Call us first and be informed or if you wish a second opinion, before you call your insurance company. It's to your advantage and at no extra charge or obligation to you.

Lesson #1:
You are the owner of your vehicle. No one including your insurance company has the right to make decisions about your vehicle without your permission. You have the right to choose who will repair your vehicle. It is illegal for the insurance company to require you to go to a shop on their list of facilities that meet their criteria. It is called "steering" and is against the law.

Lesson #2:
The insurance company must pay the claim no matter where you take your vehicle for repair, according to the terms of your policy. It is OK to disagree and you will still get paid.

Lesson #3:
Your insurance company is not your friend. Their goal is to settle your claim in the most economical way possible. This may be done by making arrangements for discounted deals with their "program shops" or by the use of imitation or used parts. One ploy is to pay quickly but for only the obvious damage. Many of the time-consuming repair operations that make the vehicle safe or of a high quality are intentionally omitted from the original appraisal. There is a percentage of chance that the owner may elect not to repair the vehicle or trade it in for a new one without fixing it. The savings to the insurance company is huge, often into the thousands on a single claim. This is not an uncommon practice and gets corrected only when the vehicle is in a shop and a claim is filed for a supplement with the insurance company.

Lesson #4:
DO NOT ATTEMPT TO NEGOTIATE YOUR OWN CLAIM. Most people do not have the knowledge to settle a claim for their damages and will accept what seems reasonable, trusting their insurance company is being fair. Ninety percent of the time even professionals must supplement for additional damage found during the repair process. All facets of the claim are negotiable according to the NYS Insurance Department. Knowing what you are entitled to requires an expert.

Lesson #5:
Know what your insurance policy covers. Insurance agents do not tell how the car will be repaired if involved in an accident. Discount policies, often sold by the companies that advertise low price if you call an 800 number have imitation parts use, referred to as "aftermarket parts" built into their policies that will get prescribed when writing the appraisal. These are parts made by companies other than the manufacture of your vehicle and are often substandard to the original parts or OEM parts that get replaced during the repair. Rental coverage is often overlooked and not covered unless asked for when purchasing a policy. If a repair takes two or three weeks and there is no coverage, the additional out-of-pocket expense plus any deductibles can be very costly.