Ducati Monster Forum

I'm in a battle with AllState Insurance right now! They're refusing to pay for damages to my motorcycle caused by their insuree, who hit my bike while it was parked on the street a few weeks back. He told AllState that it was my fault, I had parked too close to his car and the vibrations of his ignition caused my bike to fall over. AllState is accepting his claim, saying the accident was my fault!! I can't tell you how frustrating it is. When I talk to the insurance company it feels like  [bang] . I made a video on YouTube that I am hoping will cause a little bit of a stir.

ALLSTATE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nY3DognTeEU#)

Please check it out, derby it to your twitters @allstate. And any other advice you guys have would be really, really appreciated. Thanks!!

Wow! Thats plain BS! Hope your video makes a big impact. Good luck!

Post it on their Facebook page, if they have one, and say something like "Allstate lies to not pay for claims".

That will get them talking to you, quite quickly.

BC.

Do you have full coverage insurance on the bike?  If so contact your insurance agent and explain what happened.  They may help out.  They'd rather the other company pay then you make a claim against them. 

I'd also think about taking the car owner to small claims court. 

The claim that the vibration knocked the bike over is total BS, but being a fellow NY'r I want to ask..  Did you actually park that close to a parked car???  Because that's how I would interpret the video.. if so, then expect to constantly find your bike on the ground and squashed!  Especially if you park behind a SUV with the bike under the rear window.  Personally I think your video only hurts your case.

Yeah, if you parked that close for demonstration purposes only you should make that clear on the video.

Otherwise people will just think you were dumb for parking that close.

Yup. Great video except that you MUST make it clear that you are parking that close to demonstrate that the bike could not knocked over that way. Otherwise, you might be admitting indirectly that you parked that close (which makes you look less credible). It would probably look better if you'd worn full gear when placing the bike there....after all, your aim here is PR that will put pressure on AllState, right?

I agree with the other poster about contacting your insurance company too.

I'm thinking trash the SUV and claim it was your Duc's exhaust noise that did it. Hey, the same type of BS is working for them. Revenge is a dish best served cold. ;D Good luck with it all. Insurance companies suck. >:(

That's Awesome!

No, of course I never park that close to another car!! I was hoping it would look so ridiculous in the video that it would be implied, but good point! The guy had a ton of space, my girlfriend actually watched it happen, but Allstate won't take her report because she's an "informed witness." He hit it hard enough on the impact side to bend the exhaust and rear break pedal and take the peg off the bike, the rest of the damage was done when it hit the ground. Unfortunately, I don't have collision on my end, just liability. So I can't do anything through my insurance. It's looking like it will be small claims court.

The damage on the right side proves it wasn't the "vibrations".  [roll] How the hell does Allstate ignore that? And how is your gf an informed witness, but the car driver isn't?

Uhh, if there's damage to both sides of the bike, it's pretty indisputable that it was in impact that knocked it over, unless of course the vibration made the bike fall over, then roll to the other side  ;D.  Good luck!

I assume you filled out a police report, especially if you have his insurance info... they still wouldn't take her witness account from the report?   What did the driver claim in the police report?  Best of Luck and keep fighting!!

Never park your bike on the street, especially in front of or behind a car/truck, but especially not near an SU-make the beast with two backsin'-V.

someone guy backed into my bike and knocked it over, his car was well over 3 feet away. shit happens. you ahve to accept it if ou are going to park on the street in a city.

now as far as your case goes, just call them up and when you talk to the claim rep, tell them that you and i both know that vibrations from starting a car wont cause it to knock over. its full of BS, but if you are keeping to that story , then you will see them in court and seek out compensation for a lawyer for as much as you are able to get. or they can just file claim for the minimum (they use a half ass $40 an hour rate for repairs+ really low costs for the parts) They will respond ASAP with either a yes or no. If no, then you are going to go to court either way. if they pay up then keep it clean and realize that most of the damages are superficial anyway and go have a party or fix youre bike up ( i paid off my creditcards bills!)

been on that end of the stick twice. 
and if you ever park that close, you're asking for it.

Does Allstate get a lot of these "vibration" accident reports? They seem to be the industry leader in this field if that's the case. [bang] I would demand substantiated, hard copy evidence of this accident theory. Seriously... they are accounting your bike damage to vibration from their covered SUV? No shit? I guess their next explanation will be marsh gas. make the beast with two backs 'em. I'm messing up the SUV and calling it a wash. [thumbsup] [evil]

I agree that you should edit the captions on your video to make it clear that you're doing a demo, and parking even closer to that zipcar you've got by way of over blown example. Don't under estimate the power of stupid folk.

But besides that... that guys claim is just ass. The vibrations fro his car knocked it over? Puh-lease. A duc vibrates more on it's own at idle than any car could even impart that isn't in physical contact and street legal. The physics just don't work. The forces generated my a starting car, transmitted through air are hardly enough to move a feather.

That last post translates: It's total bullshit! [thumbsup]

I'm not believing any reputable insurance carrier would actually claim that as a viable cause for the acccident. [roll] I'm sticking with the marsh gas explanation. [laugh] Seriously, make the beast with two backs 'em get a lawyer.

Forget the video for now.  A letter from a lawyer to Allstate will work better.  Save the video for a court date.  If the claim is small enough small claims court will do.

Grr I hate All State.  Some uninsured lady, on her cell phone blew a yield sign and hit my wife.  The lady lied about the sign and said my wife came out way too fast and wasn't watching where she was going.  They put my wife at most the blame and ended up paying out to the other lady.  I think they just did it to try to get her business.  Come on now if the lady can't afford cheap insurance how is she going to afford All State.

As for your claim I would just keep fighting.  Regardless where and how you parked if they hit you they hit you.

Wow, quoting myself :P 

Before the lawyer letter send them photos of the damage to both sides of the bike and ask them to explain.

Back when I was much younger I was driving my Dad's car in the right lane of a parkway.  Someone hit the rear right fender entering the parkway from the entrance ramp.  The other driver said I hit him.  My dad asked them why their client's car has damage to the front and his car has damage to the rear.  End of case.

The other thing you learn from experience, is not to reveal relationships in police reports. xyz watched this happen and is willing to testify. End of story!

Question:  If AllState is admitting that the exhaust of their insured knocked your motorcycle over, doesn't that make their insured the proximate cause of your motorcycle's damages? 

Yes it does. I don't think there are any laws stating how close you can or cannot park to another vehicle, are there?
That's like a wheel falling off my car and rocketing down the sidewalk, damaging 3 or 4 cars and hitting a small child... and me saying that those cars shouldn't have parked in the area where my wheel could have gone, and that the small child should have been inside because sometimes wheels fall off cars.

absurd.
boo allstate.

Hey they are in good hands, not you.  [laugh]

THE VIDEO WORKED!! I got a call from Allstate this morning saying they had reviewed the video and everything else, and that they would be sending me a check for the full amount! Thanks for everyone's advice, lots of lessons learned.

Great news!!!
Now get it fixed up and  [Dolph]

 [thumbsup] [thumbsup] [thumbsup]

Good luck with it all!

 [clap]
 [beer]
 [Dolph]

I've referred to my exhaust as 'thumpy' a number of times... I guess this might be a literal translation.

Glad to hear that sanity ruled the day and you got paid mooshichoctaw. I still have trouble with the fact that they bought that dudes story.. but at least the good guys won in the end.

 [thumbsup]  [beer]

awesome news!    [bacon] [bacon] [bacon]

congrats man, good that it all worked out  [thumbsup]

Hoorays! [thumbsup]

Bad story with a good ending!!!
Sometime shit happens and sometime fairytale happen!
Good job with your vid & Congrats !!! [clap] [clap] [clap]  [beer]

You make my day!

Great news.

The tools at customers hands nowadays are incredible.
Youtube, Facebook, Twitter make it nearly impossible for companies to get away with scams like this in today's world.

Just 10 years ago, Allstate would have told you to piss off, and enjoy your broken bike.
Today, a company gets enough of a public black eye, and the higher ups call the morons trying to deny your claim, and tell them to resolve the issue, immediately.

Way to go!

BC.

I thought this would be harder to resolve and the thread would be a least 15 pages.  Congratulations.

If you'd really like another dozen pages, we can certainly have a go at it.

Social Media ( and associated tools:ie FB or twitter with YouTube video for example) has truly changed the customer service game in how media = money....unhappiness spreads with messages of "FAIL" and so forth and it leads to customers moving away from spending their money with them and their stocks/profits fall...most big corprorations now have specifically hired folks to monitor and deal with these such instances and resolve them, because if you hit the wrong network of people, things could go virally wrong against you in a nanosecond and it becomes an uncontrolable spiral of death when that happens....

not to threadjack, but as an example...we had issues with Comcast when we moved into our new place...dolci tweeted COMCAST FAIL and got all of her friends to retweet it like wild fire and we had corporate folks calling and kissing our asses and bending schedules and so forth to make things right in pretty short order...social media nowadays is the key avenue to use when righting a wrong it seems nowadays...but only if and when used correctly....

OK you won this one, but dont be surprised when ZIPCAR comes at you with the same video because that SUV blew up months later  ;)

AMAZING news!!  Justice prevails (for once).

congrats.  good to hear some positive news

awesome. does really go to show how things are changing... what a great example.
sometimes i think they just do this shit because 75% of people will just take it in the ass and move on with life.

i would try to clenching my sphincter muscles  first.

[thumbsup] that you proved your case and Allstate conceded.

[thumbsdown] to Allstate, even for a second, thought that you would accept their lame excuse in an attempt not to live up to their responsibilities.

that would just make it feel better for them.  try clenching it rhythmically and they'll call you the next morning too.