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Insurance company tries to pay car owner for his vehicle at ‘market value’ but lowballs by $2500, so the car owner demands all the required paperwork to prove their offer is market value: ‘I scared them right back’

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  • "My car is worth very little? Okay... prove it, in great detail."
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  • "My car is worth very little? Okay... prove it, in great detail."

    My old car got into a very small bump that was juuuuuust bad enough to crack something critical,
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  • which meant repairing it would just not be economical.
  • My insurance people said they'd give me its market value, which according to them is $5000. I did
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  • some research of my own (a big Excel spreadsheet was involved and lots of averaging) and found it was actually closer to $7500.
  • I didn't want to go full K n on them from the start. I'm sure there's a logical, reasonable,
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  • compliant explanation, I just have to find it! It went on for weeks, y'all. I've shortened it a LOT.
  • Me: I found car X worth $8k and car Y worth $6k. How come they're still more than what you quoted me?
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  • Them: We can't consider the first one, it's in a different state. (In my country this is like saying different astrology). But we
  • will give you the price of the second one! Me: They're both interstate. Why can you still consider the
  • second one? Also I've just noticed, the second one has a worse odometer than mine. Are you
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  • saying a car in worse condition than mine is still worth more than what you quoted me?
  • Them: Look, it's a really good price! We didn't even take into account the delamination! Me: then by all means,
  • take the delamination into account, as long as you can prove the price difference. I
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  • am actually begging you to throw the book at me and confound me with legal jargon. Give me something.
  • Them: [silence for several days]
  • man looking at a tablet in his parked car, going over his car insurance policy
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  • Me: look, [government body] says if I don't hear back within another 2 weeks I'm allowed to file a complaint. I
  • understand you're busy, so I'll make it 3. I've also made a complaint to your customer service department making
  • it clear I'm looking for either a) $7.5k according to my research, or b) a good reason why I should accept less.
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  • Receipts, laws, terms of service, paperwork, that sort of thing. If it takes a while to put together
  • the facts, that's okay, letting me know that's what you're doing is fine too. If I can't get any of what I've asked
  • for, I will have to ask [govt body] if they can help sort this out.
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  • They responded within 5 minutes letting me know I was being transferred to a different rep. The
  • new rep offered me all the hard facts I could ever hope for, AND my $7.5k. (With a note that the price is only guaranteed if
  • I don't go to that govt body. I wasn't planning on it now I have my facts lol).
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  • TL;DR insurance company tried to scare me into accepting less money than I'm worth, otherwise they'll bamboozle me with reasons to take it all
  • away. I scared them right back by asking them to show their working and quoting my consumer rights directly from a government website. I won.
  • mvcjones Insurance companies are 100% about paying out as little as possible vs a fair payout. I have them just below trial lawyer and members of congress on my scale of integrity and honorability.
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  • Holygeni Fact of life, insurance isn't there for you. Never accept their first price
  • softlywhisperxo This is how you handle bureaucracy: calmly, firmly, and armed with receipts. Love seeing it actually work out in your favor.

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