No offense intended, but why don’t you go strut your internet tough guy routine in someone else’s thread?
Thanks to everyone else for their helpful advice and information.
Very true. What always amused me before I got out of the business is that often, the adjusters rather than the clients were the ones hashing it out between each other, not because we were utterly impartial paragons of virtue, but because we knew the law, and knew out responsibilities before it to the other parties as well as our own customers.
How many times did I see a parking lot accident where both parties claimed they were fully backed up when the other guy started backing up and hit them, to find the damages were pretty much corner to corner, and no third party witness? Lots of calls to the other company, deep shrugs and a quick “50/50?” to agreement all around.
The insurance companies will have to interact on a million other claims with each other, just in this state and this year. It’s in their interests to reach an agreement quickly and amicably, and not waste a lot of time fighting over their share of the fender-benders.
My husband was once in a 4 car pile-up. The car in front of his stopped at a red light. He stopped behind it. The car behind him stopped. And the fourth one didn’t, and plowed into #3 so hard that our front bumper damaged car #1.
In theory, each driver needs to seek compensation from the car that hit it, and that driver’s insurance company will subrogate. In practice, the adjuster for the insurance company covering car #4 called my husband, said, “this is going to be on our dime, please have your mechanic contact me directly.” And that company took care of all the costs with a minimum of fuss.
Why don’t you get motivated and go after what’s rightfully yours? You should not be going without a car for this long.
It works the way you mentioned generally but 3 + car losses always suck, because you need to talk to EACH car in the collision, because sometimes it isn’t that simple. A 5 car loss I dealt with had # 1 stopped. # 2 stopped, # 3 rear ended # 2 but DIDN’T put # 2 into # 1. # 4 stopped, but # 5 (who was later cited for speeding) hit # 4 hard enough to push # 4 into # 3 into # 2 into # 1. What a CF that was. Thankfully the police report was helpful, and the parties involved could distinguish how many distinct impacts they felt. Much talking though amongst all the adjusters (we were # 3, so we took 75% of the damage to the rear end of # 2 based on the felt impact of the different collisions). # 5 got the other 25% of the rear end, and all the front end for # 2 as well as the rest of the damage to the other vehicles, including all of our # 3 rear end damage and 25% of our front end.
If you read the thread, you would know that’s exactly what I did. Called them yesterday. Spoke with them again today. Getting the car back fully repaired by the end of the week. Any other irrelevant questions or can we get back to the informative part of the thread with the knowledgeable posters?
@ShadowFacts clearly stated upthread that they rushed it a bit because they expected it to be a faster fix, a short job of two weeks at most. They’ve already admitted they would do things differently if they had enough precognition to know what was going to happen.
Few people have crystal balls, and some people don’t want to cause more trouble than they have to. Doesn’t mean they are spineless.
Yeah, bad choice of words on my part.
Yeah, this one did have the saving mercy that there was no dispute as to what had happened. Driver #4 admitted fault, and everyone else knew they had come to a normal, uneventful stop prior to car #4 slamming into car #3. And the adjuster didn’t call us right away, I assume he waited until he knew that the facts were undisputed.
Moderator Note
There is nothing wrong with saying that you think that you shouldn’t let others push you around. This is IMHO, you are expected to have your own opinions. On the other hand, saying that “the OP needs to grow a spine” is saying almost the same thing, but is doing so in an insulting manner. Personal insults are not permitted outside of the Pit.
Saying “go strut your internet tough guy routine…” is also attacking the user and not the post.
If you want to have a go at each other, do so in the Pit. If you want to have a discussion in any other forum, be more respectful towards other users.
Just wanted to provide a brief coda to this thread: I finally have my car back! There was a little bit of additional drama (“we discovered another part we didn’t know we needed and we don’t have it”) because this dealership has revealed itself to be mismanaged and incompetent. Polite but forceful protestations on my part finally got them motivated to get me off their backs and the car is safely back in our hands.
I didn’t actually need to call our insurance company to ask them to intervene (I was about to), but mentioning that I was going to do so did seem to motivate the dealership, so I am appreciative of that advice.
Glad it’s done, because as I stated in another thread, I don’t want The Cat staring at me in judgement for not providing helpful advice!
Such a judgey kitteh.
But seriously, glad it’s over and done. And TBH, in my previous experience, Dealerships were normally much better at maintenance and installs than they were at repairs. They historically make a lot less profit during such, and do a lot fewer repairs in the first place than a dedicated repair shop.
Not a given of course, but a rule of thumb in the business. And of course, there are a ton of exceptions.
Sad to see your dealership was not one of those exceptions though.
Haha, this is funny coming from the only person with an avatar arguably more judge-y than mine 
Yes, that is definitely a lesson learned here. I really thought going through the dealership was the smart move, given that the car is leased. Next time (though I hope there isn’t one), I am just going to research the repair shops recommended by my insurance and choose the best one from their list.
Not that it really matters since it’ll probably/hopefully never happen again, but if it does, check the laws in your state. It’s entirely possible that while the insurance company may have “in network” or “preferred” shops, you can probably still bring it anywhere you want. So if there’s a shop you want to use, you can probably use it.
Semi-related, I had to have some physical therapy after a work-related injury and surgery. I made the first appointment at a place I knew (because the workers there shop at my store) and there were less than a block from me. A few hours after making the appointment, the receptionist called to tell me my insurance company called, told her they’re not in network and cancelled the appointment. She was calling to tell me that she left the appointment on the books and that all I need to do is ‘remind’ them that, in Wisconsin, at least for workman’s comp, I can go anywhere I want.
Little while after that, the insurance called and told me that A)I can’t go there B)they cancelled my appointment AND C)they set up an appointment at one of their preferred places (which seemed odd). It took, not much, but a bit of pushback before they ‘allowed’ me to go to the first place. IIRC, that was one of the times I played the “do I need a lawyer” card.
Caveat to this though - most states do allow repair-at-will, but they ALSO support the reasonable and customary charges and insurance overview. I believe I touched on this upthread, but I’m heading out and can’t double check. So in short, if you pick a place that charges 150% of the norm, your insurance will negotiate, but if they don’t come to an agreement and you still go ahead with the repairs after being warned, they can pay out the 100% of the reasonable rates and leave you hanging with the dealer for the other 50% with full support of the law.
It’s rare, but it did happen. But normally either the repair shop and the insurance will come to a compromise, or the insured will chose an alternate when informed they’re responsible for the rest.
Another advantage to using ‘in-network’ shops, is that normally they’re equipped to directly upload images of the damages, the repair work required, estimates and part costs and be automatically accepted by the insurance. Out of network, you may have to wait (with or without car) until the carrier can get an honest to god physical adjuster on site to do an appraisal of damages and cost to repair, or play the email/fax game with your preferred shop until they find agreement on damages and costs to repair, adding several days generally at a minimum until authorization to order parts and repair can begin.
THIS SHOULD NOT DISCOURAGE YOU from picking your own shop in a state that supports it - it is just factors that can slow or complicate your repair. And in my personal experience, it was rare for the worst case to happen with the insured having a long delay in repairs or personal expense with one single exception - custom paint jobs. Because then you had huge arguments on value / artistry / rarity and the like, and depending on the insurer, it was not covered or only with a police supplement.
That’s understandable. When I had my accident, both my adjuster and the other adjuster had spent a good 45 minutes looking at it, taking pictures, making notes of everything broken, of which there was a lot, all before it ever went to the shop. The shop also submitted a quote to them, but other than that, never touched the car until they were given the green light.
So, sure, there could still be hiccups, but they should, in theory, get resolved without me having to pay anything or even being aware of it.
But that’s because I let the insurance the shop work directly with each other. If I was in the middle (ie getting the it repaired on my own then getting reimbursed by the insurance company), that would be asking to get stuck footing the bill. It would make it too easy for the insurance company to not pay me back with some BS excuse.