Tree fell on our X213 - Page 2

Caleb · 10-15-2013, 08:17 PM

Talked with the RV dealer today. They are trying to tell me the cracks may just be cosmetic because they "jumped" on the slide and couldn't get the cracks to spread any further. It's unreal. Every chapter of this story as it unfolds just becomes more unbelievable!!!! Was that a controlled test? Did they weigh as much as the tree did? Did their "jump" replicate the force of the tree slamming into the slide from 30' up in the air? I reminded them, when the tree hit the trailer, it drove the rear jacks 3" into the ground. I told him I thinks it's starting to crack because the aluminum in the wall is COMPROMISED thus placing stress on the fiberglass exterior wall that is a load it wasn't designed to handle. I couldn't really get him to agree, but he did put in for a new back wall price quote from Jayco and told me my trailer is going to be there for a long time....good thing it's October. Adjuster told me he's going to try and get there some time this week and get a "firm" price quote from them and go from there. It's been at this dealer for 21 days and still no repair estimate. They keep saying its Jayco's fault for the delay.
What do you guys think? Would you pick up the trailer and take it to another dealer of just let this thing run it's course and see where this ends up? It would easily cost $100 or more in fuel to move it to the next nearest Jayco dealer.

msturtz · 10-15-2013, 08:38 PM

I would say RUN!!!! I had a shop miss stuff on my trailer and it was very hard to get it fixed correctly later. What your dealer is saying makes no sense. They make money by doing work and you are the customer. Why would they mess around like this. You may want to bring up your concerns with the service manager or with the general manager if you have already spoken with the service manager. You need to get to some place that will do the work correctly.

clubhouse · 10-15-2013, 09:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Caleb Loveless

Talked with the RV dealer today. They are trying to tell me the cracks may just be cosmetic because they "jumped" on the slide and couldn't get the cracks to spread any further. It's unreal. Every chapter of this story as it unfolds just becomes more unbelievable!!!! Was that a controlled test? Did they weigh as much as the tree did? Did their "jump" replicate the force of the tree slamming into the slide from 30' up in the air? I reminded them, when the tree hit the trailer, it drove the rear jacks 3" into the ground. I told him I thinks it's starting to crack because the aluminum in the wall is COMPROMISED thus placing stress on the fiberglass exterior wall that is a load it wasn't designed to handle. I couldn't really get him to agree, but he did put in for a new back wall price quote from Jayco and told me my trailer is going to be there for a long time....good thing it's October. Adjuster told me he's going to try and get there some time this week and get a "firm" price quote from them and go from there. It's been at this dealer for 21 days and still no repair estimate. They keep saying its Jayco's fault for the delay.
What do you guys think? Would you pick up the trailer and take it to another dealer of just let this thing run it's course and see where this ends up? It would easily cost $100 or more in fuel to move it to the next nearest Jayco dealer.

Nothing says it has to go to a Jayco dealer. Its not warranty work, if its not totaled, its insurance work and therefore you can take it where you want. If there are a "known reputable" RV service/repair facility around I may consider it.

I know you didn't like my last bit of adivce regarding being nice to the adjuster. However, if you haven't aligneated him/her it may be worth a conversation about their experince with other shops. I would venture to guess he has dealt with a lot more repair facilities than you have...its what they do day in and day out. This is exaclty why I said be nice to the adjuster. He can absolutly help provide the most positive outcome from an otherwise bad experience.

Caleb · 10-15-2013, 10:02 PM

Clubhouse...are you a insurance adjuster yourself... or do you just have a soft spot for them? LoL...I had no problem with the adjuster UNTIL he overlooked everything I asked him not to overlook. He said he was going to call after he inspected the damage the 1st time and the didn't call me for ***7*** DAYS. I had to call, leave voice mail, and then it took him 2 more days to call back. He went to go look at it a 2nd time and said he would call me after he did...and guess what, didn't call after that time either. Now I emailed him last Wednesday, Friday, and Monday. Finally asked my agent to forward him my emails because I didn't believe they are getting to the adjuster.... 30 min later I get a response from the adjuster. Do you get the idea?
Should I just roll over for someone who isn't doing the job I'm paying them to do? I'm not asking for anything abnormal here.... I-just-want him-to-communicate-with-me.
I don't pay $2,500.00 a year to be ignored by the adjuster in the rare occasion I do make a claim. This company insures my three cars, house, snowmobile, 4wheelers, and more.

clubhouse · 10-16-2013, 12:45 AM

I am not personally in the insurance business. However I have a father who owns a brokerage and brother who is an agent and works directly for an insurance provider. Through this I hear lots of stories, and might have a better than average understanding of insurance finance.

The most important things I always hear from them...

1) Don't threaten to get a lawyer. If you mention lawyer then the adjusters hands are tied and must turn it over to the company’s legal team.
2) Be nice to the adjuster. Without lawyers involved, it’s the adjuster that will settle your claim. Depending the company they can write a check on the spot.

It sounds like you aren't getting the service you deserve, and for that there is no excuse. IMO your agent should be actively engaged in helping you though this. Again, think about how many claims you are a part of in your life vs. your agent. If someone needs to be the bad guy it’s the agent. Although the agent has fiduciary responsibly to the provider, they need customers too and know it all too well. If you decide to make an insurance provider change over this incident who do you think will care, the multi-billion $ insurance company or the agent? Originally I wasn't clear, the adjustor needs to have pressure applied...it just shouldn't be from you. You said so yourself...you call and call, and send email after email, not until your agent is involved do you get a response.

It’s clear you want your TT totaled so you can start over, I would too. I am not qualified to say to what extent the damage of you unit it is and if being totaled is a reasonable expectation. However in your shoes I would start having conversations with the agent about your concerns of hidden damage that may show up later. I would specifically use the phrase "diminished value". Insurance is designed to make you whole -- I for one would argue, even if repaired the value of that TT is less than the value of comparable unit that didn't have a tree fall on it and get repaired. I think we all would agree that we wouldn't pay the same for damaged/repaired and not damaged at all. The difference needs to be included as part of the adjusters valuation in making you whole and might be the difference in "total and replace" vs. "repair"

Lastly, a lot of the valuation you get is from the adjuster. It can only help if he is sympathetic towards you and likes you.

I wish the best of luck.

Caleb · 10-16-2013, 04:59 AM

You made a lot of good points! There is a lot we agree on. My agent is staying very involved on this and I couldn't ask for better service from him. He'll answer his phone, text, email, or voice mail very quickly and is always ready to help. I'll keep everything you mentioned in mind.
I agree about the repair. I'm starting to doubt that at this level of damage, anyone could repair this TT to the point of like new condition. Everything on these light weight aluminum trailers is so modular. If it were stick and tin build, I don't think I'd be so worried about it. It's tough to fix just sections of these fiberglass trailers though. One piece laminated floors, walls, roofs, and slide outs.
Which brings me to the same conclusion you made about "diminished value". I'm going to wait and see what happens after the adjuster gets up there to view it a 3rd time (I'm sure he's tired of this too and just wants it over) later this week. If the adjuster doesn't total it out and the dealer and I can't agree on the damage, then I'll look at taking it somewhere else.
Also I talked to two other RV dealers that were closer to me. Both said they didn't want to deal with that amount of damage and both recommended I take it to a Jayco dealer....so that's why it's there.
Thanks for your advice!

Caleb · 10-16-2013, 04:33 PM

Dealer emailed me today. Said the adjuster stopped by today again for the 3rd time. The adjust had just emailed me yesterday telling me that he would call me to let me know when he was going to look at it again. Huh...Guess he forgot. The dealer also said the adjuster should be getting a hold of me. Dealer didn't give me any details (why am I not surprised) just said he had a few things for the quote, but he's missing some figures yet. Again, very vague - no details. Why do I get the feeling like they're going to fight me on this wall damage?

LiftedAWDAstro · 10-17-2013, 05:28 AM

To me it's simple...The wall has cracks in the fiberglass that were not there from the manufacturer so that means it's damaged! Time to replace it as that is why we buy insurance. Sounds like your dealer is really not very helpful. When we had to replace the roof on our camper due to water damage, the dealership went way out of their way to make sure the insurance was covering a completely new roof. They even assisted in reminding me what snow storm event caused the damage as we didn't find the damage until in the spring. I guess that is why we have since bought a 3rd camper from them!

Keep after them and don't settle until all is correct and you are happy. If they make you an offer, decline it unless satisfactory. Don't be surprised if they still try to fix it and not total it out. As for diminished value people talk about on here, I don't really see it. These campers drop in value by nearly 50% in 5 years or less so unless you are keeping it for 8-10 years you will see a very low book value anyways.

Caleb · 10-22-2013, 04:52 PM

Just got the estimate for the repair. It's $7,608.50 and I don't know what the insurance adjuster wants to do yet. Dealer said he gave him the estimate last Friday. Haven't heard from him yet. I'm not really surprised. I think at this price, he'll want to repair it. I could be wrong. Who knows. I don't know what the trailer is worth in the salvaged market.

Caleb · 10-22-2013, 05:30 PM

Also, the estimate says the wall cost $398.00(sounds cheap) so I need to find out if that's the entire wall with the aluminum structure or just the fiberglass on the outside. I have no idea if that back wall is laminated or not. If it turns out that's all the dealer wants to replace is the fiberglass shell/cover, I'm gonna have a fight on my hands. The whole thing needs replacement. I'm not backing down from that!

LiftedAWDAstro · 10-23-2013, 12:59 PM

At $398, I bet its a simple patch repair. A complete wall will be probably $4-$5k!

Caleb · 10-23-2013, 07:35 PM

Talked to the dealer today and they still claim it's a entire back wall replacement in the repair estimate. Insurance adjuster called me today and said there's more than a couple of options. One of which is to find out what the trade in value would be "as is" without repair. Take the cash payout from the insurance company, which I think should be $7,100 and buy a new trailer from the dealer. I don't know if that's the route we would go yet but I'd like to see what the numbers look like.
The adjuster said he put the trailer on some auction site were they take bids for the trailer "as is". It would have to make it to around $9K though for it to be totaled by the insurance company. It doesn't seem likely.
It looks like it's either trade up, or have it repaired.

Caleb · 10-25-2013, 07:26 PM

The insurance adjuster's boss called me this morning. The bids made it to $6,900 for the camper. The original adjuster had told me it would need to go a lot higher to total out the unit, but this guy said he had the authority to make the decision to consider it a total loss. He was worried they would find more damage once they started working on it and he said the dealer would not "hold" to their estimate. He said they could start digging and have to total it out anyway. They are sending a check to the credit union for payoff and another check to me for the remaining balance.
The insurance adjuster's boss handled this whole thing from start to finish in less than half a day. Answered his phone, called me back, and did everything he told me he was going to do!! Very...very impressed! This is how it should have been from the beginning.
We are looking at either a White Hawk 23MBH or a 28DSBH what do you guys think? I like the shorter 23MBH but the wife likes the bigger one of course.

glsimms · 10-25-2013, 08:32 PM

Well congrats to you caleb!!

Glad it worked out to your satisfaction!

Caleb · 10-25-2013, 08:46 PM

Thanks! Me too! It was a nice surprise!

tslarson · 10-25-2013, 09:49 PM

That is nice to hear, a tree fell on our house back in May and we just finished the insurance procees in September. If I didn't keep calling them we would still be in limbo. How many times can you call an adjuster and he can answer he forgot/ someone forgot/ the claim has been sent for paymemt, it will be paid in full (but that was a lie) etc..... very frustrating. Badger Insurance, WI. We had another claim about 8 years ago that went very smothly. Appears to be all in the aduuster you get.

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