due to the fact that most Camrys are not V6 wagons and because, for some reason, they seemed to be searching in newspaper classified ads (!) in an adjacent state (!!). I countered with page after page after page of relevant listings from our area. No dice. The fact that older, rougher, and lesser-equipped examples were selling for far more didn't interest them. The fact that the car had brand new front glass, new tires, and a recent and very comprehensive t-belt, idler, water pump, seals, radiator, etc., all with OEM parts, carried no water. They insisted it was just an old beater of no real value. To prove their point, they called two random pot lots a hundred miles away (in two different directions, to further prove the random nature of their valuation process) and got appraisals, over the phone, of what that car might sell for in communities that were nothing like the one we live in. Just bizarre.

I told the adjuster many times that Progressive was going to lose my business if they couldn't treat us fairly and honestly. Nothing changed.  The whole thing was a fiasco, and it took repeated calls to the state insurance commissioner and the threat of a formal complaint for them to reevaluate and discover that, well, I'll be darned, it looks like we may have miscalculated a little, sorry about that, I hope there's no hard feelings...

There's hard feelings. We left Progressive as soon as we cashed the check and will never do business with them again.  And I hope we never find ourselves in a claim against another driver under the same carrier again. We had no liaison, nobody in our corner, other than the state. That's an infuriating situation. 

We were with AAA up until a few years ago. We left due to uncompetitive premiums, but their online services were also terrible. Their website looked like something from 1997, and worked about the same as it looked.

I have had Hagerty for over a decade and have had exactly 2 claims with them.

Claim #1 was cut and dry. My Cobra was on the street in front of my house and a drunk lady side-swiped it with her Tundra (bending her RF tie rod which dragged the tire from the scene to her house) with witnesses. The police were called, they followed the track to her house where the smoldering truck was, and arrested her. She pled guilty to all charges, Hagerty paid my chosen body and frame shop whatever amount they asked for, and the whole thing was done in a couple of weeks, including getting the car back. They also did not count it against me.

Claim #2 was not as good. My claim was just a tow. The car broke the differential and I needed it hauled to the shop to get fixed. Should be easy, right? I pay extra for the platinum plus gold preferred whatever it is package and after 6 hours of waiting with the vehicle I gave up and left it with the keys in it (talking to the claim rep the whole time). A tow truck eventually did arrive for it, but not the flatbed I pay for (and Hagerty ordered), but a regular tow truck. Who then towed my RWD car with a broken diff, from the front. Guess what happened? Completely destroyed the rear axle, did a ton of damage to the nose of the car (super low and a huge snoz) and an absolute fiasco of a nightmare. Hagerty once again made it right and cut a check to the repair shops for whatever they asked for.

The moral of the story is, make sure you actually know who your tow drivers are and that they are going to do what you've contracted with them. They can cost you a lot of money and put a sour taste in the insured's mouth about the insurer and not just the tow company.

As for "regular" car stuff, I had Allstate back in the oughts and they sucked, so I switched to Geico and they sucked, and I switched to State Farm and they sucked, and now I am with Farmers and (spoiler alert) they suck. I would pay double to have a Hagerty  experience with my regular stuff.

Latest one was September 2020 with Farmers on Flex #1. Flash flood while it was street parked put water up to the headlights (and inside) so it was immediately totaled. What followed was a solid month of back and forth BS about it's value. It was a 2013 Limited EcoBoost AWD with literally every option. They were using non-turbo FWD as "comparables" and the adjusting their values up a couple hundred bucks to make up for my "additional equioment". Yeah, no, that's BS and you know it and I know it. I found every Limited EB AWD within 300 miles (which were all selling for at elast $3000 more than their offer of value) and kept at it until they finally accepted my number.

So don't screw your own customers on value when there's nobody to subrogate to.

The one before that that was bad was 2014-ish with my first Mazda5. At the time it was 7-8 years old and had *just* rolled over 100K miles (seriously it was at like 100,050) when a lady in a new Explorer (the big ones on the Flex platform) ran a red light and ripped the whole nose off. She admitted fault at the scene, the cops gave her 3 citations, and my insurance company screwed me because it was hers, too. That was EXTREMELY frustrating. I had a young kid and a new baby at the time and didn't have my family vehicle for a month with E36 M3ty economy cars for rentals (instead of another minivan) and fighting with my claim rep over value (again, trying to lowball with base models instead of truly like for like) and they kept trying to make me partially at fault (because apparently you should be able to tell that someone is just going to run a red light when you are the second car through a green light...). Eventually I won out, but they dropped me immediately (which hurt my rates for a few years, that stung).

I loathe regular insurance companies and their claims process. I am always being fought with and they are never on my side. Fix that.

(And OP if you don't work for any of the above named companies, PM me and I'll switch.)

Javelin, I don't work for any of those.  I work for a company most won't have heard of and we write commercial insurance.  In re-reading my original post, I did a really E36 M3ty job of wording it.  People get frustrated about the value of their car, how that's arrived it and the like.  That's a conversation for another day and one we can have many beers over.  Well, I don't drink, so make mine a soda.  I don't want to go down that rabbit hole here.  What I was hoping to gather from folks is more around the claim process itself, and I should have been clear in saying that at the outset.  Was the process smooth or were there obstacles?  What did you like, what didn't you like?  How did you get your estimate done?  Did you have to go to a shop?  Take photos yourself?  Is there a certain way you'd want to have your estimate done?  Paid by check (was it quick) or EFT?  Did you only have to talk to one claims person or multiple?  How was that experience?  Putting subjective things aside, such as the value of a car, how would you want the claim process to flow from the perspective of a customer?  Using what technology (text, phone, e-mail, etc...)?  Things like that.  I want to make sure navigating through a claim is as customer friendly as can be, and efficient.  Yes, of course I want a fair settlement to take place too.  Believe it or not, the job of the adjuster isn't to try to pay as little as possible, it's actually to pay what they owe.  However that's easier said than done sometimes and a conversation for another time...feel free to PM me if you want to go down that rabbit hole.

Oh, and as for tow truck vendors, yeah they suck.  You can have the best vetting process in the world, but at the end of the day you're at the mercy of the independent vendor.  I've had a negative personal experience myself, and that tow vendor wound up getting kicked off a MAJOR network because of it (good to have connections).  

Javelin said:

...back and forth BS about it's value. It was a 2013 Limited EcoBoost AWD with literally every option. They were using non-turbo FWD as "comparables"...

<snip>

(And OP if you don't work for any of the above named companies, PM me and I'll switch.)

You reminded me of another claim with Geico. Uninsured driver backed out of her spot and into my '85 Corolla GT-S (the AE86 of myth and legend) as I was driving past. Naturally it took many weeks to even get traction while Geico waited for her to call them back and admit that she wasn't insured. Once an adjuster finally made it out, he tried to total my car over a cracked taillight by using carbureted FWD Corolla sedans as comparables. It eventually resolved in a relatively satisfactory manner - certainly more so than our Progressive nightmare - but it was still handled poorly by people who really didn't seem to be all that interested in doing right by their customers.

I'd also be interested in hearing who the OP works for, if only to learn who actually gives a rip and who is just cashing checks.