Okay so like the title says my car is currently in a body shop getting fixed up. I had an accident 3 months ago which was completely not my fault. I was coming out of an exit ramp and slowing down before merging onto the service road, when all of a sudden I got rear-ended. The car behind me obviously hit me and a third car hit the second car. Both were women. To quote the comedian Russell Peters – “I don’t create stereotypes, I just see them.” The ordeal begins…
Bad Drivers Behind Me
These women were obviously going way too fast and tailgating or just not paying attention. The exit ramp has a 30mph speed limit sign and a yield sign at the end, meaning you HAVE to slow down or stop for traffic on the service road before you merge. The third driver completely smashed her front and had to be towed (such damage would not be caused by a low speed collision). The police took almost 3 hours to find us. Not only were we in a well-trafficked area, we called it in multiple times with detailed directions. In the end we waved down a passing police car – I don’t even know if they were looking for us or just on routine patrol.
Insurance Company Response
So Driver #2’s insurance is Geico like me and Driver #3’s insurance is AIG. Within a week or so, Geico calls me up and says they want to look at the vehicle. They have a local office that’s close by so they asked me to bring it in. The guy was courteous and looked at the damage and gave me a report documenting about $1,700 in repairs. But they said Geico and AIG were still trying to determine liability for my damages so there would be no payout yet. The only thing that was clear was that I wasn’t at fault.
Turns out Driver #2 had actually stopped behind me and Driver #3 slammed into Driver #2, forcing Driver #2 into my car. So in the end they determined that Driver #3 (AIG) would be liable for my damages. But initially this was still being determined and I was told to also contact AIG to get the ball rolling.
AIG’s Extremely Poor Customer Service
AIG Unresponsive for Months
Well I call up the adjuster at AIG multiple times, leaving messages, with absolutely no callback. A month goes by, I call again with the same result so I call up Geico. The Geico guy also says that AIG just isn’t returning his calls. Two months go by. Geico tells me there are state government departments that I can complain to. I’m about to do that when 2 weeks ago I finally get a call from an AIG guy wanting to come by and look at the vehicle. Wow thanks, it’s only been 2 and a half months. AIG, you suck.
Questionable, Inaccurate Damage Report by AIG
I already had some very minor damage on the left rear that’s unrelated. The damage related to this accident is more extensive and is on the right rear (passenger side). So the guy comes and I make sure to tell him the relevant damage is on the right side. But his report still indicates the left side. I call him to clear this up and he insists that it was just a typo (that he made twice?) and that he documented the prior damage and that he really meant the right side. I didn’t give this guy any attitude at all, I was just trying to make sure the report was correct but he was very rude over the phone. His damage report was only $930; a huge difference considering both insurance companies looked at the same damage.
Finally Nearing Conclusion
So now a full 3 months later, I have the car in the shop and even after haggling it’s still some money out of pocket to get the repairs done. Not to mention lots of time and effort wasted for something that wasn’t my fault. Like my dad says, a big part of driving is actually being wary of all the bad drivers out there.
Thank you AIG for completely sucking. Welcome to the shit list, which now include the following companies that have screwed me over and exhibited extremely poor customer service:
- AIG
- America Online
- Royal Rent-a-Car
- Gunhill Residences
UPDATE: I just got a survey from AIG. I pretty much rated everything as “unacceptable” (the lowest rating). It also says “feel free” to attach additional feedback so I wrote a scathing letter. The sad part is everything I wrote was true. I doubt it’ll matter but at least I let AIG know what I think of them.
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