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Tags: A few days ago I messed my car up when I slid into a curb, my car is not drivable and I’m pretty sure that the damages are very costly I think that the axel is broke and when I put the car in park it makes a loud noise. How does it work when an auto body shop work with the deductible. My deductible is $500 and I just got back from layoff the day before the accident, I don’t have the money right now and I need my wheels.
May 19 2010
They just mean you will not have to pay that $500. They may have a deal with an adjuster who over charged your insurance company anyway. A lot of places will save the deductible.
It’s called, “burying the deductible” and most of the time, they do it by either shorting you on the parts quality, or by artificially inflating the repair cost. It’s illegal.
As a claim adjuster there are two main ways I see shops do this.
1. The shop will inflate the repair estimate by adding extra labor time or parts for the items that are damaged. Sometimes they just add parts that aren’t damaged and hope the insurance adjuster lets it slide.
2.They will argue with the company that they need all brand new parts and then they will go buy used ones at a cheaper price to put on the car.
BTW doing this is at best unethical and at worst illegal.