Replies

I would like to see some data to support your assertion about the low ethics of insurance companies. I do not know about any data to support your assertion.

I speak from personal experience. The two incidents (the only two major claims in my 45 years of life) The first was when my wife was in an auto accident in which our only vehicle was totalled. We had a loan out on the car. The book had it listed at 3000$ Progressive offered me 1200$ for the car. I refused. I was told every lie in the book (that same car is listed in the local paper for 1000$ stuff like that) In the mean time I was still making payments and finally had to settle for 1800$. I paid off the rest of the loan, took my lumps and moved on.

When I bought my house I paid American Family the extra money for "replacement cost" coverage. We had a fire. this replacement cost thing wasn't what i was told it was. I was given the "depreciated" value (did you know that a brand new refrigerator loses 15% of it's value in a month?) and then was sent to replace my old stuff, and when I sent in the recipits i was to be compensated for the rest. The problem was when I sent in the recipits there was a constant problem with the checks. The check was lost, or in the mail, or they forgot to send it. The dodges were endless and rather transparent. I spent an incredible amount of time jumping through these hoops. It got frustrating. Things got heated and vague threats about insurance fraud were leveled at me.

I took the hint, dropped any further requests for compensation and will never ever give any insurance company the slightest benefit if the doubt. Ever.

....."Progressive offered me 1200$ for the car.".... You did right by refusing. What you need to do in a case like this is tell them to BUY you a car that you approve with the same equipment and mileage. I don't care if they pay $900 or $9000, just replace my car. They will give you your money usually.

I did the same thing with a Triumph Spitfire. It was worth $3000 or more, but they wanted to settle for $500. I said find me 3 cars to look at with 19000 miles on it, I will pick one and you can negotiate for it for $500. They waited a week and said there wasn't any for me to look at in Houston and raised the price to $1200. I said I'm looking at 4 in the Chronicle and the one that has 25000 miles on it is $4500, and that's the one I want. There was silence for about 15 seconds and they said my $3000 check was on the way. They, I'm sure, saw the same cars I saw in the paper, but tried to bluff.