Insurance Nightmare
My wife was involved in an accident on Oct 06, 2018 in our 2015 Toyota Tacoma truck. The other party ran a stop sign and t-boned the vehicle hard enough to spin our truck around 180 degrees and put it up on a 10′ curb. As you can imagine, an impact that great, can cause some major damage. Both driver and passenger doors were damaged and had large sections caved in, the rear door was bent enough to leave a 1/2′ gap allowing water to come inside the cab, the rocker panel had a 10′ split, the cab corner was creased sharply, and the vehicle did not drive straight after. All of these issues were brought to the attention of USAA, and we reassured that everything would be properly handled by the body shop. 18 months, 5 different trips to body shops, and about $16,000 being spent on repairs since the accident, we were still fighting our insurance company to repair the vehicle properly. After dealing with this nightmare for so long, I decided it was time to consult with someone, I just didn’t know who at the time. After reaching out to several lawyers in the Summerville area, I realized none were really going to be able to help. I started looking up diminished value, even though my policy did not cover this, just to see what I could find. I eventually came across David. When I reached out to him and explained the entire situation, he seemed to get upset by how USAA had been treating my wife and I, and we jokingly made a few comments back and forth about how USAA “prides themselves on serving those who serve”. Upon talking to David for several more days, he went out to take a look at the vehicle. As soon as he left the shop, he instructed me that we needed to halt all repairs and have a meeting with all parties involved, to discuss all of the proper procedures that needed repairing. Not even 10 minutes after this conversation, after requesting that the body shop not proceed with any further repairs, I got a phone call from USAA…They stated that they heard I hired someone, as well as that I wanted the vehicle to be left for a few days without repair. They expressed their concerns for the vehicle not being returned to me in a timely manner due to this hold up. After the vehicle had been at the shop for over a month with no work being accomplished up to this point due to awaiting USAA’s approval to complete repair discrepancies, I told them a few days longer wouldn’t be any more of an inconvenience than we’ve already been dealing with for the last 18 months. Anyway, we scheduled a meeting at the body shop for a day later. When we showed up, it took David no more than 10 minutes to pull the driver’s seat and pull back the carpet to discover pools of water still under the carpet from the damage after the accident. The water had been in the vehicle for so long, undisturbed, that it became a haven for mold and mildew. The smell was absolutely rotten, and made me upset, that this is what my insurance company considered “quality work from a trust worthy repair shop”. My wife and I had been exposed to this for over 18 months! All it took was 10 minutes of looking, based off of pictures I had taken immediately after the accident, for David to uncover this. USAA or the initial body shop could have found this as well, had they taken the due diligence and actually cared about putting me back on the road in a safe vehicle that wouldn’t have detrimental impacts on my health. A day after uncovering this, USAA called once more and stated they were going to consider the vehicle a total loss and that they “didn’t see any of this coming in regards to the black mold”. I had to laugh at that comment and told the claims appraiser to look back into their files for pictures submitted on Oct 07, 2018, to tell me they couldn’t see the potential for black mold or the comments raising my concern on this issue on the same day. Again, he stated, “I wasn’t the one handling your claim then.” But I guess accountability goes out the window here, because even after stating that someone kept reassuring me I’d be taken care of, this is how long it took to get to this point, this is how I was continuously being treated by an organization that I thought was looking out for my best interest if ever put into a scenario where I’d need to rely on insurance. But David’s help didn’t stop there…USAA made an initial offer for their “appraised value of the vehicle”, I sent this over to David, who completed his own appraisal, leaving a difference between the two appraisal numbers of about $10,000. USAA initially didn’t move much based on this counter offer, I informed them that if they couldn’t meet more in the middle, I would enact my appraisal clause (under David’s guidance), and we would settle everything that way. I got a phone call back from USAA an hour later, where they adjusted their offer to meet in the middle. After speaking wioth David, he told me that in his opinion, he thought USAA also owed me the cost out of pocket for hiring him. When I called USAA back and told them this, they said they could not cover that cost per policy. I told them that refusing to cover my expense for this entire 18 month inconvenience seemed very petty of them in the grand scheme of things and stated that if they could not figure out how to include the amount I had paid for David’s services, I would proceed by enacting my appraisal clause. USAA finally backed down, and covered the cost for David’s services. Had it not been for David, I’d probably still be in the health hazard we were driving around. Even if I had succeeding in getting USAA to total the vehicle, I probably would have jumped at their first offer for the total loss. David’s guidance was invaluable during this entire ordeal. In the long run, we ended up making out very well in what value we were given for our vehicle, even if it did take us 18 months to get to that point. Overall, I was just purely amazed at how USAA pushed us around for 18 months trying to get everything straightened out, and it only took David a matter of days to get the vehicle totaled and a settlement completed. Can not express how happy we are for the outcome we came to!
