Don't Use USAA insurance for your Rivian

[kurtlikevonnegut]

You will be surprised on the CEO thing. I had a bad experienced with insurance panel dropped my coverage for no reason. After going thru hell like what you did. I decided to email the ceo to vent my frustration and it resolved quickly

If you know Wayne's email and want to share I would certainly take the time to blast off an email detailing the situation to whomever is paid to read his email for him.

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[PNWRIV]

I can't upload the pictures right now, but looking over their estimate they refer to the Rivian as a "generic van" and estimated $137 for replacement parts.

This isn't a case of not being willing to pay 4x their estimate. It's a case of their estimate being completely and utterly detached from reality and having no understanding of what it is they are insuring. If you don't have even a modicum of understanding of what it requires to fix a vehicle, don't offer to insure it.

This is exactly why I got rid of USAA when I got my Rivian. Had them for 19 years and their rates for the R1t were cheaper by about 20% over Rivian/Nationwide, but I just couldn't trust them enough to know the true cost of Rivian parts and repair shops. They also botched my claim when my car got stolen 6 years back, sounds very much like your situation with the lack of communication and the fact that I had to make 117 phone calls to them over the course of 3 months to get everything sorted.

 

[R1Sky Business]

This is exactly why I got rid of USAA when I got my Rivian. Had them for 19 years and their rates for the R1t were cheaper by about 20% over Rivian/Nationwide, but I just couldn't trust them enough to know the true cost of Rivian parts and repair shops. They also botched my claim when my car got stolen 6 years back, sounds very much like your situation with the lack of communication and the fact that I had to make 117 phone calls to them over the course of 3 months to get everything sorted.

So great reputation...unless a claim is filed.....check

 

[yizzung]

Have had USAA for over 20 years. Just had a $30,000 homeowner claim due to freeze/flood. They were fine, minus the typical bureaucracy of dealing with any financial institution with +30K employees. Hoping that they can work out the kinks before I ever have an R1T claim / if I ever have an R1T claim... probably growing pains whenever a brand new mfg enters the market.

 

[Dirty_B]

How is your battery? Are you keeping it charged at the body shop? I don't think it would be good if the battery went to 0.

If it's a Rivian approved/recommended shop they know batteries - even if it is a Body Shop. They have to go through some sort of accreditation I'd guess. Tesla requires shops to attain certification and so I'm basing it on that. So they probably have connectors installed.

Interesting point / question: Since the OEM is holding back battery capacity for life support, under 10kWh I think, what happens when vampire drain takes the car down to a user displayed 0? I assume there's some sort of software that shuts off all electrical and preserves the charge of the batteries at X% to keep them alive?

 

[thrill]

I've been with USAA for nearly 50 years. Too many moons ago I was badly rear-ended in the middle of the night on the autopista in Spain 50 miles from anywhere with my wife and a trunk full of luggage. One phone call in the middle of the night and USAA had my vehicle towed all the way back to my German BMW dealer (where I was assigned) and had a rental Mercedes delivered to me at the Spanish hotel they paid for overnight while awaiting the rental. I continued my leave and picked up my repaired vehicle at the end of it.

This is no longer the same USAA.

My last three claims (all vehicles, none my fault) have gone poorly, requiring multiple communications and resends of documents. My Z4M when broken into ended up with a CarFax document stating it'd been wrecked, submitted by the USAA-recommended repair shop, which I had to then take to the BMW dealer myself to be properly repaired. No one at all did anything about the value-depreciating erroneous CarFax report, including the cold shoulder from CarFax. I finally gave the car to my daughter. My wife's X3 was sideswiped and totaled, with a police report assigning full fault to the other driver. I still ended up out $500 for the deductible after weeks of arguing and lousy comms. I don't recall the third thing, as it's been awhile.

I only have car insurance with them now and it's because of laziness, not an appreciation of value.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

For reference, here are screenshots of the USAA estimate

And here is a picture of the damage

So with 7 hours of labor and no parts assigned to the door, the USAA appraiser's initial assessment was essentially "that'll buff out."

 

[SoCal Rob]

This morning (10/17) after another half hour on hold, I was told that since Rivian is a “specialty vehicle, like an RV or something” that they would have to have a field appraiser go to the body shop and see the damage and parts before approving the supplement.

When I read this it occurred to me the only significant unusual similarities between a stock RIVIAN and an RV would be that they both contain the letters ‘R’ and ‘V’ in that order.

While I’d hope that’s just a funny coincidence, I wouldn’t be completely surprised if someone somewhere at USAA jumped to a conclusion or got bitten by something from spell check/autocorrect. I’ve seen some pretty crazy things happen because of glancing similarities and people defaulting to the familiar or easy answer.

I’m sorry that you’ve been without your truck for a seemingly minor crash just because of an insurance company.

 

[foofoo]

I've been with USAA for over 30 years, and I've had 3-4 miserable experiences with them similar to the original post. They were absolutely the worst in my neighborhood on hail damage to my home's roof and the car; all my neighbors had better experiences with other companies. And they've been pretty hard on some other auto claims too.
But I haven't left them, partly out of laziness and partly out of my own confusion whether anyone else is better. Anecdotes, even my own, are just that. If there were some reliable customer surveys that showed a better insurer than USAA I'd probably jump.

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

I've been with USAA for nearly 50 years. Too many moons ago I was badly rear-ended in the middle of the night on the autopista in Spain 50 miles from anywhere with my wife and a trunk full of luggage. One phone call in the middle of the night and USAA had my vehicle towed all the way back to my German BMW dealer (where I was assigned) and had a rental Mercedes delivered to me at the Spanish hotel they paid for overnight while awaiting the rental. I continued my leave and picked up my repaired vehicle at the end of it.

This is no longer the same USAA.

My last three claims (all vehicles, none my fault) have gone poorly, requiring multiple communications and resends of documents. My Z4M when broken into ended up with a CarFax document stating it'd been wrecked, submitted by the USAA-recommended repair shop, which I had to then take to the BMW dealer myself to be properly repaired. No one at all did anything about the value-depreciating erroneous CarFax report, including the cold shoulder from CarFax. I finally gave the car to my daughter. My wife's X3 was sideswiped and totaled, with a police report assigning full fault to the other driver. I still ended up out $500 for the deductible after weeks of arguing and lousy comms. I don't recall the third thing, as it's been awhile.

I only have car insurance with them now and it's because of laziness, not an appreciation of value.

My first checking account is still the one that I direct deposit to today with USAA, and I've been insured as a driver by them since I got my learner's permit. My first credit card was through them and currently I have 3 cars, a house with flood, and a personal property policy with them. My Rivian is financed by them (for now). I too have seen a dramatic decline in service over the last 5 or so years as they have pivoted from maintaining the loyalty of their current customers to actively seeking new customers. They are spending millions of dollars on sponsorship with the NFL paying Rob Gronkowski to be a lovable idiot in their commercials to try and get more retirees while allowing the customer experience that bought them decades of loyalty to degrade.

I am basically at the point now that at the time of my next policy renewal I will move all of my insurance to another provider and I will likely stop using the credit card that I have with them (I only use it now for places that don't accept AMEX but there are plenty of other banks that have Visa or Mastercard options). I will keep my checking account open for simplicity because frankly USAA doesn't make any money off that anyways. Checking accounts are a loss leader for them.

 

[Dirty_B]

For reference, here are screenshots of the USAA estimate




And here is a picture of the damage

So with 7 hours of labor and no parts assigned to the door, the USAA appraiser's initial assessment was essentially "that'll buff out."

So quite literally the deer ran into you!

How do you think USAA would handle an R1T claim that had this happen:
https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2022/10...into-the-bed-of-a-truck-in-colorado-driveway/

 

[kurtlikevonnegut]

So quite literally the deer ran into you!

How do you think USAA would handle an R1T claim that had this happen:
https://www.whiskeyriff.com/2022/10...into-the-bed-of-a-truck-in-colorado-driveway/

Oh yes, I was not deflecting when I say that I was hit by the deer. The deer absolutely was the aggressor here.

Unrelated update: I heard from the in person appraiser today. He covers the Charleston area with appraisals and said he was assigned the appraisal with a high priority on Friday and was planning on calling me today. Only problem is, the truck is in Atlanta, not Charleston, where it has been for over a month. So he is going to pass it back to the assignment team to have them reach out to someone who actually covers Atlanta.

 

[Tango45]

This is no longer the same USAA.

I too have seen a dramatic decline in service over the last 5 or so years as they have pivoted from maintaining the loyalty of their current customers to actively seeking new customers. They are spending millions of dollars on sponsorship with the NFL paying Rob Gronkowski to be a lovable idiot in their commercials to try and get more retirees while allowing the customer experience that bought them decades of loyalty to degrade.

Same sentiment here. I've noticed that my last few interactions with USAA have not been positive (cracked windows, which they outsource to SafeLite, which also sucks). The time it takes to talk to a real person has changed, the sense that they are looking out for their members has changed, and I can't help but feel that they've moved from supporting a select group of people to, "if you had a family member or friend in the military, or know someone who is... or live in a state where someone is in the military, you're good!" This, along with the decline in service over the years, makes it feel like they are focused more on growth than service.

I will be entertaining all options when it comes to insurance, but the fact that no one at USAA knows what an R1T/S is does not garner them any points in the competition.

 

[Aardvark]

I've been with USAA for nearly 50 years. Too many moons ago I was badly rear-ended in the middle of the night on the autopista in Spain 50 miles from anywhere with my wife and a trunk full of luggage. One phone call in the middle of the night and USAA had my vehicle towed all the way back to my German BMW dealer (where I was assigned) and had a rental Mercedes delivered to me at the Spanish hotel they paid for overnight while awaiting the rental. I continued my leave and picked up my repaired vehicle at the end of it.

This is no longer the same USAA.

My last three claims (all vehicles, none my fault) have gone poorly, requiring multiple communications and resends of documents. My Z4M when broken into ended up with a CarFax document stating it'd been wrecked, submitted by the USAA-recommended repair shop, which I had to then take to the BMW dealer myself to be properly repaired. No one at all did anything about the value-depreciating erroneous CarFax report, including the cold shoulder from CarFax. I finally gave the car to my daughter. My wife's X3 was sideswiped and totaled, with a police report assigning full fault to the other driver. I still ended up out $500 for the deductible after weeks of arguing and lousy comms. I don't recall the third thing, as it's been awhile.

I only have car insurance with them now and it's because of laziness, not an appreciation of value.

I can't quite match @thrill s longevity-- I've been with USAA since 1979-- but I can definitely agree with his\her's assessment on USAA. Ever since their explosive growth in the late 90s, the superb, personal service has declined. I had trouble with a recent claim on our Tesla that was similar, but not nearly as bad as OP's experience.
This is just thinking out loud right now. I'm not sure what I'll do when I take delivery next year. USAA is still very competitive on price...until something goes wrong.
To avoid OP's nightmare, I'll look into an Uninsured Deer rider...

 

[AdamsFan1983]

@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 couldn’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 hadn’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 hadn’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 couldn’t’ 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 “specialty vehicle, like an RV or something” 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 can’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 can’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 haven’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 I’m too entrenched to do anything about it.

Ferengi First Rule of Aquisition: Once you have their money, never give it back.

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