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Disagreeing with your insurance adjuster

by John and Theresa Kightlinger

After an accident occurs and your insurance company writes a low-ball estimate for repairs, you may find yourself asking, “What if I disagree with my insurance adjuster?”

It is an all-too-common occurrence when, after an accident, an insurance company goes from being your protector to being your adversary. You pay the company every month of every year to take care of you in case of an unfortunate event. And when you need them most, they cover your loss in such a way as to say, “we care enough to do the very least.”

One such instance recently came to our attention. A loyal customer of ours was involved in an accident, and brought a 2016 Ford Explorer to the shop for repair. We disassembled the vehicle and wrote an initial estimate for $10,647.38. The pictures and our estimate were sent to the insurance appraiser in Colorado, who — with an obvious attempt to ignore the proper repair — returned with a modified estimate of only $3,629.40. (A deficit of more than $7,000 to repair the vehicle correctly.)

This is a regular occurrence in the day-to-day operations of body shops vs. insurance companies all across the country. The body shops, (highly trained professionals whose sole job is to REPAIR vehicles correctly) have to fight the insurance adjuster (a highly trained professional whose sole job is to PAY for vehicles to be repaired) to come to an agreement of how much a proper repair actually costs.

Now here we are 45 days in and five supplements later only totaling $5,800.95. This is after numerous emails and phone calls from the customer to the insurance company. The customer is a very important part of this, without them letting the insurance company know that this is unacceptable is the only way we got this far.

But there is still more than $1,200 not being covered. No one from the insurance company even came out to look at the vehicle. In the meantime, there are administration
costs, storage and stall tie-up charges totaling $1,600, so now the total owed is $2,800. We are going to submit a sixth supplement to try to cover more of these costs for the customer.

In the case of our customer, the insurance adjuster (and their supervisors) in question absolutely refused to budge, five times so far, or renegotiate their willingness to accommodate the cost of performing the proper repair.

After all was said and done, the customer picked up the car and had to pay almost
$2,000 above the deductible to get a proper repair.

We talked about how the insurer cuts corners using aftermarket and used parts,  and by not following the OEM procedures. We also talked about the option to file an “appraisal clause.” The other option would be to take the  insurer to small claims court and prove your loss on the repair.

I am not licensed to practice law and this information is not meant to be legal advice. This is for the sole purpose of informing people of their rights.

Consumers need to know their rights, as they exist in the terms of their contract with the insurance company they choose to protect their property. Not all insurance companies are the same. They also should choose a body shop that will stand firm for thorough, proper repairs that put the emphasis on safety, value and quality of repair—none of which should ever be compromised in the name of profiteering.

John and Theresa Kightlinger own My Body Shop at 401 N. Clinton St., Stockbridge. The couple have lived in the area and raised their children here over the past 20 years. John has been in the auto body business since 1985, and Theresa began work at General Motors after high school. Between the two, they have been working on cars for more than 75 years.