Advocate Auto Claims Worthless Waste of Time, No Results Winter Park, Florida

Originally contacted Advocate Auto Claims in February, 2010 for assistance recovering diminished value for an accident in my recently purchased car with only 7,000 miles on it - a prime candidate according to my claims specialist Armando. Below is a quote from the email received to entice me into signing to their representation:

"You should receive your reimbursement within the next sixty to one hundred and twenty days after starting your claim with us, depending on the at-fault drivers insurance company.

At Advocate Auto Claims, we provide our clients with the only Full Service Diminished Value Claims processing company in the world. We service the consumers interest with personal advocates, licensed public adjusters, and a full legal staff." (emphasis mine)

After repeated phone calls and emails to check on the status - exactly the type of stuff I was attempting to NOT have to do - they told me at the end of May that they were having problems getting the other insurance company to accept responsibility for the accident.  This was true - my actual insurance company was having the same issue, but it would have been nice if they called ME to give that update. 

That problem was ultimately resolved - the person who hit me accepted responsibility and their insurance paid out in full on the claim in June.  I let Advocate Auto Claims know that they should renew their efforts for collection.

Fast forward to October, when I call to check on the status - again - by the way, voicemails are never returned and emails are only returned until you sign your representation agreement - they tell me that they were unable to collect and are discontinuing their efforts.  I finally received an official notification of this on October 28 with the reason "We have been unable to locate an attorney in your area who is able to further pursue this case through litigation, and must close out your file at this time"

So where's the full legal staff? Had I known that their business model was to send some best-attempt letters with outrageous claim amounts to the insurer with hope that the insurer just bends over and gives them half of it, I would have not bothered.  No one did an actual assessment.  They also promised to email me all correspondence in case I wanted to continue with the claim myself, but never did, which didn't surprise me. 

I would like to say that this cost me nothing but time calling them for updates, and at no point did they attempt to bill me for the "services" they provided.  But I'd rather have all that time back. They charge an equivalent contingency amount to a lawyer - 33% - but don't actually do any of the legal work.  They should remove Mass as a state that they service from their list.