Never Thought I Could Say This...

[Cory Wolfe]

But, somehow, it's happened. I hit a black bear. Literally right outside of Dubois, barely beyond a residential area. Most unexpected incident of my life.

Hit it hard enough to completely disable the vehicle. It wouldn't start or turn over afterwards. Now I just need Allstate to hurry the hell up and send an adjuster.

[vonVeezelsnider]

Jeez. What are the odds?

[SAmadei]

You probably triggered some sort of emergency cut-off switch. I can't believe how many vehicles have them now... hit a big pothole in a newish van and it triggered the fuel shut-off. *grumble*

[G. David Felt]

WOW, Just glad you are OK. Did the bear make it ok?

Keep us updated as I am interested in what hitting a bear costs to repair the car. We have bear and deer here all the time. So far so lucky I have not hit either.

[caddycruiser]

That is nuts.

I have seen so many obliterated deer in the past 2 weeks, and a customer of ours even wrecked a brand new car into one on a test drive last week. But black bear...that's a first.

[daves87rs]

Ouch....

[Cory Wolfe]

A week later, and my insurance is really dropping the ball on this. Adjuster still, STILL, hasn't been out to assess the damage so I can finally get it into the shop. Not too happy with Allstate at this point.

[Drew Dowdell]

Hmm, that's who we just switched to....

[GMTruckGuy74]

Flo would have had your back covered by now!

[G. David Felt]

I had allstate and farmers and both were happy to take money but slow to respond to customer needs. I went with Costco Ameriprise and have loved it. For all the auto's and house and the rate was very low and yet still I get great response usually same day if not the next at the latest for the few times I have had to use it. Most times while on the phone they ask me to go to xyz autoshop and they will snap the pictures write it up and get back to me in 72hrs to have it dropped off for repair if it can still be driven. One time I was hit and not drivable, they had me in a rental same day and had it being repaired the next.

Ameriprise is awesome. Just wish they also had marine. Have to go with Progressive for that.

[Cory Wolfe]

Well, the adjuster finally inspected the vehicle yesterday. The verdict is... He's incompetant. Besides being a typical cheap-ass insurance adjuster trying to save money in every way possible to ensure your vehicle is never repaired as best as it could be, he screwed up the estimate. First, he ordered the wrong headlight. There's a big difference between the regular Avalon's halogen headlights and the Avalon Limited's standard auto-leveling HID headlights. Also, while I could be wrong since I'm sure body shops can work their magic in surprising ways, I was certain the hood would need to be replaced and he entered to just repair and realign it. The estimate is also less thorough than my last estimate from when I hit a deer that did much less damage, and less costly. Somehow, the damage below did over $1k more than the damage at the top of the page. Besides the missed headlight, and difference with the hood, it seems odd...

Meanwhile, I'm pretty sure my resale value will forever be toast after this.

[ocnblu]

We run into that a lot. Insurance company field estimators are told to write as cheap as possible, and put the responsibility on the shop to supplement any wrong, missed, or hidden damage. Nothing new there. I can't tell by looking at the top picture if I would have written to repair or replace that hood. If it is buckled at the crush zone, it should not be repaired. Raise your hood and look at the underside outer edges about halfway back, there should be a factory buckle there, that, if bent more than an undamaged hood, it should be replaced. It is a weak spot engineered in for safety purposes, and once it is compromised, it is much weaker.

If your shop is good, they will get everything taken care of and get Allstate to pay them the supplemental damages, once you sign a Direction Of Pay form, allowing them to do so.

If there is no structural damage, this claim may not appear on Carfax. Carfax is a scam, imo, because some insurance companies don't report damage to Carfax... and if the customer pays cash for body repairs and doesn't use his or her insurance, then for sure that damage will never be reported to Carfax, to appear on a vehicle record.

If the repairs are done correctly, there should not be a significant hit to resale value. When I wrecked my Sierra, it did not appear on Carfax... either time. Where I worked at the time, we had a subscription, and I continually checked it for months afterward. I used Progressive Insurance.

Edited November 10, 2013 by ocnblu

[Drew Dowdell]

Make the adjuster make it right.

We had Allstate for a big house disaster over the summer. We called him back to make changes as we found additional damage.

Your guy should be re-writing the estimate as you find corrections and additional damage.