They seem great...until you have a claim. I rear-ended a guy who causes accidents for a living. At the scene of the "collision," his Acura had a rub mark on it and my VW had no damage. When the 21st Century claims adjuster went out, the car was reported as TOTALED, due to internal structural damage.
WITHOUT EXAMINING MY CAR, THEY SETTLED TOTAL LOSS. They did not report this to me. When I called to check the status of my claim a week later, I was given the news.
I asked them if they'd checked for history of other accidents. No.
I asked if they considered that the damage was inconsistent with my report. No.
At my request, the same adjuster came out to inspect my car. I could see the look of panic when he realized my car had no damage. The adjuster then tried to persuade me to claim my car as a total loss, even though I had no damage. His reason: my insurance was going to double anyway. What kind of company is this?
It also turned out that the "victim" was driving a salvaged vehicle (which means it was already deemed as totaled and sold to a junkyard) and had been in FIVE ACCIDENTS that year (it was August). I then got sued for $100,000 and had to go through a two-year court case. I wish I were exaggerating!
The first day of court, my lawyers showed up without any materials because 21st Century SENT THE CASE DOCS TO THE WRONG ADDRESS. I'd called three times to get them to even send it, and these were lawyers hired by 21st Century. In the two and a half years I dealt with 21st Century, my claims adjuster changed 5 times and nobody kept records, so each time we started from scratch.
21st Century eventually admitted they'd made a mistake (I reported them to California's Insurance Board) and, after six months, returned my insurance fees to their original rates, but they would not report their mistake to the DMV. Therefore, if I left, my insurance costs would double. |
