Sharing my own experience with total loss

Forgive me if there are grammar errors, as I'm using talk to text instead of typing. I thought I would share my experiences with you guys. As some of you remember, I made a thread a while ago asking about how to improve the insurance claims experience. The conversation centered mostly around improving total loss.  I took your advice and have been working hard at fine tuning our total loss process.

This time, I got to experience it from the opposite side. My 18-year-old son rear-ended a car a few weeks ago. He is fine, but my HHR is toast.  I have insurance with Snake Farm, or at least I used to. I won't go into paragraph after paragraph of lengthy detail, but my very strong takeaway is focusing on the customer service aspect as much as I can.

Just to name a few of the calamity of disasters Snake Farm has... Customer service rep smacking her gum loudly while talking on the phone, no understanding of how vehicle valuations work, no understanding of the current marketplace, and worst of all no ability to vary from the process. They ran the valuation report using the same vendor that pretty much every insurance company uses. In today's market, used cars and comparables are hard to find. It was near impossible to find in exact 2009 Chevy HHR with LT trim and 105,000 MI. So therefore the valuation report was pretty far off. I sent them several cars that are as comparable to mine as could be. However, the Snake Farm Representatives do not have the authority to vary at all from the report.  They can only send things back to the vendor, and then have to stick to exactly what it said. I wound up having to make a scene just to get to somebody who actually had the authority to think for themselves. The people on the front lines have no understanding at all of how to evaluate a vehicle. They only know how to read numbers and into them. To say the customer service was horrible is a major understatement.

I do not think Snake Farm was trying to cheat me out of anything, or withhold money that they owe me. It was simply the fact they are nothing but process driven and the employees are not paid to think, only to read from a script.

Going forward, I have given the supervisor who works for me the task of making sure that our process allows the staff to think for themselves, listen to the customers, and make adjustments as warranted. We've always been able to do it, but now I'm making extra sure that my staff has that power.

The only one take away got from this that I did like was the fact that they text me 2 minutes before they call, and tell me that they are going to call. Like most people, I don't pick up the phone for numbers I'm not familiar with. The text gave me the number they were calling from, so I knew to pick up the phone. That I thought was pretty slick. 

Way to take a bad experience for you to better experiences for others

In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :

I know recently a young GRMer had what is most likely a total.  Do you mind if he gets in here and ask questions?  He was asking me today but I'm sure you can give better advice.

Absolutely! I am happy to help whenever I can.

When I totaled the 2011 F150 twin turbo eco boost XLT 4wd, with about $9k in factory options over the base XLT, the insurance co based their valuation at base XLT prices. I spent 2 weeks going back and forth ever couple days before they wore us down and we caved. The were not gonna budge. This was couple months before "crazy" prices... but I bet they'd 'of offered the same, at the peak of it.

And they were NOT gonna budge, and a lawyer would've cost more than the difference, and might not have made 'em budge, either 

Soooooo hi.  I wasn't expecting to be on GRM so soon with the news but yes. Unfortunately yesterday around 4pm, a Truck driving the opposite direction of me collied with my Miata as I was making a left turn. It is unfortunately the 32k mile survivor miata that Stampie sold me about 1 momth ago.

Couple of facts right off the bat. Yes I am okay physically. Car was able to drive home. And unfortunately I do not have collision insurance on my vehicle.

Also Yes those KMC 78s are for sale. Have all 4. Located in Orlando Florida.

In reply to ExcessKuma :

With no collision, I'm hoping the other driver was found at fault. 

In reply to Steve_Jones :

It appears to be as it was a rear impact, and the witnesses stated his light was yellow turning red when he hit me

I'm glad you're listening to customer experiences to improve.  I'm reminded of the days when I worked at a big box home improvement store of the orange variety.  The complete lack of connection between the higher-ups and the grunts made for a hideous experience in much of the operations department.  They were completely focused on spreadsheets and numbers and wondered why my repair department wasn't making money.  It didn't matter how many people I told, "well, if you actually released the repair order software, I could actually work on the 250 repairs sitting in the 6 storage containers you had to rent to put out back to house them."

My experience so far with Snake Farm has been totally positive, but I haven't experienced a big loss yet.  One of the reasons I switched to them was how positive my experience was when someone insured by them hit me.  I had an adjuster in my driveway and a check in my hand within an hour of the accident.  Having spent a considerable amount of time managing body shops myself, I thought the check was more than fair, and the agent followed up with me to inform me that he was keeping the claim open for 8 weeks in case I need chiropractic or medical care.

I think with all of the brokered-style agents you get offices staffed with good and bad folks.  I just got tired of the big companies paying for superbowl ads with Flo or a CGI reptile while denying my claims for no good reason.  I had one of those companies deny my claim for hail damage because the NWS said that the hail storm didn't happen until 10 minutes after when I stated the damage occurred.  Lawyered up, they said bring it, I lost.

ExcessKuma said:

In reply to Steve_Jones :

It appears to be as it was a rear impact, and the witnesses stated his light was yellow turning red when he hit me

Good luck, 99% of the time the person turning left will be found at fault, especially if his light was yellow, not red. The left turn person is required to yield, even if the other guy is speeding. Hopefully you're the 1%

When my lil treasure, the 323 GTR swapped awd mazdog protege sleeper monster got hit, the at fault insurance did their best to say my car was worth five hundred bucks. I used a vehicle appraisal service, can't recall the name but could look it up, they cost $450 but the insurance paid off closer to 7500. Better yet, I *didn't have to deal with them*. Totally worth it just for that right there. And when it came time to settle for my concussion and such, I took the advice of the jerk that hit me, and lawyered up. I found one that came highly recommended for this sort of thing, and again... Once I informed both my and the at fault's insurance that I hired the lawyer, that was the. Very. Last. Interaction. With Either of those motherberkleying stress-inducing moneygrubbing pieces of e36m3. This again is worth whatever the shyster takes outta your settlement, as that settlement is gonna be bigger that what they'll offer you if you try to go after them yourself. It's a crappy, rigged game, but you pretty much have to play it and going this route saves ever so much of your time and trauma that I cannot recommend it enough. 

Steve_Jones said:

ExcessKuma said:

In reply to Steve_Jones :

It appears to be as it was a rear impact, and the witnesses stated his light was yellow turning red when he hit me

Good luck, 99% of the time the person turning left will be found at fault, especially if his light was yellow, not red. The left turn person is required to yield, even if the other guy is speeding. Hopefully you're the 1%

Sadly for ExcessKuma, you are correct.  The vehicle turning left has a duty to yield.  The best advice I can give you is to just move on the best you can with the car.  You are not going to recover anything from the other carrier.

Curtis73 (Forum Supporter) said:

I'm glad you're listening to customer experiences to improve.  I'm reminded of the days when I worked at a big box home improvement store of the orange variety.  The complete lack of connection between the higher-ups and the grunts made for a hideous experience in much of the operations department.  They were completely focused on spreadsheets and numbers and wondered why my repair department wasn't making money.  It didn't matter how many people I told, "well, if you actually released the repair order software, I could actually work on the 250 repairs sitting in the 6 storage containers you had to rent to put out back to house them."

My experience so far with Snake Farm has been totally positive, but I haven't experienced a big loss yet.  One of the reasons I switched to them was how positive my experience was when someone insured by them hit me.  I had an adjuster in my driveway and a check in my hand within an hour of the accident.  Having spent a considerable amount of time managing body shops myself, I thought the check was more than fair, and the agent followed up with me to inform me that he was keeping the claim open for 8 weeks in case I need chiropractic or medical care.

I think with all of the brokered-style agents you get offices staffed with good and bad folks.  I just got tired of the big companies paying for superbowl ads with Flo or a CGI reptile while denying my claims for no good reason.  I had one of those companies deny my claim for hail damage because the NWS said that the hail storm didn't happen until 10 minutes after when I stated the damage occurred.  Lawyered up, they said bring it, I lost.

That's the really sad part.  Last claim I had with them was 8 years ago when my Nissan Leaf was totaled by a hail storm.  They were fine.  Adjuster was at my house relatively quickly and the process went as I expected it should.  I was pleased.  This one...not so much.  Keep in mind that agents have absolutely nothing to do with the claims process.  They simply sell policies.  The best analogy I can give is a car dealership.  The salesperson sells you the car, the service department works on it.  In insurance, the agent is the salesperson and the claims team is the service department.  

As for listening to improve, my company pays me a pretty penny to make our claims team a world class organization, and that's what I'm hellbound to do.  We do use some metrics, but my philosophy is to make the claims experience as efficient and customer friendly as it can be.  If I do that, the metrics will follow.  One of the biggest metrics that I use is customer service survey results.

I've always had a hatred for insurance companies, even more so now. No idea if this is in your wheelhouse, but since you are open to the actual customer experience, here you go.  
I pay VERY high insurance because I live in a hurricane zone. 
Ok. I get that.
I have a reasonable deductible, except for a hurricane, then it's 5X the normal deductible. 
Insurance companies are double dipping, or rather double screwing us. If my premium was typical, but my deductible was 5X the deductible for other losses, or my premium was 2X normal but my deductible was typical, I'd understand. 
Screw the insurance industry as a whole. That's why people are drying to defraud you guys. They're just trying not to get bent over that hard. 

I just need to throw out my experience with usaa insurance:  I had a sweet ford focus svt, with a power works supercharger.  Came down a hill and slid through a stop sign.  The road was iced over, no salt or sand.  I asked God for no traffic coming my way, He answered with "Not Today."  A prius hit me on the passenger side, sending me into an audi suv.  My sweet focus was no more.  The police officer arrives and falls to the ground as he slips on the ice.  I was not issued any type of citation and he noted road conditions in his report.

I think my car was a 2003 and the supercharger (was on the car when purchased) was a $4-5k add on.  They offered me $5k for the car, which I happily took.  I bought the car back from the insurance company for $400 bucks, then sold it for $1400.  I had paid $7k for the car originally .  I was happy with the deal.

I wondered if I was given $5k for he car because it was an svt??  They certainly sold it back for nothing and had it towed to my house for free.  I have dealt with usaa with medical claims and felt they were total cheats, but all other dealings with them have been great.  Is it their auto department?

DrBoost said:

I've always had a hatred for insurance companies, even more so now. No idea if this is in your wheelhouse, but since you are open to the actual customer experience, here you go.  
I pay VERY high insurance because I live in a hurricane zone. 
Ok. I get that.
I have a reasonable deductible, except for a hurricane, then it's 5X the normal deductible. 
Insurance companies are double dipping, or rather double screwing us. If my premium was typical, but my deductible was 5X the deductible for other losses, or my premium was 2X normal but my deductible was typical, I'd understand. 
Screw the insurance industry as a whole. That's why people are drying to defraud you guys. They're just trying not to get bent over that hard. 

You're talking about homeowners/property insurance, which is not exactly my forte, but I do understand it.  I'm not sure exactly what you're upset about though.  I'm not saying that in a confrontational way, just not sure why you see that as double dipping or screwing anyone.  Your insurance carrier obviously is risk adverse to properties in a hurricane zone.  You're lucky they're writing it, many carriers flat out refuse to write in a hurricane zone.  The 5x deductible should have been made known to you upfront before you bought the policy.  You could shop around for another carrier and see if you can get a better deal.  

You may say I'm biased, but I wouldn't want to invest $3000/year (guessing) premium into a $400k home (or whatever the actual value is) that stood an abnormally high risk of being damaged/destroyed by a hurricane.  Simple risk management.

My insurance company put me at fault when my vehicle was sideswiped while street parked. They said it was my fault because the paint analysis came back and stated that I hit a building. I tried to tell them that the street I parked on has an endless number of construction trucks driving and parking there. They could literally come down here and see this as a fact and see all the construction equipment and material parked in those same places. 

I also had rearend damage from the same incident which I recorded when I made the claim for the sideswipe damage. I think a dumptruck was parallel parked behind me and accidentally tapped the back of my vehicle then sideswiped the back driver side of my vehicle when pulling out. 

Gecko, wanted to treat the sideswipe and rear end damage as two separate claims/incidents. They fixed the side swipe damage but only after making it an at-fault incident for me. I haven't submitted the claim for the other damage yet. This process took months and left a very sour taste in my mouth.

In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :

Risk averse, yes. I get that. If that's the case, charge me a high premium, or a high deductible. Not both. 
Basically they say 'we're going to charge you a premium that's 2 to 2.5 times what you would pay in another part of the country every month because you live in a hurricane zone......AND collect a 5X deductible when said hurricane hits'
Being in the industry, you might see that as just fine. I don't, and neither to those paying the rates. 
Going to auto insurance, a sport car gets a higher rate. They don't also multiply the deductible by 5X if something happens to the car while it was driving. You simply pay a higher rate because of the risk it presents to the insurer. 

In reply to DrBoost :

If you had the choice, would you pay a much higher premium to keep a lower deductible? That's the tradeoff they're facing; the premiums and deductible are related and if one goes down the other goes up. They have to cover their risk and they face tens of billions in losses when a big hurricane hits. I can't think of a better way for them to cover it. The other option is no insurance and thus no mortgages on homes in that part of the country. Which honestly makes sense to me - maybe it should be a nature preserve. 

Now if only all the lawyers were honest.

dculberson is correct.  It's just how they choose to mitigate their risk.  I'm just pulling numbers from my butt to give an example, but here are the two options.

A: Charge you $5000 premium with a $500 deductible for non-hurricane losses and a $5000 deductible for a hurricane, or

B: Charge you $10,000 premium with a $500 deductible for any loss, including hurricane.

Which one do you want?  Most people would take A, because in B you're paying $10k whether a hurricane comes or not.  In option A, you're only paying $5k...the other $5k won't happen unless the hurricane happens.

This situation is used in auto a lot, mostly with commercial policies.  You can have a $500 deductible for your $30,000 F150 work truck, but you'll have a $5000 deductible for your $300,000 dump truck.

In reply to SKJSS (formerly Klayfish) :

That's honestly pretty sad to hear. I figured my light being green and his going yellow to red would be sufficient to find him at fault but was unaware of the need of me to yield even in a condition like that. I'll just wait to hear from the insurance company and just start looking for a body shop to pull the quarter out

In reply to ExcessKuma :

Yeah, you are still in "Green means Go, only when safe." Glad you are okay. Those wheels look pretty sweet.