dealing with ins. replacing seats

Our wreck was late Friday and I haven't been able to talk to an adjuster yet. Any info I should arm myself with prior to calling her? I'm looking at replacing 2 seats. I don't know how long this will all take. My ds has a seat in our other vehicle (Wizard), but we don'y have a second bucket, so I need to replace that asap. I'm hoping to do that tomorrow and then be reimbursed later.

I'm thinking they might fight replacing them because the vehicle damage was fot driver side an the kids were rear center and rear passenger---but the vehicle was undrivable due to the wreck.

TIA!

--Kim

My husband was rear-ended a few years back and the other driver's insurance company (Progressive) didn't blink an eye about replacing my son's RA. I replaced it with an MA and they didn't know the difference since they were both Britax. They had me drop off the old RA when I brought them the receipt for the MA that I had just purchased at BRU and they cut me a check while I waited.

I'm sure they will replace your Graco infant seat with another Graco like the Safeseat--they won't pay attention to model names. You might have trouble replacing a Triumph with a Britax though, but you can try and if they question it, come armed with the cost, including tax, of another new Triumph and say that you will pay the difference, but that you need a check for replacing the cost of the Triumph.

Insurance companies do not want liability or injury claims so for them I think replacing the car seats easily without hassel is in their best interest.

Insurance companies can vary in how much they cooperate about seat replacement. If the insurance company balks at replacing the carseat(s), you may need to present the insurance company with FAQ information or other documentation from the carseat manufacturer and/or NHTSA to back you up.

I saw from your other thread your crashed seats are a Graco Snugride and Evenflo Triumph, and both of these manufacturers advise to replace their crashed seats in their FAQs. Here are the FAQ links to give you some backup to pursue replacement with the insurance company:

Graco says to replace the carseat after any type of crash according to the FAQ at: http://www.gracobaby.com/customerservice/faq_category.aspx?catID=1#132.

Evenflo’s FAQ at https://plweb.evenflo.com/faq_detail.aspx?faqid=2273 instructs parents to discontinue using the crashed seat immediately.

Here's a link to the NHTSA criteria for replacing crashed seats, which is secondary to the above manufacturer's recommendations, but also will back you up since your crash sounds like it was not just a minor crash (undrivable car equals not minor per NHTSA):

http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/childps/ChildRestraints/ReUse/RestraintReUse.htm

If the insurance company gives you a hard time even when presented with the manufacturer’s guidelines and/or NHTSA criteria for crashed seat replacement, ask the insurance company for a document stating it assumes full liability if the crashed carseats fail to properly protect your kids in another crash. Insurance companies do not like hearing the word "liability," and this approach has worked for other parents when insurance companies weren't cooperating about covering crashed carseats.

Some insurance companies will tell you to just turn in the receipts for new seats and turn over your crashed seats (good idea to cut up the harness and mark the seat with "CRASHED - DO NOT USE" in permanent marker, and save the seat covers as spares if your replacement seats are the exact same models), while others will act like they've never heard of the concept of replacing a crashed seat before and require additional convincing. Some companies will try to give you the depreciated value of your crashed seats, while others will cover the full cost of the new seats. I would personally push for full reimbursement of the new seats because that's what it takes to get your precious children into safe seats again, KWIM?

Hope this helps, and good luck to you.

I got rear ended about 2 years ago. My son wasn't even in the car but the seat was. The other guys adjuster argued but I got a letter from cosco saying it wasn't usuable after ANY accident. I had already bought a new seat and I submitted the receipts for reimbursement. I got reimbursed fine. I think he was hoping I would be ok with "well he wasn't in it so there is no danger to the seat" I said the seat still took force at the belt path and now it may break next time. Call and get a letter from the manufacturer of your seat and that should be all you need.

Janet

Looks like they are covering them. The adjuster told me to go ahead and purchase and fax her the reciepts.

I was in a wreck a last month and I didn't have any problems replacing seats with progressive. I had a marathon and an older cosco convertible and I replaced them with a regent and a boulevard and they didn't say anything. I went and bought my new seats, took my old seats and receipt to the office and they wrote me a check right there.

kberyd said:

Looks like they are covering them. The adjuster told me to go ahead and purchase and fax her the reciepts.

Click to expand...

Woo hoo, that's great. Hope it continues going well.

Nice adjuster Mine wanted the receipts for the original seats -- I didn't have them so they wanted to deny me ... I asked for the denial in writing: an hour later she said they'd give me a check for the average carseat replacement cost according to their records (didn't cover Britax completely, but it was still helpful towards my new Britax)