Insurance Adjuster again

[jason@scirocco.org (Jason)]

At 10:36 AM 10/3/2002, Ken Weidmann wrote:
>Well,
>   The adjuster called and left me a voice mail saying that he went over 
> it with the lady in the office and they got it to the "total threshhold" 
> of $1715 now.  What a difference a day makes???  He said if I want more, 
> they will total the car and if I want, I can call him, and then he'll 
> explain to me the process for doing that.
>    I'm going to take the roc to the alignment shop today and get the 
> front end aligned and make sure that nothing else is wacky up front.  I 
> also told him I need more time, since I only had the one estimate, I 
> don't know if they were high, low, right on, so I can't accept what he is 
> offering right now.
>       From all of my other car buddies, they have come to the conclusion 
> that since the other driver is at fault, and this guy increased his offer 
> by almost doubling it in a day, that he has more $$ to play with.  I will 
> probably stick to my guns and see if I can get at least $2k out of him or 
> more depending on what my other body shop estimates say. (and the 
> alignment shop too)

Ken,
         I have two pieces of advice having gone through this entirely too 
many times before:

1.  (Preface:  I haven't been reading the list lately.  I don't know what 
happened to your car, nor do I know the condition of your car...)  Stay 
realistic.  As long as your demands to the insurance company are realistic, 
you won't have problems.  Asking for $8000 in damages for a shitbox '84 
with rust holes will accomplish nothing other than making the adjuster 
think you're nuts.  This wasn't directed at you Ken -- without knowing 
what's up with your car -- whatever it is, $2K is reasonable. :)

2.  And the more important advice:  We are talking about peanut amounts of 
money here.  A $2000 claim is tiny to an insurance company, and a $300 
difference between what you want and what they offered is literally 
negligible.  Remind the adjuster of that -- this is peanuts to their 
company; what would have happened if you were in a 2002 Mercedes S600 and 
it got totalled?  Suddenly, when threatened with $132,000 in replacement 
costs, $300 doesn't seem like much.  Additionally, you were lucky enough 
not to have gotten hurt (I hope).  Medical bills are astronomial - I ran up 
$100,000 in bills after a bad accident in college.  $300 wouldn't cover 1/3 
of an MRI -- so remind him that you didn't nail them with all kinds of 
medical bills...

Good luck and I hope this helps in some way.  Remember, a few hundred bucks 
either way will make NO difference to them, but it'll make a huge 
difference to you... and point that out! :)

Jason








>Ken Weidmann Jr.  Checkered Flag Automotive
>916-424-2197
>1995 Jetta GLX M3 Wannabe
>1985 Show-rocco
>1957 Porsche 356 A (1st family/2nd owner)#100119
>
>
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