yellowbmr

i got in an accident in home depot parking lot, when the guy comes out and apologizes for the accident and that it was his fault. he gives me his info. i call Enterprise rent a car (he was driving one of their carS) and to make the story short, they only appraised 1 day of car rental for me and refurbished bumpter. so going back and forth, they said refurbished bumper only. i calle my own insurance AAA and the lady asked me what happened, created a claim#, and told me that she is waving the deductible since it was not my fault. i go to pick up the car today at bodyshop, and the paper does not say anything about the deductible and that i have to pay that also. I did not record her conversation to prove now that she told me so. I have left her 5 messages, left her supervisor 1 message, and now pissed without my car.

feel my pain? anyone trustworthy out there anymore? whats happening my friends? can't trust anyone anymore. Justice is not served anymore. And the funny thing is we live in US, where the rules should be obeyed. If it was some other country, i would say yeah, they have no rules, but i can't take dealing with stupid , irresponsible people anymore.

fahren affair

there's probably an investigation brought on by the other guy's insurer 'cause his story conflicts with yours. for aaa to waive your deductable, they need to subrogate against the other guy--takes time. btw, aaa is way too expensive, imo.

oalvarez

Yellow, you'll be fine. If it was not your fault, the deductible is indeed waived. The situation is that they (body shop) actually have to contact your agent at AAA to get this information. Why do i know this? because I have AAA, my wife was in an accident, the Rover Discovery sustained 15,000 damage, and upon picking up the car, the body shop told me the same. my response to them, "no, i don't owe you a dime, take it up with them." done deal.

best of luck to you

redcab

As I understand it you are not responsible for the deductable because the other guy's insurance company is paying the claim, with AAA just giving you assistance. You don't want or need to have the claim paid by your insurance unless the other guy's is insufficient to cover. CA Law is that you can take the car to be fixed at any shop of your choice. Find one that will write the appraisal to do the work properly. I''ve found that most shops in my area write appraisals for actually more work than is minimally justified. <Just had some deep scratches in our SUV caused by accident and 2 shops wrote to replace the bumper cover rather than repaint>.

If AAA won't represent you well with Enterprise's agent, then you should call Enterprise's agent directly and demand their full payment from the other guy's policy. You don't have to pay his deductable!!!

I've had good experience with AAA over 20 years now. Fair, quick claims.

yellowbmr

oalvarez, i told them that AAA told me on phone that they are gonna wiave the deductible & the body shop won't release the car until i pay the deductible. If i tell them take it with AAA, they will not release the car. I have called AAA 25 times today & left msgs for the assigned adjustor, her supervisor and her supervisor's supervisor, My luck they are not picking up their phone, that is pissing me off.
big time **** off.

yeldogt

This kind of thing can be a pain -- but it will all work out. I hope that the bumper is OK -- in the end that is all that will matter.

When you have collision insurance -- It is YOUR insurance that takes care of YOUR car when it is hit. If you have rental reimbursment -- you rent a car while it is being fixed,
then YOUR insurance pays you for it. And yes, they pay the claim minus the deductable as stated in the policy. Then YOUR insurance company goes after the other party for the damages. You then get your deductable payment from YOUR company.

When you have a fender bender -- and both cars drive off -- all kinds of things can go wrong. You should always get a police report in this type of situation - in fact, always in all situations - it would have been proof of what happened. People have a tendency to change facts.

What you did was the same as if you did not have collision insurance -- you went directly to the other parties policy -- This is often fine on clear cut cases. You take it to an approved body shop and it is all over -- they (the OTHER company) often will pay direct - end of story.

The problem with your story is at the very least two fold:

1. The car was an Enterprise car -- was it an enterprise employee? -- was it a rental car driven by the renter? Did the renter of the car own another car with insurance - he could even have been renting a car because his car was just hit, in that case THAT policy would be primary!! Was he working at the time -- or did his company rent the car?

You were dealing with Enterprise loss control -- they are self- insured - they want to limit the payment any way they can. They may not even be responsible for paying the claim in the end - but they want to limit it in case they are.

2. You got everybody into the act. YOUR company is not going to pay the claim without holding the deductable until all is over. The fight over the fixing of the damage was with Enterprise -- not your company! You may have been fighting for nothing -- and thinking you had to get the car fixed that way.

I say all of this because it is not as simple as it looks -- ask me how I know? When you get hit, and you have a car like a Porsche and you want to get it fixed right - take it to a good body shop - get a quote -- then you can fight if people do not agree.

Thank God for it all! -- without this complex stuff -- I never could have been able to buy my Porsche :}

yellowbmr

and told me that they are taking care of the deductible & that i don't have to pay. The car is ready for pickup now.

redcab

glad it worked out in the end.
AAA was probably just confirming the other guy's insurance ...but they should have at least given you a daily status call to let you know they still had the ball.