Nationwide Insurance- Trying to strong arm us on vehicle storage

[ESC]

Long story short- we towed a 3 vehicle crash on 8/24/18 for the police.  A Chevy pickup truck (fully covered by Nationwide) rear ended and Hyundai Elantra which then rear ended an old Mazda Miata.  All three were clearly a total loss.  Nationwide has been dragging their feet through this whole mess for some reason.  Their insured pickup truck didnt get picked up until 9/7.  And the elantra finally picked up by Nationwide on 9/27.  The Miata is still here.  Nationwide first attempted to pick up the vehicle 9/27, however it had not yet been released by the owner as Nationwide was stalling on making a settlement with the owner of the Miata.  I have documented every phone call and message left with the owner and insurance company.  Copart called for charges yesterday and said they would pick it up.  Just now I get a call from the insurance company stating they will only cover $2,500 on the Miata, and they was to pick it up and issue a check and have us bill the owner for the balance due.  The current total is $3261.50 through 5 pm today.   I declined, as we need paid in full before we would release the vehicle.  The insurance company then advised me that they will just send the $2,500 + the settlement to the vehicle owner and told me the insurance company will not pickup the vehicle and that I would have to go after the owner.   I told the insurance company to have the owner pay the balance due, then they could come with the remaining $2,500 and pickup the car.  Right now, I am waiting on a call back.

 

Basically, we have done very will on the other two cars, and realistically $2,500 is alot better then nothing on this POS Miata.   Its just the principal for me at this point.... I am really annoyed.   I find it pretty messed up that they would give the vehicle owner the $2,500 that is due to us... that we all know we will never see from the owner.  The next alternative is us taking the owner to court, which I would rather not have to waste my time with, but I will.

Just looking for some opinions......  I am expecting most of you will just say take the settlement of $2,500 and run.... But I hate letting the insurance company get away with an extra penny when they are the ones that have been dragging their feet.

 

[goodmichael]

Your issue is with the vehicle owner, not the insurance company. File a suit against the vehicle owner, and you will motivate them to light a fire under their insurance company.

[ESC]

13 minutes ago, goodmichael said:

Your issue is with the vehicle owner, not the insurance company. File a suit against the vehicle owner, and you will motivate them to light a fire under their insurance company.

The issue is that it is not the Miatas insurance.... she had liability only on the Miata.  Nationwide insurance is the at fault insurance company in the crash.

[goodmichael]

I understand that she was not at fault, but she is the one who owns the vehicle. And she is being reimbursed for her loss from Nationwide. You might consult an attorney to see if you need to name both the vehicle owner as well as the subject who caused the crash as parties to the suit. If that is what they are offering, you should be able to get something for the car. I would go after them for every last cent.

[RodVT]

Take it. It’s good money It would cost to much to get the full payment.

[ESC]

Nationwide never called back but Copart just showed up with a check to pay in full through today.







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[RodVT]

Well, I guess they did want it after all. Congrats.

[BlackAutoload]

Ding Ding Ding for the win. 

 

[dperone]

I've had a few ins. co's do that as well, and I got paid in full for all of them doing nothing but digging my heels in and waiting them out. One lady was on the phone arguing with me over storage when IAA pulled in with a check a for MORE than my bill already printed lol. 

[ESC]

4 minutes ago, dperone said:

I've had a few ins. co's do that as well, and I got paid in full for all of them doing nothing but digging my heels in and waiting them out. One lady was on the phone arguing with me over storage when IAA pulled in with a check a for MORE than my bill already printed lol. 

I really had to dig in on this one.  It got to the point that I really thought they were going to just send the money to the vehicle owner and walk away.  I just pushed back one last time and was going to settle for the $2500 and get it over with.  Luckily they gave in first.  She put up a good fight on this one, ill have to give her a little credit for that.

 

Since then, we have had a bunch of Nationwide claims, what a shame.  They have paid dearly for the fight they put me through.

[mooresbp]

I never just get mad, has to be a day of reckoning.

[JUSTFISHING]

If you roll over they will know you will always roll over.

 

[ESC]

15 hours ago, JUSTFISHING said:

If you roll over they will know you will always roll over.

 

I am all for pushing until the last penny is paid typically.... and totally agree with you in most cases.   In this situation a lot of phone calls and talks had already transpired.  I had been paid for the first two vehicles and their storage.   It got to the point that passing up a $2,500 settlement on the last one to make another few hundred wasn't seeming worth the fight anymore.  Luckily I pushed back one more time before throwing in the towel and my persistence paid off.     The total collected on this 2 car crash was nearly 7K mainly due to storage and the insurance company dragging their feet.   Even if i had taken that $2,500 settlement on that last car, I was still a winner on this one.

[ESC]

16 minutes ago, ESC said:

I am all for pushing until the last penny is paid typically.... and totally agree with you in most cases.   In this situation a lot of phone calls and talks had already transpired.  I had been paid for the first two vehicles and their storage.   It got to the point that passing up a $2,500 settlement on the last one to make another few hundred wasn't seeming worth the fight anymore.  Luckily I pushed back one more time before throwing in the towel and my persistence paid off.     The total collected on this 2 car crash was nearly 7K mainly due to storage and the insurance company dragging their feet.   Even if i had taken that $2,500 settlement on that last car, I was still a winner on this one.

Dunno why it wont let me edit my post, but it was a 3 car crash (i typed 2 by mistake)

[fenderbendr6]

I just went through the same scenario with Kemper insurance. I had the at fault vehicle from a 2 car crash. They wanted to dump the car on me and not pay the bill. My response was that I would not consider that option, so they should pay the bill and remove the car to mitigate their losses. Like you, I documented all of my phone calls and emails (none of which were responded to) then finally filed a complaint with our state insurance commissioner. They responded to the complaint by stating that the recovery bill was too high. Long story short, I accepted 3,000 on a 4,000 dollar bill and they removed the totaled car. I could have pushed for the full amount by taking them to court, but the attorney fees would have eaten up the difference and, in Montana, we can't charge storage after 90 days on non consentual tows.

I just don't understand why these insurance companies drag these things out instead of settling the bill right away before the storage charges turn a 1200 dollar recovery bill into 4000 dollars.