Deal-direct letter and other 'insurance-speak'
Published:Sunday | January 16, 2011 | 12:00 AM
Question: A Nissan motor truck heading towards Eastwood Park Road and a Honda motor car were travelling in opposite directions along Westminster Road. On reaching the junction with Dumbarton Avenue, which has stop signs on Westminster Road, both drivers failed to stop. The Honda struck my vehicle, a Toyota motor truck, and pushed it into the Nissan. I was driving along Dumbarton Avenue from Molynes Road. The collision took place in May last year. Since then, neither my insurer nor the companies that cover the other vehicles have made any effort to settle my claim. Can you please point me in the right direction?
HELPLINE: A former insurance company head and I met recently. We exchanged Christmas greetings. He told me that he was a regular reader of this column. His next comment really surprised me. He believed that I was trying "to bring the local insurance industry into the 21st century".
caught by surprise
I wasn't sure whether his words were intended to criticise the industry - in which he had spent the greater part of his working life - or were chosen to condemn or to laud me. His comments were most unexpected.
As happens sometimes when I am caught by surprise, words failed me. I decided not to ask him to clarify!
That encounter came to mind as I thought about your question. Your case suggests to me that all is not well in the motor-insurance industry. Your insurer and the third parties have ignored the fact that you had certain hopes after you filed the accident report. Those expectations of settlement remain unfilled eight months later.
They assumed, wrongly, that you are familiar with the claims process, that "insurance-speak" is as familiar to you as the lyrics of the local dancehall artistes that dominate the airways and the "sessions" that are now part of our culture.
The fact that you have a third- party policy partly explains why you were treated so shabbily.
On the other hand, if it is any consolation, you have lots of company.
top-service practices
J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information company based in the United States. It conducts independent surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behaviour across many industries. In a recent auto claims satisfaction study, it found that only one in three US auto- insurance customers filing a claim report are enjoying "top-service practices".
These practices include managing settlement expectations, answering questions, expressing genuine concern, returning phone calls, giving customers a timeline and meeting it, and sharing information. Because of shortcomings in these areas, filing a claim often turns out to be "a trying experience", as you have now found out.
Insurance Helpline, With Cedric Stephens
When I spoke with your insurer's claims manager, she confirmed that because you have a third-party policy, you were given a "deal-direct letter".
Two points were being made in that statement. One is that her company considers itself to be under no obligation - contractual or moral - to pay to repair your vehicle or to negotiate settlement with the two insurers of the third parties on your behalf.
The deal-direct letter is actually saying you are on your own. It is your job, or that of your appointed agents or legal representatives, to recover the costs and expenses that you have incurred as a result of the accident from the insurers of the third parties and/or directly from the third parties.
The non-payment of your claim after all of this time suggests to me that (a) you did not understand that it was primarily your job to negotiate settlement; or (b) one or the two third-party insurers are waiting to hear from you about the claim; or (c) one or the two third-party insurers are of the view (in spite of the police report) that you contributed to the collision; or (d) you have not calculated the monetary costs of the collision; or (e) a combination of all four.
Retain the services of a claims consultant. Authorise them to negotiate the settlement of your claim against the third parties and/or their insurers. The specialist should be very useful in helping you with the claim for loss of use. I recommended a particular gentleman who I know quite well to you. If you don't click with him, check the Yellow Pages of the telephone directory.
Am I trying to bring the insurance industry into the 21st century? My goal was never that grand. It remains very modest: Use all of the information and tools at my disposal to help consumers solve their problems - one step at a time.
Cedric E. Stephens provides independent information and free advice about the management of risks and insurance.aegis@cwjamaica.comSMS/text message to 812-7233