Just was rearended... 1975 Jimmy RIP

[Mike Phillips]

This is beautiful...


This is just cool...

[k5blazerfan]

That red truck is beautiful...your welcome for the nada guides and i do hope you get most if not all the money back on your truck...its always a shame when a nice blazer/jimmy get reuined.. im proud to drive one and im never gonna get rid of it as long as   truck is around lol

[Mike Phillips]

Received an e-mail pdf copy of the appraisal, it's very complete.  Here's the pertinent sentence,

The Fair Market Value of this vehicle, prior to the noted loss date was; $10,7000.00

I forwarded the pdf file to the lady handling my case and she e-mailed back they would evaluate it.


Mike

[VileZambonie]

I hope you got a lawyer. You need to be compensated for your time, losses and their stalling

[k5blazerfan]

yeah that wont even cover all the add ons the engine nor the original price you paid on ebay... gotta love insurance adjusters and there hoyty toyty attitude i'd come up with some story of back pains and go to the e.r. and rack up another 20,000 lol

[Mike Phillips]

yeah that wont even cover all the add ons the engine nor the original price you paid on ebay...

To be honest, the figure by the specialty car appraiser is close to what I was expecting and hoping for and that was $1,3000.00 to $1,4000.00 but happy to see it come in at least over $10,000.00

If Allstate waivers then I won't accept and will instead launch plan B, which won't be fun or pretty but all the pieces are in place.

If the agree I'll settle and then gut the truck to the point that it's just a carcass that rolls and then start from scratch.  A buddy of mine has offered me a 1971 Chevy stepside, shorty that he says while it's a project truck it's complete and in good shape.

At this point I have so many other things going on in life right now that this entire debacle is now on the "B-List" of priorities.

If you have a nice, classic truck or car of any type and you drive it, which means you put it at risk at being hit in an accident, schedule an appraisal today, get the value of your vehicle documented in some concrete way so that if there is an accident you don't have to go through this, you just take your check to the bank and go shopping.

[Lt.Del]

stand firm.  They don't want to spend thousands of $$ going thru the court system paying their atty fees and such.  They will settle w/ what you ask ref that appraisal.  You may still have to go to the court to lodge a warrant in debt if the insur company still plays games.  If it comes to that, make it worth your while by tacking on rental truck fees and the filing fee and time missed from work dealing w/ this crap.  That is all fair game in a judgement.  



if you do the above, make it in the agreement that you get the old truck back and you will waiive the rental vehicle fees. There will be a quick response from them, and in your favor--they will know they cant play anymore.

[Mike Phillips]

Here's the e-mail I just recieved from Julie Ringeisen

Hello Mike,

I have reviewed the appraisal that Mr. Willhite completed on your vehicle. One thing I noted was that our mileage reading on the vehicle was 135197 as actual and your appraiser says the odometer is 36,888. Due to the large discrepancy in this and also our original value and your appraised value, I am going to contact an appraisal company that we use to contact you to inspect and appraise your vehicle. Once we have our appraisal done, I will have our appraiser contact your appraiser and allow them to come to an amicable agreement. You will be contacted by a company called FIA appraisals to make arrangements to inspect your 1975 GMC.  Thank you. Julie

Julie Ringeisen

Sr. Claim Service Adjuster

Tampa Bay Auto


Allstate Insurance Company
PO Box 42035
St. Petersburg, FL  33742

[Mike Phillips]

Here's what I sent her back,

LOL
 
Your appraiser ADDED the digit for the one hundred thousand miles point on his own because the odometer doesn't go that high.  It's assumed it's turned over at least once in the truck's lifetime.
 
He wrote this down 135197
 
But on the odometer, the first digit doesn't show up, he assumed the truck has over one hundred thousand miles and added it on his own.  Most people do this.  My appraiser should have added the 1 also so then it would have been, 136888
 
That means, since your appraiser looked at my truck the new appraiser looked at my truck if you do simple math
 
  136888.0
- 135197.0
______________
    1,691.0 Miles that I've driven since the first appraiser wrote down the mileage and the second appraiser wrote down the mileage.
 
 
I just double checked, there's only 6 rotating numbers on the odometer and one of them shows .10ths of a mile, (that's the one on the far right that spins over the fastest as you drive)
 
 
You appraiser called a new car dealership and got estimates of $1100.00 that's a HUGE discrepancy.
 
 
 
I'm was really hoping it wouldn't come to putting the PR campaign into effect but at the same time I don't have anything to lose and I'm the victim in this case.  So you do what you want because I won't settle for anything less than the amount in the appraisal I turned in.  I've already made up my mind.  I'll keep building the PR campaign behind the scenes and when you're finally done doing whatever it is you want to do I put it into effect.  I'm pretty good at this Internet thing.  LOL  
 
At this point, I don't have anything to lose.  
 
 
Mike


End of e-mail
~~~~~~~~~~


I also copied the first appraiser that appraised my truck at $1,100.00 and the new guy so EVERYONE is on the same page.

Seriously, at this point I have nothing to lose and I've been building websites for this incident like nobody's business.  That's called Plan B.  It would have been the least costly to have settled with me the first time I offered to take $9000.00 and keep the truck.

[LUV2XCLR8]

Man this is turning into a Soap Opera, got a book deal yet?

(Sucks for you to go through this)

[Captkaos]

On top of the fact that approx 4000 people watched you build the truck on this forum and document every change.  Hard to avoid that fact.  So right now it is 4002 to about what, 10.

This is the reason I HATE insurance.  I still say add up the total amount you paid for this insurance since you bought it and tell them  you want all of that back with THEIR interest also.  Bet it is more than $1100.

[Mike Phillips]

It's kind of weird in that I'm just so over any frustration over the ordeal.  I'm lucky in that I wasn't hurt and no one else was hurt either.  My truck still runs and drives like a Bat-out-of-heck, and I have a classic 1974 Datsun 620 to drive also if I feel like shipping it from California to Florida, which I might as sooner or later I'll need a parts chaser.

I told Allstate I don't have anything to lose and I really don't, so I can drag this out as long as they want to drag it out and behind the scenes I'm building Plan B and  while I hope I don't have to launch Plan B it just gets bigger and better every time I have any kind of communication with anyone from Allstate.  What they don't understand is I'm pretty good at this "Internet thingy".  And, I've been posting to "Car Guy" forums since 1994, that's about the time Al Gore invented the Internet.  Type Mike Phillips into Google and add the words Car Wax or Meguiar's and see if you pull up any links.

I've made a Kazillion friends all around the world that are all "Car Guys" and many of them buy insurance and I'm sure everyone knows how viral things can get on the Internet.  But like I said, I don't want to put Plan B into action, I just want a fair deal from Allstate, that's all.

Besides all that, I'm so lucky to have a great job that I really love and it keeps me plenty busy, here's an example, in a few hours and all day tomorrow I'll be sanding this 1969 El Camino down and then buffing it out for a brand new how-to video.

I love these old El Camino's...

[fitz]

Mike, was just wondering where is the Blazer now? Is it in your possesion? I assume when this mess gets settled you want it back for the drivetrain. Not to add insult to injury but if it's sitting in a tow yard or insurance yard somewhere parts have been known to disappear.

[Lt.Del]

Fitz, I think you missed this part

My truck still runs and drives like a Bat-out-of-heck, and I have a classic 1974 Datsun 620 to drive also if I feel like shipping it from California to Florida, which I might as sooner or later I'll need a parts chaser.

and this....

Found out from a friend that's a claims adjuster that here in Florida, if the Insurance company totals my truck, and that's what they're doing as of the last time I talked to them, if I accept their offer to settle then a tow truck will come get my truck and haul it away to ? I don't know where?

[Lt.Del]

I told Allstate I don't have anything to lose and I really don't, so I can drag this out as long as they want to drag it out and behind the scenes I'm building Plan B and  

I am curious to hear what the "other" appraiser, hired by Allstate says.

I will have our appraiser contact your appraiser and allow them to come to an amicable agreement.

read between the lines.  Julie already knows their appraisal will be lower and then "they" can come to an amicable agreement.  There is a reason she thinks the new appraisal will be lower....they are hiring the company to give an appraisal.

let them pay for one.  Then, when Julie contacts you again, simply tell her you are taking them to court.  You will have to pay about a $48 court filing fee (that will be added to the judgement).  Tack on attorney costs, rental costs--since you don't feel safe driving that, and time off work to handle the court cases.  

Once she hears that she will have to pay the original appraisal amt (10,000 +-) and 30 % atty fees ($3,000) and rental costs til "they" give you your judgement (perhaps $1,000) and loss of work (? hundreds more), not to mention Allstate's attys for a defense team (corporate lawyers aren't cheap), you will be amazed how quickly Allstate settles.  I've said it before, they don't want to pay for their attorneys to go to court AND pay for yours AND pay for rental vehicle AND pay for you loss work.  The court system knows this is not your fault and you are entitled to all the above!

So, they will not argue over a little bit of money knowing you are serious about the court thing.  They figure giving you your price is better than paying both teams worth of attorneys.    TRUST ME!  DO IT!  I see it everyday at work.  They will settle.  After you hear from the "new" appraisal and then from Allstate, tell Julie forget it, I'm letting the judge decide and will tack on atty fees, loss of work, rental vehicle, etc...she'll stop dead in her tracks.