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Don't Use USAA insurance for your Rivian

R1Sky Business

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Other than being insanely expensive compared to others, even though I had 12 products with them...claims, which rarely happened, were handled pretty well. Progressive was half the cost though, so....had to part ways for vehicle insurance.
Any issues eith claims with PROGRESSIVE?
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COdogman

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USAA has always been good to my family. Not perfect, but way better than any other insurance company I have ever dealt with. @kurtlikevonnegut can you add some context so maybe we understand why you are so upset with them?
 

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Progressive is that cheap.. interesting. Have you had any claims with progressive? If so how did it go?
No claims yetā€¦hope to keep it that way. šŸ˜¬
 

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bael

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I havenā€™t had issues either - of course everyoneā€™s mileage may vary.
That being said, agree with others - OP, can you elaborate more? Even if just via DM?
Thanks
 

cbrcanuck

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All insurance companies "treat you well" until you file a claim.........

I filled a W/D, water leak claim. Washer leaked water and damaged good portion of my hardwood floor in the area. Result was replacing all flooring in the house. They took care of us but I'm left with post claim effect.

My rates keep going up and when I shop around, I get better rates until they see the water claim. Then it becomes way more. Now i'm stuck with AllState and keep paying their rate hikes every 6months.......
There are leak detectors and auto shutoff units on the market that work well and (many, but not all) insurance companies give discounts for having them installed. I have one and it's caught a couple of leaks for me. Feel free to DM me if you want a link.
 
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kurtlikevonnegut

kurtlikevonnegut

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@zefram47 @a76marine @ohseedee @Perkmeup @DaveA @ads75 @AdventureIsOutThere @R1Sky Business

My initial intent with this was not to complain or vent, which is why I didn't want to get into details and tell the entire story but I can understand the desire to better understand what happened. I'm going to lay out the basic timeline of what happened, so that those who have USAA and either have or are buying a Rivian understand why I urge caution.

On 7/29, less than 48 hours after taking delivery of my truck I was hit by a deer, damaging my drivers door and some of the front quarter panel. On the morning of the 30th, I made a call to Rivian to ask for advice and a call to USAA to file the claim. Rivian informed me which body shop was certified in my area (the ATL shop that works with the SC in that area) and USAA sent me a link to start the claims process with an appraisal using their mobile system.

I used the USAA mobile claims system to take pictures of the damage and, frankly, it was awful. I'm not a troglodyte, I'm 35 and tech forward. It continually rejected pictures I took as being "blurry" even though they were crystal clear. I powered through and submitted my claim pictures. I also submitted pictures to the Rivian network body shop to get an estimate from them. The body shop provided an estimate that was about $4,500. 2 weeks after submitting the pictures on the mobile platform, USAA asked me to submit pictures for an appraisal again because they never received the ones I uploaded. I ended up having to email them the pictures and the body shop estimate 2x, but they finally got them. They then did their own appraisal based off the pictures and produced a laughable estimate of $1,050 for the damage and immediately sent me $500 to cover the costs (less the deductible).

On 9/15 I dropped my truck off at the body shop and informed USAA that I had dropped the vehicle off at my preferred shop and I also explained to them that I was using the shop because it was the only authorized repair shop in a reasonable distance. They assured me that once the shop sent in a supplement, they would update their appraisal to cover the additional cost differential between their appraisal and the shop.

On 9/20 the body shop informed me that they had submitted a supplement to USAA for additional damage and parts that needed to be ordered. They informed me that they couldnā€™t order the parts until USAA approved the supplement. I immediately called USAA to tell them that the supplement had been sent, and USAA said that they would assign it to an appraiser as soon as they received it and would update me on progress.

Around 10 days later, the body shop messaged me to tell me that they still hadnā€™t heard from USAA regarding the supplement and had tried contacting USAA multiple times in the meantime. I immediately called USAA and was told that no supplement was showing, and they called the body shop while I was on hold to walk them through submission of the supplement.

About 5 days later, the body shop messaged me again telling me that they still hadnā€™t heard from USAA had had tried contacting USAA several times with no response. I immediately called USAA again and sat on hold again while they walked the body shop through submission of the supplement.

On 10/10, fully 3 weeks since the supplement had been completed and 4 weeks since I dropped the truck off, USAA confirmed that the supplement was there and had been sent to the appraisal team for review. On the same day, I received a voicemail from Enterprise (who my replacement rental is through via USAA) and a bill for $350 charged to my credit card. They told me that USAA had refused to continue paying for the car on 10/5 (USAA never reached out to communicate to me that they were stopping payment of the rental). I brought this up with the same person who I confirmed receipt of the supplement and they told me that they couldnā€™tā€™ do anything about it until the supplement was approved, since the additional rental fees would have to be billed to the supplement. Basically, I would have to float the rental until the supplement was approved and then if approved, they would retroactively pay for the rental during the intermediate time. I was told that it would be 24-48 business hours until the appraisal was reviewed (accounting for the holiday, that would have been Wednesday, the 12th). I was told that they would update me via message once this was done.

After hearing nothing on 10/12, I called towards the end of the day to get an update. I spent over an hour on hold to be told basically that the appraisal would take another 24/48 business hours, and should be done by Friday (10/14). I did not receive an update on 10/14, but I did hear from Enterprise (still nothing on their front from USAA, so I paid for another week of the rental out of pocket).

This morning (10/17) after another half hour on hold, I was told that since Rivian is a ā€œspecialty vehicle, like an RV or somethingā€ that they would have to have a field appraiser go to the body shop and see the damage and parts before approving the supplement. Due to the hurricane, the field appraiser in the ATL area is very busy, so they canā€™t give me an estimate for when that will be, period.


TL;DR: USAA has no clue what a Rivian is, and therefore has no business insuring it. They obviously canā€™t classify it in their system and have no data on costs associated with repairing it so they are just making it up as they go along. I had my truck for exactly 6 weeks after taking delivery, and it has now been at the body shop for over 4 weeks. The replacement parts havenā€™t even been ordered yet, which means it will likely be another 4 weeks or more until I can get it (if everything goes well). That means that in 14 weeks of ownership, I would have had possession of it for less than half of that time and the majority of that time has been back and forth between the body shop and USAA. In spite of my very obviously mounting frustrations, USAA has done virtually nothing to try and mitigate it. They thank me for my 17 years of membership and likely just assume that after 17 years Iā€™m too entrenched to do anything about it.
 

BourboNole

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Disappointing, but not at all surprising, although I have always previously heard good things about USAA. That said, many insurance companies have become ruthlessly inept as business model, so these anecdotes are exactly what I expect.
 

EVTrukHog

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Sorry for your experience. At some point, you just have to pay the body shop to get your vehicle fixed and then seek reimbursement from the insurance company. I've had similar experiences with other insurance companies but would certainly expect better from USAA.
 

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@a76marine

TL;DR: USAA has no clue what a Rivian is, and therefore has no business insuring it. They obviously canā€™t classify it in their system and have no data on costs associated with repairing it so they are just making it up as they go along. I had my truck for exactly 6 weeks after taking delivery, and it has now been at the body shop for over 4 weeks.
That's really crappy, Kurt. Damn!

I will say that when I wrecked my Mach E, the woman I dealt with at USAA told me I needed to confirm with the body shop that they would submit any estimates or supplements via some automated messaging system (I forget the name but my shop was quite familiar with it when I asked) and that I initiate any messages to the team using the app/website messaging feature.

It sounds like you got hosed with poor communication from both the shop and USAA. I can definitely see why you'd be looking to find better customer service.
 

Riviot

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Sorry for your experience. At some point, you just have to pay the body shop to get your vehicle fixed and then seek reimbursement from the insurance company. I've had similar experiences with other insurance companies but would certainly expect better from USAA.
...This. You go out of pocket, get your truck through quickly, and raise hell on the backend to get reimbursed for what you spent. I've done it before with them for a rental flood claim after a pipe burst above me and it rained through the ceiling fans and lights.
 
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kurtlikevonnegut

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That's really crappy, Kurt. Damn!

I will say that when I wrecked my Mach E, the woman I dealt with at USAA told me I needed to confirm with the body shop that they would submit any estimates or supplements via some automated messaging system (I forget the name but my shop was quite familiar with it when I asked) and that I initiate any messages to the team using the app/website messaging feature.

It sounds like you got hosed with poor communication from both the shop and USAA. I can definitely see why you'd be looking to find better customer service.
The system you are referring to is called CCC and USAA claims its an industry standard. The body shop doesn't use it, and they claim that they attempted to call USAA 3-4 times before notifying me (both times) that they were unable to get in touch with them. I basically had to make myself the go-between to get them how to figure out to send a PDF via email.
 

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@zefram47 @a76marine @ohseedee @Perkmeup @DaveA @ads75 @AdventureIsOutThere @R1Sky Business

My initial intent with this was not to complain or vent, which is why I didn't want to get into details and tell the entire story but I can understand the desire to better understand what happened. I'm going to lay out the basic timeline of what happened, so that those who have USAA and either have or are buying a Rivian understand why I urge caution.

On 7/29, less than 48 hours after taking delivery of my truck I was hit by a deer, damaging my drivers door and some of the front quarter panel. On the morning of the 30th, I made a call to Rivian to ask for advice and a call to USAA to file the claim. Rivian informed me which body shop was certified in my area (the ATL shop that works with the SC in that area) and USAA sent me a link to start the claims process with an appraisal using their mobile system.

I used the USAA mobile claims system to take pictures of the damage and, frankly, it was awful. I'm not a troglodyte, I'm 35 and tech forward. It continually rejected pictures I took as being "blurry" even though they were crystal clear. I powered through and submitted my claim pictures. I also submitted pictures to the Rivian network body shop to get an estimate from them. The body shop provided an estimate that was about $4,500. 2 weeks after submitting the pictures on the mobile platform, USAA asked me to submit pictures for an appraisal again because they never received the ones I uploaded. I ended up having to email them the pictures and the body shop estimate 2x, but they finally got them. They then did their own appraisal based off the pictures and produced a laughable estimate of $1,050 for the damage and immediately sent me $500 to cover the costs (less the deductible).

On 9/15 I dropped my truck off at the body shop and informed USAA that I had dropped the vehicle off at my preferred shop and I also explained to them that I was using the shop because it was the only authorized repair shop in a reasonable distance. They assured me that once the shop sent in a supplement, they would update their appraisal to cover the additional cost differential between their appraisal and the shop.

On 9/20 the body shop informed me that they had submitted a supplement to USAA for additional damage and parts that needed to be ordered. They informed me that they couldnā€™t order the parts until USAA approved the supplement. I immediately called USAA to tell them that the supplement had been sent, and USAA said that they would assign it to an appraiser as soon as they received it and would update me on progress.

Around 10 days later, the body shop messaged me to tell me that they still hadnā€™t heard from USAA regarding the supplement and had tried contacting USAA multiple times in the meantime. I immediately called USAA and was told that no supplement was showing, and they called the body shop while I was on hold to walk them through submission of the supplement.

About 5 days later, the body shop messaged me again telling me that they still hadnā€™t heard from USAA had had tried contacting USAA several times with no response. I immediately called USAA again and sat on hold again while they walked the body shop through submission of the supplement.

On 10/10, fully 3 weeks since the supplement had been completed and 4 weeks since I dropped the truck off, USAA confirmed that the supplement was there and had been sent to the appraisal team for review. On the same day, I received a voicemail from Enterprise (who my replacement rental is through via USAA) and a bill for $350 charged to my credit card. They told me that USAA had refused to continue paying for the car on 10/5 (USAA never reached out to communicate to me that they were stopping payment of the rental). I brought this up with the same person who I confirmed receipt of the supplement and they told me that they couldnā€™tā€™ do anything about it until the supplement was approved, since the additional rental fees would have to be billed to the supplement. Basically, I would have to float the rental until the supplement was approved and then if approved, they would retroactively pay for the rental during the intermediate time. I was told that it would be 24-48 business hours until the appraisal was reviewed (accounting for the holiday, that would have been Wednesday, the 12th). I was told that they would update me via message once this was done.

After hearing nothing on 10/12, I called towards the end of the day to get an update. I spent over an hour on hold to be told basically that the appraisal would take another 24/48 business hours, and should be done by Friday (10/14). I did not receive an update on 10/14, but I did hear from Enterprise (still nothing on their front from USAA, so I paid for another week of the rental out of pocket).

This morning (10/17) after another half hour on hold, I was told that since Rivian is a ā€œspecialty vehicle, like an RV or somethingā€ that they would have to have a field appraiser go to the body shop and see the damage and parts before approving the supplement. Due to the hurricane, the field appraiser in the ATL area is very busy, so they canā€™t give me an estimate for when that will be, period.


TL;DR: USAA has no clue what a Rivian is, and therefore has no business insuring it. They obviously canā€™t classify it in their system and have no data on costs associated with repairing it so they are just making it up as they go along. I had my truck for exactly 6 weeks after taking delivery, and it has now been at the body shop for over 4 weeks. The replacement parts havenā€™t even been ordered yet, which means it will likely be another 4 weeks or more until I can get it (if everything goes well). That means that in 14 weeks of ownership, I would have had possession of it for less than half of that time and the majority of that time has been back and forth between the body shop and USAA. In spite of my very obviously mounting frustrations, USAA has done virtually nothing to try and mitigate it. They thank me for my 17 years of membership and likely just assume that after 17 years Iā€™m too entrenched to do anything about it.
You would think if your business is vehicle insurance you would stay up to date on the vehicles being sold to people currently. Or at least have the info in your system about it. That is very frustrating.

The one bad experience we had with USAA actually kinda matches your story except it was a homeowners claim for a fence that was blown down in a wind storm. For the first time they were horrible at communicating and it took forever to get someone to look at our damage. We figured it was a staffing issue, which we can sympathize with, and moved on...

I can only say that what you described above were the regular, every day results from other companies I have had in the past. Still sucks though. I hope they make it right.
 

EVTrukHog

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The system you are referring to is called CCC and USAA claims its an industry standard. The body shop doesn't use it, and they claim that they attempted to call USAA 3-4 times before notifying me (both times) that they were unable to get in touch with them. I basically had to make myself the go-between to get them how to figure out to send a PDF via email.
This is no excuse for the experience you endured (enduirng), but probably exacberated the situation when you couldn't use a USAA recommended shop who is used to their system...
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