Basically, I just kept saying No, not good enough, what’s the next step? The first time the adjuster went through this long process of walking me through the numbers – Here’s the base retail value ($1845), here’s the existing damage to your jeep before the wreck right side, left side, roof, which would cost $1335 to repair, times 60% (no reason for this number) = $800; engine and tires add no value because all vehicles have to have engine and tires. Net value and settlement offer, $1045.
I argued that all the pre-existing damage was cosmetic and had no effect on how the jeep ran, even with the trail rash on the front sides all the lights still worked, etc. I pointed out I had just passed inspection 2 weeks prior. He said he would review with his boss and get back to me.
Next day, he said he had gone over his numbers with his boss and he stood by them and couldn’t do any better. I went over my arguments again, focusing on how ridiculous it was to say that the engine made no difference, because if a dealer was selling two 92 xj’s with 233K miles each, and one had the original engine and the other had my rebuilt engine with 75K miles, everybody would chose the 75K engine. He said Hmmm lemme talk to my boss.
He skipped a day and then called again, I said I was unwilling to settle and he said he could do no better, so I said I would call a lawyer and asked for 2 days to do that, and he said okay. That pushed it into the weekend.
The next day the guy called me, and his boss also called, even though I was supposed to have that day to talk to my lawyer. I didn’t return their calls. I didn’t really talk to an attorney either. Instead, I looked up some stuff online about arbitrating insurance disputes and I got the phone numbers for some arbitration organizations, which I was planning to ask for.
On Monday I called the adjuster’s boss, and he started right in saying he could give me a higher settlement offer and wanted to reach an agreement. I repeated all my usual arguments and he looked at the pictures of my existing damage, and he said the paint peeling didn’t look like a problem for a 17-year-old jeep so he raised the value $350 by taking that off. On the improvements I repeated my side-by-side argument about the engine and he offered $200, I countered with $300 and he agreed. I picked up another $15 somewhere in the calculations so the new offer came out at $1710, and I took it.
. That's the one thing in my favor.
