Unlicensed- Not Just For Contractors Anymore

Century Man

FALLS CHURCH, Va. - A local woman is furious after the gas station where she took her car for repairs caught on fire and destroyed her Ford Taurus.

In late January, 86-year-old Frances Jackson took her car to the Sleepy Hollow Shell station in Falls Church to have its water pump replaced. Twenty-four hours later, oily rags caught on fire and torched her car and several others on the property.

"One of my neighbors said, 'there's a fire down on the corner,'" Jackson said. "...And I said... my God that's my car!"

The gas station had no insurance and Jackson, a retired beautician, says her insurance is hardly giving her enough money to replace her car. "To think all the years it took to pay for it and then it burned up to nothing. It can't be fixed," Jackson said.

According to Fairfax County, the business had no license and the the station's owner says he had an agreement with someone to manage the facility and that meant stay current on the insurance and license.

The owner says the manager let the insurance lapse, forcing Jackson to make a claim with her own carrier. Travelers Insurance has offered $1,000 for the 1994 vehicle.

shanekw1

$1000 bucks for a '94 Taurus, she should consider herself lucky.

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mickeyco

No sh!t, I recently traded in a '98 Taurus and got $500 bucks, I should have torched it.



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Some people climb mountains. I take out the trash. But we both do it for the same reason.

Titodbuilder

I have never seen a case where the insurance undervalues a car when it comes to settling a claim. In fact, it's typically the other way around where people get more than they deserved or could sell the car in the general market. This case is no exception, the car if it were in good condition has a blue book value of $775....she made out like a bandit so tell her to stop the whining and be thankful her overly treated hair did not catch on fire.

DetailHandyman

Nice...
Could have been your grandma.

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The cat box ain't gonna clean itself.

Tinstaafl

I have never seen a case where the insurance payoff allows the claimant to replace like with like.

Don't get me started.

DRC

The $1000 should let her get another 94 taurus.

ModernStyle

I agree, I owed $3000 on a car and the insurance company of the old man that hit it only gave me $1500. My car was parked on the street and the guy just hit it and totaled it out. I guess I could have tried to take them to court but it probably would have cost more then the $1500 i got screwed on.

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shanekw1

Just because you owe 'X' amount, doesn't mean it's worth 'X' amount.

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Tscarborough

No doubt. There are 72 month auto loans.

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It ain't Rocket Science unless you are building rockets.

Winchester

I just sold a purple '95 Sunfire with a bad paint job and 250,000 KM for $1500

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Ryan

Tinstaafl

Quite true; you could have been a royal doofus at deal time. But suppose you have the thing completely paid off? Even if the insurance (amazingly) were to give you the KBB value, who pays for the footwork to locate an equivalent replacement vehicle? And god forbid you've done anything at all to customize the thing for your tastes or convenience. Try getting that out of 'em.

Insurance is gambling. The average person spends 5-10 years betting that he'll have a claim on a vehicle, while the insurance company bets that he won't. And if by tragic circumstance he does, they've spent most of his premiums doing research on ways to deny or ameliorate such claims (minus payments on corporate offices and company jets, of course).

There's a book by John Grisham; can't remember the name offhand, that comes way too close to accurately describing the whole disgusting cesspool.

As I said, don't get me started.

shanekw1

Don't get me wrong, I don't like insurance companies nor am I defending them... all I was really saying is that IMO a Taurus is comparable to a k-car as far as what they are or ever were worth.

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mickeyco

They're not gambling at all, they know the numbers and make a fortune doing it.







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Some people climb mountains. I take out the trash. But we both do it for the same reason.

SelfContract

Their insurance revenue/profits are based on secret mathematical equations based on many years of researchs & statistical history database (variables) of peope's claims & their reimbursement amounts, # of accidents, the drivers' ages, trends of driving, citi/suburb traffic patterns, & geographical city/areas, etc..

Just like all credit card lenders, they're giving credit card limits also based on database (variables) from their calculated customers' credit scores, customers' spending habits, their expect buying patterns, income levels, geographical areas, and human/people emotional behaviors, marketing data, etc.

They all hire good mathematicians working in-house and database professionals to build good computer Decision-Support System (DSS). 24/7, 365-yr

RayGoerdt

insurance companies also consider Income, Credit score,Education,( being in special ed does not help) They normally do not ask you about these things, but they have resources and these along with many other things are looked at.

Mitchell Const.

You should have bought gap insurance!

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bwalley

Just because you were upside down on a car, does not mean the insurance company should be on the hook to pay for your choices on how much you paid for a vehicle.

It workes the other way around to, I know of cases where a person bought a vehicle and on the way home got in a wreck, and the insurance company paid out thousands more than the people paid for the vehicle.