Some idiot nailed my truck

[farmhouse]

Hayseed, being from Texas you know the kind of publicity we're getting re. insurance, both Homeowners and Auto. My particular company is one that I've been with since military service(about 43years) that's based in San Antonio. Back in January 2001, I was hit by another driver during one of our infrequent morning rains in Dallas during rush hour. The damage to my car was about $1,000 and I guess about the same to the other. It was a weird situation in that the other driver did not attempt to stop! The impact was so slight that my wife who was with me didn't realize that we had been hit. I just received notice that they are still attempting to settle the other driver's claim who happened to insured by the same company! The company rep said that she gets heartburn everytime she has any thing to do with the other claimants, noting that this is not the first time these people have been in a kinky auto claims situation. She said that they are claiming all kinds of medical impairment as a result of our accident. As far as I know, the claim is still open! Unfortunately some people think that insurance claim means JACKPOT! Sorry you are having problems.

[wingnut]

One quick question .... did you talk to the owner of the parking lot? I know that they all have the usual disclaimer about being responsible for nothing .... but being insistant does seem to work - sometimes.
My wife's son, in Dallas, had his new car scratched in the parking lot of a Sam's ... had parked quite far back to avoid that and some dipstick still managed to scrape it with a cart. Being somewhat persistant, he ended up having the car repainted at Sam's cost! (even though they have a disclaimer sign in their parking lot)

I've changed insurance companies a few times in the past because of their method of jacking up the rates on good drivers to pay for bad drivers (spread the pain) ... but I've never had a really bad experience. However, my brother ... who just returned to Canada after 7 years in Holland had a dreadful time getting insurance. 40 years old and getting quotes of thousands because "there are no current records of your driving on North America". Well, duh!
I wish the insurance companies would work just HALF as hard in getting crappy drivers off the streets instead of forcing us to subsidize them! (here in Michigan, this year, we're paying an extra $90 per vehicle for "catastrophic medical claims" - another way to allow fabulous payouts without having the insurance companies involved).
After they "get" all the lawyers, insurance companies should be next.

pete

[Hayseed]

Hi Wingnut,

Your idea is a good one but the problem with my case is that my wife was in and out of three parking garages in the medical center that day and did not see the damage until she was leaving the third garage. I was at work when she called me crying to tell me she had found the damage so I couldn't persue it that day and would not ask her to either. She felt bad from being at Dr.s' offices all day and all she wanted to do was go home. I worked every day for the next few days and then left town on vacation for eleven days so the matter grew old before I could research it.

I have worked almost non stop since returning from vacation but have informed my insurance company about the wreck, even though I have not filed a claim. At this point I have decided to go ahead and file a claim and let the insurance fix it. If my rates go up, so be it. The increase in rates will be considerably less than what it will cost to pay to repair the damage out of my pocket. Not only that, my rates would only go up for one six month period because the other claim will be three years old by then and will fall off my record.

From now on my wife and I will go to the medical center in our '93 Chrysler LHS. If some idiot wants to hit one of my vehicles I would rather they hit my old car. By the way, last year some mean spirited individual broke the antenna off my car last year in one of the above parking garages. For what reason only that jerk knows. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

As an aside, my wife was sitting in line for valet parking at St. Lukes Episcopal Hospital in the Houston medical center last week and witnessed a parking attendant bump the car in front of it once and the one behind it twice while trying to manuveur a car out of a parallel parking spot. If she'd have had our video camera someone would have lost their job that day! [img]/forums/images/icons/mad.gif[/img]