Originally Posted by Macster

My sources -- and experience -- tell me that things have gotten worse over the last couple of years. I spoke at length with my dad who was in the insurance business for years and he was amazed at how things have changed.

I have had to file 3 claims since Feb. this year. Two were against the other driver's insurance company. The Boxster incident was relatively minor and I honestly can't remember any discussions with other insurance company's aduster. I dropped car off at body shop and picked it up when it was done. $5000 repair bill, roughly.

The Cayman was more complicated. Car just 25 days old when hit and hit was severe. There was a limit problem with the other driver's insurance coverage and I wasn't sure what was going to happen. I was constantly told to file a claim against my policy and this is illegal for an insurance company that has accepted responsibilty for a claim to do. However I'm told all companies do this.

I strove to find arguments against having the Cayman repaired and instead declared a total loss. It was declared a total loss though not sure my efforts in this direction played a role. (Damage est. was up to $41K for car I paid $56K out the door for.)

This last claim is against my carrier, against the comprehensive coverage I carry on the car.

I called late Friday evening after the accident to put in a claim and get the ball rolling. I was informed come Monday the body shop in Livermore where I wanted the car repaired would be informed and could make arrangements to get the car back to its facility.

Saturday was spent getting out of Ely and to Denver and into a rental car. Sunday I spent driving on to KC from Denver.

Monday I called the body shop to check on things and was told it had not been informed of the accident and claim and had made no arrangements to get the car.

A call to the storage yard found the car had accumulated over $425 of storage charges and cost was going up.

Thus spent most of Monday on phone, both my cell phone and my parent's land line phone speaking with the insurance company -- several times -- and went around and around with the adjuster, several adjusters cause you never get same one twice. Called various body shops in LV, Reno, Livermore, called Porsche Cars North America, and several Porsche dealerships in CA and Nevada.

Eventually I was told insurance company only responsible for towing car to nearest Pro Shop and the shop where the car ended up after the accident was a Pro Shop and the car could be repaired there, either fully repaired or partially repaired and I could drive the car home for more permanent repairs.

The shop where the car was didn't want to touch the car.

I was then told I could have the car towed to LV at any of 5 Pro shops. However, I checked and none are qualified to repair Porsches. The only shop -- Exotic Cars -- in LV that is was not on the insurance company's list of Pro shops.

If car not repaired at a qualified shop and done according to Porsche requirements the car loses its CPO warranty.

As I spoke with various people other than my insurance company's adjusters, I was set straight on some things my insurance company told me, things that were just out and out wrong and misleading.

Do not want to post too much on this cause I'm still dealing with my insurance provider to get my car fixed and fixed right, with OEM parts. Aftermarket parts are not covered under CPO warranty and their presence can void any warranty on any directly or closely related systems. Example: If aftermarket A/C condensor used this invalidates warranty on heating/cooling system and if engine overheats it could affect the warranty on the cooling system.

If one pulls into a Porsche dealership and it is discovered the car has not been properly repaired this entered into computer system, PCNA informed and car no longer warrantied. The 2 year, 100K mile CPO warranty on my 03 car represents considerable value and provides me with considerable peace of mind owning such an expensive and complicated car.

I'm also in talks to get reimbursed for the considerable amount of money I spent to get car towed to a shop that I selected to repair the car, a choice by CA insurance rules/regulations/law I'm entitled to make.

Based on my experience, things are quite different if one's filing a claim against another driver's insurance company or his own company.

I do know that in dealing with insurance company and my Cayman the adjusters I spoke with the interaction was rather pleasant. We did disagree on some sums of money and the like but I never felt I was being lied too, mislead, or decieved. Unfortunately, I can't make that statement after my dealings with my own insurance company. I am in a crash course of familiarizing myself with insurance rules/regulations and such from public sources on the web mainly at the CA Department of Insurance.

Have also retained an attorney on an hourly consulting basis so I can speak with him about some of the finer legal issues and my legal rights.

As I covered in an earlier post insurance companies are going with a pool of adjusters. One doesn't get an assigned adjuster but instead gets the luck of the draw. And the draw is not good based on my experience.

Sincerely,

Macster.