Rental Car Fail

[jrh215]

Haven't posted in a while since I left the retail world over a year ago. I work for a large insurance company now as a claims adjuster. I still deal with plenty of idiots, liars, and scammers, but I guess it's doesn't get to me as much since I only deal with them over the phone and, even though we are big on customer service in the claims process, we can tell people what's what when they start getting overly demanding or too self-entitled.

I'm handling one file where one of our policyholders *tapped* the rear bumper of the car in front of them; basically he's distracted and not realizing he's holding the brake pedal down hard enough so he just rolls into the car in front of him. Usually something so minor would not come to my level of claims, so why did it? Because the mother and daughter in the car who got *tapped* were transported from the scene via ambulance. *Rolls eyes.*

I can understand how some people react to pain in different ways, but there are just some situations where you know these people just think they can use this as an excuse to get money by claiming injuries. As much as I hate doing it, we usually will pay for emergency room costs, no matter how minor the accident; it's any further additional treatment we start to question--as is this case with this mother and daughter who since gone back to the ER twice and plan on seeking physical therapy for their "injuries."

I just so happen to get a call from the daughter yesterday before leaving for the day. She's yelling and screaming about how Enterprise Rent A Car keeps calling her about their bill and how we should've taken care of it, how we need to do our jobs, she going to "put her lawyer on us," etc., etc., etc. I told her I'd look into the matter and get back with her since a lot of this went on before I took possession of their case.

Turns out they were also trying to claim their vehicle had transmission problems due to the "force" of the impact. Common sense would tell you such a minor impact would not have caused any problems other than the paint scratches on the bumper, but again, these two opportunists are just thinking if they say this problem is accident related, we'll rush to fix it for them. Yeah, right. Our field adjuster who looked at the car told them to have it checked out after they got the bumper scratches taken care of, or have it inspected at the dealer before going into the body shop for repairs to determine if the transmission problems were related; regardless, he advised the estimate he wrote was basically to buff out the bumper, it's a 2 day repair, and that's how long we would pay for a rental vehicle. If it was determined the transmission problems were related, then we could write a supplemental estimate and extend the rental as necessary. Were the transmission problems related per the dealer? Hell no.

But guess what these two geniuses did? As soon as they got their estimate and without letting the shop order necessary parts to do the work, the dropped the car off and got into the rental vehicle we paid for...and continued to stay in the car for.....

....37 days.

These idiots managed to run up a $1600 rental bill (almost 4 times the cost of the repairs to their vehicle). But guess what? It was supposed to be a two day repair, and that's exactly the numbers of days I told the daughter when I called back how much we would pay. Actually we did pay for four days, but as far as the remaining $1400 or so--that's all on them. I only got to leave her a message telling her this; I had really wanted to tell her while she was on the other end of the line just so I could hear the explosion of anger. Oh, well. After all these two have done to milk this for all it's worth, it's a little bit of karmic justice that their own stupidity put them in this situation.

[Apathy]

S'more worthless people contributing nothing to anything.

Punishment: Being fired out of a cannon and into the sun.

[ShinyGreenApple]

As someone who recently went through THIS because some dumbass couldn't tell the difference between properly merging and "DOONUUUUTTS!" and won't have her truck back until at least a week after the accident, these people piss me off. And I don't have rental coverage. Glad they got stuck with that ridiculous bill though.

[Exploding Penguin]

You are my new Goddes

but as far as the remaining $1400 or so--that's all on them. I only got to leave her a message telling her this; I had really wanted to tell her while she was on the other end of the line just so I could hear the explosion of anger.

I so wish that there where more insurance adjusters like you. Hell I just wish I could be there when ever you get the call back from those two :

[bainsidhe]

I'm with LadyB, this makes me pretty upset. Yet I also wonder if these people are right in the head. I mean, they're scammers I get that. But for them to think, nay, feel entitled to the point that they rack up a $1600 rental bill...well that just boggles me. Obviously they think the big bad insurance company owes them something. I'm really starting to feel for the distracted idiot who bumped them. Wouldn't surprise me if they're harrassing him as well.

[Sliceanddice]

well i was in a fender bender where it looked like the girl just tapped us (she hit us going about 10 miles per hour) and she hadcaused our transmission to get defunted but even then it only took 3 weeks to fix, though i did liek the rentle car, it made my back easier to deal with.
they may have needed to have their transmission looked at, but 37 days was to much

[Auto]

A few years back, I did something similar.

Stop and go traffic. The van ahead of me starts to move -- and then stops. I'm not paying attention and only at last minute do I notice that he's stopped. Slam on brakes but end up making very light contact with his rear bumper.

Driver gets out, I get out. No damage to either vehicle. But to be safe we exchange insurance and DL info.

About 6 weeks later the driver's wife calls me to confirm some info. It turns out he's claiming soft tissue neck injuries for a workman's comp claim he's filing.

I said what he told his boss and the state authorities happened was his business but if anyone contacted me about his claim, I was going to say it sounded like insurance fraud. She hung up on me.

Never found out what happened.

[Bosch]

well i was in a fender bender where it looked like the girl just tapped us (she hit us going about 10 miles per hour) and she hadcaused our transmission to get defunted but even then it only took 3 weeks to fix, though i did liek the rentle car, it made my back easier to deal with.
they may have needed to have their transmission looked at, but 37 days was to much

Auto trans are delicate in most new cars, it don't take much to destroy one if you were to ever see on in pieces. They make them as light as possible to save weight and cost(yep they don't last for crap) but I want to know How the fuck do you leave a car at a bodyshop for over a month and they don't start calling for you to come and get it???

In my last case I had to deny to pick mine up three times since they missed a bent rim(1st refusal) it was hard to miss the wobble as I didn't make it to the driveway of the shops parking lot. Cracked leaking radiator(2nd refusal) and then defects in the new painted bodypanels and defects put in the OEM panels(3rd refusal) that ended up in the car being detailed out by a meguiars car products staff detailer to correct. Oh that did cost a bundle and not once did the adjuster call me to discuss the crap of their approved shop doing this huge blunder.. And this was a minor front end crash.. The shop couldn't wait to get my car off their books, cause I was such a bitch cause I wanted it fixed correctly and to the pro standard this shop was advertising.. Swirl marks are not normal for car paint as they tried to convince me it was normal..

[blas]

Ugh...I hear ya'll loud and clear.

I was in an accident this last summer. I did literally just TAP this guy's bumper....but since he had a Civic, it caused some real damage on his part. I tapped him at less than 5mph. He was going to go, but he slammed his brakes at the last second.

He got out of the car, swearing as loud as possible at me in Hmong, proceeded to call 911 and scream at the 911 operator in Hmong....thankfully a cop came along and must have cancelled the ambulance and firetruck that WOULD have came if he hadn't come along. That man then continued freaking out in broken English about his precious car and how it was "totalled".

Funny thing is....he still hasn't filed a claim for the repairs to his precious car. It's been well over 6 months.

[ShinyGreenApple]

You know, the more I think about this, the more my faith in humanity continues to wane. This poor guy tapped the back of their car. It was a simple, common, rear-ending incident. Sucks, but it's no biggie. And the ambulance was completely superfluous and indulgent, unless one of them had existing neck/back problems. Wednesday, I collided with another truck hard enough to smash my bumper/fender back so far that it punctured my tire and still didn't call an ambulance. They walked away from an accident unscathed, they should damn well be thankful.

[One-Fang]

I slammed into a vehicle that failed to see me and give way on the open road (100kph - about 60mph). Spun her around and flung her to the other side of the road. Found out what "crumple zone" really means. Totalled every panel on the side she hit me.

No ambo. Skinned knees and a bruise where the seat belt went.

I fail to see how a bumper tap could be worse than that.

[excuse me??]

I work in a big box retail store in a town where most of our manufactures have closed. With high unemployment, many folks are desporate. When they see me on a ladder bringing down stock, its not uncommon for them to get as close to my ladder as they possibly can, in hopes that one of these small boxes might fall and they'll be able to collect money, and stay in their home or keep their car.

I always stop, and go on do something else, until they walk out of that aisle.

[Ree]

she hadcaused our transmission to get defunted

I'm not familiar with cars, so I don't know what that means.

It would seem to me that these people should have had that checked a lot sooner than they did. I can't believe they ended up going in an ambulance because of a slight tap to the bumper.

[Slytovhand]

Many years ago, I was driving my GF's BMW on a road I knew quite well - it went from 2 lanes to 1 with no warning, then straight onto a roundabout. Both lanes had traffic, so I knew exactly what was going to happen - and it did.

The guy behind me didn't stop in time, and hit us - I watched it all happen in the rear view mirror. What was amusing to me was watching his mates in the car (via the mirror) laugh hysterically at him. I'm pretty sure they were giving him crap (cos he was a young guy - prob about 18/19) about hitting a BMW and how much it was going to cost and all that!

After getting out and checking it, I couldn't even see where he hit us, so (with gf's ok) let it go. (I think he had more damage than us, given the BMW was a few years old, and thus a bit solider, and his was a newer car, and thus crumply plastic stuff...).

But...37 days?? Surely they were incredibly stupid to think no-one would even bother to check?? Surely, some brain cell in them must have said, "hmmm... I dunno, this won't be that easy to pull off...".

[Nyoibo]

He got out of the car, swearing as loud as possible at me in Hmong

I'm just surprised you recognised Hmong.