Accident Update: Geico is fast!
Just this morning, I posted about how we had an accident with our Chevy Malibu yesterday (I actually wrote it last night as Stacie was filing the claim). The other girl, Katherine, has Geico as her insurance carrier, so we filed the claim through them rather than our own insurance last night.
I mentioned that as Stacie and the Geico rep were talking, I received the claim information, verified our information and found out our adjuster information, all before they hung up.
This morning at about 9am Eastern, I got a call from the Geico adjuster, Tim (located in Virginia Beach). He said he called Katherine this morning and she gave her story, which matched ours, and that Geico will accept full responsibility. Awesome!
He tells me that Geico contracts with certain shops, and gives a lifetime guarantee on the work done by those shops. Allstate has a similar program, but they actually own their own shops. They bought out the Sterling Auto Body chain a few years ago, and we’ve had the “pleasure” of working through those shops three times in the last 5 years.
Since we didn’t have our own preferred shop, we opted to go with Geico’s shop. There’s one right here in our town, about 3 miles away. Tim set me up with 7:50am tomorrow morning to drop off the car and pick up a rental car at the shop. Enterprise Rent-A-Car will be providing the rental. I’ve always had good experiences with Enterprise, and there are tons of them around our home. I just hope they’ll actually have the car waiting at the shop so early in the morning. I would hope they’ll drop it off this evening rather than making me wait tomorrow morning.
I’m very pleased with Geico’s service, but I know it always could have gone the other way if Katherine decided to blame Stacie for the accident. Some commenters have mentioned (and I agree) that we should have called the police, but commenter Nick was right when he said this:
From personal experience, MD and DC police won’t come out to an auto accident unless it was a hit-and-run, someone was injured, or a vehicle needs towing.
I had this experience a few times since moving to the DC region 6 years ago, but the best way to be sure the insurance companies place blame correctly is to get a police report. It’s inconvenient to you and the other driver (to wait) and for the police officer (to sit in traffic and file the reports), but it’s essential for a clean and clear claim process.
Look for more updates as we find out about the car repairs!
Glad it worked out for you!
(More importantly, I am glad no one was hurt!)
Yup good thing Stacie wasn’t hurt.
But you went to the shop “3” times?
Geez you are very unlucky! Hopefully you have used up your car shop experience for the rest of your life!
Glad no one was hurt,
Sorry about the accident, but I’m also glad you had a good experience with Geico.
I’ve been using Geico for the last few years and haven’t had the need to call them yet *knock on wood*.
it took my 20 years of driving before someone told me that I had a choice of which company to file with in the event of an accident. If it is the other person’s fault you can either file through their insurance company or yours. If you file through yours, you have to pay your deductible. if you file through theirs, you pay no deductible.
glad your ordeal went well. there are honest people out there, but police report always help ensure it.
I had an experience with GEICO recently. I thought their claim tracking web site was useful.
I had some experience with GEICO too when I had a problem with my Renault oxygen sensor.. But It did not work out so they referred me to the Sterling Auto Body which did not work either… Got my local dealer fix it… Wonder what’s wrong with these shops…
*sigh* I really wish I’d known about filing through the other person’s company three months ago. I filed through my insurance even though it was the other person’s fault, and my claims adjuster is absolutely awful. I’ve had to contact him about every single detail, and he still didn’t bother to follow through on contacting the other driver’s insurance even though I obtained all the information and gave it to him. The police report was “inconclusive” and he didn’t bother to get the other driver’s statement. Still waiting….
i love police reports, got about 8 of them in my personal file…all the old people’s fault that hit into me, and yes, even a brink’s truck.