Any insurance adjusters in here?

[Impureclient]

OK, first I needed electrical help and now I have insurance questions but for somebody else.

My son's girlfriend slid her car in the car into a curb. Very minor damage. I know it was a bent lower control arm from their description at the scene of the accident of the part that they said was bent which is why it was towed.
The tire was punctured and it had a little scraping on the front bumper underneath and some plastic panels under there got scraped too.

The insurance company sent out a tow truck and the tow guy said to bring it to his shop he works for/recommends way out of the way from where she lives/works and the accident happened. So 21 days later after them dragging their feet and constantly saying they had it done and then adding more days, she gets it back.

So here is where the fun begins:

They said they were replacing both tires in front, they only replaced the popped one. The ABS and traction lights were on so I figured it was just the wire was left unplugged when they replaced the control arm. It was scraped from the wheel hitting it after bending and hitting and torn into two, they left it that way. It literally looks like somebody took an angle grinder to it and left it that way.
The panels underneath were all still scraped and they didn't even put the plastic fasteners that hold all those pieces back in there back. It's all still loose and flopping around. The steering wheel feels funny(her words) now and different than before the accident. It also makes a scraping sound when turned back and forth quickly.
They did change the control arm which is all it looks like that was done. They also said they did a alignment and based off the other "work" done, I assume they skipped that too.

She paid the $500 deductible directly to the repair shop and the insurance paid the rest. Is she liable for all the screwup on her own with no help from the insurance company because she chose to take it to that place. She actually was coerced by the towtruck driver sent out by the insurance company to be fair. This was Progressive insurance if it matters and she will speak to the insurance agent tomorrow morning as she just got the car back late today. So where do you think she stands right now? Is the insurance going to go to bat for her here or will she have to take this clown operation repair shop to small claims court?

[soundman98]

in my experience, most insurance companies warranty any repair work for the life of the vehicle. if it's not right, she needs to contact her agent. they will likely be willing to sort it out with her. but i would recommend finding a different shop, though more than likely, she's going to need to take it back to the same shop at first in an effort to allow them to fix their mistakes.

rule number 1 of car repair, never accept the tow repair shop recommendations. rule number 2 is to never accept the insurances recommended body shop...

i t-boned another driver about 15 years ago(legally i was in her way, technically she hit me). the insurance company insisted on using all aftermarket body panels for the repair. my body shop warned me that it wasn't going to line up right, i spent some time talking with the insurance agent, who reassured me multiple times that it was going to come out fine. "as good or better than OEM fitment" was the exact words.

after the entire repair was done, it was exactly as my body shop warned me about. fitment was terrible, there were gaps in fender garnishes, they even showed me how they attempted to correct uneven panel gaps as best they could by enlarging some of the panels bolt holes.

long story short, i took pictures of all of it, emailed them to the insurance rep, explained how dissatisfied i was, and they re-did the entire repair with OEM parts, because none of the aftermarket parts were of any quality.

this is more of a poor shop doing subpar work, but the overall premise is the same-- the insurance company paid out to make the car whole again, and it's not.

[Impureclient]

It's crazy though. 21 days for what probably was a couple hours to change out that lower control arm and all they did was poorly cobble the rest back together and even the manager supposedly looked it all up and down and OKed it.
When my son got there to the accident and he asked me what she should do do I said don't listen to the tow guy but she did any way because he ensured her everything would turn out great. I never thought it would go this wrong though. I guess we'll see tomorrow morning .

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by Impureclient

OK, first I needed electrical help and now I have insurance questions but for somebody else.

I wondered where this was going to head!



The car needs to be fixed properly. She may have fun fighting for it though.

[evomike]

Originally Posted by Impureclient

OK, first I needed electrical help and now I have insurance questions but for somebody else.

My son's girlfriend slid her car in the car into a curb. Very minor damage. I know it was a bent lower control arm from their description at the scene of the accident of the part that they said was bent which is why it was towed.
The tire was punctured and it had a little scraping on the front bumper underneath and some plastic panels under there got scraped too.

The insurance company sent out a tow truck and the tow guy said to bring it to his shop he works for/recommends way out of the way from where she lives/works and the accident happened. So 21 days later after them dragging their feet and constantly saying they had it done and then adding more days, she gets it back.

So here is where the fun begins:

They said they were replacing both tires in front, they only replaced the popped one. The ABS and traction lights were on so I figured it was just the wire was left unplugged when they replaced the control arm. It was scraped from the wheel hitting it after bending and hitting and torn into two, they left it that way. It literally looks like somebody took an angle grinder to it and left it that way.
The panels underneath were all still scraped and they didn't even put the plastic fasteners that hold all those pieces back in there back. It's all still loose and flopping around. The steering wheel feels funny(her words) now and different than before the accident. It also makes a scraping sound when turned back and forth quickly.
They did change the control arm which is all it looks like that was done. They also said they did a alignment and based off the other "work" done, I assume they skipped that too.

She paid the $500 deductible directly to the repair shop and the insurance paid the rest. Is she liable for all the screwup on her own with no help from the insurance company because she chose to take it to that place. She actually was coerced by the towtruck driver sent out by the insurance company to be fair. This was Progressive insurance if it matters and she will speak to the insurance agent tomorrow morning as she just got the car back late today. So where do you think she stands right now? Is the insurance going to go to bat for her here or will she have to take this clown operation repair shop to small claims court?

If it was not a Progressive network shop your fight is with the shop and not Progressive, find out if they are a network shop or just a shop with a tow contract for the area.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by evomike

If it was not a Progressive network shop your fight is with the shop and not Progressive, find out if they are a network shop or just a shop with a tow contract for the area.

Sorta depends if they paid for work not done. Progressive might still have a say.

[Tcoat]

Originally Posted by evomike

If it was not a Progressive network shop your fight is with the shop and not Progressive, find out if they are a network shop or just a shop with a tow contract for the area.

I would never, ever, ever send my car to a shop that was prefaced by a wrecker driver saying "I know a place..."
NEVER.

[xdavidx]

Originally Posted by Tcoat

I would never, ever, ever send my car to a shop that was prefaced by a wrecker driver saying "I know a place..."
NEVER.

My sister did this once in Brooklyn.... once...


She hadn't owned a car in 20 years and was her, so I gave her a pass on the criticism. She learned quickly enough and was able to get her car back from the shop before they caused her any harm.... Though they tried their best not to let her.

[evomike]

Originally Posted by cjd

Sorta depends if they paid for work not done. Progressive might still have a say.

nope. they will tell you well we offered our network of shops to you and you chose a shop out of that network, we explained our warranty and that some shops may not offer a warranty we are sorry.

[cjd]

Originally Posted by evomike

nope. they will tell you well we offered our network of shops to you and you chose a shop out of that network, we explained our warranty and that some shops may not offer a warranty we are sorry.

I haven't used Progressive in ages. Their network shop sucked when I did, and the cops insisted I was partially at fault when a plumbing van rear-ended my car and pushed it into the car in front of me (it had just started raining and I was in a Chevy S10 with nothing in it... ) Cops were really rude to me. No one else saw the other 3 cars pulled over exchanging information, so I guess I was counted as unreliable, rather than more observant...


I never trust "I know a guy" though...

[Impureclient]

Progressive said to bring it back to the idiots and see if the can "really" fix it all correctly this time. Whether or not they do and I doubt they will, I told her to take it small claims since they really just changed out the control arm and put on one new tire for $2000.
Even if they replace the couple scraped plastic underpanels and inner fender liner, they are still far from getting a $2000 repair bill. The $2000 total was also for getting the new front bumper skin and getting it repainted which they of course didn't do.