bigslick7878

So I am quite furious right now and don't know what to do. I had the entire drivers side of my S Class vandalized down to the metal. A nice expletive that I care not to mention on front quarter panel, and two huge scratches down the side to the bumper otherwise.(it was a mentally ill person, we have it on video) I just got what I feel is a complete joke of an offer from Progressive. The number they gave me to fix the entire side of the car was.....$1100!! I almost fell off my chair when I saw this. This isn't going to be buffed out (already tried) and the car will need a full paint job on that side and all the prep work to go along with it. I just got the offer this morning so won't be able to talk to them Monday morning. I would love to just hire a lawyer and be done with it, so it ends up costing them 25k instead of what it should. Problem is this is not a personal injury or anything of the sort, so I doubt many attorneys will be interested. I would probably have to put up thousands for a retainer right off the bat even if I could find someone. I am planning on taking it to a few places Monday to get real estimates, but now I'm going to have to use my time and money to do all this which I really don't have.

I guess my real question is to restore this car back to the way it was, which is what they are required to do. Including diminished value and all that, does anyone have any experience or idea what this might cost to do it properly? Or the steps needed so when I go to body shop I know what I'm talking about? Or any tips in general if you have dealt with this before? They literally never even had someone come and look at it, it is all done through the app. You take pics and a video and send it in and they have some program that does it off of that. Are there any services out there that would be worthwhile to use to negotiate? I really don't have the time to go back and forth with these criminals and go to 5 different shops to try to justify the true cost. Any help would be appreciated.

tx170754

I would ONLY go to a Mercedes certified body shop, your insurance should pay the entire cost minus your deductible, I hope you have already read your terms...
These shops will repair you car the same way it was done at the factory.
I have used these guys to fix my Lexus and, however expensive they have done an extraordinary job.
https://www.certified-collision.com

Grandpa Bee

My previous E 350 4Matic was T-boned the first of April. I called my SA at my local MB dealer and she told me that a great deal of MB dealers no longer have body shops but MB does have a list of approved and certified body shops for repairs on MB vehicles. There are not a large number of these certified shops around so don't expect to have your car repaired right away. There is only one in Oregon. My E class ended up be totaled, that's another whole story. When I called the one certified body shop to get an appointment for an estimate I was told that they were booked 6 months out just for estimates. I hope your experience will be better

tx170754

Yes, there are not too many, most of them are in Florida.

as.thompson

I agree with this. Only use a MBZ Certified repair shop. AFAIK all legitimate insurance companies will allow you to have it repaired by a shop of your choice. Don't accept an estimated payment. Pay your deductible to the shop when you pick up the car after you inspect and approve the repairs. The shop should do all of the invoicing and accepting payment from your insurance company (they may send the shop a check to you and the shop who will request your signature). Good luck!

superswiss

Sorry to hear that. I'm curious. Have you never had an insurance claim before? What they gave you is just an estimate. Take it to a body shop, hand them the estimate from your insurance and if the insurance already sent you a check, write it over to the body shop. They will take it from there and if necessary request supplemental payments from the insurance company. All you pay to the body shop is your deductible. The body shops work with the insurance companies all the time and know the adjusters. If they say it costs more to fix, then the insurance will pay. That's how it works.

Depending on where you live, you have the right to take the car to any body shop. If you live in a state where the insurance company can force you to use their shop, then unfortunately you are kinda screwed, otherwise call your dealership and find out which body shop they use. It should be as mentioned above an MBZ certified shop.

Vandalism is covered under comprehensive. I had two vandalism claims in the past. Some lowlife kicked in my quarter panel one time while the car was parked outside, because our driveway was being resurfaced. Left a shoe mark and everything. A second time, probably a kid w/o parental supervision, used a stone to put a huge scratch into the rocker panel down to the primer. People suck.

tx170754

100% right !
That is exactly how my Lexus repair was done !
And BTW Amica is my insurance !

as.thompson

Amica is one of the absolute best if not THE best company.

bigslick7878

Sorry I missed all these replies. I appreciate it. I am calling the dealership in the morning, and finding out where THEY send their cars for paint work and what not. But now I am going to have to take my valuable time to go and get these estimates.. But the Certified MB repair is the way I was going anyway, I live in a major metro area on East Coast so I am sure one is fairly close by.

I have never filed a claim for anything in my life. My insurance is bat**** crazy $6500 for full coverage a year. Perfect driving record. (but apparently the car costs NOTHING to replace/repair, funny how that works!)

I talked to someone who had a similar situation with a late model BMW 550i, no damage they just left swirl marks on a door detailing it.....$1200 for the one door with no repairs needed!
I was also reading about diminished value and it said it STARTS at around 10% of vehicle value. I mean if I go to sell and it has a ton of paint work that surely will devalue car right? Nope, not according to insurance. Couldn't have even been factored in at that ridiculous number.

As far as "just giving and estimate" I also got a notification that the claim is now closed. I never accepted anything, talked to anyone about it. Never gave wiring info or anything. Estimate came Sat afternoon.

Also from what I read they will lowball you out of the gate and hope you are dub and accept which is what a lot of people probably do who don't know any better. I'm guessing they will come back with another offer after hearing my message, but they are so far off that is going to be nonsense as well. I'm going to get my ducks ij a row with estimates before I talk to anyone again.

superswiss

Dude, you are way overthinking and overcomplicating this. You are fighting an enemy that isn't there. It's very clear you've never done this. You don't need to go out and get more estimates. You have the claim number from your insurance. Take the car to the body shop and they handle the rest. Don't worry that the claim has been closed. It'll get reopened if and when the body shop submits a supplemental claim. I've reopened claims multiple times in the past until things were fixed completely. Body shops do this every day.

As for diminished value, that's a different story. You gonna have to file a claim for diminished value separate once the car is fixed. To be honest I've never actually ended up with diminished value when it came to sell the car. The two vandalism claims I had on my previous car didn't even come up when I sold the car. Nobody cared about it. People mostly care about accidents. Granted my car didn't need a lot of paintwork. The kicked in quarter panel was fixed by a magician of PDR who was able to restore the body lines w/o a drop of paint. The scratch in my rocker did require painting the whole rocker panel, but again, nobody cared about it when I sold the car. So diminished value is a bit overblown in many instances.

tx170754

Your "true" offer is what the certified MB will give to your insurance, nothing less, period.
What insurance do you have ?
I wouldn't care about the "diminished" value right now, fix you car the best you can and then think about it, if you intend to keep the car for a couple of more years then that is not relevant.
Just my .02
Good luck !

bigslick7878

I'm confused as to why the diminished value wouldn't be included in the claim, and it has to be separate? If I got T boned would I have to do the same thing, file it separate?? That makes no sense. (But after googling that appears to be the case which is absurd)

We are talking about an entire side of a fairly expensive car that will need paint work. That is quite different than pulling dents out.

The company is Progressive.

superswiss

Because a diminished value claim is an entirely different animal. The claim to repair your vehicle is straight forward based on what it costs to repair it. A diminished value claim starts with the appraisal value of your car and then diminished value has to be proven, which is not easy. To see if there is diminished value, the car has to get appraised by somebody who knows the history of the car, but first it has to get repaired to know the full history. Then the appraisal gets compared to the market value of comparable cars and if the appraisal is lower, then you have a case. Diminished value is usually really only something that is done after an accident and not comprehensive claims, because accidents can cause damages under the hood that are hidden, whereas comprehensive claims such as vandalism etc. are superficial damages. You don't have to worry about the frame of the car potentially being bent after vandalism to the exterior of the car, so there is less stigma associated with the repair. With an accident many people consider the car not being the same after the repair. It may not drive the same anymore as when it was new from the factory. However, some paint damage to body panels that can simply be repainted, doesn't bother as many people. If the repair is done by a certified shop, then the paint will last just as long.

Donnymac

Your auto claim is easy so sit back and relax. Above, you have some good accurate advice and welcome to the world of claim battles.

bigslick7878

Oh yeah "easy auto claim no big deal" Right. Listen to this nonsense. Called us the dealership today, asked who they sent cars to for paint work, is it authorize MB repair blah blah blah. They said you call this place (right behind dealership). Auto Nation Collision.I proceeded to tell the woman about the situation and how I need to schedule an appt for estimate. She says they can't give me an estimate, they work off the insurance estimate. I'm like...what? Oh and earliest to fix is Mid September. I reiterated I just wanted an estimate on the damage, and she again said that we will not give you an estimate, we go off insurance once we get it in here to get fixed. I'm like but that is 2 months away.....and I need the estimate now. She says Progressive will not accept the estimate they use their own. I literally said I will call you back after going over this very confused. I'm like I just need a damn number lady, she basically refused lol.

Edit - So I just called the next closest place, another authorized shop on the website. Left the insurance totally out of conversation, just said I need an estimate for paint work. Sure come right up no problem! Will update in a little bit.

tx170754

Well, in my case being hit in the back by a girl probably texting, my insurance, Amica, as perviously mentioned, did send an appraiser who gave me his estimate. Once the car was at the certified Lexus body shop that estimate tripled !
The rest is like in the above posts, Amica did even send an investigator, in the end the gal was responsible and her insurance probably paid the bill.

Mitch Alsup

Unlikely--but a quick story first::

Coming back from an astronomy trip I hit a deer that cratered the hood and drivers front side, and slid the hood towards the passenger A-piller.
I drove 6+ hours back home and next day I called up my insurance company, the day after I went to see my agent.
I guess insurance has changed from the las time I needed them (12-odd years ago).
In the mean time I went shopping for a repair facility. The independent places were a 4 month wait to get started,.....
So after some hassle, they sent an adjuster out to my home and he wrote up an estimate for roughly $8000
On Monday I took the car to the chosen repair facility (affiliated with dealer) and they opened up the car to find a total repair bill of roughly $26000.
The repair facility told me that the insurance company had routed the claim update to the worse adjuster n their system (and that this particular person was a bad adjuster when working at another insurance company earlier.
I told the facility that I would cover the difference and not to let the insurance company delay the repairs, and wrote them a check for $10000 to get started.
I figured the insurance company would short the total bill by $8000, and in the end they only shorted by $6000; all of this on a $500 deductible.
I felt lucky only having to eat $6000--yes it stinks, but this is what happens when insurance becomes mandatory.

Insurance is typically only required to get your car back into serviceable condition using any parts available (instead of genuine MB parts) and they generally have labor rates from a decade ago--you get to eat both.

Secondarily they are not required to set the car back to zero miles, but appropriate with the age and mileage of the car insured.

bigslick7878

I pay $6500 a year I'm not eating a GD penny.

bigslick7878

So just got back from authorized repair shop, Guy told me Progressive was a nightmare to deal with. Said couldn't give me estimate right there but should be around $4000. So I will give that to the insurance company, and tell them that if they want to pay even more we can go to court. I'm not playing any games. And I will be switching to that Amica place. How in y 45 years have I never heard of them? Are they regional?

Edit - $4144 estimate from MB repair shop.

tx170754

They are nationwide, no 1 on Consumer Reports that's how I found out about them.