Insurance assessor?

[mattian]

Ok, so I am having to make a claim with my insurance after an unfortunate mishap I had with the curb. The bike has some damage. From what I can see, I will need new handle bar. Its slightly askew. New clutch lever. Work done to grazing on the side of the tank (possibly a new tank) and possibly a new left brake disc as the edges were grazed.
Now, I am no expert! My question is, the assessor that the Insurance company provides is an expert/former mechanical engineer? with a history of motorcycle knowledge? Are they working to get the best possible outcome for me? or the Insurance company.
Having never been in this situation before would like to know what your experience has been dealing with Insurance assessors.

[Maha]

The Insurance company, always the Insurance company.

[DMNTD:Me]

Ok, so I am having to make a claim with my insurance after an unfortunate mishap I had with the curb. The bike has some damage. From what I can see, I will need new handle bar. Its slightly askew. New clutch lever. Work done to grazing on the side of the tank (possibly a new tank) and possibly a new left brake disc as the edges were grazed.
Now, I am no expert! My question is, the assessor that the Insurance company provides is an expert/former mechanical engineer? with a history of motorcycle knowledge? Are they working to get the best possible outcome for me? or the Insurance company.
Having never been in this situation before would like to know what your experience has been dealing with Insurance assessors.

Take your bike to the nearest Suzuki dealership (Holeshot?) and start on your claim forms.
Let the finance company know where it's at. The dealership with need to perform a PAV and get all the bits that need repairing valued plus labour blah blah.
Basically once things are in motion you step back and allow others to do their job

BTW...as your bike is fairly newish, it will be repaired with new parts.
Dunno what you mean by who the assessors 'work for' as they simply just assess whether your bike is a financial write off or not...pretty much.

[Gremlin]

As dumpty says... take it to your dealer (if you have one, otherwise that brands nearest dealer) for them to assess. Start your claim form (aka, talk to insurance). The shop will come back with their idea of the damage, the assessor will visit the shop to have a look themselves, and either agree with the shop, or disagree. They usually don't know the ins and outs of the bike like the dealer does, so depending on the dealer, some will just agree with what they say.

If the value of the damage (and for insurance, every scratched part gets replaced) is more than about 75% of the value of the bike, there is a good chance the bike will be written off, as any unknown factors would push the bike past replacement.

Look on the bright side... I bet you can't do $18,500 in damage

[YellowDog]

My experience of this is that you choose an approved insurance repair garage, preferably your dealer, and then they haggle the repair price with the assessor.

The assessor knows fark-all about your motorcycle and is only interested in reducing the cost of his paymaster's liablity to the bare minumum.

[Highlander]

Look on the bright side... I bet you can't do $18,500 in damage

Holy smoke, Mr Gremlin is that what your off road adventure came up with?

[Mom]

Assessors are paid by insurance companies to provide an independant opinion of what it is going to cost to repair your bike.

Make sure the shop that has your bike has a good relationship with the assessor. The outcome can be manipulated to suit all parties, with a bit of gentle massaging of the numbers.

It is a simple mathematical equation in the end.

Have faith in the shop, talk to your insurance company, everything can be negoatiated.


I had a crash in a car years ago, 5 car nose to tail, we were 4 out of 5 of those cars. The bloke that created the mayhem got the book chucked at him, he was old and I doubt he drove again. We paid $75 for failing to stop, even the cop agreed it was an unfair charge as we were left no time, but the law around that is black and white, we paid.

We were in a Holden Commodore. I had a tiny 7 week old baby in a capsule in the back seat. The only straight panel in the car was the passengers left door. Even the roof looked like a banana. Our insurance company said they would repair the car!!!!! OMG!!! It was fuckt and because it was under $500 of market value to repair, they were repairing it! I negotiated to accept $500 less than market value so I did not get the car back!

[warewolf]

The assessor is working for the best possible outcome for the assessor, simple as that. Since the insurance company pays him, after looking after number one, he'll try to appease them as number two. He won't give a shit about you or your bike.

There used to be an Auckland-based assessor for Swann who had a reputation for shafting claimants big time. He was an expert in covering up damage, not fixing it. He admitted to me that he gets a cut of whatever he can trim out of your quote. The quality of work he approved was absolutely abysmal. Forget about matching paint or alignment of parts etc.

I'll reiterate something I was told by a big AKL dealership when I crashed my bike:
"I hope you are not with Swann and if you are, pray you don't get this assessor..."

[mattian]

I take my bike to Holeshot in Barrys Point Road. Always been pleased with their work. I'm with Swann insurance and, I deal with them through kiwibike.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'm still riding the bike at the mo as its my only vehicle. I doubt very much if the damage will exceed 75% of the value of the bike. I have it insured for $11,995. Anyone had dealings with Swann???

[Gremlin]

Holy smoke, Mr Gremlin is that what your off road adventure came up with?

Yes

I doubt very much if the damage will exceed 75% of the value of the bike. I have it insured for $11,995. Anyone had dealings with Swann???

I'm the same as you... Kiwibike, Swann. I've just put the filled in claim form through to Kiwibike a few minutes ago, shop has already had the bike for assessment since Thursday last week. Now I'll need to wait and see what Kiwibike/Swann say, so I guess I can tell you a few days before you find out, at each stage

You might be surprised re damage. All parts are priced by dealer, at normal price, a single tiny scratch on a part means it gets replaced... the cost racks up, urrr... rather fast.

[mattian]

Yes

I'm the same as you... Kiwibike, Swann. I've just put the filled in claim form through to Kiwibike a few minutes ago, shop has already had the bike for assessment since Thursday last week. Now I'll need to wait and see what Kiwibike/Swann say, so I guess I can tell you a few days before you find out, at each stage

You might be surprised re damage. All parts are priced by dealer, at normal price, a single tiny scratch on a part means it gets replaced... the cost racks up, urrr... rather fast.

yep, awesome man. thanks. would be very interested to know how you get on with the assessor.

[scott411]

The assessor is working for the best possible outcome for the assessor, simple as that. Since the insurance company pays him, after looking after number one, he'll try to appease them as number two. He won't give a shit about you or your bike.

There used to be an Auckland-based assessor for Swann who had a reputation for shafting claimants big time. He was an expert in covering up damage, not fixing it. He admitted to me that he gets a cut of whatever he can trim out of your quote. The quality of work he approved was absolutely abysmal. Forget about matching paint or alignment of parts etc.

I'll reiterate something I was told by a big AKL dealership when I crashed my bike:
"I hope you are not with Swann and if you are, pray you don't get this assessor..."

although not with that company we have had to fight with assessors over certain things as well, most assessor are reasonable and will not be an issue, we had an issue over a tank that they wanted painted, but since the bike was a metallic paint, and i had little confidence that the painter would get an exact match we did a deal on a new tank for the insurance company to keep the customer happy, and give a repair I think he deserved,

the advice given above is good, the dealers will sort it out and since they deal with assessors all the time they tend to know what to do,

[DMNTD:Me]

I take my bike to Holeshot in Barrys Point Road. Always been pleased with their work. I'm with Swann insurance and, I deal with them through kiwibike.

Thanks for the advice so far. I'm still riding the bike at the mo as its my only vehicle. I doubt very much if the damage will exceed 75% of the value of the bike. I have it insured for $11,995. Anyone had dealings with Swann???

Swann have been the duck's nuts when I have dealt with them personally and also via work. Just remember though that YOU will be dealing with KiwiBike(Dave/Donna) who have always been excellent with me.

I know that assessor that they utilise 95% of the time...you're in very good hands!

Please tell me that you have already started the process with KiwiBike, at least?

[warewolf]

most assessor are reasonable and will not be an issue,...
the dealers will sort it out and since they deal with assessors all the time they tend to know what to do,

This guy was an a-grade c@nt; his reputation preceded him and there was not much the dealer could do, although they tried and did manage a few small wins.

After several epic fails matching paint, I suggested that the painter was given an existing part for reference... duh! The quality of the paint was rubbish: soft and chipped/scratched very easily. The painter they used also would take liberties with things, "customising" my bike. Do you see fcken' tassles and skulls, mate? Just fcken' paint the thing so it looks the same as before!!

The bike had one of two mufflers destroyed, they couldn't buy a single and were refusing to pay for a pair. WTF?!

It goes on and on. For the amount of re-work and admin time spent on the job, they would have been better off simply buying genuine parts at a preferential rate from the dealer/importer first go, and had a satisfied customer.

I just wanted my bike fixed, he just wanted to patch it up so it "looked" ok at first glance, and suggested I sell the bike ASAP if I wasn't happy with the long-term effects of his disguise work.

As this was the second major barney I'd had with swann, they will never, ever get another cent of my hard earned cash. Still pisses me off when I think of it. (can you tell? )

[mattian]

Swann have been the duck's nuts when I have dealt with them personally and also via work. Just remember though that YOU will be dealing with KiwiBike(Dave/Donna) who have always been excellent with me.

I know that assessor that they utilise 95% of the time...you're in very good hands!

Please tell me that you have already started the process with KiwiBike, at least? [/B]

Yep, I have downloaded the claim forms. Will get bike to Holeshot asap.
I agree, kiwibike have always been brilliant to deal with. I shopped around alot for insurance for my bike and found most companies dont really give a shit about bikers. Couldnt even get my bike insured with AA unless I already had a car insured with them first!!! WTF?? I dont even own a car.