Not only is the water full of idiots but....

[fishrdan]

Re: Not only is the water full of idiots but....

unless that is no longer a concern.

That was a bad assumption on my part.

I do agree about getting it back for credit reasons, but it's not going to be a money making venture.

 

[skargo]

Re: Not only is the water full of idiots but....

So do body shops that commit insurance fraud!

Well duh. Good thing I was honest. Can't say that about the majority of Insurance companies and their adjusters. I only met a handful that were honest, and knew anything, the rest were brainwashed by the companies, saw it all the time.

Luckily I worked for an honest, and moral shop.

 

[Red_BOFUS]

Re: Not only is the water full of idiots but....

I worked a number of years in lending and this situation always really struck me as overly odd. You chastise the insurance company for their practice of business and operating within the legal boundaries set out for them by the laws and you decide it is easier to just walk out on your obligation to your lender.

I have no idea about your situation in life and what caused you to be behind, but the easiest answer is to just walk on your commitment with your lender, but you should not balk, cry and complain about the insurance company doing business the way they do. If you can?t be a man of your word, why should they be one of their own?

There is no good reason why you can?t have a rental car, the repossession happened after the collision which by every state law is State Farms insured?s fault, so they should be covering that ASAP.

I would approach my lender and ask them to work with you where you can satisfy your obligation to them on the car and also not lose your investment in what is now totaled by no doing of your own. If you have been honest, up front and not dodged them they will most likely do what can be done to work with you. They do not have to release the car back to you, only to tell the insurance company that the personal business matter between you two is none of their business. All State Farm needs to know is what it takes to clear the title of their new paper weight.

Do you have insurance on the car as well?

It is easy to get angry with the other driver as well as his insurance company, but also keep in mind that some of the more frustrating factors in this is your own making i.e. car repo. Take that out of the situation and I am sure the stress level drops a good bit.

Remember insurance companies are a business and they will act so and State Farm is a pretty damn good one at that. They will do what is right within the law and within the time allotted to them and yourself. As I said before they can?t blink and write medical payments when they have no idea what is will take.

Also know that insurance companies and banks act the way they do because of fraud and bad faith actions of customers they have dealt with.

 

[DennisM]

Re: Not only is the water full of idiots but....

I have not had any intention of walking out on my lender. Yes we were behind, life sometimes happens in a way that is not benificial to all parties.

We have been in constant communication with the financial company and being that they deal with the higher risk loans, have not been very nice. There had been no talk of reposession at all. The last communication with them was a week before it was repo'd and they were asking us what our plans were as they were considering wage garnishment, Mind you it was not a case of completly not making the payments, just not full payments the last few months.

Now that the car was repo'd their attitude is completly different. Stated they do not care what state farm does, as they have their own ins too cover the balance on the note. Period end of conversation. They are very unwilling to work with us to find a solution that makes everyone whole again.

State farm is unwilling to do anything since we do not own the car at this time. Thus no rental required as since the car was repo'd the next day, (worst luck in my book) we would have been out a car anyway. Which I can see their point there. But still ****ty for us.

Our ins on it was through the finance company and covered only the car and liability, so there is nothing we can do there.


Its a messed up situation all the way around. I will not get into why we were late with payments, but a family of 6 (one disabled), mortage and the great job market and only one major source of income has a lot to do with it.

 

[Red_BOFUS]

Re: Not only is the water full of idiots but....

Call and ask to speak to the manager and if jerks you around ask to speak to his boss. The common phone person is an ID-10-T and most of the time has ZERO power to work with you and work on making things happen. My phone girl or collector had zero power to do anything and they were angry divorced women. (that is a joke only the divorced men will get, no offense)

I would do the same with State Farm as well.

Their promise is that you would not have paid the payments up, but for all they know you were on your way to do so when hit.

You could also contact your states insurance commissioner for tips as well; they are there for the consumer.

In my past when I got a situation like yours, I knew I was going to be paid no matter what and the thing I did was look out for the customer. Because you may not be my customer today or once it is paid off, but neither of us knows what the months to come might bring and by building that bridge in this situation, I could retain your business for the next time.

My advice for what it is worth is work the phone until someone at that company helps you or you reach the CEO and then it is the end. I had a situation with Wachovia once that I disliked the way CS handled it and the CEO Secretary solved it very much to my satisfaction.

Hang in there man, it seems like a tub of crude but there are answers once you reach the right person, it just takes time and some dealing with the lower level programmed sheeple before you get to the problem solvers.

 

[DennisM]

Re: Not only is the water full of idiots but....

The office is staffed by three people, and One is the branch manager.

Citizens Finance has 8 total offices (branches) in three states. From my research so far, they are owned by Heartland Financial USA, also out of Iowa.

I have found the ceo's name, but as of yet, there is no contact information for him and their website only lists the branch contacts.

We have all but given up on the car aspect at this point as we are screwed no matter what, just par for the course, and she just got word today that they eliminated her position at work and is no longer employed.

I call BS on that one, being I do not believe in coincidences, Doc ok'ed her to go back on Monday, along with physical therapy and suddenly today no job..

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Not only is the water full of idiots but....

Dennis, State Farm does owe the money to the rightful owner of the vehicle, of course. But the way I see it, and the way my former employer would see it, YOU were the rightful owner at the time of the loss. And that's important. Yes, State Farm CAN NOT pay you directly for the entire value of the car, as they are legally obligated to protect the leinholder's interest in the vehicle too. But at the time of the loss, the leinholder's interest was $2800. That's all they should receive. You should get the balance above and beyond that. The adjuster seems to be taking the easy way out saying that they only have to deal with the leinholder, but that's not the way I see it at all. Of course specific state laws can vary.
I'll check with a former collegue and get his take. He's an expert in this type of thing.

 

[DennisM]

Re: Not only is the water full of idiots but....

Well update; Closed the auto part of the ordeal today. They totaled the car like knew they would.

ACV was the full retail value from nada, plus lis fee, plus tax, lost 500 on the miles. Total value was 5058.01, finance tacked on a ton of fees in the end, but ended up getting 589.00 back ourselves, but at least the car is paid off and cleared now.


Now to start over and find a new car...

 

[TilliamWe]

Re: Not only is the water full of idiots but....

Glad you got something. Sounds like you got the fairest price for ACV that you could. And they settled with you, as they had to. Sorry about the finance company, but that is the danger of falling behind.
Best of luck in the future.