Deer Accidents

[chrissyt27]

We hit a deer Friday morning, out of town at a funeral for family, 4 hours away. It came out of nowhere. we have Progressive and they have been really just awful. I mean awful, not helpful at all.
Everyone keeps telling me they don't pay since it was nature/act of God.
we have comprehensive and collision, but DH was trying to save money and he had both at $2,000. I could just cry. My mom hit a deer and had $500 and her company waived it, a friend has Geico, again they didn't pay. Everyone at the funeral said we wouldn't owe.
I know I should have switched it, but neither one of has had an accident in over 15 years and it was cheap and easy. But now we are being screwed over. They are so rude on the phone. Our car is at the shop now, and they didn't even go over there till after 3 p.m. dropped it off at 9 a.m. But no one told us we needed to do paperwork. So they still haven't looked at it. They won't give us a new agent, she is an idiot. The retention department yelled at me and called me a liar. I don't know what to do.

Please tell me who you have and if you had hit a deer what was your comprehensive and did you pay?

We have the money. But it's going to really hurt. I was laid off and still looking for work. I need to drop them as soon as they get this fixed. If they even fix it. We did get a police report. I am just so upset.


Update in post 46.
They finally called us and sent somone to the body shop. But now they only want to "half" fix the car to lower our part.

 

[chrissyt27]

And the really crappy part, they have an office right next to the shop we took it. I would have ran when we saw, but my family always uses this place, just this is a new location.

 

[Dizisfun]

My husband hit a deer earlier in the year. We have both collision and comprehensive. I'm not sure which part paid but we didn't pay anything. It was almost $2000 in damage. We have Nationwide and we didn't have any problem at all.

 

[Dizisfun]

I'm saying we didn't pay out of pocket. But I really can't remember. So let me rephrase that to say that if we paid it was very little.
We have also had to have a windshield replaced and I know with that we only paid the $50 deductible through the comprehensive. We carry low deductibles......

We had Progressive just last year, we were temporarily living in Florida and had moved back to Maryland. We had a cheap old car that my husband paid $1000 for while in Florida. We had brought it back to Maryland and my son had borrowed it. He totaled it when he hit another car, his fault. (I was afraid they would give us a hard time bc the car still had Florida tags on it.) I called Progressive from the scene. It was a Friday evening about 8pm. Spoke to a Progressive agent and she was very helpful. The person my son hit had a different insurance and she was upset bc all she got was a recording and had to leave a message. We got emails from Progressive with status updates. And within the week we went to a Progressive office where they handed us a $3500 check and we signed over the car title to them.

 

[stitchlovestink]

We have State Farm and I hit a deer with my BRAND new car. Hadn't even made the First stinkin' payment. I couldn't believe it!! Had my friggin' van for 12 years and I couldn't have hit the deer with it. NOOOO!! It had to be in the new Flex! But anyhoo...
They were awesome. I was so afraid because it was a younger Doe and I didn't kill her. It was either hit her or swerve into oncoming traffic. She came jumping across the road... bounced on the hood left some scratches and a few dents...nothing too terrible, but no blood and only a couple of hairs. but State Farm was awesome!! They said they could tell by the scratches and the way of the dent that it was from a hoof. They paid it under our Comprehensive. I did have to pay my deductible and that was it. State Farm said they don't consider it a collision because you can't control wildlife...it's not like a tree or telephone pole or another car, even. I like their way of thinking! Kept me from losing my 40% accident free discount!!

 

[Swimalie]

My dad has hit a deer (as well as several other cars) and has USAA, as do we, and they paid it all.

As I'm typing this, the news is talking about how this is the deer's active season and to watch out for them. Sorry you hit one.

 

[ShiPooOwner]

A deer hit my DH's car last Thursday. DH called me once he got to work and told me what happened and asked if I would call our insurance carrier (AAA) since he had to teach all morning. It caused about $2500 worth of front end damage to the car. The AAA agent permitted me to make the report on the phone. She told us it would be covered through comprehensive and all we would be responsible for was the $250 deductible part.

When my son was covered by Geico a couple years ago, I hated working with that company. Their customer service is HORRIBLE! I would shop around the next time you need to renew.

 

[lizabu]

I don't know about the insurance but if you need a little comic relief I saw the best video about a lady talking about deer crossing signs.

http://youtu.be/CI8UPHMzZm8

 

[Rachel52288]

I hit a deer about two years ago with a car I hadn't even had for a month. I immediately called the police and they said they don't normally come to the scene unless the car is not drivable or the deer is still there. So since the deer was gone and I could still drive my car they just made a note that I had called to report it. As soon as I got home I called Liberty Mutual and they sent someone to my house to look at it a couple days later. They dragged out the process forever and the people that came to my house tried to accuse me of lying. They said I didn't hit a deer that I was trying to cover up another accident. I was pissed! If they had come in a timely fashion they could have seen the deer fur still in my hood! The process of fixing the vehicle took 2 to 3 weeks because everytime a representative had to look at the vehicle when it was at the shop they would take days to go look at it and the people at the shop had to keep calling them. I had to pay my deductible for comprehensive which was $300 and left them shortly after the car was fixed.

 

[Darcy03231]

When I hit a deer it was covered under the comprehensive portion of the policy and I had to pay the deductible ($250).

 

[seashoreCM]

"Life from Progressive (ding!). Dear Flo. What do you mean by act of God? Since I have collision and comp I am supposed to be covered. Even if there is a hurricane and a tree falls on my car. Even if a stone breaks my windshield. So why would you deny a claim of hitting a deer?"

They said I didn't hit a deer that I was trying to cover up another accident.

To the OP: Since you have collision also, the insurance company should still cover it. Actually hitting a deer would be an ordinary collision situation unless your policy stated otherwise.

When talking to anybody (includes Amazon and Magical Express) on the phone, get his name and city and write that down, just to establish credibility that you made the phone call. Also, if the person on the phone gets rude, it is now fair game to deal with higher up by mail (including dealing with minor accidents). As an added bonus for getting the person's name, you can mention his rudeness in your subsequent written correspondence.

(Do check the fine print in your policy documents.)

 

[branv]

I'm a little confused by your post, can you clarify some things?

At first it seems you state they don't cover the accident because it was an act of God.

Then you mention your high deductible ($2000), and go on to express frustration that other people you know had their deductible waived, and the full cost of repairs paid, when they hit a deer.

My first impression is not that your insurance won't pay out at all if someone hits a deer, but that they won't waive your deductible in this case. And you are out of pocket for everything under that $2000.

If this is the case, in my experience this is normal. Both my husband (Geico), his father (Farmers), and my best friend (??) were responsible for their deductibles with deer accidents (my friend has hit 3 deer in her lifetime! Broke her heart and her car!), but for expenses beyond that amount they received coverage. Well, FIL would have, except like you had a very high deductible and his repairs cost less than that.

If what you're saying, however, is that they offer zero coverage for deer accidents (as in, even if your deductible was $0, you'd still have to eat the costs), then that is strange and a shame.

Either way, sorry for your experience and your dissatisfaction with their customer service. Definitely sounds like you should do some shopping for new insurance!

 

[SGB13]

Another Nationwide person here. My husband hit a coyote and about 2 weeks later I hit a deer the same week we had a home claim due to hurricane Irene. They were super. Very low deductible on the cars.

 

[kellia]

I think it just depends on how your policy is written or possibly the state you are in. A co-worker hit a deer a couple of weeks ago and he had to pay a deductible ($250, I think). They should pay for it, but you will probably have to pay a deductible.

Yeah, unfortunately, you never know what the company is really like until something bad happens. (Same could be said with people, too, though... )

 

[vicki_c]

You need to know (1) what is covered under your policy and (2) how much is your deductible.

That will give you a hint as to what the insurance company should be responsible for. Insurance companies don't NOT cover things because they are acts of God, weather, animal collisions, etc. But it's possible you might not have the kind of collision coverage that is needed to cover it.

(not an insurance expert at all - just going by my own experience and logic - and state-required coverages do vary by state.)

Edited: apparently that is covered under your comprehensive coverage, not collision, per more expert posters later!

 

[Shmily1]

We have had Progressive for years and always get really good service. I special ordered DD21 a new Mustang. She had it almost 2000 miles when some dogs put out by hunters ran a deer right in front of her. It tore up the entire front end of the car, meaning grill, both front fenders, bumper, hood, headlights, the works. It was a lot of damage. She called me screaming hysterically and once I got her calmed down, I called Progressive. Our deductible is $500. The bill to replace and redo the car was crazy but I only paid $500. It was complete in less than a week, except for the Ford place sent the wrong color over the top stripes so we waited for those to come in.

If you are getting bad service from Progressive, please call the 800-Progressive number and tell them so they can give you a competent and nice employee to work with. They definitely do cover act of nature events.

 

[holycow]

I know you are upset and it doesn't help now everyone mentioning what great ins. they have.


You need to be more assertive. When they yell at you tell them you want to speak with a manager.

Find the number for the corporate office and tell them your agent is rude and incompetent and you need to talk to someone who can help you.

It is bad enough you have to have gone through the accident but to have to have a hard time with your ins. company is just a shame.

 

[mrsklamc]

I vowed to NEVER use progressive after this happened:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/14/comedian-matt-fishers-tum_n_1775191.html

 

[helenk]

I'm an insurance claims person, hitting a deer is considered a comprehensive claim, or other than collision. Whatever your comprehensive deductible is, that is the amount you would pay out of pocket. To the OP, your deductible for your comp is very high, I would consider talking to your agent, I would bet that the cost to lower it would be minimal...although that will not help you for this claim.
If you hit an animal it would be a comprehensive claim, if you swerve to miss an animal and hit a pole or a tree, it would be a collision claim.
Most insurance companies will send someone out to look at the car when a person indicates they've hit an animal and will check for animal hair or blood. They do this because most people have a higher collision deductible than a comprehensive deductible. There are folks that tend to report that they've hit an animal to pay less out of pocket.

 

[Sadie22]

A deer ran into my son when he was driving our smallest vehicle. At first he thought there was no damage, but when he got home, I could feel a big dent in the fender on that side. Then we tried to open the passenger door and realized that the impact had pushed the fender into the door. There was deer hair caught in the trim along the door, so the deer slid the length of the car before it ran off. We called our State Farm agent and took the car to the same shop DH has used when he has struck deer with his company vehicle. There was damage in the amount of several thousand dollars. It took about a week to fix it, but I don't remember paying even a deductible.

Maybe you've never had an accident before. These things do take time. It does no good to yell at the agents. You need to remain calm and be politie at all times. When you have an accident is not the time to threaten to cancel your insurance, which is maybe why you were speaking with the retention department. Also, it's not wise to have a deductible so high that you cannot comfortably pay it.