Mercury Insurance
Ripoff

On May 18th I was driving home to Bellflower (Long Beach Area), when a young man in an SUV ran a Redlight causing us to have an accident (luckily I had plenty of witnesses). The Impact caused my vehicle to be dragged from the #1 (fast) lane all the way to the curb. There was damage done on the side of impact, obviously, but there was also damage done to the left (passenger side) in the form of stress cracks from being dragged and hitting the curb.

(Now comes the fun part) My car was considered a total loss. My car is a 2002 Monte Carlo SS Limited Edition Dale Earnhardt Replica (only 3333 made) there is no Blue Book Value for this car so I was offered approximately 8k which is the value of the cheapest model.

After contacting a lawyer and showing proof that my car was a limited edition I was told that I needed to find a vehicle like mine in the Auto trader (within 100 miles of my location) to set the value to. Problem #1, even Autotrader.com listed the closest vehicle like mine to be located in Maryland. Same amount of miles, Same model, everything. The Car was being sold for 23k.

Mercury agreed to the price but then started making deductions. They made deductions to the car for taxes and licencing because I decided to keep it to get it repaired (being that it is the first vehicle I ever bought with my hard earned money, being the first owner and being very emotionally attached. This was the car my wife and I used at our wedding when we got married) So they deducted 6k because they could get that much from an auto salvage yard if they were to keep and sell it.

So, that brings us down to 17k, fine. Next they decided that because the impact was on the drivers side that there was no way to prove that the damage on the passenger side was due to the accident so they were deducting that damage from their pay off. I let them know that the vehicle had never been in any other accidents and had it been, being that I have full coverage, wouldn't they have record of the accident had their been one and had to pay for the repairs anyways? They never replied to that question.

After those final Deductions the pay off came down to approx. 15k. I am upset at the fact that they nickel and dimed me at the end over damages. I understand that they removed the initial 6k because they could get that much from a wrecking yard. Problem here is, that they are supposed to give you the address of the wrecking yard willing to pay that much for the vehicle to verify that cost. They never did.

Finally, when we finally came down to the agreed payoff, it took almost 2 months to recieve the check. Everytime I called I got an answering machine for my case worker. Never got any straight answers and was always told I'll have to get back to you, though they never did.

They have commercials that play here in the L.A. Area stating that "thousands of mercury customers choose them because they are quick to help and know that they will be there for them". I really wish I was one of those customers.

I have since found a new insurance company. I know all companies have their faults but, please, if you are going to claim things such as what was quoted above at least live by what you say.

Company: Mercury Insurance
Country: USA
State: California
Site: www.mercuryinsurance.com

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