I have a car, that was involved in minor car accident, it was rear ended. The other driver was issued a citation.

Some damage to my car and some personal items in side, less than 3-4K damages total I believe.

I didn't think this would be much of a problem, pretty straight forward claim, so I filed a 3rd party claim. In other words, I contacted the at fault driver's insurance directly and filed a claim, without involving my insurance.

I've so far had nothing but a horrible experience, they won't accept fault, they are slow to respond to phone calls or emails, they transfer me from one person to another, with no solutions in sight.

Without going into too much more detail, have any of you all been in this situation? what did you do?

I really would prefer to avoid a lawyer, would involving my insurance help at this point?

Thanks in advance for any advice. I've only been in this situation one other time, and my experience was very simple, fair, dealt with quickly so I was expecting something similar this time, boy was I wrong!

I don't have any advice to give but I'm surprised by your surprise. Didn't you expect this from an insurance company? Maybe you're not as cynical as I am?

I'd start by telling them if they are unwilling negotiate a settlement then you will turn it over to your attorney. See if that gets their attention.

Get your insurance involved and things will go much more smoothly. You won’t be opening claim on your insurance, the claim will be filed against the other parties insurance. This is what you pay your insurance company for, let them help you handle it.

I had the same experience with Allstate. Their client backed into my car in a parking lot as I was driving down the row between spaces. $2,500 damage to the side of my car. The woman and her husband apologized and I got their insurance info. They asked me to get a repair estimate before I called their insurance in case they wanted to pay me directly. When I did contact Allstate they said their client claimed I hit them and they were not even moving. I asked the insurance rep to explain how I would have hit the back of their car with the side of my car and she admitted it sounded implausible, but because their client denied fault they would not cover my damage. That cost me my $500 deductible. Vowed to NEVER do business with Allstate.

I can see this insurance situation being a real headache, especially when the popo are too busy to come write a report.

Good advice, i'll give my insurance a call, and talk all of this over.

We had to do that once with a very similar situation. Your insurance will go after their insurance. Hopefully an insurance professional will chime in soon.

Did you file on your insurance letting them know what happened? They should have gone after the other driver's insurance.

Or Allison.

You should always let your insurance company handle it. This is one of the things you pay them for.

I would only expect insurance companies to use stall tactics. They try to wear you down over time so the memory of the incident gets foggy. You'll want to be made whole, getting your vehicle back to the way it was, but it will never happen. Ever. I am quite amazed too that the other party actually had insurance coverage. Sorry, I have nothing good to give you. It sucks.

I went through this as well. Without the long story, any thing after that incident we have gone through our insurance. That is part of what we pay for, our insurance fixes the car and then they go after the other insurance company for payment. Much quicker and I feel like your car gets a better repair. You eventually get the deductible back and then don't forget to approach them about the value of the depreciation.

Exactly what I had to do, it's pretty common these days unless there is personal injury. My agent said it will not affect my rates.

talk to me about this? were you compensated for depreciation? This is something Ive been worried about. this was a single owner car, that is clean, no wrecks or anything until now.