My experience with USAA
Last year on November 27, 2022 my car was in a hit and run with usaa insurer and I made a post here. I’m here to talk about my experience with USAA. My car was deemed a total loss in December of last year. As of April 13, my claim has resolved and I got my check. It took 4 and 1/2 months to get it. This insurance was a joke throughout the whole process and slimy beyond belief. Each time I did the paperwork that they told me to do in order to get my check another problem would come up and prevent me from getting it. I did not have any communication with my assigned adjuster until the last 2 weeks of getting my check and I tried many times calling her extension and left her many emails but no response until I got multiple mangers to get involved. When the adjuster would call me it would be half a ring then immediately hang up and leave a voicemail and the next minute I called the USAA to see what’s wrong, the adjuster would duck my call. They straight up made up lies about how my insurance gave them wrong ACV and it never went through my insurance at all. I know because I canceled it when the car was deemed a total loss and when I signed away the title back in December. Anyone dealing with a total loss with USAA, here’s my advice; don’t deal with them, I had to get a lawyer involved to get my check and my problems magically went away when I mentioned how I was gonna sue the drunk bitch who totaled my car and then them for trying to fuck me over by not paying me as I had a police report and video evidence of her hitting my car and driving away. It was a shitty experience throughout and I hope never to deal with them ever again.
Adjusters aren’t ducking calls, they’re taking back to back to back to back phone calls for their entire 8 hour shift most days. I understand your frustration, speaking as a previous USAA auto adjuster. But the real reason is much higher up the chain. AVPs and directors doubling down on poor policies that create giant back logs of claims. I left because I could no longer handle my own claims due to the phone call volume. It didn’t always used to be that way either. Just two years ago I remember sitting at my desk, working my own claims and taking maybe 10 calls a day, half of which were my own claims. Then someone who should have retired years ago pulled the rug from underneath us and changed everything for the worse. Firing/integrating the total loss team was also moronic. It still leads to a large number of issues later in the claim like what you stated, having incorrect ACVs and sometimes not even having all the options of the vehicle put in.
I say this because a lot of my members would put the blame squarely on my adjuster shoulders when I wanted nothing more than to adjust my own claims. We all wanted a system where we get that and USAA leadership failed us.
I also work in non injury auto claims and everything you said is 1000% accurate. Having 200-400 calls in the Q everyday was normal. No time to work your assigned claims and constant complaints from management about your work lists falling behind. We received two days of total loss training which is not nearly enough time and pretty much told to figure it out. We probably should have had at least two to three weeks of actual training. So yes claims are falling through the cracks unfortunately and the adjusters are getting the abuse when it should be focused on the decision makers.
Let me be frank, I never treated any of the USAA adjusters bad, I treated every adjuster with respect and calmly despite what was happening with my claim, they were genuinely trying to help. But my assigned adjuster was the one who didn’t keep in touch with me unless they wanted something new signed but couldn’t be bothered to stay on the phone long enough for me to answer or respond to any of the emails sent to them concerning the claim. I had to get several mangers to get my assigned adjuster to contact me or my assigned adjuster would be out the office for 2 weeks at a time.
Yep and they still haven't done anything still back to back in auto they are DROWNING yet leadership doesn't give a flying fuck. My buddy is in auto and I wouldn't wish that on anyone.
Seems like a good enough reason to avoid them!
I experienced the same issues from USAA on my total loss last year. My 2015 Corolla took 3.5 months to resolve and payout. It felt as though I had experienced a miracle when it was finally resolved. There were two third parties involved in processing the claim and USAA itself seemed helpless to keep things in-track. It didn’t even feel as though USAA was my insurer.
Why did you deal with USAA? This is what having your own insurance company is for. You literally pay them to deal with the other insurance company on your behalf.
Your mistake was giving up all your power by canceling your insurance.
If you're ever in an accident again you file a claim against your insurance. Your insurance company pays you, then gets the money back from the other company...
Unfortunately this isn’t my first time with USAA, the first time went rather well and quickly despite being in the pandemic. I was basically stonewalled for 3 months with excuses
I guess I've been lucky. The only thing I didn't like was the adjusters have zero contact with me. They did cover all my claims (2) however.
How to say I don’t know how any insurance works for the entire Reddit world to see.
I’ve gone through insurance before, just my experience on the matter with the service provided or do you think USAA provided good service? There are many stories like me on this Reddit.
I’ve only had one wreck with USAA and it was in 2015 and it was handled super fast and extremely well for 8 car pile up.
It took four months to settle my total loss as well and left me in a hard spot financially afterwards.
This is exactly why I will never recommend usaa insurance to anyone!
I’ve made three claims on my car and one on my house (roof, hail damage) to USAA. no problems and the claims were very fast.
But I’ve heard of others with your issue.
Our car was totaled out by a tornado a couple of weeks. I was a little paranoid after reading experiences on this sub-reddit that the process would take forever, or they would try low ball us on our settlement. They actually offered us a settlement that was more than we paid on our brand new car three years ago. The processes did take a couple of weeks, I don't know if that's a standard length of time for a claim. It seems I did have contact them a couple to initiate the next step in the claim processes. However, the settlement makes any bumps along road easier to take.
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As someone who works in USAA they definitely changed the system. They used to have a total lost team and integrated with the claims department. We have double the work and not enough time to do said work because we are not allowed overtime. Hopefully they can resolve your issues but internally the system is struggling from the work load they place on us with the volume of things we need to get done.
Make a claim with your own insurance company. They will pay you and deal with the other company on your behalf. This is part of what you pay for with your insurance...
We had two total losses while insured by USAA. Neither were our fault. Both times they resolved out claims, we “agreed” on the total loss amount and then both times they “ forgot” to send the check to our bank to pay off the loan. Same problem, 18 months apart, they just miraculously had the same glitch that prevented payment. Yeah, right.
I had USAA and they were pretty good to me especially with my accident….. but dang they got super pricey…. So I will never be back
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I’ve been a USAA member for 20 years, banking and insurance. Have had both homeowners and auto claims. Always had excellent service.
Why does anyone still have car insurance with USAA? I left them years ago when I found an apples to apples identical policy with multiple other companies for 2/3 the price I was paying with USAA. I’ve done this repricing exercise a handful of times since and USAA is always more expensive.
I have nationwide, the drunk chick who totaled my car was with USAA.
Ah, got it. Best of luck.
Insurance companies are like cops, avoid them as much as possible
I've had USAA since 2008 and will continue using it as my bank. However, since that time I have consistently seen what their car insurance price was for me and it is always SIGNIFICANTLY higher than Geico or any other car insurance company so I've never gone through them. Mind you; I have NEVER (thankfully/knock on wood) ever been in a car wreck, I've owned every single vehicle that I tried to get insured by them, I have an awesome fulltime job now after the military, and my credit score is very high. I read some article recently that USAA was actually screwing over their members who were enlisted and not officers. I think this may have something to do as to why my insurance is always quoted so high with them.
Was USAA your insurance or hers? This sounds like the opposing insurance company tactic. It’s not just USAA. Had the same thing happen years ago. My car was parked when it was hit in my parking lot by a drunk driver who was arrested at the scene on multiple felonies. I also didn’t get anything accomplished until I threatened an attorney. Then they offered a considerable lowball amount. Called an attorney and a week later was paid properly
It was her insurance
My experience with USAA has been very different. I have been with USAA insurance for over thirty-six years and have filed a handful of smaller claims and two total losses (one hit by another car at fault and one stolen car). USAA was solid and responsive in every case.