| rev:text
| - This is not a knock on my Liberty Mutual rep. He just sells me the policies. This is a review of corporate and their claims handling.
Long story short, our van was totaled in a rollover accident. Before the accident, the van was in great shape - no body issues (rust or dents) and it was completely loaded (leather, DVD, navigation, etc.). It had low miles. If you tried to buy one in the area, it would cost you $8,000 to $9.999.
We submitted our claim on a Friday and got an auto reply that it was received. We heard nothing for days. My wife called, left messages, called our sales guy who left messages - nothing. She finally had to track down the manager of our claims person who called us to let us know they were going to work on it. THIRTEEN days passed before we talked to a claims rep. After begrudgingly gathering information over the phone, she apologized for the delay and would do us the favor of ordering an express valuation. By the way, that takes a week. You gotta be kidding me.
Exactly a week later (so three weeks after filing a claim), we get our valuation and, frankly, it's a joke. They are supposed to find comparable vehicles in your area to determine the value of your vehicle. We're in Madison, WI. All of the comps were from Iowa and Illinois. None from the Madison area. I found a handful for sale in our area (see values above). Their valuation was less than half of what it would take to replace our vehicle.
Looking into the valuation report, it was noted that there was "serious damage not consistent with the accident" to the driver's side rear quarterpanel. So they deducted over $1000 from our amount because of that. Mind you - that damage was NOT there, I guarantee you that. We talked to our rep about it and she suggested we prove that it wasn't there before. I don't take enough pictures of my kids as it is, I'm not exactly out taking pictures of my cars! So, do yourself a favor and document your valuables in case you ever need to make a claim. For weeks they fought with us on this point, essentially calling us liars. An earlier damage report noted there was no damage NOT due to the accident - so they were even contradicting themselves.
My advice - if you get a claim you don't think is appropriate, don't give in. We used social media as well as other contacts to make our case and get others involved. To date, we have gotten the valuation up (they finally dropped the "phantom damage" deduction). We have not settled quite yet, but we're getting close at least.
Insurance should not be a battle. You should get a fair deal. We have been loyal members for almost 20 years with one small claim about 14 years ago. You should be treated better.
Talking to coworkers, they all had much better stories with their insurance companies (not Liberty Mutual). I would shop around. Ask people who they have and get their feedback. You have mine.
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