CFN – Day 20 and counting. It also doesn’t look like much will happen soon dear viewers of CFN. Economical Insurance has really stunned this scribbler.
A viewer sent in the link to explain my accident to me according to the laws of Ontario. LINK
Economical to date is still refusing to resolve my claim. They sent in a low ball evaluation of my poor 21 year old Mercedes with only 94 thousand KM and then are insisting on only paying 50% of their lowball value and 50% of any rental car.
I’ve been lucky enough to be able to survive so far without my baby, but how many people can’t afford to do so and out of desperation take a beating by Economical and the Insurance industry in Ontario? All I asked for was my car fixed or enough cash to purchase something comparable. Nothing more. Nothing extra. It was my first car crash in over 30 years of driving and over eight years with this company and broker.
Stunning. My letters to CEO Karen Gavan also have gone unanswered. They even wanted me to see a Physiotherapist in Embrun, over an hour away. I asked what’s wrong with the many physio shops here in Cornwall and they backed down on that.
I now have to try their company ombudsman or sue them; both of which will take time and money. It does appear to be a smart strategy for insurance companies. After all how many customers will go through that process at the end of the day.
Which is why we really need a strong reform of the insurance industry in Ontario. If the government is going to mandate insurance then insurance companies should not be allowed to pull this kind of abuse and there should be quick remedies when they do.
It’s just bad business and to add insult to injury I’ll basically be stuck with my company. I phoned a few brokers and my rates would jump nearly four fold if I switch at this point which essentially makes drivers in my position Economical hostages!
Sadly my broker has been silent in this mess as well and of no assistance in resolving this issue.
What are you insurance nightmares? You can post them below.
Can you share who your broker is please?
I had to sue my insurance over an accident many years ago. It took six years to finally get paid, but my lawyer made about 80% of the money that was finally released. It’s a sad world when we pay year after year, even decade after decade, and they treat us like this for a legitimate claim.
MLS in Alexandria.
As far as the quote that they’ve given you, you should certainly negotiate that if it truly is below market value (sentimental value doesn’t count). But it’s up to you to prove that market value (use auto trader, or http://www.vmrcanada.com/ as a baseline) and then hype up how well you took care of the car, service records, etc. But what confuses me is that you don’t seem to want to accept responsibility for your portion of the fault. If you hit the car in front of you, you clearly didn’t leave enough space, and you should most certainly have to pay for that. I don’t see how it’s reasonable to think that the insurance company should pay for your own negligence.
What do you think your car is worth? Blue book seems to be in the $2k to $2700 private party sale range for that model and mileage. $2k as a standard model and $2750 as fully loaded. What appraisal do you think is fair?
note: I have no affiliation with the broker/insurance company in question or any other broker/insurance company.
Seems like Economical Are accessing you as not being stopped .If A is stopped and you did not rearend A first ,then were bumped by C and pushed into A .C should be responsable for rear of A ,front of your car B and rear of your car B. By virtue of the chart you illustrated . The driver A must have told his insurance that he felt two impacts which would indicate you hit A first and were pushed into A for a second impact . You claim from your own insurance ccompany in Ont .this would be the only reason for 50% if Im reading this right .Just saying .
The simplest way to value your car is go on the net and ask 3 dealers prefferably of the make of your car and describe it too a T
mileage condition and all the bells and whistles or you can call and ask the used car managers of dealers and they will usualy give you a quote, if they had your car on the lot what would they be asking for it,usualy they are pretty good . if you don’t mind spending a few bucks you can hire a local car appraiser to evaluate your car and give you a price on it’s value, they much do what i just said for you to do .If someone from a dealer quotes you a price get the used car managers name so you can tell the insurance who gave youyour values Add the 3 dealers prices up divide by 3 and that is usualy the average price they won’t all quote the same RARELY IS THAT SEEN GOOD LUCK MY FRIEND .
PS don’t forget to add taxes .
Rare that a CEO doesn’t call you back, if in doubt they are know to move if they get a call from the INSURANCE BUREAU OF CANADA on a complaint of this nature.
George I sent in a whack of info on the value of the car. They have no budged a penny. They sent me documentation stating the difference between my car at 94KM vs one with 202KM was only $160! They called my head gasket job from this past year a tune up and added $100. They added $50 for a $170 battery that was installed one day before the accident!
Again, if you read my story all I’m asking for is fair value. No hyper premium or extra value.
Normaly an insuance company will not take into consideration any repairs because they expect a vehicle to be in running order, head gasket they would look at as keeping it in running condition .No car insurances mind would say it is worth much if it needed repairs before being totaled .which this car sure seems to be from the front end photo.
As I mentined I think if your only being offered 50% of their value is because somebody has to be saying you hit A first and were pushed into A a second time . So in fact you are sharing the blame with C.If you put a new battery in it .Most will let you take it if you put in a used one .
A car is always worth more to an individual owner then to an ins co ,If you take to much off the car it diminishes the value for the salvage which they usualy take with the ownership once they settle with you on a value for the car. Sometimes they may not want to be bothered with it and leave it with you .Sure hope you don’t have it in a storage facility .The car is still in your name and guess who could get stuck with a billl .Hope this helps
George I was in my car. I watched car C hit me, smash me into car A and watched my hood fold. I have pictures of the damage to cars A & C vs my own car.
If car C doesn’t him me I have zero coverage, but it would cost less to fix than what car C did by hitting me which the diagram and example posted above states I should be treated at 100% for via the insurance of car C and damage inflicted.
The kind of accident that you described was my son’s first accident here in Ottawa with one of his girlfriends cars. He was in the middle like you said waiting for the light to change and there was someone in front and someone from behind came plowing into him and he hit the car in front. My son was charged for not leaving enough room for the person in front and the man who plowed into them from the rear got charged.
The Mercedes is a very expensive car and you have an older model. My husband had a Mercedes 2005 and we didn’t keep it too long since it was too much computerized – even to check the oil you had to go by the computer. Nothing drives like a Mercedes and that sure is true. We see a number of them here in Ottawa including those like an SUV but try and repair such a vehicle and see how much that costs – WOW! Once a computerized vehicle has been hit it isn’t the same anymore. The car that we had came from the Niagara Falls area and whoever had it had an accident and things underneath had to be replaced and still it wasn’t the same. We got good money for it in exchange for a Toyota. The Toyota Camry that we have 2009 is only a 4 cylinder and the body is too much for the size of that motor and we never had any problems at all with it and the only thing that my husband doesn’t like are the brakes.
One man that we met is from New Brunswick but lives just 20 minutes outside of Ottawa and has a 900 acre farm and is wealthy. He has a Mercedes like an SUV and he was showing my husband different things about that vehicle. The Mercedes cars go all the way up in the many hundreds of thousands of dollars depending on the kind of vehicle that one gets – more like a millionaires vehicle like the one Diana died in.
George Gordon is right Jamie. If you have the car in a storage facility like my son had he had to pay for the storage and it is very expensive. The storage guy also did the body repairs and Rosario sure made a lot of money from our insurance. My husband is waiting to see what his new policy will be like because of our son’s accidents and thank God he is now on his own – he can pay his own mighty hefty fees.
Jules i’ve been around for quite sometime , but that’s the first time that i’ve heard someone getting charged for not leaving enough space.Especialy for someone to rear end you and and force you sufficient enough to hit the car ahead of you , after you have stopped . I’ve handled sufficient cases that this is not reasonable. I have had cars moved a number of long lenghts depending on the velocity of the impact. I have heard of following to close .There are a number of accidents that occur in this similar fashion and i’m sure the car B seldom gets dinged with a charge .For the admin
I have to tell you if you hit A first and then got dinged by C as far as ins. goes your goose is cooked, as there is very little in the way of saying who done what damage .That’s why you are being offered only 50% of your damages.The special thing here is if your on a icy roadway tell me how much to stay away from the guy ahead of me so if I get hit in the rear i won’t be pushed into him or her .
George Gordon that was my son that this happened to. I am getting second hand information since I wasn’t there at the time and his girlfriend was beside him at the time and it was her car. I hear it very often here in Ottawa that you have to leave a certain distance between cars so as if you have to stop you won’t go and hit another especially in winter weather.
Here in Ottawa they have some of the very worst drivers on earth. Worst is hardly the word to describe them. They cut you off, they drive at high speeds, and I can go on and on. A lot of them do a lot of tailgaiting.
There are so many accidents here that no wonder insurance premiums are so mighty high. My husband hasn’t had an accident in over 30 years and my son caused so many accidents on his policy that my husband is waiting to see what happens sometime this summer when he gets his new policy. My son’s insurance is hefty and driving an older car. He has to live and learn the hard way. He had two other accidents after that were his fault – he crashed two cars like what you see on Jamie Gilcig’s car. My son now has an insurance for high risk drivers. My husband is 68 years old and rarely ever drives. We just drive short distances and very rarely drive anything of long distance. We are waiting to see sometime this summer what amount my husband will be paying because of my son’s negligence.
We had similar issues with a local broker and economical. While exiting the 401 behind a pick up truck a skunk came tumbling out behind him and believe it or not actually tore part of my front louver off and damaged something on the under carriage. Now the louver was needed for cooling and circulation for the make of the car. Just added that to stop people thinking it wasn’t important.
However, I dealt with Russ (no form of professionalism what so ever) at the local brokers. He said that it was decided I was travelling too close behind the truck making it impossible to avoid the animal and refused to pay. I asked him how far should I have been away, he had no answer but did have a cocky retort saying “far enough to avoid the skunk” and laughed. I then asked if the company thought it was safe for me to swerve either into the on coming highway traffic or onto the shoulder possibly loosing control. And would insurance cover me should an accident happen. No answer…
If you own a pool Economical has some other fantastic “ we don’t cover” scenarios as well. We had an animal fall into our pool in our old home. It completely demolished the cover ( closed for the fall season) and possibly damaged the liner. Hobby called the broker and explained the situation. They asked what kind of animal, hubby said maybe a beaver or a Muskrat, their reply we do not cover damage done by gnawing animals…Hobby’s reply “ well what do I sound like Marlin Perkins, it could have been a cat for all I know…
Insurance like Canada and Ontario gaming commission and OLG are merely a fraud and we all have to but into it one way or another
Jamie what are the chances of seing the photo of the front C
and the rear of B your car .Would you put them up ???
You Have my curiousity now !
What type of vehicle was C ?
You can e-mail i’m not shy .K
George I have the photos of A & C, but frankly it sounds like you’re connected to the insurance industry some how. I shared the info. I showed the Ontario graphic and details. That’s the accident; that’s what happened. All the details are present.
Sorry sir you are seldom wrong but you are on this one .
You may call me knowledgeable though.
You gave your info to someone about your accident and shared most of it with us .
As Dr Phil would say and how is that working for ya.
Just trying to help even though you don`t seen to need it ,
I`ve followed your work and you are doing what i think is a good job.
But even you know there are two sides to every story, yours is not complete .Without B and C photo.
I don`t see you accepting a partial investigation on Mayor Kilgers
conflicts.
I too try to tell it as it is, some plp accept it and others accept it or disagree .
I’m impartial but i’ll tell you the way it is .That’s my two cents .
No there is no bill, you still have our support .
BTW. I’m not a fan of M-B- K.
Anxious to see if the editor lets this go in .
lol, love the gentle shots George. I’ll have to wipe out the license plates and publish the pics of the other cars.
Jamie that is why I suggested you may e-mail me as I’m aware of all that privacy stuff.
The photo’s would be a major part of this as one with experience can almost tell from your front end B what occured but i’ll hold that opinion till we, meaning me, can derive from that B’s photo front end .
I’ll try and keep your readers and yourself in suspense, but when I respond once I view the photo’s B rear and C front and C rear you will see how easily it can be assesed . An engineer or traffic reconstruction officer (engineer) is to costly for this kind loss.
Your sense of humour is good .BTW like the new colour easy on the eyes .Later.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again! With insurance you get what you pay for! No more! Usually something less!