Another insurance Question valuer in auckland?

[nerved]

So I had a run in with a lovely four wheeled thing about 2 months ago, on my newly now 4 month old FZR250R. I was ok, thought I better leave some skin with the road as a peace offering for my first bin. Aparently I wasnt seen (their fault). GOSH.. As Im a poor busy student I didnt mangage to have time to say yes to the insurance cover that I had previously teed up before getting the motorcycle, so the 3rd party claim process went ahead with AMI.
Anyways 2 months later the bike has been through the whole lovely insurance process.
Now Im up to the part where they say they replace market value of what the items and bike is worth, and write the bike off, offer me less then what I payed for the bike (which was a great price). Of course I have damaged gear that they dont even consider paying me for (which isnt cheap as we know) which they knew about. Anyways Market value is at least $1000 dollars more then what they offered, so of course I said no (it didnt seem fair for some reason).

The AMI lady who first refered me to a general pannel beater for a motorcycle evaluation, wants me to now get a market value evaluation done of the motorbike myself because I dont agree with their evaluer as to what as to the market value of the bike before the crash, I dont know how this would work the condition that it is in but yes thats what she wants.

Anyways to cut this short im looking for some person/company/place (in the auckland region) that I can take the bike too that would be great to deal with and able to give me a more accurate market price of my motorbike before the accident.

Any help would be much appreciated!!

[The Stranger:Me]

Anyways to cut this short im looking for some person/company/place (in the auckland region) that I can take the bike too that would be great to deal with and able to give me a more accurate market price of my motorbike before the accident.

Any help would be much appreciated!!

Yep, my favorite people. I love insurers.

They did the same thing to me.
I offered to get a valuation from a dealer. That is not acceptable because dealers are not independent.
However vehicle valuers supposedly are.

Now let me see, whom uses vehicle valuers, only insurers, so their income and in fact the very existence depends upon the insurers and this some how makes them independent. Hmm...

[nerved]

I offered to get a valuation from a dealer. That is not acceptable because dealers are not independent.
However vehicle valuers supposedly are.

Now let me see, whom uses vehicle valuers, only insurers, so their income and in fact the very existence depends upon the insurers and this some how makes them independent.

Yes Its a nasty cycle, and all they do is look at their little red book and dont even look at the market.. But still no harm in trying, did you cut your losses or did you find a valuer?

[Grahameeboy]

It is easy to have a cynical view of Insurer's...I have been in Insurance over 20 years and it really depends on who you get to handle your claim.....my background is in the UK and generally there is a more open minded policy

Conversley, there are equally as many people who try to shaft Insurer's which accounts for their approach.

Ami are the dinosaurs of Insurance here and you have to remember that you are probably dealing with a young and inexperienced claims handler.

The valuers used by Insurer's are independent. They charge a fee. The nature of their job means that their biggest customer is the Insurer. When we used to get 2 or more values, there was little different between the 3 values. They have no interest in the outcome and when I used to compare their values with stuff on Internet, they were pretty much spot on.

The valuers actually ring around dealers to assess value. They do not just look in a book.

I guess that a Dealer is regarded as less independent because they have a 'sales' interest.

There are arguments both sides..like I said always easy to be cynical.

The simplest thing to do is go on the internet and find similar bikes for comparison and show this to AMi.....this will also give you an idea of whether their offer is fair and reasonable......this will give you more of a case.

You could also ask for a list of the valuers AMi use and you are able to talk to the valuer to.

You can always ask to speak to a Manager.

I hope this helps and feel free to pm me.

[nerved]

Yea good call, tis just a bit frustraiting after 2 months, I just wanna be back on 2 wheels. Thanks for the help.

[Grahameeboy]

Yea good call, tis just a bit frustraiting after 2 months, I just wanna be back on 2 wheels. Thanks for the help.

Focus is the key buddy......like I said feel free to PM if you need to.

[mdb]

I had to make a claim a year or so ago and disagreed with the value the insurer offered. They invited me to provide some industry quotes so I sent them a couple of links from bikepoint.co.nz (which they asked me to print and fax to them)! The end result was I got a lot closer to what the bike was worth (IMHO).

The experience definately made me start to wonder if the bike gear replacement option is worth it. Like you mention, it isn't cheap to replace.

[sAsLEX]

The valuers actually ring around dealers to assess value. They do not just look in a book.

Then how come their qoute are never near what the dealers actually have the bikes for? I know my bike the qoute they gave me was well over a k different to the cheapest one in the dealers, and then when the market value was actually higher than the value I had insured for they all of a sudden changed there mind and no longer where paying out market value but the value I put down originally. Thieves.

[Grahameeboy]

Then how come their qoute are never near what the dealers actually have the bikes for? I know my bike the qoute they gave me was well over a k different to the cheapest one in the dealers, and then when the market value was actually higher than the value I had insured for they all of a sudden changed there mind and no longer where paying out market value but the value I put down originally. Thieves.

Sorry to hear that....I guess for every bad story there are normally more good stories............in my experience dealers values are not far out and remember that the sale price is negotiable so this has to be taken into account.

Are you sure your policy was not market value or Sum Insured which ever is less?

[The Stranger:Me]

Yes Its a nasty cycle, and all they do is look at their little red book and dont even look at the market.. But still no harm in trying, did you cut your losses or did you find a valuer?

I had an argument with the valuer that the insurer used. His response was that it was fair as I could haggle it down and with winter approaching dealers would be screaming out for sales and as I would be a cash buyer I would be better off. He really didn't give a toss and why should he, he is paid by the insurer to be "unbiased" yeah right!

Bloody wanker, this assumed that I was good at haggling, wanted to wait for winter and that dealers preferred cash to finance. Most prefer finance as they get a kick back.

To me what that was, was a wholesale figure, not a retail figure.

In the end I took the "offer" because of time and cost to fight it.

[sAsLEX]

Are you sure your policy was not market value or Sum Insured which ever is less?

That was probally mentioned somewhere in the tiny print.

But what gets me is why is agreed value insurance so hard to get? You pay for a service, to insure say 5k worth of stuff, and when it gets nicked they start devaluing and doing anything they can to get the payout as low as possible!