Is this the new normal?

[Anonymous]

So I hit a deer last week. I was pretty sure the insurance would total my Subaru because it had over 150k miles and was a 2012. Sure enough, they did. But what I found most interesting is that - at least with my insurance Nationwide - no adjuster ever looked at it in person. No mechanic ever looked at it in person to do a cost estimate to fix the damages, either. I had to use a little app and line up my vehicle using a template camera and take a bunch of pictures of the damage for them. The first guy I was dealing with said he couldn't make a determination and was sending my case higher. The second person totaled it and sent me back the estimate of how much it'd cost to fix the damages.

So anyway, person #2 went on vacation and another person filling in for her contacted me that they couldn't find my paperwork where I'd approved the amount they offered and needed me to resend it. I told this new person I needed to get an item out of the car that I'd left in there and wanted to verify that the date on my paperwork of 11/25 was how long the car would be at the body shop location. She said that was correct and I was free to contact them to make an appointment if needed and then she paused and said "well that's odd...it shows the car was never towed from the tow truck company's lot to the body shop. Huh." And I was like uh then how did they do an estimate of damages? She then went on to explain that with some vehicles it's very apparent they are totaled so a shop will use photos to create the estimate.

I know in the past with accidents, there was always a person who came to make the determination. And the vehicle was towed to a body shop where they gave their estimate on how much it'd be to fix the damages. How in the world can a mechanic/body shop give an accurate estimate through photos? The photos didn't even show anything under the hood because the hood wouldn't open.

On top of all of that new weirdness, there's also a limit on the rental car that didn't use to exist before at least not with Nationwide. A few years ago when my kid's friend backed into my car, we got a rental comparable to the car being repaired for the duration of the repair. Now, it's $900 and you can use that amount on any type of vehicle you want.

I'm currently going back and forth with the insurance because in the final copy of the paperwork agent #3 sent me, it has that insurance won't pay for the rental car past 12/1. That was never in the paperwork I signed when I agreed to the amount they were offering. I couldn't even get a rental car until today because Enterprise had nothing available for me. And the Enterprise agent said on their side of things, it shows I'm allowed to have the car for 15 days which uses up the $900 stipend. I'm also not supposed to get my wire payout for my car until 11/28 according to the paperwork.

[Anonymous]

Yes, this is the new normal.

[Anonymous]

Just remember that everything is negotiable - rental prices are high, $900 is not reasonable. Cars are worth a lot more and new cars cost a lot more (and are hard to get), you need to make sure you get the true value of your car, not the blue book or NDB or whatever value.