Date:         Tue, 4 Nov 2008 17:42:56 -0800
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson@GORGE.NET>
Subject:      Subject: Re: OH Dear,
              OH Deer: I got a call from Mel the Ins Co Guy (long reply)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"

  Wow, a lot of $ to fix the front of your vanagon..

   But you might think about this.

 "Mel, the Ins Guy"?  He probably isn't really on YOUR side (though he's
likely polished his rap to make you think he is).    His title is something
like "Claims Adjuster", right?  His employer is the Insurance Company.  The
guys you pay your monthly insurance fee to.  You pay,  probably not because
they've ever done  good things for your, but because you are required by law
to pay someone for insurance.
 Ol' Mel, in his job as an Insurance Adjuster,  he is probably promoted and
paid in a direct ratio to how successfully he limits ( adjusts? ) the amount
of money that company (the one that writes HIS paycheck)   finally gives
each 'customer' that the insurance company has sold the insurance to.
  It's  Mel's job to try to limit what YOU (and dozens of others he deals
with each month)  get from his employer.  Ol' Mel, he does this over and
over, probably 50 weeks per year, and at the end, his retirement pay (if his
company doesn't go broke)  probably depends to some degree on how little $
he can weasel you (and hundreds of others each year) into taking in return
for your damaged vehicle, supposedly covered by the insurance premiums you
pay and pay.
  Mel the Insurance guy..He's got the deck stacked in his favor.  His
company has run all the numbers, they have (probably) dozens of full time
lawyers on the payroll, they have arbitrators, they have judges, they  even
have the Government, to a large degree...all on their side...They maximize
their profits by NOT disbursing settlements to people like you in a fair and
timely manner.  The more they 'Sleaze-out' on claims, the bigger their
profits, right?  That is Mel's job.  And "it's business" after all...That
s**tty phrase justifies anything in our world..
  Eventually, you'll probably come out OK, if you are persistent.  They (Mel
the Insurance Guy and his bosses) count on the fact that a "predictable and
profitable" percentage of people who make claims against them  (they run the
numbers and call the results Actuarial Tables, or something like that)  will
get sick of the mess, or need a replacement vehicle, (or even die before the
case is finished, one adjuster told me they have statistics to support that)
and cave in, or be persuaded to settle for less, or somehow allow themselves
to be manipulated into being screwed..It's what they do...
  In one case where I was trying to recover $ for a lost vehicle, they
finally, after more than a year, came down to  "Well, Mr. Hanson, here is
our final offer.  $______, take it or sue us.  Be aware if you do sue us,
that will cost you $____,  so even if you get what your car is really worth
in the courts, and you may not, your net settlement will be less than if you
take our offer right now"  I checked with my attorney, and they had THOSE
numbers exactly right..He advised me to take the low offer, it was the best
I could do...sucks.
 See how they did that?  My "Mel the insurance claims adjuster" didn't make
any Brownie Points with his bosses on my case because he failed to con me
into an easy and lowball settlement.  BTW. If I was really stubborn and
couldn't do the math, they didn't really care, because their 'numbers' told
them exactly how little their offer must be in order to keep them at an
acceptable profit level...
  Hang tough..
  Don Hanson