Smash Repairer's Insurance Scams

[toxik]

hey all just wondering if anybody has experienced the dodgyness of smash repairers?

As a lot of us t drivers have heavily modded cars insurance becomes a touchy subject. what to tell what not to tell, wing it and take the risk. But regardless of how good and experienced a driver may be accidents happen, even with a fast car and driving sensibly big oil patches and heavy rain are a recipe for disaster.

so (here is where everyone should make a mental note- tow car home 1st then repairers) my t gets picked up and taken to the repairer to get assessed on the sat and they tell me thell get an assess done by wed, claim mgr will come out thu to assess . go over there monday morn and the front bar is off bonet up exposing my intake p/w I/c trans cooler etc etc

ask if we can come in to take some stuff off because it would never get passed from the assessor they said we couldnt but they could so 12 phone calls later im still asking is it done yet? (ive told them I will pay for labour charges incurred)

this is tuesday week later (10 days later) call again wednesday and im told by the receptionist "no your car went to the holding yard yesterday its been written off 19k in damage the assessor looked at it and approved it" so asked the management why I wasnt told and they say they tryed to call but there was no answer .(pretty funny when you have an answering machine and voice mail on you mobile-not) im mainly peeved off because I lost over 2k in mods that were easily able to be swapped over and a fat ass fpv wheel and leather interior that could of been swapped over with another fam members standard cloth.

my conspiricy theory is the repairers new it was 500 ponys and over wrote the claim amount so it would go for auction for them or someone with them to buy.

so for ppls out there dont tell the repairers the pwr your car is making and take it home 1st

has anybody had a similar experience at all ????

Edited 04/07/09 02:22 AM by toxik

[ZAP]

I do not see the scam here.

Insurance companies do not look at the details of the car, only its insured value vs damage vs auction value is all they look at.

The workshop may have done you a favour by getting the mods removed befroe it was assessed.

Most insurance companies will let you buy the wreck at an agreed value. You could part it out and maybe make some money.

I think the issue you are trying to mention is hiding Mods and insurance, where it should be full disclosure on your insurance. If you want a modified car, then get insurance to suite, as you may not be able to removie mods in the event of an accident.

[ETM]

you could buy it back from auction cheap!

[toxik]

$8500 it went for at auction sorry the point there is they didnt remove the mods the assessor shouldnt of passed it very lucky they did but it was all still done so very dodgyly they were just really very sneaky about the situation

agreed though depending on the sitch mods cant be removed that easy hence take it home 1st ...

I know a couple of predominant ins. co's wont insure you if the I/c is changed let alone a plenum etc is there an ins.co.out there that will insure you for every day use and wont charge an exorborant amount of money (I should say obscene amount)...

oh and back to the top the ins. co would not let me buy it on an agreed price so someone out there got a bargain

also I didnt get to flash it back to factory rule 3 keep your box handy...

Edited 04/07/09 04:26 AM by toxik

[Rootster]

hey toxik....so you were hooning around in the wet lost it and smashed it...and it's your panel beaters fault...oh sorry the oil on the road.....Mate you play you pay......

Edited 04/07/09 05:06 AM by Rootster

[toxik]

the worst part to that is I wasnt hoonin but agreed

[gregor]

look into shannons or just cars for cover with all mods. As for the other stuff there could be other factors at play - perhaps they could lose their preferred repairer status if they were found to be removing mods from customer cars or get in more trouble, not sure if it would be considered fraudlent or not.

If its towed home I have heard that some insurers wont cover a damaged vehicle if it was stripped by theives so check out your cover..

[JETURBO]

I see what your saying in a roundabouts way I bet and u bet someone there(crash repair) has it now for cheap coin and how this could happen many times with out ppl knowing

[RegSpec]

When our XR8 was crashed, and it was declared a writeoff.....

The Ins. Co. offered it back to me at 12k......my beater said they offered it to him for 10 and asked if I wanted it back for that.....which I didn't, so it went off to auction were a couple of guys paid 15k for it.

[AJJ]

I had my car damaged at work, a truck drove past and its barn door swung open denting the back of the car.

The damage was not that great, only a couple of dents and scrap's, smash repairer said it would take a week top's. 3 weeks later I was still ringing to see where my car was.

While it was in there, I decided to get the front bumper resprayed due to driveway scrap's as its lowered.

When it was finally ready went to pick it up my freashly painted bumper was all scrapped underneath,

said that this could not be helped as it was lowered, still wanted to charge me full price for the job.

The finish on the repaired panel was dodgy as, with run's everywhere and there was still a gauge out of the harder cover just painted over. knocked it back 3 times, as it was not acceptable work.

When I dropped it off, reset the trip computer. on picking it up the figure's where

Engine running time 5 hours

Average fuel 99.9 ltr/100

Average speed 2kmh

With half of the full tank of petrol gone.

When I questioned them on this, they denide driving it. Showed them the recipt for the full tank of petrol the moring it happened. either way it had a good thrashing, probably from cold too.

Don't think they realised that you need to hold the button for 2 beeps to reset, so only did the avaerage speed

And to top it off they stole my 2 new fishing rods that where in the back.

Apparantly they where never there, which is funny because one of the workers had commented on them.

The painful thing with most insurance work is that you have to take it to there approved repairer and not one that you know will do a good job and respect your car.