by tcope » Fri Dec 19, 2008 04:37 pm
Insurance company employees take a little heat from those outside the industry as being bias. While I tend to disagree 1) I think it can be true to a certain degree and 2) I can fully understand that point of view.
So I thought perhaps it might be good to start a thread (I'm sure it will be brief) about things that insurance people see insurance companies do (practices) that we don't agree with or are just wrong.
I'll start with something related to the thread that made me think about this...
Some P&C carriers deduct all prior damage from the value of a total loss vehicle. That is, they will deduct the full cost of repairing a dent from the value of a vehicle. Older vehicles are going to have dents and dings.... it's already considered in the value obtained and should not be deducted again. Certainly the entire cost of the repair should not be deducted from the value!
I spoke to several Mercury adjusters who stated that the company only allowed them to pay their own insured's the cost of a compact car even though the policy allowed for $30/day in rental. Mercury's point of view was that the policy paid "up to" so they did not need to pay the entire $30/day, only up to that amount. Okay... a 5 year old may believe that but anyone with commons sence knows if a bill is submitted for $29.99 it would have to be paid, per the policy language. Clearly they were just pushing their insured's around.
Anyone want to add something?
So I thought perhaps it might be good to start a thread (I'm sure it will be brief) about things that insurance people see insurance companies do (practices) that we don't agree with or are just wrong.
I'll start with something related to the thread that made me think about this...
Some P&C carriers deduct all prior damage from the value of a total loss vehicle. That is, they will deduct the full cost of repairing a dent from the value of a vehicle. Older vehicles are going to have dents and dings.... it's already considered in the value obtained and should not be deducted again. Certainly the entire cost of the repair should not be deducted from the value!
I spoke to several Mercury adjusters who stated that the company only allowed them to pay their own insured's the cost of a compact car even though the policy allowed for $30/day in rental. Mercury's point of view was that the policy paid "up to" so they did not need to pay the entire $30/day, only up to that amount. Okay... a 5 year old may believe that but anyone with commons sence knows if a bill is submitted for $29.99 it would have to be paid, per the policy language. Clearly they were just pushing their insured's around.
Anyone want to add something?
Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2008 09:17 am Post Subject:
At the outset, kudos to you for starting this extraordinary thread. In fact you have made me think that its actually wrong to deduct value from a totaled vehicle for its prior losses. The value of the totaled car has indeed get determined on it available condition, whereas all the dents and prior repaired damages get included in the valuation process automatically.
The definition of total says that it takes care of the wear and tear factors of the vehicle while determining the fair market price. Then its wrong to reduce the value further for the prior damages. Can it then be considered as cheating the insureds by the insurance company?
~Jeremy
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