Joined: Wed Jun 21 2006, 09:38PM
Location: OK
Posts: 899
phantomcobra wrote ...
I am insured by USAA and have discussed old cars with them at length (referring to post on the first page lambasting USAA). The insurance company view is that a 1970 truck is just that. A 37 year old truck. In their view (edited by me for this situation), you had a 37 year old vehicle that is beyond its useful life. The insurance company looks at it as a $500 piece of metal (if that much) so the offer they made was generous. There is nothing that says an insurance company has to abide by an evaluation of any car's value. It is too common for an evaluator to write whatever you want to see.
In some states, the insurance is required to pay market value if a car is "totaled". However, their established value and yours may differ. They may use three lowball quotes to justify their payment (pick 3 cars from sales ads of cars that are marginally working cars). However, at least in California, if you could show 3 vehicles and their sale price (not for sale price but actual sale price) of a similar vehicle in similar condition, they are required to adjust their payment. Of course with a vehicle that is rare, finding 3 sales might me difficult.
Hopefully, you will not have the displeasure of dealing with USAA, should that opportunity present itself. Plus, you know nothing of my former truck, and their offer was hardly generous, as I have close to a hundred pics to suggest otherwise. Your "opinion" is typical of adjusters, so I shouldn't be surprised. Oh, and yes, USAA tried to low-ball me even further by presenting three junked pickups as "evidence" in their favor. I presented nearly a dozen in my favor. Insurance companies are scum.
Joined: Tue Jan 16 2007, 08:06AM
Location: Southeastern KY
Posts: 151
Patrick66, you missed the point by saying my opinion is typical of adjusters. Don't knock adjusters until you have tried to walk a mile in their shoes! I was trying to enlighten you on what was probably USAA's point of view. The adjuster is being paid by them so no matter what the adjuster may feel, he/she has to follow company policy. And yes, I have had to deal with them on two claims. One for a motorcycle which they gave no complaints about and paid for all new items and the other was for a car my daughter totaled in which they gave her market price plus a little. However I would not expect such an easy time if I was to try to settle a claim with either of my classics. Which is why they are insured with a company that knows classics and antiques. By the way, USAA encourages owners of these cars to use a specialist company they are connected with as a partner.
You may have also had a different reaction from them if your truck was a 69 Shelby Mustang or 72 Charger. Trucks are not generally thought of as "special" vehicles qualifying for treatment outside the "norm".
I'm not trying to back up any insurance company but only telling you the "other side of the coin" so maybe you will have a better understanding. Your personal attack was uncalled for as I am not an adjuster (since the mid 90s) and I do not work for USAA.
I agree, all of these people are just trying to do their jobs! That being said some people seem to enjoy their job more than others, It seems that insurance co's charge and charge you but when you want/need it to payoff it seems you have to fight like hell to get it!!!! !whip !whip !whip !whip
Joined: Wed Jun 21 2006, 09:38PM
Location: OK
Posts: 899
No personal attack involved, cobra. I did not attack you, nor did I suggest you worked for USAA. Please show me where I did this.
I said your opinion is typical of insurance adjusters (and I did fully understand your point, BTW, of using an adjusters POV), and that I said I hoped you never have to use USAA when it comes time to collect on a claim. Of the three insurance companies I dealt with after a tornado destroyed my house and most of my stuff, USAA was definitely the biggest PITA, by a long shot! All I can say is, good luck!
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
Come on guys, you really can't paint the whole insurance industry black because they have a few bone headed adjusters. I can't think of any industry free of bone heads.
I look upon the process as being similar to a crap shoot, the insurance company bets you'll have a claim will and you bet you won't. Most of the time the insurance company has to win, otherwise they go broke.
That being said, I don't like paying endless premiums for things that might happen - until they do happen. In my case, I've paid auto insurance for about 45 years and had two minor claims, one a fender bender when a woman changed lanes into my right front fender and the other a hail storm. Again, in my case, I've paid house insurance for about 35 years and every year the insurance company won, except once when I got clobbered by a hail storm. The insurance payout was close to $30K. So between my car and house insurance payments over the years, I consider myself to be winning.
I'll bet a lot of Katrina and California wildfire victims also are very happy they had insurance coverage. Can you even imagine your house and cars along with every possession you own, gone. How could you ever recover without insurance?
IMO the biggest problem insurance companies have with our cars is determining the actual amount of damage. On a new car this is easy, lots of sources will tell you what a 2005 car is worth and the cost to repair it. However doing this on a 1965 car can be difficult to almost impossible. So you end up with an adjuster and an owner trying to pick a number each can live with. If the agent wants to keep his customer happy he accepts the customer's numbers, however if he wants to keep his job, it better reasonable. The flaw, and the point of contention in this process is the customer who always thinks his baby is worth more that it actually is and will ask for as much as he figures he can get away with, and the adjuster trying to pay no more than the actual value. The result is a highly subjective settlement where both the adjuster and the customer leave the table feeling they were taken advantage of.
I wouldn't work as an insurance adjuster for all the tea in China, but I have a lot of admiration for those that do. !stars
Joined: Wed Dec 21 2005, 07:34AM
Location: indiana
Posts: 791
wrote ... Insurance companys are hard to figure out. My 69 Sport Fury got hit by a very elderly gentleman in the left front fender in a parking lot. I was stopped behind him waiting on another car that was backing out. He backed out very slowly but did not see my BIG FURY or HEAR MY HORN. Progressive was at my place the next day and gave me a check for $100 more than I quoted. Fender only had a small dent and my friend estimated $300 and I qot $400. I was not asked to sign a release form either. At that time, the car was in rough condition. If the car had been totaled, I probably would have been offered $200. Go Figure. Polaraco's car probably will not have any hidden damage from what I see in the pics. They like to make you feel like a crook for taking their money.
The $400 amount might be due to meeting a certain amount of claim so that the insurance company could raise the old man's rates. Last I knew, State Farm had a $400 dollar max -- any claim above that and your rates go up.
Joined: Wed Jun 21 2006, 09:38PM
Location: OK
Posts: 899
Fury440 wrote ... Come on guys, you really can't paint the whole insurance industry black because they have a few bone headed adjusters. I can't think of any industry free of bone heads.
No, I'm pretty sure that being a bonehead is a requirement to be hired. The majority of them rank right down there with lawyers, child-molesters, and politicians as the worst bottom-feeders around. IMO, of course...but I'm pretty confident many of you would concur. !banana
Joined: Tue Oct 11 2005, 01:33AM
Location: Calgary, Alberta
Posts: 5893
patrick66 wrote ... No, I'm pretty sure that being a bonehead is a requirement to be hired. The majority of them rank right down there with lawyers, child-molesters, and politicians as the worst bottom-feeders around. IMO, of course...but I'm pretty confident many of you would concur. !banana
Well, I'm not sure anyone would agree with your opinion that insurance adjusters, lawyers and politicians are bottom-feeders after their insurance adjuster agreed to replace their car after their lawyer argued the other driver broke a law created by a politician to protect you. Unless of course you were the idiot driving the other car.
Everyone will agree, child-molesters are a different story, but I'm curious why you consider their status to be high enough above slime to be even included in the same sentence as people? Even slime is too high IMO. !stars
Bill, your observations are insightful. Insurance is a gamble, it does seem like you are losing, till it saves your butt. If it weren't for insurance, my wife and I would probably be out 4 vehicles.
State Farm has probably paid out almost as much as we have paid in. They have paid out nearly 10x as much on my Fury as I have paid in on it! If it weren't for an excellent adjuster, I never would have been fixed right - to my satisfaction. The first adjuster was a young kid, he was lost. I called my agent and said to have the company send some one else, this guy doesn't understand the situation. The second adjuster knew his stuff and even knew Carl, the shop owner. Carl used to be an adjuster.
2 years ago a kid with no insurance let his truck roll down the hill and bashed both our daily drivers, he tried to run but we stopped him. That was Sat night, Monday morning the adjuster showed up in a monsoon storm at our house and cut 2 checks. We were able to fix both vehicles properly and pocket over $500!
Had a similar situation with a Geo my wife owned when we got married. She totaled it on ice and they cut a check the next day higher than NADA.
5 years ago we had a nasty storm roll through and we had about $8000 in damage, a buddy of mine had about $5000. We have State Farm and he had Metlife. Out agent lives close, he doesn't have an agent. I called our agent a couple days after and first thing he says, is how did you guys survive the storm? I brought in a HAND WRITTEN list of loses and he cut me a check on the spot. A week later we found some more stuff, another check. My buddy fought for 6 months and ultimately only got half. In this particular situation we found his problem was he called an 800 number, and got a different person every time. They didn't know him, his situation, his history or the area. He had to start over with each call. I just drove down and handled it all in person. In fact my agent even asked if I was sure that was all, most claims he was seeing were over $15,000.
It is hard to comment on others experiences, but in talking with friends and family, having a local agent seems to really make a difference. We know each other by first name, he has been to our house, seen all our vehicles first hand, has kids the same age as ours, and loves my Fury and Power Wagons! Maybe we have just been lucky, but we have never had a claim disputed.
I don't want this to turn into a bash the insurance companies thread, we don't need that here
Joined: Sun Feb 05 2006, 11:51PM
Location: Pa
Posts: 3064
My vo-tech teacher used to tell the story of when he was a body shop manager and all of the just-out-of-college newbie adjustors would come to his shop with attitude to spare. He actually had one try to corner him in his 2nd floor office argueing that he was asking for too much money on a repair. Until he called in "Tiny".....a nice big body man who made sure the adjustor's face was introduced to every step on the way back downstairs.....