Insurance Woes
January 26, 2010 by admncc
The details for this post have been building up for quite some time. I had hoped to publish it in a few months, however the story is too entertaining not to mention now.
Unfortunately, Mrs. Constant Complainer was recently involved in a car accident. She is OK, but was pretty banged up at the time. And as it turns out, that was only the beginning of our problems.
Regarding the actual accident, a guy wasn’t paying attention while pulling out of a parking lot and plowed into her. Although he tried his best to state that he was the victim, ultimately the police determined that it was his fault and cited him.
Like I mentioned, my wife was injured. And as a result, she has had countless doctor’s appointments, physical and massage therapy appointments during the course of her treatment.
You’d think that was the end of our worries – the accident wasn’t her fault and the insurance company would take care of us. Nope. You’d also think the situation would have resolved easier because the guy who hit her had the same insurance company as us. Nope again!
Complaint # 1 – Solicitations. I never realized how many attorneys are out there chasing ambulances. I mean, literally chasing ambulances. The below-picture shows every mail solicitation we received from an attorney in our area within days of her accident. This doesn’t even include the calls to our home and the messages left on our answering machine.
Complaint #2 – Semantics. They insurance company wouldn’t total her car because they said it “held its value.” My thought – it’s a 2003 with 140,000 miles. Then they tried to tell me that it would be a better car with new parts. Yeah, try again…
Complaint #3 – Processes. We were given a rental car because the repairs on my wife’s car would take so long. After 30 days, I got a call from the insurance company and was told to return the rental car, so I did. I was told that the policy limit was reached. So I rented another car at my own expense. Later I complained to the insurance company and was told that they had screwed up. Because the accident wasn’t my wife’s fault, we should have had unlimited rental car usage, but the claim was accidentally placed on my insurance policy instead?
Complaint 4 – Lack of Communication. Luckily, all of the medical bills, except one, were billed directly to the insurance company and taken care of. However, the one bill that wasn’t originally billed has been our biggest problem. The insurance company didn’t pay it, even though I sent it to them three times. And since it was unpaid, of course it was turned over to a collection agency. We’ve spoken to the hospital, our local insurance broker, our insurance company, the insurance broker for the guy who caused the accident and the collection agency. Everyone gives us lip service and says the bill should have been paid, but yet everyone explains the bill-paying process differently and cites different requirements. This was the most frustrating part of the claims process. After six months of telephone calls, letters and faxes, I was able to get the bill paid.
My biggest complaint – I’ve had this insurance (and broker) for eight years and have never had one question. I’ve simply paid my premiums and they made money off of me. But the one time that we actually needed them, nothing was handled properly. Thus I’ve been reduced to having to document everything, create my own files and double-check what the insurance company does. The sad part is that this is such a disservice to my wife, who was truly the victim here…
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That’s pathetic.
I hate dealing with insurance companies and I hate that you can’t really function without having insurance.
It just seems like a big scam.
Luckily your wife was not seriously injured. That is good. I hate dealing with people after an accident or anytime there is some question of blame. I am glad the police figured this one out. People, in general, never accept responsibility when they do something wrong. I hate idiot people who don’t accept responsibility.
Back to your post…I hate dealing with Insuranmce companies. That is why I married an insurance agent. I no longer have to deal with anything insurance related. This may seem like going a little overboard, but if you knew me and my temper it may seem like common sense. My wife deals with issues like this, insurance claims, all the the time and she knows what to say and when to say it to insurance companies…Plus she has the patience of a saint! I am beginning to see Insurance is a neccessary evil. One buys insurance to protect themselves!
Zig is sort of correct. The reason insurance became a desired product was to protect against risk. Today, most insurance companies have fallen into a major corporate nightmare…sort of like working for the gov’t. Every person there is a mind numbed robot that does the exact same job over and over…so, when one person makes a mistake, it affects everything on down the line. A good rule of thumb is when you notice the first thing going wrong, call your agent and have them resolve the issue. You are their customer, and the agent is a business partner with the insurance company. The low life in claims is uninterested in helping you…it’s like dealing with a gov’t worker.
I’m glad that Mrs. Constant Complainer is okay. First, I can’t believe how people act today. It was a no brainer that it was his fault, yet people will try to do anything to avoid telling the truth. Why can’t people take responseability for there actions? Second, Isn’t the whole point of us paying for insurance is that they will be there for us when we need them. We pay all this money to them for years on end, not even having to use the insurance and the one time we need them, they make it the hardest, stress filled time ever. If insurance is going to cost us a small fortune, then there shouldn’t be any restrictions. When something happens and we need them. There shouldn’t be any questions. They need to do there job and help us.
Holy crap! Thank goodness Mrs. CC is okay, that car looks pretty bad!
I’ve heard these complaints time and time again from people who are given the runaround. I guess insurance is one business where the customer doesn’t come first. So sorry this happened 🙁
NCD, what is the difference between the average insurance moron and the average Governmnet employee? Answer..about 30k! What is the difference between NCD and the average federal employee? Answer…about 71k!
Wow bro I’m gappy to hear that wifey is ok!! The rest sucks but doesn’t matter in comparisson to what the situation could be. Insurance companies suck, all of them and all for various reasons.
That’s all you make Zig? I thought you gov’t “workers” made more than that. Does that include the $30,000 in benefits we provide for you too? No worries, 25% of you will be gone when King Barry the Tyrant is out of office and a conservative comes in and fires you guys.
NCD, Government employee salaries and retired federal employees saw a biiger increase in the ir benefits under the last 2 repunklican administrations than under democrats
NCD, Government employee salaries and retired federal employees saw a biiger increase in the ir benefits under the last 2 repunklican administrations than under democrats
I know that Zig, my wife is a gov’t employee…we haven’t had a conservative in Washington since Reagan, and Harding before him. Just because someone calls themselves a republican, doesn’t mean their not a liberal kook. I am not a republican, I’m a conservative…BIG difference.
So, what you are saying is that you you do not want to take credit for throwing us into 2 wars, bankrupting our children’s children (by spending the most ever) and doing absolutely nothing to stop thee economic hysteria in which we find ourselves today. And on and on and… You just like to be an obstructionist, idiot! You are not a republican. You are to poor white trash to be a good republican!
The democrats are left to clean up after republicans let the country go to shit! That is why they get no credit for knowing anythng about economics…Obama has singlehandedly stopped THE GREAT DEPRESSION II.
Zig, the libs are sent the country down the tube, and Obama is purposefully trying to tank the economy so he can implement liberal slavery. He hasn’t stopped a thing. Just wait and see how bad things are going to get. Everything he’s doing is preventing any type of recovery. At least the libs didn’t return another nut job into Kennedy’s old seat!
You’re right about one thing…I will do whatever I have to do to prevent the Tyrant in the White House from implementing his cruel progressive policies…In that regard, I am an obstructionist..just like most of America is today.
In regards to the hospital bill: Get the BBB involved. I had the same situation, was sent in circles for approximately 9months. When the BBB contacted all parties involved, the problem was solved immediately.
As far as totaling out the car: I had a friend who had the OPPOSITE situation happen to her with her insurance company–but, in the end, she won. The insurance company tried to total out a car she was months away from paying off because the repairs would have cost more than totaling out the car. Of course, she was looking forward to being free of a car note. She took her car to an outside mechanic who assured her the car could be repaired. She, then, fought the insurance company tooth and nail until they agree to just give her a cash amount for repairs and drop her as a customer. She agreed, took the money, went the mechanic and got her car fixed, purchased new insurance and used the remainder of the insurance money to pay off her car early.
I say, fight the insurance company tooth and nail for what you feel you deserve.