THE CONSUMER’S VOICE by Joel Gausten

A Nightmare Made Worse: A Former State Farm Insured Tells All

As Steve Huggins learned last fall, a person’s life – and their impression of their auto insurer – can change in an instant.

While at a stoplight in his 10-month-old Ford F-350, Huggins was rear-ended by “four drunk people” in a vehicle that had been loaned to them by a GEICO insured. Although Huggins and his passenger survived the crash, his vehicle was not so lucky.

“Looking at the truck, common sense told me that the frame was bent,” he recalls.

After initially receiving a $4,900 estimate from a local shop to replace the bumper and tailgate, Huggins saw his hunch proven right when that facility soon discovered substantial frame damage and contacted GEICO, which towed the vehicle to a Ford shop in Fort Worth. Soon after, Huggins received a call from GEICO informing him that the repair was going to exceed the limits of their at-fault insured’s policy. The carrier advised him to contact his own insurer, State Farm, to move forward with the repair. Unfortunately, this is when things started to take a frustrating turn.

Nearly a week after reaching out to State Farm, he received an email from the company stating that it had approved the truck repair at a Chevrolet dealer body shop north of Waco. Not surprisingly, he was shocked and angered to receive this information.

“I contacted the dealer and told them to stop and not do anything to my truck. The guy at the dealer told me the truck had left Fort Worth, went to another dealership and then ended up at his shop. I only authorized it to be taken to one location, but they took it to two other places. On top of that, State Farm did a virtual [estimate] on my truck at this body shop, and all of a sudden, my truck can be repaired for only $2,000? What a rip-off!”

After threatening State Farm that he was going to report the vehicle stolen if it wasn’t returned to his property within three hours, he was back where he began – with a truck in desperate need of proper repairs. He then had the truck looked at by a Ford dealer, which ultimately passed on the job due to the demands of the repair and recommended that he have the work done at Helfman Collision Center in Houston. In addition to pushing State Farm on covering Helfman’s full estimate after the insurer said it would pay for only 60 percent of it, he insisted on the use of a Ford-approved frame.

The final repair bill after all was said and done? Just under $49,000. Huggins estimates that his diminished value claim could yield around $13,000 more.

“When a guy starts out at $2,000 and it ends up at around $63,000, something’s wrong. If I had someone working for me who couldn’t estimate work any closer and would be off by that much, I’d probably fire them.”

After more than 50 years as a State Farm insured, he has switched to Farm Bureau.

Thankfully, he has a much higher opinion of Helfman Collision Center and its body shop operations director, ABAT Board member Greg Luther.

“I’d recommend Greg to anybody. He did nothing but bend over backwards to help me out. My experience working with him was first class.”

Although Huggins finally received the repair he deserved, the best part of this tale is that he and his passenger walked away from the accident with their lives.

“I’ve got to give Ford credit. They’ve built one hell of a tough truck, and their safety systems work.” TXA

Looks can be deceiving: This rear-end hit resulted in nearly $50,000 worth of damage.

ATTN ABAT MEMBERS: GIVE YOUR CONSUMERS A VOICE!

If you have customers who’ve had issues with their insurance companies (under-indemnification, total loss disputes, etc.) while their vehicles were at your shop, Texas Automotive magazine wants to hear their stories!

Contact Texas Automotive Editorial Director Joel Gausten at (603) 680-4324 or joel@grecopublishing.com to discuss having their story featured in our newest series, “The Consumer’s Voice”!

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