State Farm: Light estimates and low quality replacement parts. Gee, thanks.

My love texts me that State Farm has sent him the estimate for F2, but he can't open it.  I can't either, but I call shop B to make certain that they had the estimate before I went on to call State Farm.  They do, if they find that they need more done, they will phone the estimator.

I phone State Farm.  I was able to speak with a lovely woman from Georgia.  She was able to resend the estimate and  . . . it is $1000 less than the first one which was already a bit light.  They want my market muffler replaced with the cheapest possible muffler around-- one from O'Reilly's Auto Parts, which is basically the equivalent to buying fine china at Big Lots.

I hate State Farm.

So now I have a call back.  We want the parts on the car we just purchased to be the parts that are supposed to be on there, not just whatever cheap crap they decide that they will pay for.  Will I get my way?  Probably not.

It was not our fault, yet we are the ones to suffer for people who don't freaking know how to yield.  UGH.
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Now that I have received my call back, pressing on with the saga that is State Farm  . . .

They finally passed me on to our "claim team."  The woman told me that she realizes that I haven't even made my first payment yet and that their insured hit me before we even owned the car for a week, but that State Farm was not going to approve use of parts any better than those that are presently on our vehicle. 

I asked for a manager. 

"He's busy.  He won't approve anything better anyhow." 

"What is his name?"

"I can't give you that."

"May I have his phone number or email?"

"I can't give you that."

"What is your name?"

"Cecelia."

"And what state are you in?"

"I'm not authorized to release that."

"Interesting because I spoke to two lovely ladies today.  The first woman was in Georgia and the second woman I just spoke to was in Arizona.  Why could they tell me where they were and you can't?"

"I can't release that information.  I can have him phone you back."  

I yelled at her and hung up.  I'm not expecting a return call from her manager.  

I phoned the shop where the Forester is being repaired.  Keith's lovely wife (I really need to find out her name) went over the estimate with me, explained the muffler part choice and the fact that they are both being replaced so that the back of the car looks right.  (State Farm initially only approved one.)  Keith gets dealer parts at auto parts store prices, so the car will be fixed right, will be in the shop for 2 weeks and all will be well.  

Keith and his wife will be getting a lovely box of homemade cookies.  

Thank you for allowing me to vent.  

State Farm: The continuation of twisting the knife slowly.

Today was the day that I drop F2 off for her $5000 beauty treatment.  Now, we knew that the estimate that M received from the State Farm authorized estimate shop was a lil light on comprehensiveness.  I take her this morning and the shop owner (we took her to a different shop than where the estimate was generated) asked which estimate we were using.

"Um, we only had one estimate."

In pure State Farm fashion, the left hand, right hand and the whole system of talking hands once again DIDN'T WRITE A FREAKING THING DOWN and somehow, they didn't realize that there was already an estimate done.  Yup.  You read that right.  The estimate was submitted by shop A, State Farm called us and said that shop A sent them confirmation that we had an appointment with them to drop F2 off and they were getting some more details.  We never made an appointment with shop A because, well, they sucked.  We told them that we were going with shop B because we had previous work done there and they are the shop of our choosing.  It took M quite some time to get the customer service agent to understand that we would not be going to shop A.  So, did she just delete the estimate?

Another estimate is being done-- I think.  I told Keith and his wife (the lovely shop B people) to do whatever they needed to do.  We appreciated their shop, their willingness to take State Farm (apparently many shops will not deal with them because of continued problems just like this) and for their kindness.

State Farm, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE A CONTINUAL PAIN IN MY - - - ?  The only thing you have been consistent on is your incredibly BAD service!  Neither my husband or I have ever seen such incredible incompetence in all our lives.

The rental car was fun.  It was scheduled.  Hertz was given the claim and they scheduled me to have a  full sized SUV.  I am 5' tall.  I told them children would go missing in the neighborhood.  They ordered up what they referred to as a "mid-sized" SUV.  It was a very large Ford Escape.  The guy, seeing the notation, decided to skip the SUV specification and put me in a Nissan Sentra instead.  The good thing is that it is smaller so I can see.  The pain with that is apparently State Farm automatically charges $30 gas responsibility off the top, so the very nice Hertz guy informed me to run it down to the very last drop because I already paid for the gas.  Will I use $30 in gas?  I have no idea.  However, if I only needed the car for 2 days, I can tell you that I wouldn't need that much and would be right irritated at the $30 charge State Farm applies without saying anything to you about it.  But, why would they?  Maybe the State Farm customer service reps aren't knowledgeable about that charge since THEY DON'T SEEM TO KNOW ANYTHING ANYWAY!

Rental car.  Check.
Flakes in the forecast for the first time this coming winter season?  Check.
Not an SUV.  Check.

So, we are hoping that State Farm pulls through and really does pay for the F2 repairs as they need to.   The back door WAS damaged and the muffler WAS damaged.  It's not light surface damage.  Since State Farm was nearly $600.00 light on the total loss amount, we decided to go through our insurance company and allow them to go back on State Farm for payment.

Gigantic. Pain. In. The. Behind.