I got a bill from Credit Collection Services for $2335.05, supposedly because my 6-year-old ran into a parked car on his bicycle and caused this much damage. When I contacted Credit Collection Services, they told me that Allstate had sent me a bill to an address where I lived 5 years ago!
I got into an argument with the guy on the phone because he would not give me any information regarding the claim number or anything else. Finally, I asked to speak to his supervisor. I had the same issue with the supervisor. My question for them was how to dispute this claim. They told me there was no disputing it, that this is what was owed. I contacted my insurance agent, who told me to call the Illinois Department of Insurance. I called them, and the lady was extremely helpful.
I informed her that Allstate had sent a bill to an address where I have not lived for 5 years. Not only that, but I have never received a police report or a phone call from Allstate or anything stating that I owe this and giving me the chance to dispute it or resolve it. She told me to go online to www.insurance.illinois.gov to file a complaint against Allstate.
I did just as she said, but I needed to know the name of the insurance agent as well as the claim number. I called Credit Collection Services back and again got the run-around. The lady I talked to this time told me that she could not give me the insurance agent's name, but she went and spoke to her supervisor, who said she could give me the claim number. Instead, she gave me the phone number of the lady whose car my son supposedly hit. I asked her about it, and she told me it was the phone number of the insurance agent. She also told me that if I were to try to call the insurance agent, it would be harassment. I would really like to know how it could be harassment when I am just trying to resolve something that I dispute.
Finally, I got the claim number from her and called Allstate. The lady at Allstate gave me the phone number of the agent who handled the claim and apologized deeply for the issues that I am having.
The way I have tried to explain this situation to all of them is this: it would be like me walking into my insurance agent's office and telling them that John Doe hit my car, and not giving John Doe any information, but just sending him a bill to collections and threatening to suspend his driver's license. How can this be legal? There was no investigation into whether or not my son did that much damage. How could a 6-year-old cause that much damage? Not to mention, I asked the woman who owned the car to get other estimates. She went to the most expensive place around. I know she could have found somewhere a whole lot cheaper to do the repairs, but again, I never got the chance to prove that my son did not cause that much damage.
This incident happened on private property, a trailer park, so wouldn't the owners of the trailer park's insurance be partially liable?
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