Sideswiped!

Zorba

Zorba

"The Veiled Male"
Supporting Member
Joined
Apr 2, 2020
Messages
14,259
Location
Merritt Island, Fl
crunched-car.JPG


This happened a couple of nites ago, driving home from dance class. The throttle linkage disconnected itself on a freeway offramp, so I had no "go". I was on the shoulder, emergency flashers going, inching along to get to a nearby parking lot when a Ford explorer sideswiped me.

My first thought was, of course, that a fucking smartphone was involved, but the driver told me he was driving tired home from work and "closed his eyes for a second". He was contrite, called his InsCo (Progressive), and setup a claim for me on the spot. Took 30 minutes for the FHP to arrive, there I am on the side of the road in a (practice) Belly Dance costume complete with ankle length skirt! Glad it was warm enough, but to make the experience complete I stepped on a fire ant mound.

Progressive called me the next day to discuss things - of course they started immediately on the "T" word. "YOU. WILL. NOT. TOTAL. MY. CAR. It was in perfect condition before YOUR client hit it." So I have *that* battle to deal with. Again.

Then they insulted my intelligence. Asked me if I had a smartphone (!!). Then went on about if I had one I could send them some pictures. WHAT. THE. FUCK? Told the gal that I can send her all the pictures she wants via email or their website! "Oh!" So she sends me a link and I take and upload a pile of pix for her. Have these stupid things gotten to the point of people not even realizing that there are better, easier, and cheaper ways to accomplish the same thing - that there are actual cameras?

Had a similar situation about 3 weeks ago when someone wanted me to take a picture of a document and send it to them - I told this one that I'd scan it - better quality and easier - and send that to her. She obviously didn't grok using a dedicated machine for anything...

So tomorrow I'm taking it to the recommended by my mechanic body shop to see what they say...

Oh joy...
 
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Reactions: Jamison C, lBasket, williambmac and 9 others
“At least you walked danced away”
Fixed it for you. Glad you’re alright. Don’t envy you having to deal with insurance companies.
 
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Best of luck, I just went through the same thing. Got rear ended, had to deal with Allstate. They ended up giving me about 60% of the quote I had for repairs, and then just ghosted me. Calls go straight to voicemail, emails are ignored. So I went to my insurance who told me that since I had opened a claim with Allstate they couldn't (more like wouldn't) do anything. Then a month later when my policy renewed they jacked my rates up $40/month. Presumably because of an accident that wasn't my fault, and they haven't paid a dime on.

Yeah, dumped those bastards, I'm actually getting significantly cheaper insurance through State Farm now. Which just shows how bad Liberty Mutual was screwing me. But still have a messed up rear bumper and not even enough money from Allstate to buy the parts. I could sue them, but it would cost more than it's worth, which they are well aware of. Read their reviews on consumer reports websites and it's filled with similar stories. I always carried fairly high limit, full coverage insurance. But seeing as how they won't pay when something happens I'm thinking now that bare minimum is the way to go. Just save up the difference in premiums to cover fairly minor things and don't bother even trying to claim it.
 
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Just an update: The insurance lobby must be strong in the state of Florida — the best I was able to determine, I'm at the mercy of the InsCo and have no legal recourse. So I had to settle for 50% of what its gonna cost to fix the damn thing. The body shop ordered the parts today, and I ordered a "lower control arm hub assy" from Mercedes Benz Classic Center in Irvine, Ca as the local dealer wanted to charge me $400 more than "classic" did. Had to come from Stuttgart, I've been dealing with FedEx delivery BULLSHIT for the last 2 days - but when I get my hands on it, my mechanic will do the install.

But they didn't "total" it - I had at least that much power over the situation. Bastards.
 
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Would it have been better if they totaled it and you could just buy it back for a lot cheaper and then fix it?
 
Zorba said:
Nope. I would have gotten another $500, and a huge amount of hassle. Not worth it.
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Damn, that’s terrible.

Have you ever thought about a classic car policy through Hagerty or Grundy with an agreed upon value? Not sure how much of a difference that would make, but it’s a nice thing to have with vehicles where the insurance doesn’t realize the actual value.
 
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Chris said:
Damn, that’s terrible.

Have you ever thought about a classic car policy through Hagerty or Grundy with an agreed upon value? Not sure how much of a difference that would make, but it’s a nice thing to have with vehicles where the insurance doesn’t realize the actual value.
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From my understanding, such policies are only for show cars that see very limited use. I put 10K a year on this one.
 
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Zorba said:
From my understanding, such policies are only for show cars that see very limited use. I put 10K a year on this one.
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You may be right, I’m not entirely sure. I told them my 72 Camaro was a driver, but that it also wasn’t a daily driver. In any case, dealing with insurance sucks.
 
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