Update
Well, this has been a real learning experience, but I'm happy to report that we FINALLY arrived at an acceptable figure with the insurance company. We received the check last week.
We rejected their initial settlement offer because it was a total lowball offer. When they first submitted the offer to us, all it contained was a net figure to us determined by what they said was fair market value of our truck, less salvage. We requested details of how they arrived at these figures.
It took them nine days to submit that report to us. Wouldn't you know, they have 10 comps--all of them from Washington (we live in Southern California)--not one local comp. And to top it off, all of these comps were for ads with ASKING PRICE,--not one final sale. Of course, they were extremely low.
Since we had been waiting for many days to receive their report, we were able to go online and find five local comps, all in Southern California, and all more than $1,000 higher than theirs--$200 higher than we believed the value to be.
So, we rejected their offer and submitted our counter offer, using our local comps, telling them we refuse to use out-of-state comps and that we have every right to use local comps. We also pointed out that their report neglected to show power steering, air conditioning, and AM/FM Stereo Cassette included in the valuation of our truck.
I have come to realize that our adjuster was very inexperieced and hard-nosed about every single thing, so we eventually worked solely with his supervisor. When we pointed out his ommissions of the above options/equipment, the adjuster said we would need another appraisal. I merely faxed over the original window sticker with our VIN # showing what our truck did have. (Yes, I'm one of those anal people who keeps everything.) The supervisor immediately accepted it as proof. That's when I knew to deal with the supervisor from that point on.
Next thing we know, we get an email from the adjuster telling us they do not entertain counter offers, but it appears that our vehicle was evaluated improperly. Please allow them a couple of days to submit another settlement offer. We call the supervisor telling him we expect to use local comps--we were able to find local comps, and we don't want them cherry-picking as they had been. He agreed.
I told him we wanted them to get local dealer quotes. He agreed. I told him the salvage figure was way too high. He agreed. I told him we wanted to be reimbursed the cost of the inspection and the re-registering as a salvaged vehicle with the DMV. He agreed. I also told him that if we did not receive what we considered to be a fair offer that we would sue the other driver in small claims court, show their ridiculous comps and lowball offer to the judge, and let the judge decide. He asked for time to prepare an updated settlement offer.
Keep in mind that we asked all of above of the adjuster and he refused every single thing. He said it's not our policy to pay for this, not our policy to pay for that. I finally told him that we were not concerned with what their policy was--his client caused this accident, and we were going to pay for certain things out of our pocket to re-register the truck, so we expected to be reimbursed for these fees. Adjuster wouldn't budge, but supervisor agreed.
So, in the end, we received $903 more for our vehicle than originally proposed, plus the salvage was reduced to $112, for a net settlement to us of $1249 more than originally proposed. Plus, we were also reimbursed the inspection and re-registration fees.
I'm glad it's over, but I learned a lot, and will be in a much better position from the onset if we must ever, God forbid, go through this again.