Progressive insurance - non-customer service.

[mrsilv04]

So, someone insured by "Progressive" (in name only) tried to run over my parents' last week, hitting them while they were stopped at an intersection (and then pushing them out into it).

Now, Progressive is asking my Dad to take time off of work and drive the truck to one of the worst body shops in town, and to meet the Progressive adjuster there, so he/she can inspect the damage.

Exactly why does "Progressive" have the fleet of little white Ford Escapes with their name plastered down the side? They can't even send an adjuster to take care of a claim, when it was *their* customer who caused the accident and was ticketed for it?

I told Dad to call them back, and tell them that they can send an adjuster to his house at a time that is convenient for him to inspect the truck.

And I'll have a estimate prepared by MY body shop ready to go when their adjuster shows up, so we can compare them side by side.

I can see that this claim will probably be handled through subrogation before it is over, by the way that "Progressive" is handling it.

 

[motorguy222]

Progressive gets a lot of complaints.

No Choice For Repairs

 

[RoGuE]

I got hit a couple years ago in my 1996 Taurus when someone ran a red light and grazed my front bumper (deformed the bumper and ruined the paint, as well as knocking the headlight housing out of alignment). The other party had USAA and they made me drive to a bodyshop to assess the damage. And this USAA approved bodyshop wasn't in the best part of town either.

But when the bodyshop guy quoted me an incredible amount of cost to fix it (nearly half the cars value for some reason) I decided against the repair and was able to pocket the money it would have cost.

 

[Nick R]

My mom works for state farm, she gets a lot of complaints about progressive. Basically progressive is the company people go to when noone else will write them. They are also terrible when trying to get them to pay out to policy holders.

 

[John_K]

Can't speak for Illinois, but Ohio has a law that insurance companies can't require you to go to any particular body shop. Might check to see if Illinois has such a law.

John

 

[ahoier]

You should be able to chose your OWN body shop, no matter who's at fault....

I'd call them back and tell them you got a quote elsewhere and to "meet you there..."


FWIW, I currently have "progressive Select" (per my Insurance card....no idea if they are one in the same....) and they had the cheapest rate(s) around when I first started driving. Well, actually, scratch that, GEICO was cheaper, but not by much. And had previous bad experience with GEICO when my mother had them so I went with Progressive Select since they were the "next cheapest" out of esurance, Nationwide, AllState, and State Farm.

 

[LTVibe]

Progressive has reasons to save money. The less they spend on customers, the more Progressive chairman Peter Lewis has to spend on other things.

 

[Vibe_2007]

Originally Posted By: LTVibe

Progressive has reasons to save money. The less they spend on customers, the more Progressive chairman Peter Lewis has to spend on other things.




Progressive won't get a dime of my money, just on politics alone.

 

[ffxfina3]

Originally Posted By: Vibe_2007
Originally Posted By: LTVibe

Progressive has reasons to save money. The less they spend on customers, the more Progressive chairman Peter Lewis has to spend on other things.


Progressive won't get a dime of my money, just on politics alone.


Let the countdown for this thread being locked begin . . . now.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: John_K
Can't speak for Illinois, but Ohio has a law that insurance companies can't require you to go to any particular body shop. Might check to see if Illinois has such a law.

John

Same for California, I can choose any body shop and insurance company (mine or other party) have to pay for the repair, regardless of whose fault in the accident.

If the fault is other party, I would take the damaged car to 3 body shops and give the most expensive estimate to the insurance company of the other party.

 

[JHZR2]

I lost a lot of money when my car was destroyed by one of their marginally insured customers. I was and am very dissatisfied with them.

 

[grampi]

Originally Posted By: RoGuE
I got hit a couple years ago in my 1996 Taurus when someone ran a red light and grazed my front bumper (deformed the bumper and ruined the paint, as well as knocking the headlight housing out of alignment). The other party had USAA and they made me drive to a bodyshop to assess the damage. And this USAA approved bodyshop wasn't in the best part of town either.

But when the bodyshop guy quoted me an incredible amount of cost to fix it (nearly half the cars value for some reason) I decided against the repair and was able to pocket the money it would have cost.


I'm very surprised to hear this about USAA. I've had them for years, have even filed a couple of claims with them, and have never had any complaints at all about them. They always let me choose the body shops, they've always promptly paid my claim, and they've never raised my premiums.

 

[ekpolk]

Before I was recalled to active duty back in 2003 (allegedly for a year -- but ended up being 4.5 years...) I did a lot of litigation involving automobile mishaps. During the ~10 years or so I did that work, Progressive revealed itself to me to be one of the very worst carriers out there. Right up there with Snake Farm and Allsnake.

This said, everyone should be aware that this is a more complicated question than it may at first seem. Different companies behave differently in different types of cases. Some play "max hardball" on "soft tissue" PI claims. Others play games on property claims. And so on, virtually infinitely.

There are no easy answers on questions like this. Except that I will say that, across the entire spectrum of issues upon which I confronted them, Progressive almost always tried its best to cheat its way out paying any valid claim.

Good luck if you're with progressive. . .

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: ekpolk
Good luck if you're with progressive. . .


If it gets too ugly, we'll just let Dad's insurance company fix the truck, and then we'll let them subrogate it with Progressive.

 

[Jimmy9190]

I feel your pain, that's for sure. I had similar troubles when I was involved in an accident last year. I posted on BITOG about it and someone (I forget who it was) replied back and said that "insurance companies are like someone who gives you an umbrella and then takes it away from you when it starts raining."

I hope your folks get their truck fixed correctly and without too much hassle and red tape.

 

[bepperb]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: ekpolk
Good luck if you're with progressive. . .


If it gets too ugly, we'll just let Dad's insurance company fix the truck, and then we'll let them subrogate it with Progressive.


This is what I did my last accident. And it worked out fantastic, I even got my deductable back and somehow also got my "if you don't have a claim with us you get xx% back" check at the end of the year. My car had 8000 in damage and I think it took 3 phone calls and all was taken care of.

That being said, I had progressive for about 5 years. Had one windshield fixed free, and about a 2500 dollar at fault accident taken care of no problem.

 

[mrsilv04]

Originally Posted By: Jimmy9190
I feel your pain, that's for sure. I had similar troubles when I was involved in an accident last year. I posted on BITOG about it and someone (I forget who it was) replied back and said that "insurance companies are like someone who gives you an umbrella and then takes it away from you when it starts raining."

I hope your folks get their truck fixed correctly and without too much hassle and red tape.


I remember when you had your accident. If I recall, you had some issues with the insurance company as well. I remember that you really didn't want them to total out your Dakota... and it was really close, but they didn't.

I'm a veteran of all of this, as I was hit in the rear 18 months ago. My truck had almost $10k in damage and was in the shop for 5 weeks.

 

[pzev]

My buddy had Progressive Insurance on his motorcycle. Got into a hit and run, and had to file a claim.
First complaint he had was how difficult it was to get in contact with his claims adjuster. Second complaint he had was how long it took them to arrange a tow for the bike, as after the accident it wasn't in any shape to ride. After a week of "its getting towed tomorrow", the bike was stolen from the parking lot it had been sitting in. How it was stolen I don't know...I honestly think it was simply impounded as it had been sitting there for awhile. Regardless, the insurance had to payout for the bike as we couldn't find it anywhere...they payed more then he had payed for it just a year earlier. Additionally when they finally got around to paying out for his original claim, they did so very generously. Because he had a few scrapes on his knees, he got a rather large sum and they didn't give him any trouble when it came time to actually cut the check.

But it really was a hassle to constantly call the adjuster and never get a call back. So much so, that when the policy expired a couple months later he simply canceled it and switched providers (still had a car). But he did make out like a bandit from that accident, so he couldn't really fault Progressive on that one.

 

[HTSS_TR]

Originally Posted By: mrsilv04
Originally Posted By: ekpolk
Good luck if you're with progressive. . .


If it gets too ugly, we'll just let Dad's insurance company fix the truck, and then we'll let them subrogate it with Progressive.

Just tell Progressive this: "If you make it difficult to have my car fixed at the body shop I choose, I will not be happy about this accident and my back and neck may get worse later on, then I may have to file for bodily injury from this accident"

 

[Jimmy9190]

It might help to get a lawyer involved. I know for a fact that the at fault driver's insurance would not have cooperated with me last year if I had not had one of the more popular PI law firms handling my case.