Everyone thinks they pay too much for auto insurance; some even think it shouldn't be forced on people. Let's go down that rabbit hole, shall we? If carrying minimal coverage on a moving vehicle wasn't mandatory in all states, how many folks do you think would carry their liability insurance? How many people would cover their cars and trucks if their finance company said "Hey, it's OK, we trust you, you can just keep liability, and if anyone hits you, they can pay the payments, and restore or replace your car." Well, think harder. The answer is NO ONE. Insurance is expensive, and it's expensive for several reasons. One of which is clear; the insurance carriers are expected to pay claims. Have you ever stopped to think about just how many accidents and what I call "idiot moves" there are on a daily basis just in the States?
In some parts of the United States, we won't name names, the people under the age of 25 just seem to think that the laws either don't exist or that they don't have to follow them. When a person doesn't carry insurance, then hits someone, or causes an accident, YOUR premium, my premium, and the premiums for any and everyone will go up a bit. Consider an entire group of people who are under a certain age; now think about those who are much older. So many older drivers should not be on the road. They often can't see clearly, or respond quickly enough, and they cause accidents or idiot moves as well. Now, throw in a bunch of people who don't live in our nation legally, who feel it is not necessary to follow rules of any sort. They're out there driving as well.
You can't, (with any sanity) expect an insurance carrier to just dish out the funds to pay for all the replacements and repairs needed if and when these accidents happen. If they did a car would literally cost a person over $200,000 for the privilege of driving, because only cars that were covered by carriers could be on the road. You pay the insurance company for the car, not the dealer, that's how that would work. We have it so much better than people know, but most have their heads stuck in the sand thinking the big bad insurance companies keep jacking up their premiums and they never pay claims. When there is a claim, they say, the insurance carriers tell their adjusters to only give someone the bare minimum! This is so far from the truth, it's hilarious.
We (adjusters) are trained to give exactly what the car was worth just seconds before the accident. You can't expect to wreck a $5000 car and walk away with a new $35000 car; it doesn't work that way. We take depreciation, we take betterment, we take the year, make, model, options, and wear into consideration. If a car has a dent or a ding, we're not going to total it, but we are going to lean towards totaling a car that would cost more to fix it than it is worth. When we do that, it's an estimate, not something set in stone. The owner still has the right to say "fix it" but if the carrier of the insured party says no, it's probably going to be a no. They'll end up paying the person what the car is worth; which isn't always the best solution, but it is one that makes sense. As a matter of law, insurance companies can't give a person MORE than what they had. They can't better the situation; that may come about through personal bodily injury, but not property damage.
Adjusters KNOW, we KNOW that our estimate is low. We can't get up under the car. We can only write what we can see. We can't pull off the bumpers to see the damage behind it. We can't look up under the car really, there will be damage we can't see, so that's why there are supplements to all (all) estimates. We even encourage people to go to the shop (two or three) and get an estimate. These shops can even use OUR estimate to start with and make those needed changes. If they are reputable we usually pay for it. We're in the business of coverage and restoring people; it's not an us-against-them scenario. We're neighbors, friends, colleagues, just like you. I promise you, I'm always going to err on the side of the insured; my insured. If you're my client, I'm going to give you the estimate I would give myself in the same situation. I want you to be restored. We usually accept supplements from the shop without issues.
When the damage is under a certain amount, say under $6000 to give an example, many adjusters have the authority to just go ahead and pay those claims; it's when a car or truck hits the "over threshold" limits, that we have to give it a total loss and bump it to upper management. We still have to write the estimate. We don't get out of that; in fact, we have to write the estimate, find the salvage price, and figure out if there is any way to save it. It hurts us, just like it hurts you if there are overpayments; it all trickles down. We pay insurance premiums too.
It's when insured lie, hide things, don't disclose things, or try to get one by the companies that we deploy investigators and the like. Body shops for auction houses are notorious (infamous really) for being really good at concealing prior damage caused by floods or collisions. A person buys a used car and they want to check the CarFax...OK, but the only people who report to CarFax are the insurance companies after a collision or flood. If someone had a wreck and had it fixed without a claim, that car could be a time bomb waiting to go off; and CarFax won't know it. If you're going to buy a used car you need to take an experienced body shop person or car adjuster with you to show you where the welding marks may be, or the replacement parts, or other than factory parts.
While we're talking about other than Original Equipment Manufacturers, let's talk a bit about After-Market, Recycled, and Salvage pieces. They sound bad, right? They're not. They are usually just as good if not exactly like the O.E.M. parts, and most of them are warranted for the time you own the car; check into that. We're not talking about pulling a piece off a wrecked car; that's another story. We're talking about pieces made outside the factory, but they are absolutely equal in most ways. I would say every way, but I don't want legal issues. They're really good parts. You save money because you cut out the middleman, and they're guaranteed. They have to be painted, undercoated, the whole work. There are laws about that too.
So, I guess what I'm saying is, before you go off half-cocked thinking your adjuster was too busy to come out to your house to see your car, and you had to send in pictures; remember this is 2023. We can actually get you your check FASTER this way, and save us money, which saves you money. That trickle thing works both ways. I can only write what I see. If you send me crap pictures, I'm giving you a crap estimate. When you get to your shop they'll supplement it, but the adjuster most times, will not "make something up" or intentionally leave something out. We have very very regulated software. We're not allowed to close out a claim until we've gone through the steps and have obtained the green lights to move forward.
There, I feel better.
No comments:
Post a Comment