Insurance Companies Still Suck, Part I

I've had insurance for about 17 years now. I was with Allstate for a total of three years, Progressive for nine, and currently with eSurance. I just have my Sable on it for now, since my 2006 Kia Spectra, aka the Spec was totalled in an accident last month. I'm waiting to put my new car on there (my wife's 2007 Honda Civic LX Coupe), and an as-yet-unnamed vehicle for her later next month. For the most part, every accident that I've ever been involved in, has gone pretty well in the whole process. Everything was handled for me quickly and painlessly. I even thought that with my current insurance carrier.

Until I asked for additional assistance.

My adjuster had contacted me a couple of weeks ago, and said that they were going to cut a cheque to my financial company for the fair market value of the car. I was fine with that, and even knew whenever I wrecked my car, that there would be a negative difference in the amount. Thankfully, I had not one GAP coverage policy, but two! One was whenever I first purchased the vehicle (since the finance company required that I have to have it...just remember that), and the second one I purchased through eSurance. It wasn't a total sum, mind you, more like a premium that was added on to my policy every six months. I had paid $17.00 bi-annually for four and a half years. On top of the $326.00 that I paid initially. I figured that if one didn't cover all of it, then other one would.

Or so I thought.

Once it was all said and done on their side, I inquired about the GAP coverage policy on my account, and also asked about how to go about starting a claim, so that my insurance company could pay out the additional amount to my finance company, and thus close the door to a chapter in my life...that I was ready for it to. My adjuster pulled an 180 on me, suddenly acting like I was bothering him...his words were, "yeah, we'll get around to that". I'm guessing that he didn't realise that I:

1) pay his salary
2) needed to get this processed before I was due another payment
3) wasn't in the mood for his aloofness

I shrugged it off and figured that even if he really didn't want to do it, that it would get processed like everything else had.

I was wrong.

A week after we had this conversation, he woke me up via phone call to tell me that since I had "late fees" totalling $700.00 (I didn't), and that I had an extended warranty (that had expired two years ago), that the GAP policy would not cover either one of those things, and since the GAP amount (approximately $1,250) was less than the total amount of both the "late fees" and the extended warranty ($2,300), that eSurance was not going to pay anything towards the remaining amount on the loan of the vehicle (that in itself is over $1,900).

Needless to say, I was pretty angry.

I went about my day getting more and more angry...at least I had a great workout at the gym! Anger is a good motivator from time to time. As time went on though, I felt more and more helpless, and more and more pissed at this jackass's attitude throughout it all. I felt like I had lost.

Then I remember something that I had done while I was at my last job, and needed some issues resolved right away...I went to their FB page and told them what was going on! Of course, I got some generic answer stating that they wanted me to message them and explain it to them further. What they really wanted was for me to get off of their main page, so people wouldn't see that eSurance wasn't the "different kind of insurance company" that they tout themselves to be.

Fact of the matter is, everyone else saw it. There was another gentleman on there that was completely screwed over by eSurance, and didn't get a penny to replace his car. Once he's done, he's going elsewhere. My friends on FB saw my post and swore off eSurance as a potential insurance company to use. That's a lot of business lost because they couldn't do the job right the first time.

I will say that my old PIP adjuster did call me later that day, and once I told her what was going on, she apologised and got the ball rolling on seeing how he arrived at the conclusion that he did. If I don't get an answer that is satisfactory, I do plan on escalating this to the next level.

Stay tuned...

Jessie Louthan is the Editor-in-Chief for Toyota Deathwatch Updates, a website dedicated to exposing the truth about modern Toyotas. He is a nine year automotive industry veteran, having worked for companies such as Ford, Mercedes Benz, and BMW.