What should I do? | Deer collision after chaning carriers

by Dean
(Golden City, Mo)

I fell for the commercial checked out progressive insurance. I could save a little and in this economy I need it.

So we switched to progressive on 9/29/2010. 9/30/2010 I hit a deer. This is only the 2nd insurance claim in my lifetime and I am over a 40 years old. So I filed the claim. I guess I should have lied and waited like a week or two.

I live in Missouri and in this state the Highway Patrol will not do an accident report for a non injury deer collision. So I took pictures showed my friends and neighbors. I file my claim with progressive and they dont send anyone or call until the following Monday. I then spend 3 days playing phone tag with the guy.

His answering machine says if you call before a certain time (he is on the east coast) he will call back that day (that is a lie). So the guys finally calls and all he wants to know about is my old insurance company and basically treats me like a liar and a criminal. So in response I give him names and phone numbers of people that can verify when this accident happened.

He calls them. He then calls me back wanting to know about my old insurance company. WTF? They took my payment... I have a bank statement proving that. They said I was covered now they are acting like I am a criminal. Why do they want to talk to my old insurance company?

It seems like they are trying to find a way to worm out of the claim and I am not going to help them. I paid them and gave them witnesses who can verify the accident happened after coverage. So what should I do now because my thoughts are contact an attorney.



Answer:


Hello Dean,

We are sorry for the delay, our system pushed your question away and it was just reported today.

If you have not been able to figure this out by know, you will need a lawyer. If you had insurance prior the collision, then you must be paid. You can contact the Missouri department of insurance and file a complaint.

For the records, it is not uncommon that they want to talk to your prior insurance company. The reason is this:

They want to make sure that you did not buy a policy to later make a claim for damages that already occurred. If you had insurance before (with the other company), it shows that you had not reason on "switching" insurance to make a claim. You had insurance already. They want to verify that you always had coverage.

I hope this helps.

Good Luck,
Auto Insurance Claim Advice