Why is it so hard to get my Liberty fixed.

kspageddie · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2008 3:41 pm

I am so mad I can .....

Okay, here is my story. Last Nov I hit a huge honkin buck with my Liberty. I finally took the ol girl to the body shop on Feb 16th and the estimate was close to $7000.00 to get the ol girl back on her feet. The body shop told me it would take two weeks, that turned into three which turned into 6 weeks. The Jeep is finally done.

Now, my insurance company Progressive is dragging their feet on paying the claim. The are upset about a $1000.00 supplemental claim for a "parts price increase". The body shop sent a supplement for $1000.00 because they claimed the parts on the orginal claim were not available and they had to purchase OEM parts (okay OEM parts are better for me and the Liberty). Well, Progressive is saying that the aftermarket parts were available and they are not going to pay the "parts price increase".

I have spoken with 3 different levels of management at Progressive and each are telling me that they are working on it. I talk to the body shop and they say the same thing. Today, Progressive told me to be prepared to pay out of pocket for the addtional cost. The body shop says not to worry about it. Progressive also tells me that the body shop used OEM because of the higher markup and tuff luck....

I am at end of my rope, any suggestions on what I should do from here?

DryBones · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2008 3:50 pm

Hate to say it but last time we hit a deer State Farm picked up the whole bill no questions asked and had it done in less than a week.

KJ4ME · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2008 4:55 pm

i asked USAA what would happen if something like this were to happen to me since my kj is in the body shop right now from an accident, and their response was "we would send the body shop another check for the new total ammount due... your $100 deductable would stay the same, meaning you only have to pay it once no matter how many checks we have to send..."

tjkj2002 · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:15 pm

Supplemental claims are pretty common,the bodyshop ussually finds more wrong with it once it is all torn apart.I worked at a bodyshop before and almost all vehicles fixed had supplemental claims,it's kinda hard to find all the broken stuff untill it is completely taken apart,and yes part prices do increase often.You are not resonsible for the supplemental claims,they can not make you pay,it's either the insurance pays it or not,then then bodyshop goes after the insurance company type of deal.

Get a better insurance company then progressive,they suck(like gecko does) and go off your credit score,there are way better insurance company's out there.

hatu · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:34 pm

"The body shop says not to worry about it." I'm not quite sure what you meant by that. Sounds like they'll take the $7000 and release the Jeep and forgive the $1000.

If that's not the case, maybe you can have the body shop show 'proof' that parts were not available. If not, they should eat it. You could also just pay the difference and take them all to small claims. Hassle I know, but then they would be forced to show proof the parts were not available. Like wise, Prog would have to show they were available too....It maybe too late, but start collecting all copies of paper work.

KJ4ME · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2008 5:50 pm

i just got off the phone with my insurance, usaa, and asked what someone in your situation does. they said the SAME EXACT thing tjkj said, that supplemental claims happen all the time once the body panels are off and its just the skeleton of the vehicle and that you (the owner) should only be responsible for your deductible. the only way you would be responsible for the $1,000 is if you SPECIFICALLY asked for oem or aftermarket parts to take the place of the parts that they were going to use. if your insurance doesnt want to pay the increase, they your body shop needs to go to war with progressive, not you. you are only responsible for your deductible. they also said that your body shop can help itself by proving that the parts they were going to use were unavailable; if they give the insurance company a reason why they had to use what they did then it might ease the process and tensions...

hope that helps

Jeep Dawg · **Posted:** Wed Apr 02, 2008 7:51 pm

Man I know how you feel. A few years ago when I had my 97 TJ ALL TRICKED OUT, A passing truck made roast beef out of this deer and the deer flopping towards me, I hit the antlers with my drivers front tire. Mind you I had 275/50/17 on this TJ so I blew a tire and another car swerved to get out of the way and ended up under the front of my TJ. As we both went down an enbankment all i saw was my life flashing by.
LONG STORY SHORT, A body shop said it was a total loss. My INS com sent an expert and they said it is repairable, and it would cost about 13,000. YES I said $13,000

Well it was progressive needles to say. It took them about 2 months to rebuild the Wrangler. I had it for about a month with brand new tires and my front were worn. the front axl was twisted. When I brough it back they said the frame was bent and they got it as close as the could.

EVEN LONGER STORY SHORT,
They declaired a total loss and replaced my rig and dumped my ins 1 week later.
Progressive? Prosameless

kspageddie · **Posted:** Thu Apr 03, 2008 9:15 am

Hopefully I will have an update to the never ending story later today. The claims rep and his manager are supposed to meet with the body shop this afternoon.

Jeep Dawg, I am going to follow suit and dump Progressive as soon as I get my Liberty fixed....

99xjclassic · **Joined:** Thu Aug 30, 2007 9:15 pm **Posts:** 43

I have progressive also. They are under contract with a specific shop that did some repairs on My girlfriends liberty. The shop messed everything up I mean everything. (Just see my recent threads) Progressive has now took a back seat and has us dealing directly with an shop that lies to us. After I get all this squared away, I am switching ins companies.

tonycrd · **Posted:** Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:05 am

99xjclassic I have the exact same problem. Liberty Insurance ( I liked the libby having a libby insurance

) told me to handle things myself after they screwed everything up. Crashed the car in June '07. It's now April '08...still not solved...

I do have another insurance company now.

Pote · **Posted:** Thu Apr 03, 2008 11:17 am

99xjclassic wrote:

I have progressive also. They are under contract with a specific shop that did some repairs on My girlfriends liberty. The shop messed everything up I mean everything. (Just see my recent threads) Progressive has now took a back seat and has us dealing directly with an shop that lies to us. After I get all this squared away, I am switching ins companies.

JUST AN FYI FOR us Ohioans...my wife is a Progressive employee...been there for about ten years. WE don't even use Progressive insurance and you be surprised to know a fair amount of people emplyed there don't either...why you may ask??? Well, their insurance cost me roughly $1000 more a year than my current provider...they definitely are high priced. Even being an emplyee, doesn't get us any cost benefit. good insurance, just overpriced. I hope you get it all straightened out....like everyone else said, additional funds are the norm on a case like this due to the fact that at the work's inception, they make an estimate (estimate being the keyword) and usually find additional damage once the car is taken apart. pretty common, and Progressive should not give grief over a standard practice. I do recommend however looking for other providers...I have Erie insurance and even Geico will be hundreds less per year for the same spec'd out insurance. Just a friendly heads up.

nlife · **Joined:** Thu Aug 16, 2007 11:43 pm **Posts:** 226

Sounds like a pretty shady deal to me. I'm in British Columbia and we only have a provincial insurance company. Just had my libby in to have the rear bumper replaced after I was rear-ended at a stop light. The insurance company said that if the autobody shop finds anything else that needs to be repaired, and it's related to the accident, that they will add the extra money on top of the bill and forward it to ICBC. They also said that extra expenses were common, and that I don't have to worry about it.

Downside was that the autobody shop was supposed to use OEM parts, but had used aftermarket. The bumper didn't fit properly and was rubbing on the drivers side of the tailgate. I'm guessing the autobody company thought I wouldn't notice and because of that, it would be fine. I took it back and had them replace the bumper with OEM. They still didn't paint the small spot (about a 2-3 mm patch) where the paint wore down to the primer. I'm going to take care of that myself because I can't stand dealing with the company any more.

On a good note though, ICBC called me and asked me to do a short survey about my experience with the insurance representative and the autobody company that I dealt with. They were VERY interested to know that the autobody company tried to use aftermarket parts, but charge ICBC full OEM price.

In the end, it didn't save the autobody company any money because they had to do the job twice and ICBC knows what they were trying to do with the parts.

N

DoverKJ · **Posted:** Thu Apr 03, 2008 3:46 pm

If it doesnt get resolved soon, start calling your State's Insurance Commissoners Office and making complaints.

kspageddie · **Posted:** Thu Apr 03, 2008 4:39 pm

I should be on the payroll of both the body shop and Progressive. Anyway, here is my update. Progressive and the body shop spoke today and reviewed line by line the supplemental claim. Progressive claim rep went and talked to his manager (sounds like the good old days when I sold cars) after getting off the phone with the body shop. Progressive calls me and tells me that they are willing to pay for the actual cost of the OEM parts and not the retail price listed by the body shop on the supplemental claim. Progressive is going to call the body shop tomorrow and try to negotiate the cost.

Progressive tried to explain their position on this by comparing OEM Parts and Aftermarkets parts to Brand and Generic Medication. By saying the insurance company is going to pay for the cheapest product that does the same thing. Little did this guy know that I am a Marketing Manager for the Countries largest Prescription Benefit Manager..lol

The body shop says that they will work really hard to get me into my car tomorrow...

I will give you more details tomorrow

theBIGbCraig · **Joined:** Sat Sep 22, 2007 12:28 pm **Posts:** 20

DryBones wrote:

Hate to say it but last time we hit a deer State Farm picked up the whole bill no questions asked and had it done in less than a week.

This won't help, but...

Hate to say it but last time we hit a deer it bounced off. No damage done. I guess the 'strong' 2-ton body is worth something :twisted:

-

Allstate works good for us, no problems replacing the real liftgate with OEM parts (at the dealer even) when our Liberty was rear-ended by another Liberty. The front of the other guy was demolished, and he was under insured... he didn't have such a good time.

I've heard worse things about Geico than Progressive...

kspageddie · **Posted:** Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:15 am

I finally got my Jeep back!! It cost me an additional 600.00 bucks (there goes my new tire cash) on top of my deductible. I will fight with the insurance company regarding their failure to pay the additinal money. The old girl looks really good, you can not even tell it was hit.

I felt so bad for Libby that I took her out and got her a new Flowmaster Super 44 muffler...WOW she sounds great.

Guest · **Posted:** Mon Apr 14, 2008 8:04 pm

Congrats!

What was the extra $600 for? OEM parts Progressive wouldn't pay for? I think I'm gonna drop them for my motorcycle insurance now...

Rush345 · **Posted:** Mon Apr 14, 2008 9:30 pm

This reminds me of the paint sprayer equipment house I used to run. when we would estimate a paint sprayer for repair we would always add about a 20% fudge factor. Since most painters used these machines to make a living they would agree to the repair. Later when given the bill they were pleased and overjoyed with a smaller repair bill. Customer never complain when given a smaller bill.

kspageddie · **Posted:** Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:18 pm

Progressive had a hard time wanting to pay for OEM parts. I would not suggest Progressive for insurance at all. I am going to change once my policy expires.

Guest · **Posted:** Mon Apr 14, 2008 10:23 pm

the way I see it is, I'm insuring a vehicle that was BUILT with OEM parts...I don't see any excuse to downgrade. luckily I've never had this problem (Since every time I've wrecked a vehicle that was insured with more than liability, it was an OTL....wish I had pictures of my Explorer somewhere)

Why is it so hard to get my Liberty fixed.

Who is online