Don’t Buy Progressive Insurance

I finally got by car back, but boy, am I unhappy with Progressive Insurance.  To put it politely.

I don’t normally bad mouth products or companies, I simply vote with my wallet.  This time, though, I’m not the actual customer, since it wasn’t my policy that the claim was being made against, and I am so angry, frustrated, and simply dumbfounded at the arrogance and attitude I’ve experienced over the past twenty, yes, twenty, days that it’s taken for me to get my car back.

The Progressive insurance adjuster never once initiated a conversation with me.  No status updates, no going over the estimate, no contact about when my car might be finished.  All of my conversations happened with the auto body shop.  I’d asked for original Toyota parts, but  I never got a chance to decide if I wanted to pay the difference for them vs. the after market parts.

To top it off, well, I’m just being unreasonable to ask that the corresponding tire on the affected axle be replaced, so that the tread and mileage match, keeping my car in warranty and preventing any possible damage to the transmission, tie rods, or any other affected parts.  There’s almost 33,000 miles on this 65,000 mile tire.

No matter that I don’t have a factory paint job, and I now don’t have a clean Car Fax report,  I’d be “ahead” if they replaced the other tire.  All because there isn’t a written recommendation by Toyota on how and when the tires should be replaced in pairs.  Which is an industry standard practice.  Oh, but that’s just the tire and car dealers wanting to sell more product.

I’m unhappy about that Toyota couldn’t bother to write this into the manual, and a letter to them will ensue.  Maybe I can save someone else this hassle if they decide to update their policy.  I called Toyota and got their call center where they only suggested I talk to the dealer, who had already been contacted, and whom Progressive ignored, because they contacted a dealer, not MY dealer, who gave them conflicting advice from my dealer.

And the Progressive supervisor came back with, “well, I checked into this further and your adjuster gave you 100% coverage on your damaged tire.  But, in Idaho, we only have to cover the depreciated value of any wearing part, which tires are, so we didn’t have to cover that tire completely”.

He proceeded to go through the calculation for the remaining tread on both tires vs. the amount they paid to put a new replacement tire on the car and said AS A CUSTOMER COURTESY they aren’t going to change the amount they would reimburse for the new tire because I’ve clearly come out with more money than I should have.  Because, you know, I can drive the car with half a tire.

So, I paid to have that tire replaced myself, because that’s the responsible thing to do.

Unlike Progressive Insurance.