(marketing material) Collision Safety Consultants vs Progressive Insurance total loss

[GON]

Didn't do research/ homework to validate the below story that Collision Safety Consultants was able to get Progressive Insurance to pay out an additional $11k USD on a totaled 2000 F350 with 7.3 diesel. I suspect this is a very best-case scenario and not common.

Progressive appraisal: $6786 USD
Collision Safety Consultants hired independent appraisal: $18,335 USD
Additional fund for the insured (less assumed fess) the Insured was able to get paid from Progressive: $11, 567

What is not known is what the fee Collision Safety Consultants charges, and if Progressive dropped the insured after the challenged claim.

We smoked Progressive AGAIN. A customer called me from Ohio. His 2000 Ford F-350 Super Duty XLT Extended Cab 7.3L 8 Cyl
Diesel Turbocharged 4WD with 196,173 miles caught fire. Progressive tried to burn them again on the truck’s value. They said according to our own Mitchell report your truck is only worth $6,768.36. The customer said that offer doesn’t even spark my interest. He asked the adjuster what he was smoking and rejected the lowball offer. The customer removed Progressive from the claim and forced them to hire an independent appraiser as required by the appraisal clause language in his auto policy. I emailed my valuation report to their appraiser. I let him smolder for a bit because I didn’t want to him to flare up on me. Amazingly he and I were only a couple hundred dollars apart on our values. I was all fired up when he said “ let’s agree the truck is actually worth $18,335.” So Progressive had to Match our binding agreement and pay my customer $11,567 more than what they told the customer they owed them! I never get tired of reducing these heartless companies to ashes. Never trust the people who owe you money to determine how much money they owe you. They will just inflame you with their fiery deception.

 

[VTECOverRated]

I have had 2 total losses through out the years.

One was due to a teenager not knowing to not slam on the brakes in freezing rain (plenty of room to dodge and maneuver but at 17 and no one to teach them how to drive properly, that is the result). Car was rear ended, took like 3 weeks to figure out it was a total loss. Oddly enough I drove it back home with destroyed rear frame and steering locked 60 degrees to the left, but its a toyota. At 55mph of collision (minus what ever she managed to scrub off in the rain), I felt pretty much nothing. No pain or whiplash, and had to pull the poor girl out of the car because she was freaking out, her car took more damage than mine and thus the doors were jammed shut. This is in the middle of an intersection and I wasn't going to just leave her.

Insurance claimed it a total loss and paid me out a check and I went and picked up another car that same day. The valuation was fair, since it was 1000$ above KBB, + the cost for window tint, cosmetics, and the tires I just put on it a few months prior (800$ or so). Fair enough.

The second total loss was a highway hit and run. There was a massive pile up because some M3 driver wanted to cut across 3 lanes at 6:30 AM rush hour traffic on the most dangerous highway in the united states. The sun is in everyone's eyes and you can barely see as is. I managed to dodge the pick up in front of me, and scrap my mirror into the concrete barrier in the middle. Managed to squeeze just between him and me. The guy hit the car in front, and pulled to the side very quickly, shocker. Not 15 seconds later an SUV flies into me from behind. By the time I manage to crawl out my window to get out of the car (because can't open the door much in this situation) the SUV is gone, just gone. Only a bunch of plastic front end remaining on the ground. We all get flagged to cross the highway to the grass. Cop comes by and immediately assumes I am at fault for the whole thing, since I am the only one with no front damage. The pick up guy comes up and tells the cop the whole story, that some how I managed to dodge him and then got hit and run by some bimbo in her white SUV. They never found anything of course. With that much 70mph damage, I drove to the near by gas station, filled up, and drove all the way home (a whopping 20 miles) with pretty much ZERO rear end. Again, its a toyota, these things are tanks meant for Syria. My state has harsh hit and run laws, so my insurance was required to cover everything with zero deductibles

3 months later the car is deemed a total loss, I could have called it the same day, but I guess they wanted it to sit for 3 months and pay 118$ per day for parking at the shop. Again, insurance was reasonable about the cost, but I told them that in 3 months, we are entering the new year, and this car is going lose value, there is zero chance I will take their offer per current timing. Again they matched what I thought was a reasonable price, about 2000$ above KBB with all things considered.

What is crazy my insurance premiums never went up, only down. I never paid a dime for any costs. Never paid for rental car coverage, and still had it covered. Call it luck or call it God's mercy, but I have had a fantastic experience with esurance for the last 20 years. Even when my daughter got rear ended by some under insured/shady insurance guy who was high as a kite when it happened, our insurance pushed for payment and even covered the law suit, paying her a pretty penny. My insurance premiums are probably 1/3 of everyone on this site, and I can bet money on that. I really don't have a single complaint with them, and they have been super reasonable even when we were exceeding our policy car and driver limits, not charging us extra for it!

 

[joekingcorvette]

One estimate was way too low and the other estimate too high.

 

[SC Maintenance]

The customer removed Progressive from the claim and forced them to hire an independent appraiser as required by the appraisal clause language in his auto policy.

So it appears the policy had a clause to allow this - an independent appraisal. Not sure if that was a Progressive thing or their state requires it, however every state is different.

 

[SC Maintenance]

KBB says that vehicle with 100K miles in "good condition" is worth half what he got. Must be more to the story?

 

[AZjeff]

Here are the appraiser fees. Well worth it in this case. Never heard of this.

appraiser fees

 

[DuckRyder]

So he used the appraisal clause. It is a component of most insurance policies that i'm aware of. Pays to read yours.

I'm sure this a a best case and there's clearly some details missing here, but suspect the policyholder could have done as well by simply reading and understanding the evaluation and having an honest discussion. (at least from a money in his pocket perspective)

That doesn't make good ad copy though.

 

[JHZR2]

KBB says that vehicle with 100K miles in "good condition is worth half what he got. Must be more to the story?

View attachment 196583

That’s a trade in value. That implies a spread thst the seller is going to earn for a living. OP would need to buy a replacement near-retail. For a clean, sorted, older diesel truck, the premiums can be significant. Of course a trade in value would want to imply that’s not the case, so that the dealer/reseller could maximize their profits.

 

[SC Maintenance]

That’s a trade in value. That implies a spread thst the seller is going to earn for a living. OP would need to buy a replacement near-retail. For a clean, sorted, older diesel truck, the premiums can be significant. Of course a trade in value would want to imply that’s not the case, so that the dealer/reseller could maximize their profits.

I stand corrected. We still don't know the mileage or condition. Still looks like there is something we don't know about the $18,300 price.

 

[DuckRyder]

We still don't know the mileage

196,173

 

[CKN]

I have had 2 total losses through out the years.

One was due to a teenager not knowing to not slam on the brakes in freezing rain (plenty of room to dodge and maneuver but at 17 and no one to teach them how to drive properly, that is the result). Car was rear ended, took like 3 weeks to figure out it was a total loss. Oddly enough I drove it back home with destroyed rear frame and steering locked 60 degrees to the left, but its a toyota. At 55mph of collision (minus what ever she managed to scrub off in the rain), I felt pretty much nothing. No pain or whiplash, and had to pull the poor girl out of the car because she was freaking out, her car took more damage than mine and thus the doors were jammed shut. This is in the middle of an intersection and I wasn't going to just leave her.

Insurance claimed it a total loss and paid me out a check and I went and picked up another car that same day. The valuation was fair, since it was 1000$ above KBB, + the cost for window tint, cosmetics, and the tires I just put on it a few months prior (800$ or so). Fair enough.

The second total loss was a highway hit and run. There was a massive pile up because some M3 driver wanted to cut across 3 lanes at 6:30 AM rush hour traffic on the most dangerous highway in the united states. The sun is in everyone's eyes and you can barely see as is. I managed to dodge the pick up in front of me, and scrap my mirror into the concrete barrier in the middle. Managed to squeeze just between him and me. The guy hit the car in front, and pulled to the side very quickly, shocker. Not 15 seconds later an SUV flies into me from behind. By the time I manage to crawl out my window to get out of the car (because can't open the door much in this situation) the SUV is gone, just gone. Only a bunch of plastic front end remaining on the ground. We all get flagged to cross the highway to the grass. Cop comes by and immediately assumes I am at fault for the whole thing, since I am the only one with no front damage. The pick up guy comes up and tells the cop the whole story, that some how I managed to dodge him and then got hit and run by some bimbo in her white SUV. They never found anything of course. With that much 70mph damage, I drove to the near by gas station, filled up, and drove all the way home (a whopping 20 miles) with pretty much ZERO rear end. Again, its a toyota, these things are tanks meant for Syria. My state has harsh hit and run laws, so my insurance was required to cover everything with zero deductibles

3 months later the car is deemed a total loss, I could have called it the same day, but I guess they wanted it to sit for 3 months and pay 118$ per day for parking at the shop. Again, insurance was reasonable about the cost, but I told them that in 3 months, we are entering the new year, and this car is going lose value, there is zero chance I will take their offer per current timing. Again they matched what I thought was a reasonable price, about 2000$ above KBB with all things considered.

What is crazy my insurance premiums never went up, only down. I never paid a dime for any costs. Never paid for rental car coverage, and still had it covered. Call it luck or call it God's mercy, but I have had a fantastic experience with esurance for the last 20 years. Even when my daughter got rear ended by some under insured/shady insurance guy who was high as a kite when it happened, our insurance pushed for payment and even covered the law suit, paying her a pretty penny. My insurance premiums are probably 1/3 of everyone on this site, and I can bet money on that. I really don't have a single complaint with them, and they have been super reasonable even when we were exceeding our policy car and driver limits, not charging us extra for it!

Yet-my son had a miserable experience with e-insurance. They spec'ed Chinese bumper covers that the body shop told them were substandard and might fell off-which they indeed did.They eventually did spec an OEM replacement part. So good for you their culture of repairing vehicles doesn't extended to total loss situations.

 

[thescreensavers]

The appraiser compare apples to apples, if the truck was a "rare" package/configuration and those have a higher market value than the bread and butter model then yea there could be a difference in appraised value.

For example my G37 sedan is a 6MT model, <5% of total Sedans came 6MT. Thus they have an increased market value over the automatic version. I would never take the automatic valuation that an insurance company would try to pay me if my car were to get totaled.

 

[Rand]

When my elantra touring was totaled.. they kept trying to use elantra valuations..

for those that dont know that is like comparing a ford fusion and focus.. not the same car at all.

Then then moved on to extremely high mileage and hail damage cars with a very low condition adjustment.

Every trick in the book and it was "my" insurance because ERIE's adjuster the at fault insurance was too shady to deal with.

I could definitely see a 7.3 powerstroke f350 in good condition bringing a VERY significant premium price.
but then there is the whole ACV vs replacement value.

 

[VTECOverRated]

Yet-my son had a miserable experience with e-insurance. They spec'ed Chinese bumper covers that the body shop told them were substandard and might fell off-which they indeed did.They eventually did spec an OEM replacement part. So good for you their culture of repairing vehicles doesn't extended to total loss situations.

Not E-insurance. Esurance. The allstate subsidiary.

 

[SC Maintenance]

196,173

Thank you. So the Insurance Adjuster said $6,700. And the Private Adjuster said $18,300, ad KBB says $9 to 12K. So there is still "the rest of the story" as a famous radio host once said.

 

[dogememe]

I see posts by that company on FB occasionally.

I really don't think they do much beyond what a patient, knowledgeable person could do themselves, but they make it easy and remove the legwork from the equation, so I think they offer a value. Don't they charge a $500 flat fee? Well worth it in most cases probably.

 

[CKN]

Not E-insurance. Esurance. The allstate subsidiary.

Yes-same company. It was the Allstate Subsidiary. Just my spelling mistake mistake.

 

[VTECOverRated]

Yes-same company. It was the Allstate Subsidiary. Just my spelling mistake mistake.

Aah. Welp. I guess that is just a testament to the world of inconsistency.

 

[dishdude]

There is no way a 24 year old truck from Ohio with 200k on it is worth over $18k.

This is a great example of why we're all paying increased insurance rates.

 

[DuckRyder]

There is no way a 24 year old truck from Ohio with 200k on it is worth over $18k.

This is a great example of why we're all paying increased insurance rates.

We don't know enough to make the call on this particular situation, but about 25% of your premium goes to insurance fraud. There is hard fraud and soft fraud, and soft fraud generally is the larger percentage.