Spent years in insurance — nothing prepared me for being the claimant myself
Okay so I need to vent somewhere people might actually understand this.
I worked in auto insurance for almost eight years — mostly on the property damage side, handling claims day in and day out. I thought that experience would make navigating my own claim a breeze. Spoiler: it absolutely did not.
About six weeks ago someone blew a red light and T-boned me on my driver's side. The other driver was insured, thankfully, so I've been dealing with their carrier. And let me tell you — knowing exactly what adjusters should be doing has made watching them not do it so much more infuriating.
A few things I genuinely regret about my own policy now that I'm in the thick of this:
- I skimped on rental reimbursement because I figured I could borrow a family member's car. What I didn't account for was how long this would actually drag on. I'm now five weeks without my vehicle and that "I'll just borrow a car" plan fell apart fast.
- I never added gap-level coverage options I recommended to people constantly when I was on the other side of the desk. Classic cobbler's children situation.
The adjuster assigned to my claim is doing the bare minimum and cycling through every delay tactic I used to think was just standard workflow. Except now I'm the one sitting at home with a wrenched neck and a totaled car wondering why nobody's returning calls.
I guess my real message here is: even if you think you know the system, being the person in it is completely different. The power dynamic is just not what I expected.
Has anyone else felt completely blindsided by their own claim even though they thought they were prepared?