Effin car insurance companies!!

Hi guys, I just wanted to vent a little and see what you guys would do...

So i've been in a car accident earlier this month where I was driving (my tacoma) straight on the main part of the parking lot and a nissan titan came out of one of the parking lanes and tboned my driver's rear door, cab, truck bed, nerf step and even my rear tire. It is currently drivable (i think), but there is a rattling going on... Anyway, the other guys insurance company (AAA) told me, the auto body shop, and my insurace (progressive) that they are 100% at fault and will provide rental. The appraiser listed it at a $5000 damage. Three weeks have passed and my car is still not in the shop. Now AAA is saying that i need to pay 10% of the damages/rental and they will cover 90%. How the Fudge is it 10% my fault if i was driving straight and this guy was turning and hit me? I have an attorney, but he says that if I makes a claim on this then it will even take longer for my truck to get fixed.

I've been told to just go with my insurance (progressive), pay my deductible, and get reimbursed later. I would save more money that way. I feel that I don't even have to pay for anything since i didn't do anything wrong. The guy hit me, I didnt hit him. But at the same time, I really want to get my truck in the shop. What are your guys thoughts?

Thanks in advance for your responses.

 

I'd call your agent and tell him/her that the other insurance company is trying to make you pay for getting hit and see if something can be done from that end. If there was a police report and the other driver was ticked it might help your cause too.

I live in a no fault state and even though you pay a bit more for coverage there is never any hassle. I've been run into several times (mostly in a red truck -- that color seems to attract bad drivers like a magnet) and almost always got the money in less than a week. A tort state however can be a different story -- someone has to be blamed and it seems that even the innocent party may be considered partially "at fault" just for being there. Another TW member had a similar problem not too long ago. Maybe he can pitch in and say how his case went.

 

If it's not your fault then they should be paying for everything without a single cent of your money. I had an accident awhile back and their insurance agent tried to get me to do things that I didn't want to do at all. Such as having my car sent to a body shop out in nowhere that was an hour or 2 from my house(because all the body shops near my house at the time were booked up do to a hail storm that swept through Oklahoma). Agreed at first only on the terms that they paid to have it towed there and back. He later tried to tell me I had to pay for the tow back(which I didn't) and when it was back, the body shop did a crap of a job when it was suppose to be one of their "recommended" shops. Ended up taking it to a body shop I trusted a couple of weeks later and made them pay for all the repairs that had to be redone on it once again. This was only because I ended up talking to the supervisor and calling back many times until things were done and done right. So they basically had to pay twice as much as they originally would've had to if things were just done right the first time. I tried calling the agent back sometime during the end of the process, but they had told me he no longer worked there. Don't know if he quit or got fired, but I was just glad my car was fixed.

Point of the matter is, Insurance companies will try to boss you around whatever way they can. You just can't let up and stand your grown. Call every day to bug them, talk to the supervisor if you have to. Worked in my situation.. Good luck with yours and hope everything works out.

 

One question. Why are you talking to the other persons insurance company? Never do that! They are not on your side. All they want to do is bait you and get you to slip so they have to pay less. STOP talking withem and let the progressive agent deal with the skum sucker. Do not pay a penny and if need be tell your agent you will file suit if they don't light a fire under AAA's ass.

 

Yep, same thing happened to my wife. Guy drove through a Stop sign and hit her in the drivers front wheel totaling it. Police report indicated his fault, 2 witness statements confirmed him at fault. His insurance (MetLife) said my wife was 10% at fault... I guess for breathing? So I contacted our attorney and he said that's pretty normal procedure nowadays. We had an extra car so I refused to take their settlement, told them I wouldn't take less and ignored all their phone calls & correspondences. On the one year anniversary of the accident I received a check for their original offer and my insurance made up the difference. Moral of the story... you can't beat them because they're all in bed together. Do the best you can and move on with your life.

 

+10,000

The ONLY time you should be dealing directly with the at-fault party's insurance company is if you had only liability coverage with your company.
That was my situation when my '93 Blazer was rear ended (totaled because of the tailgate damage).

Not your fault = No deductible, unless the other guy's insurance doesn't have enough coverage for the incident, then the balance will come from your collision coverage, but it won't count against you as a claim.


If you don't have comp/collision, then you are at the mercy of the other company (or your lawyer if you are friends with one)... your company will not get involved.

 

I had trouble with State Farm giving me run-around on a claim- my car was totalled in a collision while sitting in my own driveway! You can't get less at-fault than that but still State Farm loved to bullsh!t. My Allstate agent advised me not to speak to them other than scheduling rental cars and wrecker services. Other than that, Allstate took care of it. And so, that's my advice. Deal with your insurance company and your lawyer, not AAA.

And what's up with AAA? I've never had thier insurance, but their roadside assistance sure hasn't been worth the money lately. Seems like they're going downhill no matter how you're involved with them.

 

Thanks again for the responses.

So i decided to go with my insurance agent to finally get the truck in the shop next week. The messed up thing is that I dont have car rental coverage, but progressive is saying that if i front the money to get my car in the shop, i will be reimbursed 90% of my deductible and the other 10% will have to go through subrogation or something like that. The auto body shop is also very helpful in this case as they will front the car rental for me and get their money from AAA once all is said and done.

Back to the subrogation part, my insurance agent said he finds me 0% at fault. In that case, will I get my 10% back? I know it may not seem much, but gas is going up and I could use that 10% for gas, groceries, etc. In fact, I dont even see why I have to pay anything at all. My attorney said he never did encounter insurance companies admitting to 100% fault and then changing their mind. I wonder if the driver that hit me called his insurance company back and told them that I should've known that he was coming out of nowhere and was going to hit me or something stupid like that.

Also, for those of you that hired an attorney for personal injury, did you get compensated after medical bills, attorney fees, etc. or did you end up spending money out of your own pocket for hiring an attorney?

 

Here is a post of the pictures i took of the damages

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/2nd-gen-tacomas/207690-any-idea-how-much-damage-will-cost.html

 

Not being a dick but did you read the contract you agreed to for that policy? I'm guessing no. if you browsed threw it you were doing it for show and put your sig down because you were saving a few bucks. Sorry man I deal with this kind of things all day long and if your agent is telling you things, most of the time they are right and you don't have a legal leg to stand on. Chalk it up to a learning experience and pay what you play next time.

 

In simpler terms, you're telling me that I'll end up paying my attorney. Doesn't the insurance company compensate me anyway for bodily injury? You're right, this is a learning experience and Im trying to get as much info from you guys to my advantage in this shitty situation i have.

 

You are going to get very little in the way of PI from your own insurance company (in the form of time lost from work). If you choose to get an attorney to file a personal injury suit against the other party, be forewarned, this is a long process... could take years. It's not as simple as you see on TV ads. You walked away from the accident so it is likely the insurance company will not fold easily to an initial claim by your attorney. They may come back with a very menial offer--but don't expect it to be in the thousands of $$$. It's only in major death and great bodily injury cases where they want to settle quickly. BTW, the suit may not go your way, and it could end up costing you a crapload of money. Good luck.

 

Not an attorney nor any anything I posted is legal advice. Just a heads up on covering your ass. And most of the time people are stubborn and choose to pay an attorney for free advise.

 

This is why I pay extra to have a personal agent. When trouble finds me, she is fierce on my behalf.

 

Much wisdom being shared here. What I posted above is the abridged story. I couldn't win. Everytime I thought I had leverage on them they'd turn it around. For instance, the place that our car was being stored was charging nearly $80 a day. I knew I wasn't going to pay it so I told the MetLife agent I was in no hurry to settle because it wasn't costing me $80 a day for storage. I figured they'll pay the 10% to me or the storage place. Well, a week later I got a certified letter stating that I had until a specific day to sign the title over to them or I'd be responsible for any storage costs after that day. I called our laywer and he said yep they can do that. It's stacked in their favor... no win situation for me. And yeah, I still get tick'd thinking about it. Good luck OP!

BTW my insurance company told me to settle up. I didn't want to because of principle, my wife was not any percent at fault! My insurance company told me it wouldn't change my rates, just settle. No, I stood on principle... for a year and still got the same result had I settled the first day they offered.

 

Yup. It's an amoral-opportunist world we live in.