Complaint Review: Erie Insurance

This accident occured in a hospital parking lot.  I was visiting my doctor after surgery for liver cancer in July.  My son drove me to the hospital.  My wife was with me.  I was very sick at the time.  It was very hot.  We couldn't wait for someone to come to the car.  I called the city pollice and they would not investigate because it was only property damage on a private lot. 

My son took some pictures and we all figured out what must have happened.  I was very sick until a few months ago and wasn't able to pursue this.  Then not being able to get any information on the vehicle owner, I filed a claim with my insurance company.  They would investigate the accident.  Still, I had no information on the other vehicle except the license number.

  My insurance company paid the claim, except $500 and I was told that they would still pursue a claim against the other driver's insurance company.  They never gave me any more information.  Later I received a letter from Erie declining to pay the damages.  On this letter was the name of the owner of the other vehicle.  Finally a name! 

On the bottom of the letter was a cc to her agent.  Now I know the agent!  The letter said that they declined because there was no witness and no police report.  One can learn a lot by surfing the internet.  The agency is in Beckley, WV where I suppose the owner is located.  Why would anyone have an agent very far from where they live? 

This person lives near Beckley.  She is probably 79 years old.  She likely was visiting a doctor in the same building that I was.  I have some addresses in and near Beckley for a person with her name.  I will find her in time.  My main gripe is that her insurance company, Erie, will not really investigate or even cooperate.  They just want to protect their own bank account. 

This is such a small amount of money for them, but a lot to me.  I'm sure they are acting within the law and they have the right to protect their client.  I could get "justice" outside the law if I weren't a decent law abiding citizen.  My reason for wanting to find this person is not to harm her, only to serve her with the law suit. 

Also, if I had her VIN, I could get a car fax and learn things that may help in small claims court.   If she got her vehicle repaired, what and where?  It has gotten to the point that the money is not the most important issue.  I'm tired of these insurance companies taking advantage of people.  The laws are all screwed up. 

I would support a "no fault" system where everyone would just buy insurance on themselves.  You make some good points and I thank you for your interest.  I hope this eliminates your confusion.

For someone who says that they aren't getting help, you seem to know a lot about the car and the owner. One thing that is still very confusing is how did you know to contact that insurance company in the first place? Was it just coinsidence? But even with that you seem to be putting a lot on an Insurance company and more than they may actually be required or allowed by law to do.

Let's say the situation was reversed. Someone contacts your insurance company with your license plate and claims you damaged their car.  Your insurance company provides that other person with your name and address. Now, that person then comes to your house and takes out some "justice" on either you or your car. Would you be coming to this site to say that your insurance company had the obligation to provide your name and address or they should not have provided it?

Did the letter this insurance company sent explain the reason for the denial?

1. It is true that I did not see the person driving the car. However, if this is the case, why don't I get this explanation from Erie? The car wasn't stolen. If someone took it without permission from the owner, they should let me know this so I can go after that person. Anything other, the owner is responsible and can be sued.
- It doesn't need to be taken without permission. If the owner of the car let a person drive the car who is not under the insurance that is enough to cause a denial of the claim in many cases.  There is nothing you have posted that says this is the case, I am just giving you possible reasons.  As it is also likey that the driver let the insurance lapse in which case they are also not responsible.

4. It is difficult to do anything yourself when you cannot get information. You cannot get a name from a license number.
- Actually you can in many cases if you have a lawful purpose. If you had contacted law enforcement and had a report written, it is likely that they would have provided you with the Registered Owners information. In fact if too much time hasn't passed you may still be able to do this.

5. I have $500 deductable. I can get my car fixed but I still have to shell out this money. It pisses me off.
- And you have a right to be pissed off. However, at this point if you want to try and get reimbursed you are probably going to have to do some leg work on your own. 

This may sound like a lot of "armchair quarterbacking", but in addition to contacting Law Enforcement, you should have waited until the driver of the vehicle returned to the car.  Where you could have gotten their information. This would have had an extra benefit of showing who was most likely driving the car that day.

1.  It is true that I did not see the person driving the car.  However, if this is the case, why don't I get this explanation from Erie?  The car wasn't stolen.  If someone took it without permission from the owner, they should let me know this so I can go after that person.  Anything other, the owner is responsible and can be sued.

2.  That parking area has stops in front of the cars.  If one were to drive over those chocks, which may not be possible, they would hit a wall.  There is no way possible that I could have gotten far enough forward for the left side of her bumper to contact my door.  I was there first.

3.  Why did she leave the car there?  I can't really answer that but I have seen elderly people get involved in such accidents and just walk away.  Perhaps she was unaware that she hit my car.  Perhaps she has hit enough cars to realize that I would have trouble doing anything.  Pehaps she was in a hurry and parking elsewhere would be a problem.  Perhaps she figured that I wouldn't notice the damage but if I did, she would do what she had to do.  Maybe it was a combination of those things.

4.  It is difficult to do anything yourself when you cannot get information.  You cannot get a name from a license number.  You cannot sue someone when you can't even get their address or physical location.  I was lucky enough to get her name and the name of her agent from Erie.  It was on the letter they sent me declining to pay.  Before, Erie never contacted me for information..  They really won't do any investigating.  I have other people that were with me that will back me up.  I have her red paint on my car.  I have people who saw her car and acually took pictures.  But Erie won't even look at my evidence.  I could probably dig up more evidence if I could find her vehicle, get a car fax, etc.  But there is no cooperation from Erie.  I really don't know if their people are just plain incompetent or they just figure they can screw me and get away with it.  Maybe I can sue Erie since I do have a person and location there to work with.

5.  I have $500 deductable.  I can get my car fixed but I still have to shell out this money.  It pisses me off.

I am not saying one way or the other as to who is responsible or if you don't have a valid complaint.  But as a couple of points of observation you do have some issues you need to think about.

First you have nothing that ties the owner of the car to the "accident". This could absolve the owner and insurance company of any responsibility.

Second you didn't post any images of any noticeable damage. Based on your description it may have been possible for you to be the one actually at fault. If your insurance company paid the claim you most likely have full coverage and they would pay it regardless of who is at fault.

Third and this is really just something to think about. Why would a car that was just involved in an "accident" that apparently caused more than $500 in damage, remain parked right next to the car that they hit?

However, if you think you are right why wait for the insurance company? You could file a Small Claims case against the owner of the car. For $500 if she knows she is at fault she may just go ahead and pay or then contact her insurance company to pay.

If she doesn't accept fault, you need to be prepared to show she is responsible and from what you have posted it doesn't seem like you have that.

Good Luck