Tips/suggestions for dealing with ICBC car seat replacement

To make a long story short, the front end of my car was smooshed while empty and parked, by a drunk dude in a mini moving truck.

I talked to ICBC and asked the woman about carseat replacement after putting my claim in and she said not to use the car seat at all and as soon as the ICBC claim office opens on Tuesday take the car seat in and the receipt, show it to them and they should write me a check for the amount it is worth. I told the woman I am not sure that I still have the receipt and she said that is fine that they would look up the current price for my same seat and issue me a check that way, my seat is only 7 months old so the price online should be the same as when I bought it.

I guess my question(s) are:
what are other peoples experiences in dealing with ICBC and seat replacement? Any advice on dealing with them regarding this issue?

Does all the info I was given sound correct; not using my seat, bringing it in to show them and not having the receipt?

What happens to my old seat, will I be able to take it home and take the parts off I want for spares, chest clip, cover etc.? Is it safe to do this and are there any other parts I might want to hold onto?

Thanks very much for any help!
Sorry if its too many questions in one thread, I can break them up if that would be better.

Sounds like you have a pretty decent adjuster. Its usually more of a fight to get seats replaced by ICBC. You can take the cover off and keep it. They will cut the harness straps and recycle the shell, or one of the CRST instructors will pick it up as a demo/training seat. Usually they will not replace a seat at all with out a receipt so it sounds like things are going well for you.
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It has been a few years since I dealt with ICBC and things change.

If that is what the adjuster said, then I would go with it.

I have had and have had several friends that have had (most recent a year ago) many experiences w/ ICBC.

I have never heard of them looking a price of a seat up, ever.

It is my understanding that if you do not have your bill, they have a *set* amount for the seat. It used to be an absurd amount of money. ABSURD.

Something like:
$50-75 for an infant bucket
$100 combo seat
$150 3 in one.

So, my Britax would have collected me less than an AOE. Nice. Now, the last time I'd dealt w/ them, 2009, they had just upped the amounts to get more inline w/ the current trend of more $$ seats.

I have a friend w/ cheaper seats & she handed those over AND the bill for the new seats & she was written her cheque then and there. I was mailed my cheque, as were several other friends.

I, and so were friends of mine were aloud to keep the cover (other stuff) off the seat. They were fine with that.

Many stores, especially the high end ones, keep records and will re-print your bill off for you. Some will charge for this, others will not.

If you have know when you bought it and bought it w/ a credit card, you can get the bills from that month(s) (pay a fee) and then use that and/or have the store look it up from there. Canadian Tire, of all places, bought a $100 clearance RN there, and they looked it up for me, to replace it w/ the current $300 ones.

Also, I had to give them my original bills, all 3 times. Like you, 2 cars were not even occupied when that happened, I'm not a bad driver! LOL

Again, if you can't find/get it and have an expensive seat, print off the current price for them, then bring the seat in, w/ out the cover, then drop it off and wait and see. If they do not give you an acceptable amount, then go to the extra effort to find the bill. Maybe things have changed....

If you did not have an expensive seat, they seem to be less picky. I know someone that had AOEs and she replaced them w/ TF, her adjuster had no problem with that, though AOEs are the highest value seats according to ICBC! LOL

Good luck!

tam

To add to what Tam said, last time I went through this, they offered me I think $75/seat without receipts. I ended up "finding" (aka borrowing) receipts for the same seats I had and ended up getting a cheque for the $1090 my seats (4) were worth. They wanted me to bring the old receipts and the receipts for the new seats before I could get a cheque, but I told them I didn't have $1100 laying around, faxed them receipts for the crashed seats, and had them call me to pick up the cheque when it was ready. Then I had to fax them the receipts for the new seats. My van was totalled so they had it at the impound yard, and they let me come take the covers off the old seats. None of my car seats were occupied during that crash. I got all that done within 72 hours, but I had to really push them for it.
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April, good to know, wonder if it depends on your adjuster, your own attitude/skill/experience/rational and/or other factors, regarding the faxing?

They insisted that I give them the actual receipt for the original AND the crashed seat. Then, they gave me a photocopy of my original seat. I didn't appreciate that, that's for sure! And, I'd paid w/ credit card, so appreciated that even less!

Though, in my case, for one of the seats, I bought it at a baby store (vs TRU) and they knew the policy here, and gave me two copies of the bill in the first place!

They *know* the value of the seats from looking at them, and really how much we paid is irrelevant, I only paid $99 for my RN and they paid $300 for the replacement one, as they should.

Of course, back then, I was done w/ my RN and wanted a Frontier, so had the store return the RN (it never left the store) and they let me buy the Frontier I wanted. Eventually, dh broke the cup holder on that 1st generation Frontier & Britax was kind enough to replace it w/ a MA, though it had a 30# RF limit, I'd have bought a different seat if I knew all that. This was back in 2009, so things change....

tam

I was offered less than $100 for seats that were worth $300+tax. So I "found" some receipts and went in with those, the new receipts, and my crashed restraints. I was reimbursed for over $1700 in seats! (DH's car died and he took mine to go get everything out of his, and was t-boned returning home with 5 or 6 carseats in the car!) Without my "found" receipts, they would not have reimbursed me appropriately.

Now I'm going through this with a US insurance company (I have ICBC insurance)--they decided to only reimburse me the occupied seat in my vehicle!

-Nicole.

tam_shops said:

April, good to know, wonder if it depends on your adjuster, your own attitude/skill/experience/rational and/or other factors, regarding the faxing?

They insisted that I give them the actual receipt for the original AND the crashed seat. Then, they gave me a photocopy of my original seat. I didn't appreciate that, that's for sure! And, I'd paid w/ credit card, so appreciated that even less!

Though, in my case, for one of the seats, I bought it at a baby store (vs TRU) and they knew the policy here, and gave me two copies of the bill in the first place!

They *know* the value of the seats from looking at them, and really how much we paid is irrelevant, I only paid $99 for my RN and they paid $300 for the replacement one, as they should.

Of course, back then, I was done w/ my RN and wanted a Frontier, so had the store return the RN (it never left the store) and they let me buy the Frontier I wanted. Eventually, dh broke the cup holder on that 1st generation Frontier & Britax was kind enough to replace it w/ a MA, though it had a 30# RF limit, I'd have bought a different seat if I knew all that. This was back in 2009, so things change....

tam

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With regards to that, ICBC did insist that I replace them with the same seats. I was newly pregnant with #5 and knew I was going to need to do a carseat shuffle, so I bought the replacement seats, submitted the faxed receipts, and then returned the unopened seats for a refund and bought the seats I actually wanted. in terms of letting me fax the receipts, I just told them i didn't have spare seats and had no one to watch my kids while I drove to the claim centre to submit the originals.
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My receipts were email receipts.. hint, hint.

-N.

Thanks to everyone for all input. Its taken me a little while to be able to work out a response as I have really been told different things every time I talk to someone. Our local office opened today and they told me I have to go and buy the new seat first and than show the receipt for the new seat, the receipt for the old seat and also turn in my old seat at the same time. When I told her my seat is less than a year old and a 300 $ seat and that we dont have the receipt or the money she than said that we have 2 years to replace it so we could wait until we have the money and replace it then.

She also told me, it is at my discretion whether the seat should be replaced. When I told her that my knowledge was that any seat involved in any crash should be replaced stated by transport canada she changed her tune. She then told me I should bring the seat in and have one of the agents inspect it for damage and they would tell me if it needed to be replaced, when I asked how they would know by looking at it if the safety of the seat was compromised she went back to saying it is at my discretion and they cannot tell me whether it should be replaced or not. She than told me I could go by the local fire department and have them inspect it to see if it should be replaced. Sigh.

I dont know what to do. I have no spare seat and need to take dd to the dentist as she fell and chipped her tooth yesterday, should I use the old seat until we can afford a new one? In all reality I can *guess* that my old seat is okay as it was in a parking lot and my car was parked but it was a pretty big moving truck. I get a sick feeling in my stomach when I think about using it but I am not sure what I can do right now. Would you use a car seat that had been in a crash, if you *thought that *probably it was okay?

Added to all this is the fact that the only store any where near me that I can even physically go and buy a seat at is Canadian Tire, any seats recommended from there for inexpensive?

Whereabouts in BC are you and what seat did you have?
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What I did when I didn't have the money to buy a seat for a crash replacement was buy it online, print out the receipt, then cancel the order. Then I turned the receipt in to insurance and used the money from them to buy the seat permanently.

I m on the sunshine coast, specifically Halfmoon Bay a I have a Marathon 65 wit a DOM of Dec.2010.

safeinthecar said:

What I did when I didn't have the money to buy a seat for a crash replacement was buy it online, print out the receipt, then cancel the order. Then I turned the receipt in to insurance and used the money from them to buy the seat permanently.

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Thats a good idea!