I Got Yelled At By My Insurance Company This Morning

So, the saga of the car accident continues… Last I wrote, I said that Metropolitan Life (my auto insurance company) finally called me on Friday afternoon to report that the car was a total loss. Now, before I continue, let’s briefly review the saga so far:

The accident happened on Thursday, July 22nd. I was not at fault (the driver behind me fell asleep and crashed into me). The driver of the car that hit me also is insured by Met Life.  Until last Friday, the only communication I’d gotten from Met Life was a form letter about the process, which basically just informed me of the same things that my adjuster reviewed with me when I filed the claim.  The only new information in that letter was that “if the car was determined to be a total loss” then I would have only 5 days remaining for the rental vehicle (from the time they made me an offer even if I didn’t accept the offer).  Otherwise, it was just boilerplate, and had nothing specific about my claim other than some general details about the people involved.

In the interim, I had spoken briefly to the auto body shop, and they told me that “it didn’t look good” and that it was in the insurance company’s hands. Then, finally on Friday afternoon (remember, this is over two weeks later), my adjuster called me at work and told me that the car had been determined to be a total loss.  She said that she did not have any information other than that at all.  The appraiser was supposed to call me with further details, and she actually seemed surprised that I hadn’t already talked to him.  The main thing she was calling about was to inform me that it was deemed a total loss, and to ask if I’d removed all my belongings because they wanted to arrange to move the vehicle. I told her that I had not removed everything, and that I’d need to do that, but that I’d make arrangements and do that as soon as was possible. I told her that I had a brand new aftermarket car stereo in the vehicle that I wanted to remove, and that I’d need to arrange with someone to do that (she said this was fine as long as I provided them with the old one, which I still have and which still worked fine when it was pulled out).

Over the weekend, I made arrangements with Mainely Audio to meet me at the auto body shop on Monday morning at 9:30am to remove the stereo. While I was there, I figured I’d remove my plates and get all the rest of my stuff out of the car.

So, this morning, I slept in a little bit because I didn’t need to be anywhere until 9:30. Around 8:20 this morning, a new representative from Met Life called and my wife brought the phone to me in bed. I was still pretty groggy, so I don’t remember exactly what he said, but the essence of it was that they wanted me to get my stuff out of the car and release it so that they could move it elsewhere. Now, keep in mind, I was already planning to do this in just a little more than an hour, but I also hadn’t gotten any clear information from them yet on why it was deemed to be a total loss. No estimate. No salvage value statement. No generalized report on the amount of damage done. Nothing at all. Just the word of some rep that it was a total loss and a promise that they’d get back to me soon.

So, I said… “Well, you haven’t even made me an offer yet.”

That simple statement apparently pushed this guy’s buttons to the max, because he quite literally flipped out on me and started yelling at me. I was so confused by this reaction (and still half-asleep) that I again didn’t get exactly what he was saying, but the gist of it was that they needed to move the car because paying the storage fees was expensive. He ended this angry tirade by saying “and you holding the car hostage won’t help!”

Yeah. Seriously. I’m apparently holding my own car hostage at an auto body shop that they chose, because I commented that I hadn’t gotten an offer yet. Needless to say, this made me quite angry so I yelled back at him and said that I wasn’t trying to hold the car hostage, and that I understood that they didn’t want to continue paying storage fees, but that I hadn’t gotten any information on the damage yet. He responded that they were stuck paying $50 per day in storage fees and that they needed to move it because they can’t keep paying that to keep my rates down and blah, blah, blah. I said, look, I understand, that you don’t want to keep paying those high storage rates. I explained that I intended to go there today and remove my belongings, and I said I’d even be happy to store it at my house in the meantime if needed. He yelled again at me that they couldn’t pay to tow the car twice (the distance from my house to the auto body shop is 2 miles according to Google Maps). By now I was furious and I told him that I didn’t really care where the car was, so long as I could get to it to get my stuff out. Apparently, that gave him what he wanted (my release for them to move the vehicle) and he seemed to settle down a bit. He started to explain that I’d receive a FedEx package with the documentation and that I’d need to return the paperwork with my title and whatnot. One would have thought he could have explained this rationally at the beginning of the call, but again, they still haven’t even hinted at what they’re offering. In any case, I’d had enough so I hung up on him.

But wait… It gets better. So I calmed down a bit, went downstairs and talked to my wife (where she explained that he’d been rude to her on the phone too before she even gave me the phone), and I decided to call them back to complain and find out where they were planning on taking my car. So, I called back and spoke to a new representative and explained the whole ordeal. She did, at least, apologize and she looked up where they were looking to tow the car. And here’s where it gets good: They wanted to tow it to Wakefield, New Hampshire Lyman, Maine. According to Google Maps, this is almost 200 187 miles away from my house (around a 4 hour drive). It isn’t even in the same state! So they want me to release my car, tow it 200 miles away, across state lines, with no idea of what they’re offering me for it, and no idea of what the estimate is and no record of the salvage value of the car? And, to get me to agree, they have the balls to call me and be belligerent on the phone until I give in? Yeah right! So, at this point I was obviously furious. The representative offered to transfer me to a manger, which I accepted. I got his voicemail, left a message, and then called back to say that I wanted a call from a supervisor (I didn’t want to wait for this guy to listen to his voicemail).

Twenty minutes later or so, while I was at the auto body shop, the supervisor called me back (not the same one I’d left a message for, but a new one). She listened to my story and said she understood that I was not releasing the car until I got some documentation from them. I explained that “I wasn’t trying to be a pain in the ass” but I just wanted the information and the time to make an informed decision, before they took my car out of reach. I want to make sure that I agree that it wouldn’t be worthwhile to have the car repaired, and look at the estimate and look at the salvage value details. She said she understood, though she said “I do see that there was suspension damage, so that might not be wise” (of course, that’s the first I’d actually heard anything specific about the actual damage to my car). I said “yes, I’m sure it is unlikely, but I still want to make an informed decision before you tow it 200 miles away.” In the end, she never actually apologized for the behavior of the original representative, and never admitted anything. She said that she would contact the person making the “value determination” on my car, and would try to accelerate that process (I have now received a voicemail at work from someone new at Met Life, but we’ve been playing phone tag since). She also left me with a thinly veiled threat that I would eventually have to pay the storage fees myself. Of course, if we come to that, I’ll happily tow it the 2 miles to my house and store it there until they get their act together.

It isn’t like I don’t want to get on with things. I’m stuck in a crappy rental car (which has Connecticut plates in tourist season in Maine, which makes other drivers treat me oh-so-well). As I mentioned in the previous entry, I spent most of the day Saturday beginning the search for a new car.

You would just think a pretty simple rule of business would be: Don’t yell at your customers. Even if they’re being assholes, but especially if they’re being reasonable. I worked on the phones at MBNA for five years and I never, even on my worst day, treated a customer that way, and trust me… I spoke to plenty of people who deserved it. I know if I had, there would have been hell to pay (and the manager certainly would have apologized to the customer).

At this point, I’m willing to give them the benefit of the doubt that I was just the victim of an administrative mess up, and listen to what they offer (if this guy ever calls me back again). But they better change their attitude really quickly.

UPDATE: I looked it up when I got home and I was a little bit wrong when I wrote the above post. They actually wanted to take it to Lyman, Maine, not Wakefield, NH. Lyman is pretty close to the New Hampshire border and is in the same general vicinity, but is actually still inside Maine. I updated the post above with this corrected information.