Complaint Review: State Farm Auto Insurance

I had state farm insurance. I had just purchased a new vehicle, 2015 Ford Explorer Limited, fully loaded with a $51k MSRP with only 350 miles on it when I was rear ended by a driver who proceeded to flee afterward. So hit and run.

I am suppose to be covered under state farms diminished value insurance for this since even after the repairs my vehicle will never be worth what it was if it had never been damaged in a vehicle accident.

So I filed a claim with state farm for the diminished value and was told I would need to provide some evidence that the value had diminished. After reading around some suggested a good way to do that would be to get a quote from a Ford dealer and present that along with the KBB trade in value. This was suppose to be an easy way to demonstrate a clear cut diminsihed value claim.

After finally going back to the original dealer I purchased the vehicle from, they were willing to offer a value for the vehicle that they would purchase it for knowing that it had been in an accident. That amount had a difference of over $5,000 from what my vehicle would be worth if there was never an accident. This is simply because it's much harder to sell and customers prefer vehicles that have not ever been in an accident, ESPECIALLY on a brand new vehicle. Customers will not pay anywhere near what a clean vehicles typical selling price would be.

So I present this to Elise Jones, at State Farm claims adjuster that specializes in diminished value claims. She later comes back and says we will give you $500 and that is final...

I ask her to explain how $500 can possibly be fair, what was the forula to come up with this number and how State Farm justifies this. She explain that there was no formula and that since my vehicle did not susptain major frame damage that an arbitrator would only award this much based on her experience so that's all they had to pay even if my vehicle had diminished in value for far more.

So not only did what I provide have no bearing on their offer, they basically cannot even explain how the come up with their number other than it's typically what they're able to get away with for most customers.

This is a very dirty business practice and something needs to be done. State Farm does not care about it's customers or the losses they incur, just what they're able to get away with not paying out at the end of the day.

Stay away from State Farm with a 10ft pole because if you ever do have to file a claim you can expect that they will leave you holding the bag and forcing you to sue them and jump through hoops to get what you are owed.

Please feel free to message me if you want any more details. I have recorded phone calls and emails.