My car was hit from behind in late Sept 09 by a woman driving a car belonging to one of her relatives. The car that hit mine was insured by Direct General Insurance, and the driver was issued a citation. I filed a claim with Direct, but the
customer service representative waffled, and made several excuses about the woman driving not being on the account, and the policy being too 'new' (whatever that means).
W.T.H.? Insurance companies insure the
CAR...not the person, and unless they have an Excluded Driver Endorsement on an individual, they should cover the driver, no matter who it is. If the car rolled down the street unoccupied and hit my car, that car's insurance company would still be liable.
I eventually had to file a claim through my own company,
Progressive, and although they repaired my car immediately, I had to pay $500 deductible. I'm not even going into details on lost usage and wages due to the accident. Progressive subsequently attempted to recoup their money through the process of subrogation from Direct General, but they were also unsuccessful and have since closed the case. Progressive Insurance, btw seems to be a great company to work with, and they were very accommodating.
I have contacted attorneys who state that the disputed amount would not be worth filing a lawsuit. I wonder if this is Direct's unspoken standard operating procedure. What if the claim is too small for attorneys to take Direct General to court, and they just ignore it, knowing that it will eventually just go away? Well I'm not going away, I am hiring a lawyer and I will pay to make Direct General stand up to their responsibility. I will contact my state's Attorney General, The State Insurance Commission and the BBB, and will share this story with anybody who ever brings up the subject of auto insurance companies. As a driving instructor, that's a lot of people. I will cost them more money in the long run than if they had simply done the right thing and fixed my car..even if that money they spend goes to pay their litigation attorneys.
I hope this unscrupulous company gets their clock cleaned in court one day, and I hope the dirty executives and managers who implement and support these policies get what they deserve. The punchline of this entire episode is the motto of Direct General..."We'll Do Right By You". Yeah, whatever.