Dealing with State Farm

[schwinger]

Need some advise and sorry to write a whole novel but hear it goes.

Me and my 5 year old daughter got in an accident on the 26th at a 4way stop sign intersection. I was driving my wife’s gold 2004 trailblazer at the time. Coming up to the stop sign I notice another guy in a Tacoma come up and I stopped first then he stopped. It was clearly my turn to go and proceeded through the intersection.

I’m halfway through and he starts proceeding. I was like WTH and honked my horn. He still didn’t stopped and kept going and hit me in the rear passenger side where my daughter was sitting.

It was a slow hit but it moved the car over to where I was on the side of the road now. Checked on my daughter and she appeared ok, thank god but came out and I was fkn pissed and the guy stopped too and pulled over to the side of the road and started coming towards me.

I chewed his *** out screaming “wtf man why didn’t you stop”. He replied I didn’t see you and I told him “How can you not see a gold fkn trailblazer” and he was dumbfounded and apologized saying I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention.

Called insurance and got the CHP over as well as ambulance. They checked my daughter and she was fine and I gave the whole police report.

A couple days later I get a call from my insurance (not State Farm) stating that they admit to the accident and I’ll be going through there insurance, (State Farm) to getting my car repaired.

I get a call from them stating that they will take care of me and recommend me going to there repair facility. I mentioned I’d like to get some other quotes to from other body shops and they said it was fun but still recommend doing to there shop so I set up a schedule and have them see it first. Went to the shop and talked to the adjuster. He looked over the car visually but didn’t seemed like he did a thorough inspection and did it quick too which was suspicious and came back and went back to the office to work up an estimate.

I did let him know I’m just getting estimates to get an average of what would it cost to repair and he came at me like why do I want to do that and I told him I have a right to choose my own shop and he gave me a stupid look. Got the estimate and it was like only 1900 In repairs and I was like really, na this doesn’t seem right so I proceeded to get other estimates that same day went to two shops and they quoted me 6800, the first shop and 6700 the second shop.

So I was like ok that seems more realistic so was gonna wait till the next day and let State Farm know but I get a text from them stating that they have completed an estimate and recommend me going with them so I called them up and told them there adjuster didn’t really do a good job inspecting the damage and seemed like he wipped up there estimate and I told them I went to 2 other shops to get quotes and told them the price they quoted and they said I can’t use another shop and that I have to use there specific shop to get it repaired but I thought I got to choose my own shop and they said “you have to use our shops in order to get it repaired” and I was wtf that doesn’t seem right. So I argued with them about that and told them I’m gonna do some research on this because this doesn’t seem right.

I did some research and come to find out I do have the right to choose my own repair shop but they are pressuring me to use there shops only which doesn’t seem right. Has any of you guys ever had to deal with this?

Also this is my first time going through this process to where the other person was at fault and I’m going through their insurance to get my vehicle repaired.

 

[Car Nut]

Get a lawyer.

 

[RustyRatRod]

First and foremost, I'm glad no one was hurt. That's the silver lining. Secondly and no offence, learn to use paragraphs and proper punctuation. I'm not the grammar police, but that makes it SO much easier to read than one long, BS paragraph. Again no offense.

Now, to your dilemma. I know traffic law pretty damned good. "When it's your turn" does not apply. You don't just arbitrarily "decide" when it's " your turn". That's not how it works. Never has been.

The law says the person on your right has the right of way. I always give someone else that may be "a little" later than I the right of way, if they are on my right. That's common sense defensive driving. If the lag is greater and I know I can go ahead with no chance of a collision, I do it. But if it's even "a little" close, I give the right of way to the person on the right.

All four approach at the same time? Again, I give you what the law states. All four drivers are supposed to make eye contact and all four agree to let "someone" go first. From there, the person to the right of the person that just went and so on. Simple common sense stuff. This "it's my turn" crap almost never ends well. Good luck. I hope you get everything worked out.

All that said, State Farm is about as crooked as it gets. And yes, you have the right to choose the repair shop of your choice. I would tell them you're getting in touch with the California Insurance Commissioner's office and see how quick they back down. But then, ACTUALLY DO IT. Because the next person they try to sheister might be a family member or friend of yours. Empty threats help no one. Good luck.

 

[Car Nut]

Yes, you have every right to go to any body shop of your choosing. Hope you and your daughter are ok, sometimes medical issues don’t show up till later. I was involved in a hit-and-run in September of last year, I followed the guy. I took a picture of his truck, the tag and the driver. The guy ran, so when I called the police, they asked me for all the information. The driver that hit me denied that he was driving, said his wife was driving. I got my whole car fixed under their insurance, now tonight I have to contact the district attorney. They want to know if I want to take it further, damn right I will. Don’t let their insurance company give you the go around.

 

[RustyRatRod]

I would hold off on the attorney until you ACTUALLY CONTACT the Insurance Commissioner's office. It's in their wheelhouse to help with matters like this. I see no sense in giving money to an attorney that you'll likely not get back. At least not yet. Just my opinion. I've been through this a few times myself.

 

[schwinger]

First and foremost, I'm glad no one was hurt. That's the silver lining. Secondly and no offence, learn to use paragraphs and proper punctuation. I'm not the grammar police, but that makes it SO much easier to read than one long, BS paragraph. Again no offense.

Now, to your dilemma. I know traffic law pretty damned good. "When it's your turn" does not apply. You don't just arbitrarily "decide" when it's " your turn". That's not how it works. Never has been.

The law says the person on your right has the right of way. I always give someone else that may be "a little" later than I the right of way, if they are on my right. That's common sense defensive driving. If the lag is greater and I know I can go ahead with no chance of a collision, I do it. But if it's even "a little" close, I give the right of way to the person on the right.

All four approach at the same time? Again, I give you what the law states. All four drivers are supposed to make eye contact and all four agree to let "someone" go first. From there, the person to the right of the person that just went and so on. Simple common sense stuff. This "it's my turn" crap almost never ends well. Good luck. I hope you get everything worked out.

All that said, State Farm is about as crooked as it gets. And yes, you have the right to choose the repair shop of your choice. I would tell them you're getting in touch with the California Insurance Commissioner's office and see how quick they back down. But then, ACTUALLY DO IT. Because the next person they try to sheister might be a family member or friend of yours. Empty threats help no one. Good luck.

We are fine thank god and I’ll work on the paragraphs! And good to know. He did admit to not paying attention and going into the intersection blindly but anyways yeah seems like State Farm is trying to screw me over and I didn’t think about calling the California insurance commissioners office which I’m definitely gonna do now.
Also is it a good idea to let my insurance know what they are trying to do to and see if they can do something?

 

[schwinger]

I would hold off on the attorney until you ACTUALLY CONTACT the Insurance Commissioner's office. It's in their wheelhouse to help with matters like this. I see no sense in giving money to an attorney that you'll likely not get back. At least not yet. Just my opinion. I've been through this a few times myself.

Alrighty!

 

[schwinger]

Yes, you have every right to go to any body shop of your choosing. Hope you and your daughter are ok, sometimes medical issues don’t show up till later. I was involved in a hit-and-run in September of last year, I followed the guy. I took a picture of his truck, the tag and the driver. The guy ran, so when I called the police, they asked me for all the information. The driver that hit me denied that he was driving, said his wife was driving. I got my whole car fixed under their insurance, now tonight I have to contact the district attorney. They want to know if I want to take it further, damn right I will. Don’t let their insurance company give you the go around.

We are fine thank god and ok, good! I was little unsure about that but their claim agent was really adamant that I had no choice which didn’t seem right. And that sucked yours had to go through that! I hate people that hit and run! Damn cowards!

 

[4spdragtop]

Glad both of you are ok. I would be hesitant to talk to Farm at all, but if you do I would be recording both audio and video any future communications.
I would be calling your ins company for sure.
$1900 for that amount of damage is ridiculous. Shop rate is $100/hr? So 20 hrs with free material lol, what a joke.

 

[Kern Dog]

First and foremost, I'm glad no one was hurt. That's the silver lining. Secondly and no offence, learn to use paragraphs and proper punctuation. I'm not the grammar police, but that makes it SO much easier to read than one long, BS paragraph. Again no offense.

No kidding.
I see a rambling collection of bad spelling and run-on sentences and just click away. Most people are very tolerant of a few mistakes but we all have limits of what we are willing to wade through to help people.

 

[Car Nut]

Also is it a good idea to let my insurance know what they are trying to do to and see if they can do something?

I would contact and let your insurance go after his insurance, they’ll fix your car, and get the money from the other driver’s insurance.

 

[schwinger]

Glad both of you are ok. I would be hesitant to talk to Farm at all, but if you do I would be recording both audio and video any future communications.
I would be calling your ins company for sure.
$1900 for that amount of damage is ridiculous. Shop rate is $100/hr? So 20 hrs with free material lol, what a joke.

Im hesitant now but if I have to I will record them. And I’ll call my insurance company for sure!!

 

[schwinger]

No kidding.
I see a rambling collection of bad spelling and run-on sentences and just click away. Most people are very tolerant of a few mistakes but we all have limits of what we are willing to wade through to help people.

Dam! I didn’t realize people can get so irritated by this but then again I see what you’re saying which I Whill work at it!

 

[Earlie A]

Just went thru this same thing but the car that hit my wife was insured by Allstate. Allstate is also a ‘low baller’ insurance company. They will only approve using the cheapest possible parts, not factory parts or certified parts that are guaranteed to fit.

I ended up filing a claim thru my insurance company and let them deal with Allstate.

 

[4spdragtop]

Lol, onlee sum people, eye wudnt swet it. Thuh wurlds ful of peeple that r kondeesending aholes. Noat she talks thuh time tu repairmand ewe butt ofers know addvice oar well wyshes too ewe and yer daughter.
Ignore...

Dam! I didn’t realize people can get so irritated by this but then again I see what you’re saying which I Whill work at it!

 

[abodyjoe]

why are you talking with the other guys insurance co? your company should be taking care of all this..

last year my daily was hit. called my insurance co.. laid out the 500 dollar deductable and had the car fixed in a few weeks. let my company deal with it. i had gotten something from the other guys company asking for my side of the story. called my company and they said i didn't have to reply. the guy laughed when i said i'll just send them the accident report.. so what i did was copy the accident report and highlight where it said their car hit mine... never heard another word fom them. it was another couple weeks until i got my 500 dollars back.

and yes you have the right to choose your own shop.

whats a 22 year old trailblazer worth? a quick markeplace search in my area doesn't show them worth very much. they will total it for a 6k repair.




.

 

[Tsully]

As an insurance adjuster I can advise you to look up the “California Fair Claims Settlement” it can be found on the California Department of Insurance website.

This will help you more than anything to understand what is going with your claim.

And as @abodyjoe said, let your agent and their agent fight it out for you, that is why you pay them every month.

It’s supposed to be in your policy that if this goes to court, they will provide legal representation if needed… no need to pay out of your pocket other than you deductible if it comes to that.

Hope this helps!

 

[jrc4y4]

sending PM

 

[toolmanmike]

State Farm

 

[FISHYPETE]

Not auto related. Had damage to interior of home. I had Nationwide ins and they were fighting every aspect of repair. Finally after going back and forth over 3months I threatened them I was going to contact the Ins Commissioner. They buckled and repaired all damage. No more Nationwide for me

 

[RAT ROD AL]

Well we all know insurance is the biggest rip off artist in the world. State Farm would rather pay millions to people like Patty Mohomes than take care of business.

 

[440 Mike]

The law says the person on your right has the right of way. I always give someone else that may be "a little" later than I the right of way, if they are on my right. That's common sense defensive driving.

Maybe traffic laws differ on this from state to state? In my experience if you are at a complete stop, the act of someone else coming to a complete stop after you means that they have yielded the right of way to you. If they roll the stop, they have not yielded the right of way. I think the driver to the right rule you are referring to is for simultaneous stops.

I always try to time my stops to avoid this situation, but in the case of the OP there isn't much you can do about some nitwit that just drives into your rear quarter panel.

 

[schwinger]

Just went thru this same thing but the car that hit my wife was insured by Allstate. Allstate is also a ‘low baller’ insurance company. They will only approve using the cheapest possible parts, not factory parts or certified parts that are guaranteed to fit.

I ended up filing a claim thru my insurance company and let them deal with Allstate.

That sucks! We used Allstate before and never again since they tried to screw us over on another claim but that’s another story.

 

[Newbomb Turk]

Need some advise and sorry to write a whole novel but hear it goes.

Me and my 5 year old daughter got in an accident on the 26th at a 4way stop sign intersection. I was driving my wife’s gold 2004 trailblazer at the time. Coming up to the stop sign I notice another guy in a Tacoma come up and I stopped first then he stopped. It was clearly my turn to go and proceeded through the intersection.

I’m halfway through and he starts proceeding. I was like WTH and honked my horn. He still didn’t stopped and kept going and hit me in the rear passenger side where my daughter was sitting.

It was a slow hit but it moved the car over to where I was on the side of the road now. Checked on my daughter and she appeared ok, thank god but came out and I was fkn pissed and the guy stopped too and pulled over to the side of the road and started coming towards me.

I chewed his *** out screaming “wtf man why didn’t you stop”. He replied I didn’t see you and I told him “How can you not see a gold fkn trailblazer” and he was dumbfounded and apologized saying I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention.

Called insurance and got the CHP over as well as ambulance. They checked my daughter and she was fine and I gave the whole police report.

A couple days later I get a call from my insurance (not State Farm) stating that they admit to the accident and I’ll be going through there insurance, (State Farm) to getting my car repaired.

I get a call from them stating that they will take care of me and recommend me going to there repair facility. I mentioned I’d like to get some other quotes to from other body shops and they said it was fun but still recommend doing to there shop so I set up a schedule and have them see it first. Went to the shop and talked to the adjuster. He looked over the car visually but didn’t seemed like he did a thorough inspection and did it quick too which was suspicious and came back and went back to the office to work up an estimate.

I did let him know I’m just getting estimates to get an average of what would it cost to repair and he came at me like why do I want to do that and I told him I have a right to choose my own shop and he gave me a stupid look. Got the estimate and it was like only 1900 In repairs and I was like really, na this doesn’t seem right so I proceeded to get other estimates that same day went to two shops and they quoted me 6800, the first shop and 6700 the second shop.

So I was like ok that seems more realistic so was gonna wait till the next day and let State Farm know but I get a text from them stating that they have completed an estimate and recommend me going with them so I called them up and told them there adjuster didn’t really do a good job inspecting the damage and seemed like he wipped up there estimate and I told them I went to 2 other shops to get quotes and told them the price they quoted and they said I can’t use another shop and that I have to use there specific shop to get it repaired but I thought I got to choose my own shop and they said “you have to use our shops in order to get it repaired” and I was wtf that doesn’t seem right. So I argued with them about that and told them I’m gonna do some research on this because this doesn’t seem right.

I did some research and come to find out I do have the right to choose my own repair shop but they are pressuring me to use there shops only which doesn’t seem right. Has any of you guys ever had to deal with this?

Also this is my first time going through this process to where the other person was at fault and I’m going through their insurance to get my vehicle repaired.

View attachment 1716495849

View attachment 1716495850

That thing is totaled.

 

[RAT ROD AL]

And to be sure, no insurance co is better than another. None is on you side !