Auto Insurance Claims: rental reimbursement and bad faith, voice mail, nation union

Question
I was recently in an accident on August 13, 2008. The other driver was at fault and recieved a ticket for failure to yield resulting in an accident. I contacted my insurance co. (Unitrin) to let them know I was in the accident. My claims agent tried repeatedly to contact the other insurance co. and agent with no results. I ended up going in to the agent (Western State) of the insurance co. on August 27 because I had not heard from them at all regarding the accident.I didn't know if the accident had even been filed with them. I was assured that someone would contact me and that the insurance was a specialty insurance (Nation Union Fire Insurance) due to the nature of the business that carried the insurance. On Sept. 2, I again contacted the insurance agent (W.S) as I had not heard anything. I was contacted back at 10:30 am by the agent again assuring me that they would make contact. The insurances claim service (York claims service inc.) did finally contact me at 11:20 on Sept. 2. As it is now Sept. 17, I have still heard nothing from anyone and I have tried contacting the insurance co. to get nothing but the voice mail and no response to my messages, is this bad faith? Also, I was told that the at fault insurance co. would have to reimburse me for a rental car from the end of the claim back to the intial date of the accident. When I asked the claim service about the rental reimbursement on Sept. 2, she told me that she would have to find out how long it would take for the car to be fixed and the time to get parts and then she might be able to issue a rental car. I'm completely at a loss. Help please

Answer
Hi Rae,

Some insurance companies intentionally operate on the brink of bad faith all the time. They do this to try to force you to go through your own insurance company and then the only thing they have to do is write a check when your insurance company requests reimbursement.

There is not much you can do about this. Some insurance companies only handle rental car on a reimbursement basis. They do this to save money. When you turn in your paid rental bill they will like refuse to pay some of the days stating that it too k too long to repair the car. They do this because they know nobody is going to file a law suit over a couple hundred dollars or less.

You should write them a letter sent by certified mail / return receipt requested demanding what you want when you want it and indicate that you will be filing an insurance department complaint if you do not receive fair and prompt claim service.

I hope this helps
Richard Hixenbaugh