American Service Insurance - I was in an accident and robbed the same day on December 14 2002. The insurance company took two weeks to send my vehicle to a body shop. evil dirt bags Rosemont Illinois Illinois
I was involved in a accident in Chicago Illinois on December 14 2002. The accident was caused by a missing stop sign on a street corner. After the accident the police showed up at the scene an hour and 20 minutes after the fact. They took me to the police department to fill out paperwork.
Once we returned to my vehicle it was broken into and robbed. The police told me "thats the way it is around here". A theft report was filed and I gave all the info to ASI. They finally took my truck to one of their certified body shops. I had about $2,000.00 worth of after market parts on my truck Example(Front end brush gaurd with four fog lights, 12" sub with box, amplifier,+ more). The insurance company told me that they don't care about that stuff and they will restore the vehicle to "PRE-ACCIDENT status".
In my mind that tells me that all my after market parts should be covered because "PRE-ACCIDENT status" says that everything before the accident happened will be fixed. The shop told me that the work to my truck will take about two to three weeks, that was in January 2003. I finally got my truck back on March 24 2003. I had to pay TWO deductables equalling $1,000.00, one for the accident and one for the robbery even though the robbery was related to the accident.
I took the truck home and drove it at night and noticed that the entire instrument panel does not work, my driver rear tail light does not work, 4X4 switch does not work + many more. I took my truck back to the same shop (Midway Auto Repair)on April 10 2003, they told me this morning April 11 2003 that they are not responsible for the problem with the vehicle. I don't understand that in my mind because they took my entire dashboard out and installed a new one and now all of a sudden nothing works and that my fault.
ASI insurance doesn't want to hear any of my problems they just want to collect my monthly payments. I have since that cancelled my policy with that group. I don't feel that I should have payed for two deductables on top of all my after market parts equalling right around $3,500.00. I have found a shop near my job that might be able to fix all the problems that Midway Auto repair have created but it won't be cheap and I don't feel that I should be liable for the charges.
Please any help that your organization can provide will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks again,
Mike Seremak
Michael
Chicago Ridge, Illinois
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Eric
Chicago,Illinois,
U.S.A.
ASI *is* correct in assessing two deductibles if the facts are as you've presented them.
#2Consumer Suggestion
Sun, May 04, 2003
I'm an adjuster in for an insurer who does business in the Chicago metro area. I'm also pretty familiar with ASI, but I'll go into that in a moment. First and foremost (and I realize that no one is probably ever going to be able to convince you to the contrary), ASI *is* correct in assessing two deductibles if the facts are as you've presented them.. There are two distinct losses:
1.) an accident which falls under collision coverage; and
2.) a partial theft which falls under comprehensive coverage. They may appear to be related due to a sequence of events, but they are distinctly seperate incidents.
That said, I'm not here to defend ASI. They are a sub-standard auto insurer who write high risk auto policies. Like the majority of sub-standard auto carriers with whom I've had experience, they can be pretty difficult to deal with.
As such, be VERY careful about how you approach any supplemental repairs to you vehicle. The original shop is the shop that *should* do any supplemental work on your vehicle, esp if there's a potential issue regarding workmanship.
If you elect go to a different body shop, don't expect your carrier to pay for the repairs... especially if the repairs are completed without one of their appraisers looking at the claimed damage. Take a moment and read your policy, because there will be a clause, probably in the [Insured's] Duties section that will spell it out for you.
As for any of the aftermarket parts, check with your agent to see if he knew about them. I've had it come up before where an insured will have an accident and the brush guard, which was placed on the vehicle aftermarket, was damaged. If we KNEW about the brush guard prior to the accident, and 'special equipment' coverage for it was purchased prior to the loss, then I could go ahead and pay to have it fixed. BUT, if it's aftermarket and there's no 'special equipment' coverage, then 1.) how do we, as an insurer, KNOW to insure it; and 2.) no premium has been paid to insure it. So.. if your carrier doesn't KNOW to insure your aftermarket parts and you have not PAID to insure them, then they are not insured. So my advice is to definitely check with your agent and see if you had coverage specifically for those parts, and if not, then purchase it. Hope all or some of this helps. Take care.