I am thoroughly disgusted with this insurance company and their practices…read more
I was recently the victim of an accident. I was driving my dad's car and was hit by a kid who doesn't know how to drive. Unfortunately (for me), both my dad's car and this kid carried All State Insurance. As soon as I got home, I filed a claim with Allstate, but I made sure they understood that it was the kid's fault and that I did not want to use my parents' insurance. It was a very easy process and they set up an appointment for me to go to the Peralta Blvd office for my estimate (side note, this is the ONLY insurance company that I know that makes YOU [the victim] go out to their office instead of going to the shop or your house [or anywhere convenient for you]. WTF is up with that).
I wasn't sure where the office was, so I left a little early so that I could be on time for my 2pm appointment. I got there around 1:45pm. The estimator told me to take a seat and he'd be with me soon. Half an hour later, I'm STILL waiting. What the hell is the point of having an appointment if you're not going to stick to it? And mind you, I'm already irritated about having to come out here.
When the estimator examined my car, he kept trying to say that things weren't caused by the accident. While I let certain things slide (like there was a scratch on my door but I couldn't remember if it was old or new), certain things were obvious. Like if there is a dent on either side of the wheel well--wouldn't you assume there may be damage to the wheel too? I don't have any formal training or anything, but I would think that was common sense, no? You know what else is common sense? Treating the customer right. IE. not insulting them. Its really not that hard. For example, if I say that I, the driver, am taking responsibility of getting the car repaired, and therefore the check should be made payable to myself and/or the bodyshop where I would like to take it to--why would you ask me if my parents know about the accident? I'm not five years old, I don't need you to lecture me on this crap. And I'm also not stupid enough to hide things like this from my parents. AND I don't need anyone mommy-ing me! If I was 40 and a guy, they would never ask me these questions. But because I'm 26 and a girl (btw, I went to this place ON MY BIRTHDAY, happy effing birthday to me!) they feel that its okay to ask me crap like this?!?
AND he kept trying to insist that they needed to make everything payable to my dad because my name was not on the claim. If my name isn't on the claim, how did they greet me BY NAME when I walked into the office? Maybe it was because my name is on the freaking claim! UGH. I hate when people try to BS me left and right. Thankfully, my bodyshop took care of the rest of their crap so yea. I'm never coming back here again.
[edit]
So I received a comment last night that made me feel like I needed to expand a bit more on my review.
Like I said, this is my first time dealing with Allstate. So imagine my surprise when five minutes after he finished his estimate, he was trying to write a check for $600 to my parents' names. I'd let him know that my parents were travelling overseas and that I would be the one handling all of the repairs. I asked that the check be made payable to the shop and he told me that no, it had to be made payable to the claimant. I explained that the issue with them writing the check to my parents' names is that they are not in the country to endorse the check over to the shop and therefore I would not be able to get the work done on the car. I also mentioned that I had never had this issue before and did not even know how my parents had gotten involved in this ordeal since we were using the OTHER GUY'S insurance, not my parents'. The only reason he even knew my parents' name is that they were trying to use my parents' insurance to complete this issue (big no no! We are not paying for someone else's stupidity).
Anyway, long story short(er), this Allstate office sucks and they are insulting to their customer (which I am, btw, since I'm listed as an authorized driver on their insurance). I've been in many accidents before this (people like to hit me) and I've had to work with AAA, State Farm, Geico, Progressive, etc. and I've never had these type of issues before. And no matter what, when all is said and done you must be able to trust your car insurance. All State is not that insurance.
