State Farm Fire and Casualty State Farm Auto ECS Claims Deceptive Practices When Dealing with Diminished Value Claims Tempe, AZ Nationwide

I was party to a multiple (3 car) automobile accident in a Denver, CO suburb on 11/11/14, where I was rear ended by someone who was also rear ended and pushed into her.  The driver who initiated the accident was insured by State Farm, and there began the trouble.  My vehicle was "driveable", although in retrospect, I think I should have had it towed...the liftgate of the SUV had to be pried open by the fireman at the accident sight, and my rear muffler was smoking.

Immediately after the accident, I contacted the at fault party's State Farm office to begin the process to get my vehicle repaired, and was referred to an 800 number where someone would take all of the information and provide me with my options.  I complied with all of State Farm's necessary steps to initiate repair, but because my muffler continued to smoke, my husband insisted that I get inspected to make the car was ok to drive, and this is where all of the problems began.  Due to a major hailstorm in late September, the autobody shops were slammed and in phoning around, was told that it could possibly be late March or even April 2015 before they could begin repairs.  I reported this back to my assigned State Farms claim representative, and was told she would set up a quick appointment where I could go by one of their Select Service shops to have the safety of my vehicle inspected and would be advised if safe to continue to drive, but in the mean time, they advised me to look further north or south of Denver to other body shops if I needed my repairs done more quickly.

Long story short, I ended up selecting one of State Farm's Select Service body shops in Colorado Springs, and my State Farm claim representative advised that she would reimburse me at IRS rates for my roundtrip down to Colorado Springs for damage assessment, and then for the second roundtrip when I took the car in for repairs, and the subsequent return trip home.  I made note of her comments in the accident diary I started.

I had to drive my car for over two months before the vehicle went in for repair, and during that time I had my oil changed, where I was told by my mechanic that my car had developed several leaks that were not there prior to the accident.  I contacted State Farm to let them know but they tried to claim that they were not resultant of the rear end impact.  I did, however, let the rep at the Body Shop know of my concerns when I dropped the car off for repair.

Several days into the repair, I received a call from my rep at the Body Shop stating that they had found "some" frame damage and she would let me know what they found.  I went out of town for a few days and upon return, was contacted again to let me know my vehicle was ready to be picked up.  I did ask the rep to show me the frame/unibody measurement sheet, but the story changed and she said everything was fine.

I took possession of the car and immediately went in search of a diminished value appraiser to set the story straight, and it does appear that the damage report indicated frame/unibody damage and I was indeed a candidate to file a diminished value claim with State Farm.  I tried submitting Diminished Value Reports and to work with State Farm in good faith on two separate occasions, yet they only offered me a lowball diminished value and less than half of the IRS mileage rate reimbursement.  We are now $2300 apart for the amount of diminished value based on the diminished value appraisal which clearly shows opinions of six local auto dealers as to the amount of the repaired vehicle to them.

I now have no recourse but to file suit in small claims court against the person who hit me, but in reality it is State Farm's issue to resolve.