Insurance Experience - Allstate

[cmohan]

Hi all,
My 3 week old 325xi was hit in the airport parking lot (in my absence) during bad weather. Allstate "suggested" to take the car to one of their subsidiary body shops (Sterling Auto body). I am wondering if it is a good move. I talked to the dealer and he recommended another body shop who supposedly specialize in BMWs.

My questions are:
1. If I take it to a body shop not recommended by Allstate, will they pay all the charges or go by the adjuster's valuation?
2. Does Allstate deal with the body shop directly for payments or do I have to be involved.
3. I have a $500 collisions deductible. Since it is a "not at fault" accident", do I still shell out the 500 bucks?

If anyone has any recommendations on a good body shop in DC area please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

[billB]

Originally posted by cmohan@Jan 25 2005, 03:57 PM
Hi all,
My 3 week old 325xi was hit in the airport parking lot (in my absence) during bad weather. Allstate "suggested" to take the car to one of their subsidiary body shops (Sterling Auto body). I am wondering if it is a good move. I talked to the dealer and he recommended another body shop who supposedly specialize in BMWs.

My questions are:
1. If I take it to a body shop not recommended by Allstate, will they pay all the charges or go by the adjuster's valuation?
2. Does Allstate deal with the body shop directly for payments or do I have to be involved.
3. I have a $500 collisions deductible. Since it is a "not at fault" accident", do I still shell out the 500 bucks?

If anyone has any recommendations on a good body shop in DC area please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

[snapback]278753[/snapback]

Body shops usually tell you if they are authorized to do work for insurance co. Insurance companies have a list of their own authorized body shops also.

If body work is performed by unauthorized entity, you guessed it they may choose not to pay for repairs. It varies among companies too. But All state used to have what they called "a drive-in claim centers" .

Most of times if not all ins. co. like to pay directly to body shop to eliminate the possibilty of hidden agreements/fraud between the parties involved.

As to the $500 deductible? say the damage is worth $3000, the insurance co. will pay $2500 which is $3000- deduct. You may get away with the $500 through the body shop itself; some shops when they get the business (they try to be just nice with their customers) will waive the deduct. for you; as such they will be happy to get ONLY the $2500 in the hypothetical example above.

P.S. Insurance co. Adjuster is the most crucial in the repair process; he/she decides the how much; when and how. For example if the adjuster reports to his insurance co. that the repair is worth more than 80% of the car book value, the car in question will be total damaged. thus Ins. co. will pay the owner the-then book value.

Goos luck and I hope this helps in clarifying some issues
regards
billb

[2001BMW325xi]

Originally posted by cmohan@Jan 25 2005, 08:57 AM
Hi all,
My 3 week old 325xi was hit in the airport parking lot (in my absence) during bad weather. Allstate "suggested" to take the car to one of their subsidiary body shops (Sterling Auto body). I am wondering if it is a good move. I talked to the dealer and he recommended another body shop who supposedly specialize in BMWs.

My questions are:
1. If I take it to a body shop not recommended by Allstate, will they pay all the charges or go by the adjuster's valuation?
2. Does Allstate deal with the body shop directly for payments or do I have to be involved.
3. I have a $500 collisions deductible. Since it is a "not at fault" accident", do I still shell out the 500 bucks?

If anyone has any recommendations on a good body shop in DC area please let me know.

Thanks in advance!

[snapback]278753[/snapback]

Okay I dunno about Allstate but I would guess the same rules apply:

For Progressive: They will reccomend you to a collision center of their choice but many times its a place that does not specialize in BMs so you can either talk to them or cajole them to change it to a place youre more comfortable with. I did it with my old car cause I knew the guy Progressive recommended was a no good guy. I took it to a person I knew personally.

In my case the payment was made by me and then Progressive refunded the amount as a check. That was because I took it to a place not on their "list" so to speak. I forgot to ask if its different if I did take it to their "listed" people. The refund was pretty prompt though.

The deductible as I understand is under all conditions (read the fine print in the contract).....your fault or George Bush's . Anyways yeah you will prolly have to pay that 500$ (assuming that the 500$ covers the repairs and then yu gotta pay some more).

Hope you get that baby back online.

[peterkulesza]

all said here i agree with, just to add:

1. INSIST to the insurance guy on OEM BMW parts ONLY!!!
2. i have a good guy who did mine (some idiot nbacked into my standing car causing $8k worht of damage): he is in baltimore and i give him my complete trust, highly recommended if you want ot drive this far.

[billB]

Originally posted by peterkulesza@Jan 25 2005, 05:27 PM
all said here i agree with, just to add:

1.* INSIST to the insurance guy on OEM BMW parts ONLY!!!
2. i have a good guy who did mine (some idiot nbacked into my standing car causing $8k worht of damage):* he is in baltimore and i give him my complete trust, highly recommended if you want ot drive this far.

[snapback]278811[/snapback]

Peter
#1 above is so true that SOME insurance companies do authorize body shops to use after market parts in an attempt to save on repair, conversely SOME auto bodies will submit an estimate to the ins. based on OEM parts but when it comes to repairs? you guessed it, after market. Beware!!

p.s. SOME=NOT ALL.
regards
billb