Insurance Companies Suck

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed a big scratch in the paint on the hatchback of Kris's car.  At least I thought it was a scratch.  And next to the taillight, there was a spot where the paint had cracked and I could see the metal underneath rusting.  This is the same spot that has been repaired at least twice before.  When I took it in, I thought all they would do was sand it down and repaint it.  The guy who did the estimate, however, said, nope, something had hit the car and it was not a scratch but a crack in the paint.  They would have to strip it down, repair the filler from the last time, and replace the nameplates...  a total of $690 worth of repair work.  So what I thought would be about a $200-$300 repair turned into almost $700.

Because of this, I called the insurance company.  The last time this happened the adjuster looked at it and said yeah, something hit the car, but it wouldn't be classified as a collision, but rather be covered under our comprehensive coverage.I just assumed that this time around we would have the same thing happen.  Kris explained the situation to the insurance company, and they said they would work it out with the body shop.

I called to get her car in while I am at home recovering and we only need one car.  I made sure to ask about the classification of the damage since it would have a pretty big bearing on how much I would be paying out of pocket to get it fixed.  He assured me they would handle it; they would be calling the insurance company and sending photos of the area that was damaged.

They called Thursday and left a message to tell me it was ready to pick up.  Since they didn't say anything about the price, I decided to call the shop just to make sure I knew how much I was responsible for and they dropped the collision number on me, not the comprehensive.  Even though the other times it had been damaged the insurance company had classified it as comprehensive.  The only difference was that we switched insurance companies in October due to what I perceived as poor service from the other one in the claim I had with the Lancer last year.  We also didn't get a chance to talk to the insurance adjuster this time.  I am sure if we would have had a chance to talk to him (or her) we would have been able to make our case to classify it as a comprehensive claim.  I guess that is how insurance companies keep their costs down.

So we ended up paying the whole thing out of pocket since the difference between out deductible for collision and the repair cost was less than $200.  So I can officially say that all insurance companies suck!