
Ashley of Albany, NY on Nov. 16, 2010
The car was stolen by my boyfriend's brother. I pressed charges because he has no insurance to fix the damages. His poor mom, who has little money, gave me the $500 cash deductible to fix the damages.The theft resulted from some sort of off road driving, leaving fluids and torn wires sloppily visible when I found the car, along with a big dent, and some more paint chipping. I would be more than happy to get a statement from my few mechanics of the car's prior condition. I had no communication whatsoever until about 3 days after reporting the theft of the 2000 Chevrolet Cavalier z24. I had to arrange to start the whole assessment of the claim by calling Mr. Scott ** myself.
I didn't know when I could bring my car in after it was brought for first estimate, by DeNooyer Chevrolet, and also after the contracted appraiser came to look at the car.
I finally spoke to someone other that Scott **, a claims rep who said I could bring my car in whenever, so I scheduled a time to bring it in, a week after this point (The 13th of September being the scheduled date).
Car was brought in, and the shop tried issuing a supplemental damage claim to meet their original appraisal. Apparently, while assessing the apparent repairs, it was discovered that a prior accident had occurred before I bought the car. I was unaware of this, since when I bought the car, it had a clear Carfax report (Car was bought March 08), and looked perfect, with only 36,000 miles on it, and 1 owner.
Regardless of any unknown prior damage to the car, until this theft there was not any visible front end, or undercarriage damage other than a couple small rust spots. Also, there was absolutely no mechanical damage to this car before the theft, and I have all receipts of meticulous care of mechanics since I have owned it. My insurance coverage is $20 a day for a rental. Since this took too long, as the original time expected to fix my car was 3 days, this was resolved and all rental money was paid out about a month ago, at $460 for 18 days plus 5 days of total rental time.
I had been expediting everything, involving communication with the shop, my adjuster, the police department, and having discrepancy with the appraisal that Unitrin gave me for my car after Chevy had given me a much more detailed one. I did the job of the adjuster as a whole. I am really upset with having to take this all on by myself. As of the current status with this company, I got my car back after it being gone for 3 weeks. They fixed some of the visible damage, not all of it, which was so upsetting and neglected to fix the most serious things wrong with my car! I even took a very long verbal statement at the beginning of the claim process to be very specific saying what was wrong with this car from the theft, and it was completely neglected! The most serious things, which are dangerous things, are making me fear my safety because the company is taking so long to approve the 2nd round of repairs or they are disregarding them all together. I don't know!
No one will help me! I have a ABS line that was severed at the time of the theft, a brake or hub assembly problem in that area, and also some power steering damage! It is getting cold now in NY, it has snowed once, and I have no choice but to drive my damaged car because Unitrin Direct hasn't contacted me with the 4th appraisal of damages which was done in my presence (the first 3 were not, and they were very wrong for what was written as damage). Currently, I am being ignored by the property damage claims manager, Andrew **, as he said he was going to settle this case, reopening it after the first settlement, of $1295.26, minus the $500 deductible.