Advice For Dealing With Auto Insurance Company (Progressive)?

Long story as short as possible, five weeks ago my girlfriend gets rear-ended fairly hard (ha ha!) by a 20 year old at a stop light in his parent's car, insured through Progressive. He admits to police he is not supposed to be driving, (some sort of medical condition), admits that it is his fault. Officer obviously agrees.

Girlfriend gets checked out at a walk-in clinic, sore, but otherwise OK, then speaks to agent at Progressive, who wants photos for an estimate, which she takes right away. Car is a 2017 Honda Fit, the bumper is smashed in, as is the rear liftgate which cannot be opened, and the right signal light is cracked and pushed out of its mounting position due to the hit. I'm no expert, but it looks totaled, or at least very expensive to repair to me.

This is where it goes sideways. She spends the next four weeks calling and leaving messages for this agent (her name is like Cache or some such shit), who never answers her phone or returns calls. The one time she speaks to this chick she tells her it is going to be several weeks before her claim gets paid out. Now my girlfriend is much more patient than I am, so she waits and hears nothing, leaving several more messages for this stupid agent, who never returns calls. Finally she gets through to another agent who tells her that this Cache person is no longer in that department, hasn't been for four weeks and that "lots of people really dropped the ball on this one, I'm so sorry." He tells her the claim has been closed because she has been "unreachable". Turns out this idiot woman got my girlfriend's address wrong, email wrong and phone number completely wrong. This new agent says he will "do what he can for her". Asks her to re-submit photos which she does. Progressive offers her $2,600.

I call fucking bullshit. What options does she have? I'm about to start throwing uppercuts. Thanks in advance

 

Ummm should she not be working through her own insurance company which would be doing all the dealing with Progressive?

 

I have no idea. I've had to deal with the other driver's insurance company in the past when their driver is at fault.

 

So had a similar situation with my wife a few years back. Hit by another driver, we reported to our insurance and we never had any dealings with the other driver's insurance company.

 

I have to side with rd. I backed into a little old lady at the gas pump last month (she snuck her car behind my truck) and our respective insurance companies took care of it. Don't quite understand why your girlfriend is calling Progressive. Her insurance should be doing that.

 

Have they been paying for a rental car while hers is damaged? In most states they are required.

Them getting direct billed for the rental tends to speed things up.

Call in on the recorded line and make sure you mention the words "bad faith" several times. Things usually change quickly

 

She said her GEICO rep didn't take any info because the claim was being filed directly through Progressive because there was no question of fault in the accident.

 

Sounds like your girlfriend needs to be harassing her Geico rep.

 

Eff all that. Call her insurance company, tell them what happened and tell them the car is at the body shop for repairs and the rental car is from Enterprise.

Tell them the bills are being sent to them.

 

$2600 sounds pretty cheap for that much damage to a Honda. Make sure you get oem replacements, not aftermarket crap. I second calling your own insurance company and getting them on the ball. If she financed this car, she should have underinsured/no insurance coverage and have her tell her own agent that's what she's going to use to pay for the repairs. That will get something happening.

 

That's typical of lowest common denominator nationwide insurance companies. Progressive has dropped the ball and at this point they're hoping to make this all go away quickly with a check, which may or may not be enough to repair her vehicle or make her "whole" again. We don't know since many details are missing in the story. It's also unclear whether your GF wants her car repaired or if she just wants to keep the cash and drive around in a wrecked car.

She has a few options. She can go to a Progressive recommended repair facility and have them fix her car and handle all the details of the claims process and hope that the quality of the repair is sufficient. Or she can drive all over town getting repair estimates from other repair shops to see if the Progressive claim is in the ballpark. Or she can cease all communication with Progressive and instead call GEICO back and tell them she is filing a claim through them even though it's the other party's fault. Yes, she will have to pay her deductible, but she should get it back when GEICO subrogates Progressive to recover the loss. Then she could take the car to a GEICO recommended repair facility OR a repair shop of her choosing to get either a repair estimate or to actually get the repairs done. But keep in mind estimates are just that: estimates. Oftentimes one cannot assess the true level of damage until some R&R is done. She should not accept any payment or settlement as final until she really is satisfied, is certain she doesn't have any lingering injuries, etc.

 

your own insurance company only won't, and i think CAN'T help you, if you only have liability on your policy and its somebody else's fault. they won't get involved if they won't have to even pay out $1. in this situation, and with full coverage, they should be providing you a rental and getting your car fixed and getting THEIR money back from Progressive and doing all that leg work for your girl, or facilitating it, which ever puts more pressure. i've gone to another person's insurance directly when they were at fault before and gotten my rental and my car fixed without my insurance, but i didn't fuck around and i was a giant dick about it and didn't let them fuck me around. handled instantly and told them to fuck themselves at every turn where they tried to skate by. happened on a sunday night, no other rental car places open but the airport. airport rental expensive and they wanted to swap me out for a cheaper car? fuck you, meet me then on my schedule, i'm not driving to you when its your fault. gonna send me to your body shop? fuck you, going to the body shop i've known for 20 years. my tires had flat spots in them all of a sudden too from locking up the brakes. also my pain and suffering and missed wages. fuck you, fuck you, fuck you... should be your main POV at every turn with insurance companies.

 

I've been through this exact thing. I chose to make the claim with my insurance company. It's called subrogation. I had to pay my deductible and you run the risk that they can't collect from the other insurance company but I think it usually works out. Once they got paid from the other insurance company I got my deductible back.

 

Or she can tell both companies she is retaining legal counsel and this will get decidedly more expensive.

 

Thank you. She either wants the car repaired or totaled if necessary. She has no interest in driving around in a wrecked car.

 

they won't total a car that new for that, honestly, you gotta hit like 75% of its value. my Lexus CT was 2 years old when i got cut off by a dude making an illegal left and T-boned him at like 35mph. airbags out, lights and every panel on the front replaced, bent the brake pedal with my foot, tires, etc... it was like $16k all said and done with the rental fees and towing, still not enough.

 

The other option in modern society is to just walk in and start shooting up the place. I don't think that ever works out well however.

 

How hard was she rearended?

 

Damage won't matter. The shop will have the company write the check for more based on damage they find. Pretty much all of this stuff is done automatically with photo recognition. They will only send an adjuster if the shop requests it but they are always having stuff added.

They should be paying for a rental car and for storage where ever the car is. That's usually about 50 bucks a day alone.

 

yep