i was driving down the hwy it was dark and i nailed somthing w/ my car and it took a HUGE chunk of my paint of the front GFX
do you think they wouild cover somthing like that?

 

Ollie, I highly doubt that they would cover your front GFX piece...it is not apart of the vehicle and therefore would not have a GM part code for the ICBC estimate purposes. It's like denting a bike rack or blowing your winch motor...aftermarket add-ons are not covered by your basic insurance policy.

 

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but ICBC does not have to necessarily prove you are lying. They can easily turn it around on you. They did with me several years ago, simply because I was a young white man in a hot car (mustang at time). Hope you don't get accused like me.

Here is my saga...

My car was hit and run at SFU. I had witnesses attesting to the fact that I was teaching at the time and that my car was in the parking lot. I reported a H&R when I reported my car damaged in the parking lot (stating that when I and a friend went out to the parking lot, my back bumper and surrounding area was all crushed in). I reported to the security on site, and the RCMP.

I got my appointment with ICBC soon regarding the matter, and ironically enough I find that I sort of know the claims adjuster who is looking after me. Unfortunately, he is the best friend of a girl I had just stopped seeing .... (and it didn'y end well... this is relevant). Wasn't comfortable for either of us, but things seemed to go professional enough and they approved my claim.

Then they hit me two weeks later, before paying me, with a statement saying that they had a witness who was testifying that they saw a man fitting my description driving my car (they had the plate #'s), driving like a lunatic, hitting several cars parked on the side of the road deliberately at the base of SFU.

I respond with... "you got to be kidding - you say my car was stolen?"

They respond with " No. We believe this was you driving the car."

I ask them to explain what this witness says he/she saw. They inform me that the witness saw a car driving out of control around 9 pm (in the heavy rain and in pitch dark, as it was November), sideswiping several cars, and the driver was a young white man with a baseball cap on. They said the witness claims the man was about 6 foot and blond haired.

Of course, I counter that 1) I have several witnesses (all university professors at SFU) who can attest to the fact that I was not near my car at this time, and 2) the description given (especially on a rainy night in November) could match the description of nearly 2000 people who go to SFU! To further plague the witnesses account, they said that the driver never left the car nor removed their hat - so I asked, how the heck does the witness know the person is 6 foot and blond haired then???

I suggested to them that the only way my story (and that of my witnesses) and the story of their witness can be true is if someone stole my car st SFU, took it for a joy ride, and returned it back to the parking lot. To me, that was the only explanation. Mind you there was no sign of forced entry on the car - though I did have a set of spare keys in my office at my desk. And, I shared my office with another instructor who had the door wide open the entire time I was gone.

Anyways, they disbelieve this explanation, deny my claim AND throw ALL the claims for the other cars that were hit by "my car" at me, saying that I will have to pay for my car, plus all the others. We're now talking tens of thousands of dollars! Close to$40K.

Naturally, I am furious. And puzzled... because I have several witnesses, and they have one. Mine can positively ID who I am and where I was, and their witness has a vague description at best. WTF can ICBC be thinking... everything points in my favour.

So, I tell them to go **** themselves and I am suing them regarding the issue (after trying their various appeal boards). This turned out to be PRECISELY what they wanted, because now I was suing them in court, and naively enough, I didn't know what that meant (but they did).

I talked to several lawyers, but none would take my case saying that I could not win. Why? Because since I was suing them, that put ICBC in the drivers seat. They had enough info to deny my claim and were in the right by doing that - any reasonable suspicion of a false claim is adequate. What it meant now was that the onus was now on ME to prove that THEY were lying. Since I was suing them, the burden was on me to prove that they were trying to lie to me.

I thought this was BS and figured the lawyers were too whussy to do anything (just making excuses), so I started the proceedings myself. The next step was a pretrail meeting with a judge and all the ICBC lawyers. That did not go well.

It was there that the judge informed me that since ICBC was the defendant, the burden of proof was on me to prove that they were being deceitful. He further stated that none of my witnesses were credible (despite being professors) since they were associates of mine - and that the ICBC witness was far more credible because the witness neither knew me or ICBC personally, so had no personal stake. He said I have no case and there was no point in going further...

Man, you have never seen anyone so pissed as me that day! I really felt like the little white guy being squashed by the big corporation. I stood up from my seat and I verbally abused that judge and ICBC with every passionate curse and swear word I knew! I think they were absolutely dumbstruck when I jumped onto the table and started pounding my fist on the ceiling! I was livid! My tirade at ICBC/the judge went on for a minute, fuming about the injustice of the situation (and absurdity of it), then I walked out of there, cursing and swearing. Didn't even wait for a formal dismissal.

I waited for the smoke to clear, then ICBC called me a few days later saying that they wanted to settle out of court. They wanted me to pay for my car, and they would fix all the others. Furthermore, any trace of this event would be erased from my record and everything would be dropped. I ended up agreeing, feeling that based on the judge's (and all the lawyers I spoke to) opinon, I would not win if this went on - it would only cost me money to fight. And ICBC dropped it feeling that it was not a cost effective use of their time to pursue it (because I would fight all the way). So that's how it ended. Cost me $2500, which was the cheapest solution, IMO.

Personally, I think this all started because the claims adjuster was such a good friend of the girl I just dumped, and he thought he would screw me over as a favour to her. When an "impartial" witness came along reporting my car causing all this havoc (who knows... may be the witness was a fake, a friend he was using?), he had an excuse to deny my claim. He knew then that put me in the hard position of having to proove ICBC was lying. And no court would believe that argument.

So, things can turn scary, methinks.

 

BTW Craig, I'm not posting that to scare you. I think mine was a freak situation, but it can happen. Just be honest, and hope you haven't dumped any girls lately...

 

- I am in shock after reading that story. A mustang???

 

Sad story Chris, I can't imagine how pissed off you must have been.

 

An amazing story indeed... I did once have a Mustang. Lol!

Definitely the legal event I went through is something I want no one to go through.

 

HAHAHAHA !! I though t I was the only person to freak out in court Awsome story . . . . if its been a while look up the claims adjuster and kick his head in just for ****s and giggles !! Go for the teath cause that will cost him atleast 2500 to get fixed !!

I HATE the way the justice system works with a passion !! ALL POSSIBLE LOGIC GETS THROWN OUT THE WINDOW and you have to follow rules and jump through hoops that will send you mad . Plus everything takes 10 X the slowest possibly you think it would take !! Cops escourted me out of court and I broke my foot kicking the **** outa stuff on the way out !!I was like **** THIS COURT !! I took a big ol stick up the *** too on a seperate lawsuit where I was being sued for an engine and lowering spring replacement in my old car that I had sold . The guys kid bottomed out the car , causeing what we believe to be damaged oil pan , an in turn blowing the motor . He had also ripped the exhaust off and gotten pulled over , lipped the cop and got a VI . Opon inspection the car was deemed to be " TOO LOW " and he payed 850 $ to replace the springs . He was suing me for 3800.00 for the engine and springs but had **** all to stand on because I had a letter from him saying that everything was awsome with the car and that he was very happy with it etc . I kicked hs *** in that pre trial negotiation with the judge but couldnt get out of the spring deal and had to pay for those . The judge took me aside and said the exact same thing , it would just cost way to much to pursue it even though the guy is scum and just to settle for the 850 .00 . The judge set the payments at 25 $ a month

 

Just about laughed my nuts off at that one . Sorry to hear about your icbc troubles Chriss.
Good on ya! And you say I seem mild mannered until I start telling of stuff I have done .
Personally my experience with ICBC has been..... ok. They havent outright raped me yet but they have said some really strange stuff when I claim something. Like trying to tell me on a beater datsun that since there was rust under the paint it was old damage (this is a DATSUN remember). In reality the truck rusted from the inside out and when it was hit the paint just flaked off. After getting several written opinions from ICBC repair shops and one phone call from a owner of a body shop saying to the claims guy that "you gotta be F***ing dense to not know that" I got some cash from them.
Hope all goes well with the mustang GT
CoryM

 

...i am shocked..... haha chris had a stang...man thats pretty crazy..alot of crap to go though huh?...i am just praying i dont have to go though that wiht the trans am...thanks for the help though