Hello all. I am a claims adjuster for a major insurance company. Typical calls are first notice of loss, inquiries into open claims, etc. I am licensed and able to make liability decisions, go over coverages, etc basically I or anyone on my team can take a claim from FNOL to closure in one call, so the calls can be quite varied.
We had a nice lull in claims volume for a few weeks at the beginning of this month, but it’s begun to speed back up again, to the point that Mondays are back to back calls once again. This most recent Monday, I got an old man calling in on an open hail claim that had already been filed, and actually was entirely complete. Easy call.
This man had had his vehicle inspected, they’d writted the estimate and issued payment to him already. He had apparently been reading on the internet about diminished value, and was now pissed because his car was brand new and now it’d had damage. He’ll be old man (OM), I’ll be Me.
OM: Do you guys report to car fax?
Me: No sir, we do not report anything to carfax directly. However, many reputable body shops do, and CarFax has been known to pull information from various sources including insurance CLUE reports (inter company claims information sharing service), so I cannot guarantee that the CarFax will not reflect this claim.
OM: Well, I’ve read that now, if it’s on my CarFax, my car will have $5000 of diminished value, and if that’s the case I’ll be needing a new car! (he had a 2020 Ford Escape, a new car but not exactly a Bentley. His damages were ~5k, and certainly wouldn’t be anywhere near $5k DV.)
Me: I’m sorry to hear that your vehicle’s value is diminished. Unfortunately, DV is not recoverable on a first party auto claim (except Georgia which he was not in). If you are trying to sell your vehicle, I recommend you demonstrate to the buyer that it was merely hail damage and that it was properly repaired.
OM: YOU DON’T GET WHAT I’M SAYING. I NEED A NEW CAR, THIS ONE’S HAD 5000 IN LOWERED VALUE. IF THIS GOES ON MY CARFAX Y’ALL BETTER GET ME A NEW CAR.
Me: So, you’re saying you’d like us to declare the total loss of the vehicle and purchase you a new one? And again, we do not report to CarFax ourselves, so that’d be something you’ll want to take up with your body shop.
OM: OBVIOUSLY. YES. THIS ONE’S GOT LOWERED VALUE, I CAN’T HAVE THAT, IT’S GOT LESS THAN 1000 MILES ON IT.
Me: Again, I apologize for the situation, but we cannot total a $25000 car for $5000 in damages, our job is to return your vehicle to the position it was in before the loss. DV cannot be recovered under your policy, and we certainly cannot total the vehicle due to your perceived diminishment of value.
OM: WELL THEN I DON’T WANT TO GET IT FIXED IF IT’S GOING TO LOWER THE VALUE!
Me: Certainly. You do not need to use your coverages if you don’t want to, however due to your vehicle being financed, we are required to issue payment as a two party check, which means you will be unable to cash the check without getting the repairs completed, so if you’re not intending on filing, we’ll need to issue a stop-payment on your check. Do you want to proceed?
OM: ALSKDJALKSFDJLKFAJLAKFD disconnect
Wouldn’t that be nice if your auto insurance just totaled your vehicle every time there was minor damage to it. Oh, a door ding? Here’s a new vehicle.
submitted by /u/afunyun
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