Insurance claim

Started by dicatirider944, May 22, 2006, 11:59:30 PM

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dicatirider944

Just curious who has had any experiance with a claim on a street bike with state farm?  I came around a blind corner that was covered with gravel and ended up saving it long enough to get slowed way down but still ended up low siding at probably 15 mph.  The bike is a 95' ducati 900ss,  I had a custom paint job that was all air brushed by Scott Takes, it also has a 944 kit and Khein flat slides.  Anyway the NADA book on the bike is around $2900 and the insurance company wants to total it out.  I want to keep the bike but they say they can salvage it for 50%.  I find this real hard to believe.  They basicly want me to buy my bike back for $1400.  I have two problems with this scenario.  One I looked on ebay for completed items and these bikes are going from $3600-$4200.  I thought insurance was supposed to reimburse market value if they total out a vehicle?  Second, I don't see how any salavage yard would give 50% of retail for a salvaged bike and stay in business? 

SliderPhoto

I'd take that as their first offer. They always want to get out paying the least amount they can. Unfortunately it's probably up to you to do some homework and get some supporting information like what similar bikes are going for, what your bike is worth, quotes to fix, quotes for salvage, etc. The more supporting info you have, the better.

Depending on the policy though, you might not be able to get what your particular bike is worth, but what a similar stock bike would be worth. For example, if they knew you had a custom paint job and insured it for that, then they should cover it.

You could always attempt to recoup costs of your gear that was ruined, helmet, pants, bags, jacket, gloves, etc. You might get that in your claim as well or they might try to put that on your homeowners policy.

Good luck. Don't settle too easily. You pay for insurance, a fair amount should be there when you need it.

HAWK

First off, sorry about your bike.

Now for the bad news, Jack makes a very good point about pushing your agent hard to see where you can get them to go but Insurance companies are masters at seperating you from your money both  coming and going, unfortunatly you usually end up paying both ways.

Most insurance companies will only pay the book value on the bike when they total it and consider yourself lucky that they are even giving you the chance to buy it back. The salvage yard will part the bike out and sell all the parts for half retail so they will still make a ton of money even paying half of book. Many insurance companies will force you to be a part of the salvage bidding process, you get to place a sealed bid for the remains, high bid wins and you have no idea what the other bids are. With the custom paint and parts you should contact the insurance company ahead of time and they may want an apraisal or other documentation and probably charge a higher premium to cover to the higher value.

Paul Onley
CCS Midwest EX #413

Xian_13

First off...
Street riding is dangerous!

2nd...
From what I understnd about state farm, after your first motorcycle claim...
They really start to jack up your rates.
So, if you buy back the Duc from the 2900, for 1400...
You have just given your Duc a salvage title for 1500.

In my opinion...
Suck it up, don't make a claim.


XIII
CCS/ASRA Midwest #140
Secondary Highway & Swift Molly's Motor Circus
facebook.com/SwiftMolly
Michelin • STT

dicatirider944

Yeah I thought about not making a claim, but why do you buy insurance if you can't use it?  If I knew that my bike was only worth $3000 I wouldn't have full coverage on it.  I know I could have sold this bike before I laid t down for $5k-$6 with-out much problem.  I had more than one person give me their phone# if I ever decided to sell it.  Personally, I'm thinking about putting all the stock parts back on it and telling them to come get it.  I would think that I could sell the big bore kit for $300-$500, the Khien flat slides for $400,  the carbon fiber cans for $200.  Who knows,  I hate dealing with insuance companies.  I had $17K worth of tools stolen last year from one of my jobs and ended getting $6500 for a settlement. 

RAISING CANE

Hey man, sorry bout the Duc! I have filed 2 claims on my Busa, first parking lot tip over 2500 claim 500 deductable.net 2k. Second a little more serious Threw it down at 110 too much front brake approching posted 25mph 90 degree corner. No other vehicles involved and no tickets issued. This was the most important aspect of the claims. As long as no tickets and no other vehicles are involved there will be no rate hike other than the normal annual increase.I asked my agent cause I didn't want to pay more cause of claims.  My 2nd claim will be of interest to you. The bike was valued at 9k, damage estimate from local daler 14k to repair. Estimate from State farm 11k to repair. Bike considered a total insurance wanted to give me 9k less 500ded, net to me would be 8500. I told agent I did not want to total as most damage was cosmetic. She explained that as a damage claim the would only pay out like 60% of bike value. She said if I could find a shop that agree to fix it for the 60% (6400.00) she would not total it and I will remain with full coverage on the bike. And no rate increase. I went to my friends shop got the estimate for 6400.00 and gave it to agent. I also told her I was wearing full gear (boots, leather one piece suit, new shoei X11, gloves) She told me that they will only replace helmet and they only allow 200.00 for helmet.   Now I don't know bout you but I don't think I have ever bought a helmet for 200 so I have no Idea where they get this # from. Probly the brain buckets the hardley guys wear. 

State Farm uses an outside vendor to estimate the bikes as none of there agents are familliar with the costs of repair. My outside vendor took a real long time to get my info into state farm. 6 WEEKS to be exact. My agent felt very bad and told me as a result of the vendor taking so long they would replace all my gear at full value!!! I explained to her that this gear was very expensive, she said no problem and wanted me to bring in the old gear. I told her I had thrown it all out as it was damaged too badly. She said to bring her reciepts for the new gear and she will issue a check for the gear seperate from the bike.

Final numbers   Bike payout 6400         gear payout 3200          total 9600.00

Fixed bike with some new parts and some from ebay 3000.00
Got all new gear  (nice stuff, Moto GP kangaroo suit, X11 , Astar boots and gloves)  1700.00 Kept all my old stuff,had leathersrepaired helmet never hit ground.
Had GMD do their magic to the forks and still had enough money left to buy the wife an IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN RING!!!!!!!

Now she doesn't want me aggressive on the street so we purchased an 03 gixer1k fully track setup from Marco Martinez stable. Nice thing is I already have some broke in gear for the track!!
Glenn Penland
CCS EX# 502
Sponsored by FAST LANE GRAPHICS for all your printing needs call 954-304-1422

weggieman

So you scam the insurance company on the gear and wonder why insurance rates keep going up.........

RAISING CANE

They pay retail I buy wholesale it's the american way. No scaming just economics 101. Always someone more holy than the rest. My old shit would have been thrown out any way. They don't recycle old bike gear. :whine:
Glenn Penland
CCS EX# 502
Sponsored by FAST LANE GRAPHICS for all your printing needs call 954-304-1422

chainsaw

I've worked in the insurance biz and the best advice is to READ your policy and ask questions about the confusing jargon.  Most underwriters will cover accessories, custom paint, and gear, but it's your responsibility to request the right coverage for these items.  I've seen it a million times; HD owners are notorius for buying a stock Softail, adding 10K in chrome bolt-ons, crashing on mysterious gravel, and then wanting to sue their insurance company because they aren't getting enough back to cover the money spent or money financed. 

Your insurance company will get 30-50% of average retail for the salvage from numerous companies around the US, especially a Ducati.  They are required to pay you the market value, not what you spent for custom items and gear, unless they were included in your policy.  Most often, they would have requested pictures, receipts for the work done and Jack is right on about collecting information from the net to support your claim/loss. 

Good luck with the claim.

dicatirider944

The fair market value is one of my problems.  I have got them to come up to $3600 because that is the pretty much the minimum that they are going for on e-bay.  I want at least $500 more.  I told the claim agent that shipping would be around $500, but he says shipping can't be figured.  I think that it should be.  My thoughts are most people look at it as part of what the vehicle is worth.  If I can buy a bike on e-bay for $4000 and shipping is $500 than that means that if I can buy one locally for less than $4500, I shouldn't buy it off e-bay.  I just figure it will be a long battle before it is said and done.

Scott

Brad:

I used to me an insurance agent, so here's my professional 2 cents worth. 

1.  Your policy may not cover custom paint or accessories.  Purely from the insurance companies point of view, they are charging you rates based on a bike worth $X amount of dollars, they are not charging for a bike worth $X plus $5k in upgrades.  You may just be out of luck for not insuring for the value of the bike plus upgrades.

2.  The moto of most claims agents is "Make the customer whole, not rich"  Which means they really do want to give you the fair replacement value of your bike, but not any more than that.  The problem is, most State Farm claims agents are sitting in a huge building in Portage, Michigan looking at a book to get the value of your bike.  I would suggest trying to find a dealership selling a bike similar to yours, tell them your bike is totalled and want another one, and have them fax a sales agreement to you.  I'm sure State Farm is happy to pay the replacement value of your bike, the claims agent just has to have PROOF that the actual replacement cost is more than the book shows.

3.  MOST IMPORTANTLY!!  You will get farther with honey than vinegar.  The claims agent has the ultimate say on this, be a
d!ck and they can just go into lockdown and you'll never get a penny more than book.  Be curtious, understanding, and appreciative and they will help you out. 

Good luck.

weggieman

What part of them buying you new gear when you didn't need it isn't a scam? You had the leathers repaired so you lied about the damages to them. You told them you threw away all the gear because it was too badly damaged, I assume that meant the untouched helmet also and they bought you a new one? That sir is fraud and that is part of the reason insurance rates in this country are through the roof.