WOT: Changed the title to the Big Story!, The big stupid insurance company vs the lil guy. This is very long...L Options

[rick 918-S]

Last October My youngest son was riding his bike to school. It was snowy and sloppy and his brakes failed as he approched an intersection. He was on the sidewalk riding against traffic. The light turned red for him but he couldn't stop. The car waiting at the light started off. Although the driver of the car my son hit had the right of way she never bothered to look to see if anyone was coming.

So, I'm not arguing my son was mostly in the wrong. Hey, His brakes failed. Here's my beef. The woman stated at the scene she was not going to turn in a claim as she had lots of other damage on her car.

So, she then turns in a claim to her insurance company, that's fine, she's entitled, however were not notified until the end of January and then it's by a collection agency. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif)

The douch at the collection agency comes off as a total prick. He has no clue who he's talking to. He's arging with me about the facts and telling me I shoould just turn this into my home owners insurance. I tell hime to send a proper subrogation demand. He faxes over the estimate I attached here. $ 2000.00! caused by a bike! (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif) The photo that came through the fax machine was a black blob.

I contacted the woman's insurance company. To make a long story short I insisted we have the opportunity to settle the damage in good faith. Eventually the insurance rep canned the collection agancy douch bag and sent the photos I attached here.

As you can see the woman is attempting to claim the prior damage she has on her car. Remeber the damage she told my son she already had...

My son, seeing the pending collision turned to the right and hit the quarter panel with his left shoulder. His bike went down and he flew over the trunk lid and landed on the ground behind the car.

So the damage to the rear door and specially the front door was not caused by my son. I confronted the claims rep about this. She is standing her ground and is attempting to charge us full tilt based on her insured word. I ended up going to the rep's supervisor. He asked me to submit what I felt was caused by my son.

Now, Here's what I need. I need a print out showing what is an included and not included operation with regard to refinish time.

Example, I am going to write an estimate for the repair to the quarter panel only. No blend time, masking the rear window, masking the rear bumper.

I know as part of the refinish time, "color tint time" is included. I need this printed out and faxed to me. In the old school crash guides there was an included and not included operation section. I know computer driven software estimating systems have the same thing.
12 hrs on the quarter panel is funny time. In the real world that's a 6 hr repair. I the spirit of settling things, I will give them the funny time.

Oh, and in discussing the estimate with the insurance rep, She agreed that "body pull" was a fraudulent charge. No shit!

My son ended up with a wrecked left shoulder that day. He was on his way to his jury. He's a musician and it was finals week. He ended up on the Dean's Lists. But was so sore a week later he went in for an xray. He's better now but still has some mild pain from time to time. Good thing he's young.

[slow914]

Just my point of view as a bodyman, but at best you should be paying to blend the rear door and R+Iing whatever is involved, but no repair time on it just based on where the damage is. Your best course of attack would be the insurance company's failure to communicate and the obvious adding of unrelated damage. However you say he turned right and flew over the trunk, whats to stop his bike from the scraping down the right side of her car before it came to a rest. Im not saying it did but by the description you can see why this would be a hard case to fight.

Good luck
Nick

[rick 918-S]

Just my point of view as a bodyman, but at best you should be paying to blend the rear door and R+Iing whatever is involved, but no repair time on it just based on where the damage is. Your best course of attack would be the insurance company's failure to communicate and the obvious adding of unrelated damage. However you say he turned right and flew over the trunk, whats to stop his bike from the scraping down the right side of her car before it came to a rest. Im not saying it did but by the description you can see why this would be a hard case to fight.

Good luck
Nick

I understand your point about blend time. I owned a shop for 18 years and have been an insurance adjuster now for 15 yrs. So I've seen both sides of the fence. As a shop owner I would push for blend time, mlding R&R, extra masking time body shop supply's and what ever else I thought I could get. Those are profit builders. Body shop need to do this.

The body shop estimate I attached is a perfect example. This is a direct pay shop for this insurance company. They clearly have a comfortable relationship with this carrier. If you look at the estimate it's fill of funny time. They listed as the first item on the estimate, "body pull" as a body guy you know this requires setting up the car on the bench and making a pull. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/WTF.gif)

When I called this line item into question the insurance company noticed it was on there and removed it. Notice the manual correction in the estimate. The claims rep did that not me.

The second item they list is the right quarter panel. In my shop, I would have written the panel replacement time. 12 hrs. to do a section. I would have convinced the adjuster this was fair as I was saving the cost of the part. Most adjusters don't work on cars so they were easy to convince. However, as a bodyman you know 60% of that dent will pop out with a body shop version of a suction cup in the first 2 minutes of repair. The rest of the panel can worked out in 2 hours. That leaves the tech 2-3 hrs to finish the filler to 180 grit.

Now, a good tech can beat book time by 2/3. At least my guys could. That's how shops make their money. Good negotiation, and fast workers. I'm not faulting the shop for doing what they need to, I'm faulting the insurance company for not correcting them prior to the start of repairs. That's their adjusters roll. That's why they are employed. Specially when then fully intend to subrogate this claim. The money they are demanding is not fair and honest. I should not have to pay for their lack of oversite.

I agree with your opinion with regard to blend time. This makes the shop's job an easier sell to their customer. It makes it easier to match without spending time allowed in the refinish time for correction. First, less time spent and more time allowed. The body shop profits. Nothing wrong with that, but not on my dime.

From a liability perspective, there is a function in the paint time as shown in the ADP opperations guide I attached for correcting paint. Considering this is a 2001 model car and subject to fade, poor paint maintanence, and other contributing factors, I should not be required to pay blend time when color correction is part of the refinsh procedure.

And with regard to the damage to the doors, it's pure physics. My son is traveling 90 deg. from the vehicle. The vehicle is moving off way from him to his right, He turned his bike to the right to avoid hitting head on and took the imact with his left shoulder. He told me this was a concious decision to avoid the head on. He told me he was trying to bail and roll over the trunk thinking that was the least threating tact. He hit the quarter panel first but that was not what he wanted to have happen.

Do you think the bike kept going forward from a near 90 deg impact when he hit the car and flew over the trunk lid landing on the ground behind the car in the traffic lane? or do you think it's more likely the bike bounced off the tire and flew away from the car? The fork was mangled and the front wheel was bent. Think about billards. Have you ever seen the cue ball hit anything and stay on course?

I told the insurance company it would have taken some serious electo magnets connected to the car to change the laws of phisics and gravity.