insurance doesn't cover your back

[Craig 94 TA GT]

OK, for all those who have been reading my posts about sugar in the tank, the insurance is trying to back out. This is unbelievable. I'm red with fury because of their childish explanations.
I filed the claim last Saturday and he told me to get an estimate and fax it over to him. Well, part way through the estimate, he found that it wouldn't run at all anymore, so he needed to replace the fuel pump. I said OK because the insurance required me to take it to San Jose (20 miles) so their rep can look at it.
Firstly, when I found out it doesn't run anymore, I couldn't contact the insurance - they wouldn't answer the phone. Since it wouldn't even run period, and it needed to be 20 miles south of the shop, I had to have the shop fix the fuel pump. It would have been ready by tonight. I left 2 messages on the insurance recorders, and they didn't bother to respond. I called again and finally got through to them and they said...since I didn't have a safeco rep look at the car before it was fixed, I have no proof it was tampered with??????????????????? It's word against word and they do NOT trust any mechanic's words - or my words - period. They said I or the mechanic could have switched out or tampered with the parts, could have lied, etc. WTF is the deal???

It is still currently being worked on right now, so I told the mechanic to stop. Then, when I talked to the safeco rep again, he told me that he wouldn't be able to get a rep out there until next Mon to Wed. OK, so it looks here that I would have to have the car wait outside for 5-6 days until "they" could look at it. Then I told him that I could stop the work and leave it outside until Monday...and his excuse was that it's not safe because of other potential vandalism. So what's the difference if it wasn't fixed??? It would have to wait outside for 5-6 days anyways!!!!!!! Isn't this circular reasoning??? They should have learned it in grammar school. He claims that the best thing I can do is to save all my receipts and hopefully they'll reimburse me - but they said that they mostly likely will not.
I have witnesses, but since they are not part of safeco, I could have 10+ witnesses and it would still mean "nothing" according to him.
They caused the problem by saying I must take it 20 miles south of the shop, then they blame me for trying to get it running to take it to their shop. This is unbelievable.

[Christopherrr]

Re: insurance doesn't cover your back

Originally posted by Craig 94 TA GT
They caused the problem by saying I must take it 20 miles south of the shop, then they blame me for trying to get it running to take it to their shop. This is unbelievable.

It's their way to not have to pay for it...

anyone have any suggestions for Craig..??

You're definately dealing with a @hole insurance company...what's the point of paying for coverage when you don't get covered? The coverage I see is them covering themselves...completely absurd dude, what a bunch of horse poop.

[Black97]

Man, they are raising the prices every time you turn around and when it becomes time to pay for something they find every excuse in the book to back out.

Don't let them get away. Can't remember form your posts, did you file a report with the police? Maybe that would help if you did??

How were you suppost to get the car there? Would they have paid for the tow truck?

Somebody broke into my storage unit and tried to brake into the car. They couldn't open it but caused some damage. I contacted the insurance and they said if I was to file a claim they would send somebody out to look at it. It turned out to be less that the deductable so I filed no claim. But at least the guy would have come and looked at the car.

I know this sucks big time. Recently a drain was plugged in our upstairs bathroom. Water went through the ceiling into the kitchen. So my wife called the insurance and the lady she spoke to didn't really want to deal with this. So my wife was told to take a couple of steps back and try to calm down and call back in a couple of days!!!???

After getting some estimates for the repair, my wife called again to find out what was going on. Another woman told her that she couldn't file a claim with them since we had no car insurance with them. Once my wife was able to explaing to her that it was about the repair of our kitchen ceiling she hung up on her. So much for customer service.

Once again don't let them get away with it. Hopefully somebody has more experience on how to deal with these crooks.

[Mark B]

I feel for you this time, but if I were you... I would switch insurance companies FAST!! I am guessing that safeco is one of those bargin insurance companies. The phrase "You get what you pay for" comes to mind. I have state farm. Unfortunately, I have had a few claims with them. But they handle everything VERY fast and they have never given me a BS excuse to not pay for anything. Its almost like they want to pay for everything!

Good luck with claim.

[fastTa]

Craig, I would absolutely not trust anyone at the insurance company to give you accurate legal advice or advice as to what your policy may include or exclude for that matter. Insurance companies are very, very, very clever at avoiding paying a claim by simply frustrating the hell out of their policy holder.

I contacted a civil attorney, via a referral, when my Explorer was broken into a while back because my auto insurance "Texas Farm Bereau" was doing the same thing yours is doing. The instant I had a lawyer call them, their tune changed very quickly and I had not one but two checks within 10 days.

And best of all, the attorney did not charge me a dime! He said their are lots of civil attorneys that would just love to give an insurance company a call! You just have to do a little homework to find an attorney with auto insurance experience.

Man this sucks, I feel your anger!

Good Luck man!

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

Hmmm....just did a search and found www.consumerwatchdog.org

Searched their site for Safeco and here is what I found:

http://www.consumerwatchdog.org/insu.../nw003507.php3

Yikes!

I am starting to believe that insurance is the closest thing to legalized organized crime that there is.

Keep on 'em! Maybe logic will prevail....

[BadWS6]

We had terriable luck with Safeco ...no claims and had been with them several years and them the rates started going up almost every month ...we started shopping around and found much to our suprise that AAA was a trird cheaper (I always assumed that they were higher) and so far the service has been great still no claims ...Hope to keep it that way oh and Safeco's reason for the rate hike ....We were due for a major claim because of the time with no tickets or accidents..My advise shop around ...

[Craig 94 TA GT]

Thanks for your advice guys. In no way am I backing out of this. For the fuel pump/tank cleaning alone, it will cost $1200+. I don't have that kind of money to throw around. If I would have known about the insurance backing out of the mess they cause, I would have done it myself. The friggin pump on gmpartsdirect is only ~$150.
Kevin, if worst comes, I will contact a lawyer and take drastic steps...thanks for that advice.
For now, I wrote an email about scientific proof on how my car was tampered with. If they still do not accept it, I will write to the newspaper's "Action Line" column. If still nothing, it's time for the lawyer.

I still haven't had my injectors cleaned out anyway - maybe that will help.

[edit]
I also forgot to mention...I am more pi$$ed off at the criminals who claim to protect you - insurance, rather than the criminals who actually screwed up the car.
A while back, I was driving a Toyota Crapolla and someone backed into me for no apparent reason. Safeco and the other party's insurance did the exact same thing...backed out of it. The only thing that didn't make me persue it further was the fact that I removed the damage with rubbing compound...which means...I will not let them do this to me twice...especially when this one is really that bad.

[00 Ragtop Z]

A suggestion. Print off ALL your posts here. This is evidence! It is a concurrent record of the situation and your discussions with all the members here and courts, if it has to come to that, place much credence in evidence such as this, becaus it cannot be fabricated and was done at the time the situation was occurring. It may not be needed, but I would suggest sending a copy to the SAFCO agent IF they continue to fight you, and then you may need to find an attorney. Insurance companies depend on the 'deep pockets' concept as much as they fear it. Most people are afraid to battle their insurance company becuase they know they have mountains of lawyers to fight with. But the more you show your determination, in an assertive but not agressive way, the more likely they will deal with you rather than fight. A few years ago my wife's son totalled his car. The insurance company was going to pay only half of what it cost and what it was worth. Now they didn't know my wife!! She did battle with them for 2 months, and finally got them to give her back the full purchase price of the car. It can be done. But keep it busienss like and civil.

[94 formula]

I'm in the same situation with insurance right now. I was hit monday and having some trouble with the company but today I talked to my teacher who used to be an insurane salesman and this is what he told me. It doesn't matter who you take a car two as long as their liscensed and reputable the insurance has to pay it. Claims adjusters work on commision the less you get paid the more they do. You have to make it clear that if what you want doesn't get fixed then you'll have to get an attorney. They usually won't put the money into fighting it. I hope that helps you.

[Craig 94 TA GT]

Thanks for interesting info. I did mention to the claims agent that I have records on f-body.com, but I forgot to mention I had videos of what the car was doing. It makes me sick to realize how much we become the victims twice!! Once by the criminal/one at fault, and the other by the insurance company. The costs of repair will be roughly $700-$1200 (already minus the deduct). This is how much I pay for 6 months to a year just for the T/A's coverage. It's not even like it's a claim that the car is totalled. My goodness...so even a smaller claim is immediately rejected.
94 formula, thanks for the info as well. I didn't know the claims adjusters get commision...makes it interesting to know why he's such a d!c% now. He was just for an excuse to deny me.
I am going to work him on 2 topics now: 1) he mislead me: I originally said that I had the plugs changed because of the bad gas. He told me to simply "save all my receipts." Then, when I told him I was going to get an estimate, he just told me to fax the estimate over. He never mentioned that I COUDLN'T get it fixed.
2) My insurance policy states: "A person seeking Coverage for Damage to Your Auto must also: Take reasonable steps after loss to protect your covered auto or any non-owned auto and its equipment from further loss. We will pay reasonable expenses incurred to do this." He advised me that if we stop work on the car and leave it outside until an agent can inspect it (Mon-Wed.), then it will be susceptible to other vandalism. So what was I supposed to do??? If I would have waited for the agent in the first place, it STILL would have been sitting outside, unguarded!

If worst comes, I found: http://www.badfaithinsurance.org/
Safeco did rank 10 in the worst of insurances.
This has become worse than a nightmare now.

[Joe K. 99 Zeee!!]

I'm surprised USAA is rated #6 on the "Worst" list. I've had 2 claims with them. They've always been extremely responsive. Both times they responded within 24 hours and I was able to begin repairs quickly.

[Coop '02Z]

yeah Joe

I am surprised to see Hartford at #1 worst. I just got hit three weeks ago by one of their insured. Once they figured out that she was at fault they covered everything, even extra on the rental car (I got a Cavalier instead of a Focus). No problems at all, I got the car back yesterday.

[Black97]

Originally posted by 00 Ragtop Z
It can be done. But keep it busienss like and civil.

That's good advice. Be assertive but try not to loose your cool. Try to make them feel good about paying for the repairs. (I know it sounds stupid but a person makes a decision much easier if they feel good about it. Not sure how you would go about with the insurance company that has to shell out money / profit)

Keep records of all the conversation and so on.

I asked before, did you call the police and did they file a report? If so you would have proof that your car was vandalized. Unless they don't trust any officers of the law.

[Rhode Island Red]

best luck is get a civil attourney that is used to the run-a-round BS that ins/ companies spew out .

~~~~~~~~
I reference to the bad faith ins. link

I have state farm Ins since 1990, and they have been very good to me but I am surprised that they are the #2 worst company

the company I hate most is GEICO.. they by default wont insure people with records, only allowing people with relatively clean records... thus that's how they get low insurance rates.. and mainly because they burned my late-departed aunt.. she was in a car accident, 100% not her fault... in order to delay/stop the payout to her, GEICo, knowing that there was no way they would win, took her to court to prevent payout/ for her to little/no settlement... it ends up that when it comes to big payouts, GEICO, by default takes most/all of their big payouts to court to delay/stop/reduce the payout ... they did the same to another family member (So cal based Geico)

I looked at geico initially but they wanted 2X the amount what I pay state farm for so I am happy with state farm $$$ wise


I wish you the absolute best of luck