....even nutT is invited in !

Gotta go 4 now ... the floor is yours !

Uh oh! Sounds like Doc's going on vacation.

It will only add a few dollars to add that vehicle onto your policy . a few HUNDRED dollars

I've only talked to a few agents over the years, but when I did, it was usually them complaining about how much we'd paid out on a claim. Considering that most of them have zero idea about how claims are handled, and how much it costs to repair a vehicle, I found those conversations ridiculous. Now that I think about it, they sounded a lot like Doc...whining about things that they know nothing about, complaining about how much people charge for goods/services.

Several years ago I was involved in a minor fender-bender with a young lady playing with her phone (her own admission to the Officer). She received the ticket...of course her insurance provider wanted to avoid paying the claim, as they always try to do. Her agent called and i agreed to give a recorded statement (which I normally wouldn't do)....after asking the basic info questions the dumb@** broad asked me why i was driving on that particular road, and where i was going to. They have a nice recording of me telling her that she's a ****ing idiot for asking such irrelevant questions. I hung up after telling her "NOYFB" and a few more cuss words, but they did settle the claim.

"Several years" later, you're still bragging online about cursing at someone over the phone because it was such a significant event in your life. Meanwhile, she went about her day and hasn't given you a single thought since then.

Also, the reason she asked those questions is because she had a script/list of questions to follow. They ask everyone the same list of questions, because sometimes, those questions are relevant, but you can't ask different people different questions. You have to treat everyone the same. Otherwise, you're asking for legal trouble.

The MOST RIDICULOUS statement from an insurance agent ?

Actually never heard one, only deer strikes in my folder and a windshield from a bad spot in the road and USAA has always went far past what I expected.

Also, insurance agent = person who sells insurance. Insurance adjuster = person who handles claims.

OOOK, I stand corrected. I cant recall any bad times with an agent either, I call add a car or remove, or modify plan ect... ask about things, still good.

Most the time I can do it online and skip the agent.

Of did I speak to just a rep. vs agent?

If you call to buy a policy, you're talking to someone with an agent's license. You do not need to be a licensed agent to make changes to a customer's existing policy. You can be, but you do not have to be.

We are down to just a few body shops here in my home county. Most of them are booked out for 2 weeks or more and have more work than they can really handle. Between fighting with the insurance companies and trying to find and keep good employees, they are worn out. Here in the county seat we only have 2 body shops left. And one of them has just gotten their re-builder's license and retail dealer's license with our help. If all goes as planned, they will drop their dependence on insurance work. Possibly to the point that they will not accept any at all. And the other one is about to implement a new policy where the insured will be responsible to discuss the estimates with the insurance companies. The constant counter proposals, and re-estimating as well as delays in getting work approved is burying them. So rather than go back and forth with the insurers, they are going to tell the insured that they will have the burden to get the estimate approved. Or they can find another body shop. It really has gotten that bad.

I'll spare you other details, but the difficulties that the insurance companies are putting onto the repair shops is unsustainable in modest markets such as ours. The insured are the ones that are going to be left in lurch with fewer choices and more difficulties in finding a competent repair shop. And the insurance companies are going to pay a price, too. Which they will just pass on to their policy holders.

Thanks to the consolidators like Gerber, probably not.

I've worked with good agents and I've run into bad agents. A good agent will figure out what you need and sell you the correct policy. A bad agent doesn't know anything. I've run into both over the years. The big problem is when a customer who doesn't know anything works with an agent who doesn't know anything. Then you can get a real mess.

spot on assessment.

I was 18 years old and backing my 69 Fury III into a parallel parking spot by the county courthouse, even had the proper turn signal on! A lady then hit me in the rear, busting my tail light out and denting the quarter panel. The cops were right there and issued her a ticket, my insurance company was Allstate. Turns out she was an illegal alien (this was in 1977), had no insurance, wasn't her car, and she barely spoke english. I contacted my agent and he said they would cover the claim. I went ahead and bought a used tail light lens to not get pulled over. A few weeks went by with on correspondence so i contacted my agent back. Allstate had denied my claim and was cancelling my insurance! They did finally send a check for a small pittance I will never, ever consider Allstate for any insurance the rest of my life! No answer was ever given to me why either...

I don't recall having any fools as insurance agents except one guy that failed to add specifically-requested $25K coverage for musical instruments; switched companies after that.
Generally I get recommendations, and meet with them if they're local, to suss them out.
Been very happy with both of mine, no complaints.
Claims handling is a whole 'nother deal, speaking from 40+ years in both that and collision repair & restoration "sides".
The consolidators are the worst place to take your vehicle if actual pre-loss vehicle quality & integrity matters to you.
There's nearly no profit/reinvestment margin for shops, so the volume hacks are predominant.
There are few shops left who can do the repairs correctly, due to claims cost-cutting, but I'm getting off-topic.

Years ago I had a customer vehicle towed in after driving over a large rock at the end of a driveway. Damage was all underneath and IMHO mostly cosmetic. Damage included a couple dents in the cradle, scuffs on the oil pan and gas tank and a short section of exhaust that was crushed. Vehicle was a year or two old.

I gave an estimate to repair the exhaust and check the alignment, vehicle was drivable and nothing leaking. The customer called their insurance and things got crazy.

Adjuster ordered a replacement cradle, oil pan, gas tank and complete exhaust. The exhaust was new, everything else was used and honestly no better than what was on the vehicle. I pointed it out to the adjuster and he said do it anyways.

A $200 repair turned into a $5000 claim. A 1 day repair turned into 2 weeks of downtime.

I also had a bad claim experience with them in 1998. NEVER again.

Mother's day 1979 on a two lane bridge we got into a head on with an illegal sniffing silver paint out of a coke can, he had no insurance. Our insurance paid the loss (totaled) less the deductible. They were going for reimbursement of the deductible from the illegal, they made arrangements with the illegal to make the payment, he was released from jail and promptly fled to Mexico. End of story.

Over the years, I've actually had great experiences with any auto claims - homeowners as well. I've never piled-up a vehicle, but my wife has a few times. We are also lucky - we have a GREAT collision shop nearby & they are fast & damn good. A few years ago, someone backed into the passenger front door on my 2012 300 while I was sitting in the car to boot! The car was silver. The door needed to be replaced and I was dreading the paint possibilities. You can never match silver properly. Anyway, with AIG (Grundy), they use independent claims people - the guy came to my house. He looked at the door & said it needed to be skinned. I said respectfully that nobody can properly skin a door & make it look any good, so if that's all he was going to authorize that I'd just buy a door myself out of my pocket. After that & without objection, he said "well - I can see you take great care of the car - yeah - we'll do a door."

My local body shop got the new door in & I took the car over to drop off with them - they said it would take a day. They said there were 3 different paint chips for the paint code so we compared all three outside in good sunlight. The differences were all in the metallic "grain" - it was really hard to pick one. I told the shop to just paint the door & nothing else - NO BLENDING into other panels! They understood fully - this was the way they had written the original repair order. Anyway, the paint matched so perfectly in all aspects - including getting the new door as straight as the adjacent panels & just the right amount of texture or orange peel, that you could not tell the door had been replaced or painted. I was truly amazed.

They owed to replace those items. They were damaged in the accident, and they're not repairable. Insurance company was 100% correct. If the customer would've chosen to not complete those repairs and pocketed the difference, it would've been their right to do so, but the insurance company can't say "Bah, just ignore the dents in the cradle and the pan and the gas tank."