Here are three of the four emails mentioned in the letter, in the order they were dated. The fourth is displayed in the letter to State Farm. It was the one that said in large bold letters, William, we've received and approved your damage estimate. Please contact the shop to begin repairs. 

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It is, of course, a sign of the times with computer generated communications that often no name appears to give you sense a real person is actually watching out for you, or providing you service. In this case each email carried the very generic signature that it was from "claim team." 

And, of course, the presumption these days always seems to be that everyone owns a smart phone, and has instant access to the Internet. I find it hard to believe I am the only one in the United States of America who has neither of those things. 

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I used the Battling State Farm webpage as a template for this addendum page. When I finished the inserting picture process for the above, the fourth email was right here already on the page, so I decided to leave it. I find it difficult to believe that nobody at State Farm seems to think it is not a very good business practice to send such an email if there is any chance they are going to change their mind the next week. Everyone else has said they should not be sending a communication stating,  William, we've received and approved your damage estimate. Please contact the shop to begin repairs, if they are not absolutely committed to that statement. Apparently it is so common a happening at State Farm, that not even my local agent's office thought it was a peculiar way to deliver the "like a good neighbor, State Farm is there," promise. Sometimes modern business attitudes floor me. How do you reason with people so blind to what seems obvious to others? 

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As stated in the body of my letter, on Wednesday, June 7, 2023 my wife phoned me from up north to say Miles from State Farm claims was trying to reach me. I spoke with "claim team" that day, so I was prepared I would be receiving their email telling me they changed their mind, and now "claim team" was declaring my vehicle has been determined a total loss. On Thursday, the day I go to a local church to use their Wi-Fi to upload my picture of the week, and any other changes, to my website, I also check emails. There were two from State Farm. I had told Monique (State Farm claim supervisor) I would be challenging their "determination," so the first was from her. It had a 15 page vehicle evaluation attached. The second simply told me to open an attachment. Because my time is pretty pressed just getting things uploaded, and checking emails, I simply downloaded both of the attachments to look at later. 

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I am not going to all the trouble to reproduce a fifteen page document in this addendum. However, there are a couple of highlights, I would like to share. The valuation summary is already in the letter sent to State Farm corporate, and government agencies. Apparently, there are only three possible categories in these appraisals. "Average Private" is pretty much as good as it gets for an individual, and yet in every one of the ten categories where "Average Private" is shown, not a single deduction is made for any deficiencies on my car. Not one. Not in any category . . . because there are none. 

This comparables list stretches across two pages, with a whole slew of options. Both comparables had deductions made for condition. Mine had none. It strikes me that comp one got more credit for low mileage than comp two, even though comp one had 10,000 more miles on it. But, there is no arguing with a computer, right? Even if it does not make common sense. And by the way, did you notice that my vehicle has almost 20,000 less miles on it than comp two, and almost 30,000 less miles on it than comp one. Considering the mileage on my car, that comes out to a pretty sizeable percentage difference. You can see the final numbers for yourself. Remember, they determined a value of only $3,797 on my vehicle. Of the over 50 options listed, my car was missing only 7. Comp one was missing 18. Yet, they put the value of my vehicle closer to comp one than to comp two, even though comp two was in poorer condition, and had almost 20,000 more miles. Even basically just splitting the difference between comp one and comp two would put mine at $3,838 which is still likely way short of the actual market value. The owner of the body shop I am taking my car to said to me you cannot even find a used car in decent condition for less than $5,000 or $6000. And my vehicle is way above decent condition. Of course, all this is irrelevant, because even the lowball value which was put on my car by this vast network of modern electronic marvels placed my repairs at just under 74% of their bogus value, which means if 75% is the threshold, my vehicle should never have been declared a total loss in the first place, and we would be going through none of this.

Now, here is the attachment to the second email I opened. As it turns out, it is a total lie. This is when I began to realize how far State Farm might have fallen in integrity from the days when I was an agent. Back then, State Farm was the number one auto insurer in the nation, always top rated by consumer organizations, and way above the number two insurer which was Allstate. We were told how badly Allstate treated its customers. Much like the things I am pointing out here. 

I am always amazed when companies that are lying to you, and will not acknowledge valid documentation, have the gall to say "we appreciate your business." As stated in the letter, I initially believed what "claim team" said. So, I went to the body shop on 6/9/23 to arrange to bring my car home. The people at the body shop were understandably perplexed, because there were no storage fees being charged. Here is the signed document I mentioned in the letter. For a company that was going to be unable to fix my car because of the stand State Farm was taking, Gerber showed me great good neighbor service, and exceptional courtesy and honesty. What a contrast. 

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Additional Photos From May 21, 2021

In the letter I mention I took fourteen pictures of the engine 5/21/21 when my wife first brought the car to Michigan after its 21 years in Florida. The photograph in the letter is an overview. Here are four more showing a closer view of specific areas of the engine. 

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I also display an image in the letter stating it "is the last picture taken of the car, shot 5/30/23 two hours before the claim." That should probably say last photo of the car undamaged. Because, I shot over one hundred pictures of the damage to the car, and of it being loaded onto the tow truck. The young man (20 years old) driving the tow truck also treated me with that superb good neighbor service I thought I would be receiving from State Farm. I already mentioned the special bracket that he used to protect my car. Even though it took over the 55 minutes he said it would take to get to me when he first called, it was no big deal on such a nice day. In fact, I even got to speak for a while with a State Police trooper after the first 45 minutes. I explained to him my circumstances, and the officer said he would come back by in half an hour to make sure I had been taken care of.

There is also an interesting technology story relating to the tow. The driver called at one point to ask me again where I was. He had just moved back to Michigan from South Carolina. When he plugged in the address he had been given to his GPS, it took him to a middle school in the middle of a city. I told him I was definitely not in that area. I explained to him that there was no address he could give to his electronic devises, because I was off the side of the road between exit 44 and exit 46 on eastbound I-96. I said his best bet was to get on I-96 going east at the Grand Rapids 28th street entrance to the highway. Just drive east until you see me, and my blue car, on the median side of the road. I instructed further, if you get to exit 46, you somehow drove right by me without noticing me. He finally arrived, and got things taken care of. He asked at one point if a picture of him loading the car would appear on my website. I said, it was not likely anytime soon, since I was still working on getting pictures I took in 2018 into my inventory. Little did I know. I never had a chance to write down his name, and I cannot remember it. But, he was such a nice young man, here is one more picture to wrap up this addendum page. I hope somehow he gets to see it one day. 

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AFTERTHOUGHTS

I received a printed copy of the State Farm reply to my complaint to the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services dated June 28, 2023. In it Jacqueline Holmes (Claims Manager) reiterated chronologically showing dates pretty much everything I have said here. She concluded her letter indicating that we had accepted the settlement. As I read her "facts," I was struck by the fact that State Farm turned out to be wrong on almost every point they stubbornly defended. Yet, much like Comcast, they never admitted that they were in error at any point along the way, or in the end. In a nice letter I received dated July 17, 2023, the State of Michigan (Paolo LoPiparo) thanked me for allowing them to be of assistance, indicating the matter was now concluded. 

The electronic way of doing business became an issue later in the year again when an exceptionally strong windstorm brought a large tree down onto the top of our garage roof. Impersonal computer estimates delayed payment sufficient to get onto the contractor's schedule, and as I write this, it has been over three months since the claim was filed, without any physical work being done toward repairs other than what we have done ourselves. As it approached two months, I wrote another long letter to State Farm. I do not wish to spend the time detailing this claim, but below is a link to the written communication I sent to their corporate headquarters.      

Garage Roof Claim Letter

Both of these experiences indicate to me the system is broken. Except at the very beginning of the auto claim, State Farm had become essentially just a check writing service in both instances. The burden has fallen upon us, the policyholder. This seems to be pretty commonplace in the business world of internet, emails, and apps these days. Where companies replace service with apps, and recorded messages telling us "you can find that information on our website." Supposedly for our convenience, of course. I suspect it is also a lot less expensive than real person customer service. 

I should note that in both claims, we came out ahead financially. In the homeowners claim, when we finally got to adjusters who saw the bigger picture, the use of their computer programs even added such details as gasoline and oil for my chainsaw. Although the process, in both cases, was exceedingly frustrating, our insurance for now remains with State Farm. 

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