In reply to Boost_Crazy :
I hear your frustration. The total loss process is imperfect, to be sure. ddavidv and I have outlined exactly how it works and why it sometimes falls short. As ddavidv said, the valuation company (their name is CCC) is a data company. They gather data and search for data to come up with data. If the data going in isn't good, then.... It's not an excuse or anything else, it's just fact. It's something I, and others, try to work with an improve daily. The other thing that needs to improve is education and communication. There are no secrets about this, consumers should know all of the things we've discussed here. The way it's supposed to work is my team first should check the CCC report and make sure it has the basics right. Then provide it to the customer and say "Is this correct? Were any options missed?" Then go from there. And yeah, it often falls on the consumer side too. I can't tell you how many times consumers have sent me "comparables" that are nothing close to what they actually have.
One thing I can't really "debate" with anyone is their personal feelings. If you feel insurance is intentionally trying to screw people out of money, I'm sorry you feel that way. With over a quarter century in the business, I can tell you for an undisputed fact that it's not how it works. Here's the best reasoning I can give you to illustrate my point. I work in the commercial insurance industry (I do have over a decade in personal lines too). My customers pay premiums ranging from $5000 per year up to literally over $1,000,000. The "average" I would guess to be somewhere around $40,000. On top of that, they always have VERY close relationships with their insurance agent. That agent may write a book of business with my company for $4,000,000 or $10,000,000 or more. I know I ain't the brightest bulb in the world...after all I get excited about a 1986 Pontiac Fiero I just bought. However, do you really think I'd intentionally rip a customer off for $1000 or $5000 or even $10,000 when doing so may cost my company literally millions of dollars? In personal lines, those relationships and dollar figures aren't there, I know that. However, the DOI is. Don't think that the DOI is in collusion with insurance. Quite the opposite. When a complaint is filed with the DOI, it gets lots of attention at the carrier. If the DOI decides to come auditing, they will look for ANY excuse to levy fines and penalties. They want money, and lots of it. If they were to find intentional short paying of claims, the fines would literally be in the millions...many of them.
I think here's one thing that can separate the "good" companes from the not so good. From a pure dollars and cents perspective, total loss is a miniscule drop in the bucket. Hell, all physical damage claims are a relative drop in the bucket. The big money spent by insurance is on injury claims. I don't have exact numbers in front of me, but here's the example from my company. My department handles all auto claims ranging from a small deer hit all the way up to pretty significant injury claims, such as broken bones, moderate surgery, etc... We don't handle files in suit or major claims such as fatality, loss of limb, long hospital stays, etc... Well over 90% of all claims that come in the door stay with my group and are resolved there. Yet in total auto claims money spent, we are just about 50% of all money spent. Therefore less than 10% of all claims that come in account for half of the money spent. You can guess who gets the most attention. However, though my team spends half or less of the money, we are just about 100% responsible for our company's customer service reputation...with our customers, our agents and the general public. Smart carriers recognize this, not so smart ones don't. The industry is rapidly changing and expectations are very high (as they should be). I think there is going to be a lot of change coming.
