Geico (as a whole) is not customer centric. You save 15% upfront on your insurance premiums, but end up paying 20% more if you require any of the reasons you HAVE insurance. I got in a front-end collision. I reported the accident to the local authorities, and Geico. Everyone on the phone genuinely seemed concerned for me, and asked if I was okay, or hurt. I thought wow! this going to be great, they actually care! Maybe the claims department cared, cause working with the adjusters has being a fight the whole way. The representative I spoke with from the claims department asked me which shop I wanted to do the work, and told me they had no preferential shop. I told them the shop I would like to do the repairs, and they set up the tow.
The repair adjuster did their initial estimate (only visual) and estimated $4k to fix the car, and 8 days repair time. I was told that the adjuster often worked with the brand (and similar brands) of car that had been wrecked. I was surprised. This was 2 days after the accident and didn't think anything of it. The shop estimated total repair cost was just under $13K, and roughly 57 days to repair. The repair shop sent me pictures of my car everyday to let me know where they were at during the repair.
About two weeks later the manager of the shop called me to tell me Geico wouldn't approve the repair because Service King (a budget, chain body shop) estimated the repair cost just under $12K, and that in order to have the shop I chose do the repairs, Geico wanted me to pay the difference. I didn't have $2K to spend, and Geico knew that, as accidents aren't really something you prepare financially for, because that is what insurance is for. After a week of debating and discussing why Geico should pay for the body shop of the insured's choice (my choice) to do the repair. My rental reimbursement was already half way up, and if it really did take 57 days to repair the car, I couldn't sit around waiting for Geico to agreeing to pay the shop I chose to do the repair. I had looked at Service Kings reviews which were pretty bad in 10/2017. Also my car brand had extremely horrible reviews, and I didn't and never would trust Service King to do the repairs. The repair adjuster's manager was involved at this point, and asked "why would service king do a bad job".
That question has now been answered as I got my car back 107 days after it the initial repair estimate was completed by the insurance adjuster. I took it to the shop I had originally chosen and had the car inspected. There were so many quality issues, and safety issues, and now it will take double the amount of money to fix, $26K and probably double the amount of time.
I called the manager to let him know I had gotten the car inspected and that there were several issues. He immediately asked me who "authorized" the inspection. As it was still my car at that point, I told him I had authorized the inspection. He started chastising me, and telling me Geico wouldn't pay for the inspection, and that they couldn't promise that they would rectify the quality and safety issues. I was aghast.... I wouldn't have had to incur inspection costs, if I had my car worked on by a trusted shop.
I requested that the manager meet me to look at the car, and the issues, thinking that when he saw how bad it was, he would apologize and start working on a solution. We met at the body shop that did the inspection. He got there before me, and had already looked over the car, and spoken with the technicians about the safety issues. He started speaking at me, saying things like "Geico can't and won't pay for the re-repair", "Geico can't pay egregious amounts for car repairs", "Geico isn't at fault", "I'll work with Service King to see what they can do", "I can't promise anything", "I don't know how or if Service King can do anything". I was not confident that the Geico really wanted to remedy the botched repair, or would work with Service King to make things right. I was left with uncertainity about whether or notI would have a car at the end of it (whatever "it" entailed).
I have been without a car for 110 days, Geico covered 45 days (up to $1500) of rental reimbursement which is covered by my insurance policy (and I'm paying for). That left 65 days without a car during the initial repair and who knows how many more days I will be without a car during the re-repair. I do NOTrecommend Geico to any car owner, and especially a Tesla owner. This has been a nightmare. I have felt depressed and anxious about the whole situation, and I don't know what the road ahead will look like. read more
