A friend had a bad weekend

[1 Wild R/T]

I'll post the numbers in a few hours....

 

[dadsbee]

$36,200..

 

[Kern Dog]

 

[Jerry Hall]

@dadsbee may be closer, I forgot where this is, gas is at least half again what it is here. Lots of frame time on this one.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Y'all might want to sit down for this....


My initial guess was 20-25K.

Body Shop was 26K...


Wait for it...







Little longer...












His insurance (A collector specialty insurer, Not Hagerty) was $9700-ish....

The other guys insurance was 6400......

 

[Jerry Hall]

Time for a come to Jesus meeting. What was his agreed value on the car?

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Time for a come to Jesus meeting. What was his agreed value on the car?

44K. And yes he's been talking to his attorney..

 

[moparedtn]

The body shop number says to me "we don't want the job". Just my opinion....
around here, about $15k would do a nice job on it and I know a few places that
would take the work and are trustworthy.
I realize that's not necessarily the case other places.

 

[Jerry Hall]

Looks like to me they're stuck with fixing it, or give him 44K. Adjuster needs to meet with the body shop and work out their differences. At least that's the way it is supposed to go. We never had a problem with going over estimates with an in person adjuster, but never had that big gap either. Somebody has missed something. I found it was usually the adjuster, estimating before teardown.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

The body shop number says to me "we don't want the job". Just my opinion....
around here, about $15k would do a nice job on it and I know a few places that
would take the work and are trustworthy.
I realize that's not necessarily the case other places.

Not the case here... $15K gets you a paint Job.... Frame rails, a quarter panel & misc other body parts? 15K ain't getting it done.... At least not in California...

 

[1 Wild R/T]

Looks like to me they're stuck with fixing it, or give him 44K. Adjuster needs to meet with the body shop and work out their differences. At least that's the way it is supposed to go. We never had a problem with going over estimates with an in person adjuster, but never had that big gap either. Somebody has missed something. I found it was usually the adjuster, estimating before teardown.

The Collector Insurance didn't use a estimator with classic car experience, But honestly even on a modern car thats more than 15K worth of damage...

 

[Jerry Hall]

The Collector Insurance didn't use a estimator with classic car experience, But honestly even on a modern car thats more than 15K worth of damage...

That much damage would total 80% of newer cars.

 

[moparedtn]

Looks like to me they're stuck with fixing it, or give him 44K. Adjuster needs to meet with the body shop and work out their differences. At least that's the way it is supposed to go. We never had a problem with going over estimates with an in person adjuster, but never had that big gap either. Somebody has missed something. I found it was usually the adjuster, estimating before teardown.

Yep - and this is going to sound like an ad for Hagerty, but that's exactly what happened when I had my boo-boo
with Fred. They were simply great on the initial phone call, accepted my choice of body shop without a whimper,
sent out an adjuster promptly - and he was also very good and helpful - and he went right to the body shop
to get things rolling.
Heck, we even got a few other things taken care of while Fred was in there, too.
As many years as I've done business with them, that was my first actual claim and it simply could not have
gone any better.

 

[JDmac72chrgr]

The Collector Insurance didn't use a estimator with classic car experience, But honestly even on a modern car thats more than 15K worth of damag

Sounds like adjuster did "adjusting" from his home office, locked down, as usual, by the governor. POS!! Hope buddy & his dad are doing better. Thanks 1 Wild R/T!!

 

[moparedtn]

The Collector Insurance didn't use a estimator with classic car experience, But honestly even on a modern car thats more than 15K worth of damage...

Ok, so the insurance companies' "game plan" is to what, make your friend pay the difference?
I'm assuming they're not interested in totaling the car, eh?

 

[Jerry Hall]

Ok, so the insurance companies' "game plan" is to what, make your friend pay the difference?
I'm assuming they're not interested in totaling the car, eh?

I don't like the word Lawyer, but if that was my situation, and they expected me to pay the difference, that is exactly where I would go. The insurance companies like to collect the premiums and then want to cut corners. Don't fly with me.

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I don't like the word Lawyer, but if that was my situation, and they expected me to pay the difference, that is exactly where I would go. The insurance companies like to collect the premiums and then want to cut corners. Don't fly with me.

My friend was opposed to it too.. And I feel the same way... However my GF worked for one of them for years (He's retired now)... And when this happened she called him just for advise on how to proceed... He made a few smart suggestions which I passed along & didn't push the idea of getting an attorney... But a few things have happened that caused my buddy to ask me to ask him for a few referrals...

 

[moparedtn]

I don't like the word Lawyer, but if that was my situation, and they expected me to pay the difference, that is exactly where I would go. The insurance companies like to collect the premiums and then want to cut corners. Don't fly with me.

Yeah, that whole policy of "let's see if the customer actually fights this" is some lame-assed way to do
business - but it's rampant in the insurance realm.

 

[eldubb440]

the insurance co will usually work with the shop and pay out any "supplements"

 

[Jerry Hall]

the insurance co will usually work with the shop and pay out any "supplements"

That's the way it is supposed to happen.