thecurious
New member
Sorry for the long rant but I am just trying to get opinions from people more knowledgeable than myself. My son was in a wreck and his car was totaled. I am dealing with the other party’s (big name) insurance company to get a settlement offer.
The whole process has been very frustrating and I feel like we are getting ripped off. Just wondering if what we are experiencing is standard/normal practice by all insurance companies.
The insurance company has agreed that everything about our car was in good or better condition.
• Comp #2 had 4 accidents including the most recent one in which the airbag had deployed. I found this out by buying the carfax report.
• Comp #3 had reported frame damage.
They also added a negative $600 “condition adjustment” to all of these comp cars.
B. They said if I can provide proof that any of the comp cars have not been repaired, then they will remove it. However, I have no idea how I would even go about determining if the deployed airbag had been replaced or if the frame damage car had been fixed.
C. They do not take accident history into account when determining valuation. To them, there is no difference between my car with no accident history and their comp car with 4 accidents.
I’m not sure how the insurance company can say with a straight face that 4 accidents on a car would not cause the list price to be lower.
D. They agreed to remove the Comp car with the obvious damage on the passenger side. They had “missed” catching the damage during their review. The offer price went up another $1200.
E. They say the negative $600 condition adjustment is standard because they assume all cars being sold by a dealership are in “dealer condition”. (I have done plenty of used car shopping the last few years for my teenagers and have seen many cars for sale on dealer lots with ripped/stained interiors, peeling paint, etc). Used cars come in all conditions and I don’t understand how the insurance company can just assume their comp cars are in better condition than our car (unlikely based on the quality of comp cars they are using).
• Comp #2- structural/frame damage reported
• Comp #3 - this one is the highest priced of the 3 so it is the least concerning. However it is sold so the listing is not available for me to review pictures/condition/etc. I haven’t bought the carfax report for this one because I’m tired of spending money to figure out what issues their “comp” cars have
**I will also note that our car was older (2010) but had all optional features like backup camera, parking sensors, blind spot monitoring system, sunroof, spoiler, etc. The comp cars they are using do not have these features, but they are only adding a $300 combined adjustment for them. It just feels like they should be worth more
The whole process has been very frustrating and I feel like we are getting ripped off. Just wondering if what we are experiencing is standard/normal practice by all insurance companies.
The insurance company has agreed that everything about our car was in good or better condition.
- They offered an initial settlement amount which I immediately knew was too low. I realized that on the offer letter they had listed our car with about 9,000 more miles than it actually had. I then looked up similar cars in our area and sent them a list with asking prices. I also sent them the cars I could find for their offer price which were all crappy (50k miles more than ours had, damage all down the passenger side, etc).
- They called me a couple of days later and said they had “made a mistake” on the mileage. They had corrected it and were offering me a new amount that was $700 higher than the previous offer.
They then proceeded to tell me that the comp cars I had sent them were “way overpriced”. I said ok, then you need to send me the comp cars you are using because I don’t believe I can get a comparable car for the price you are offering. - They send me the list of their 5 comp cars (which are apparently gathered by a 3rd party called CCC). After researching these I determined the 3 lowest priced ones all had issues:
• Comp #2 had 4 accidents including the most recent one in which the airbag had deployed. I found this out by buying the carfax report.
• Comp #3 had reported frame damage.
They also added a negative $600 “condition adjustment” to all of these comp cars.
- When we had a phone call to discuss my concerns, this is what they told me:
B. They said if I can provide proof that any of the comp cars have not been repaired, then they will remove it. However, I have no idea how I would even go about determining if the deployed airbag had been replaced or if the frame damage car had been fixed.
C. They do not take accident history into account when determining valuation. To them, there is no difference between my car with no accident history and their comp car with 4 accidents.
I’m not sure how the insurance company can say with a straight face that 4 accidents on a car would not cause the list price to be lower.
D. They agreed to remove the Comp car with the obvious damage on the passenger side. They had “missed” catching the damage during their review. The offer price went up another $1200.
E. They say the negative $600 condition adjustment is standard because they assume all cars being sold by a dealership are in “dealer condition”. (I have done plenty of used car shopping the last few years for my teenagers and have seen many cars for sale on dealer lots with ripped/stained interiors, peeling paint, etc). Used cars come in all conditions and I don’t understand how the insurance company can just assume their comp cars are in better condition than our car (unlikely based on the quality of comp cars they are using).
- At this point I am sitting with their latest offer which is based on the below 3 comp cars (they have apparently taken a few off and added a new one which is no better as it has accident and theft history). I am $1900 higher than where we started but it still doesn’t feel right. I don’t know if it’s worth fighting them any further though.
• Comp #2- structural/frame damage reported
• Comp #3 - this one is the highest priced of the 3 so it is the least concerning. However it is sold so the listing is not available for me to review pictures/condition/etc. I haven’t bought the carfax report for this one because I’m tired of spending money to figure out what issues their “comp” cars have
**I will also note that our car was older (2010) but had all optional features like backup camera, parking sensors, blind spot monitoring system, sunroof, spoiler, etc. The comp cars they are using do not have these features, but they are only adding a $300 combined adjustment for them. It just feels like they should be worth more