About a month and a half ago my father in VA picked up a brand new 02 F150 supercab lariat loaded to the hilt. Beautiful truck and he paid cash and got a terrific deal.
Well last Thurs a really nasty storm came through in VA where he lives while they were at a restraunt eating. He had to sit there and watch golf ball size hail totally trash his truck on every panel but the tailgate. It broke 3 windows dented all the upper panels pretty bad and dinged up the rest.
The storm also did some severe damage to local dealers stock as well as other peoples vehicles. He called the insurance company and got a estimate which was close to totalling the truck. He then proceeded to go find a dealer in VA that could fix it. The closest day he could get it in was in DEC at ANY of the local places. I called my buddy at the place that does all the work on mine and they can get it in next week but in N.C. This place is about 30 min over the NC/VA line and about 50 minutes from his house. When he called the insurance company(Travelers) and told them he was taking it there they told him he could not. The reason was that NC has a different labor rate than VA and they wouldn`t pay to have it fixed there.
This sounds like total BS to me and I called and asked if they(my buddies place) could fix it for what they(ins. co) did the estimate for could it be done. They told me also they would not pay for out of state repairs.
Anyone know of this policy or are they feeding us a line? Any help or advice on this would be greatly appreciated. I can`t see my father having a 29,000 dollar truck with less than a 1,000 miles sitting there for 7 mths to wait for repairs when I can get it started here next week.

Thanks guys

 

See if your state has a Insurance Deptament, here in Connecticut they have one. You could get all the answers there. Check with your local phone book , municipal guide, or call info-line.

 

i'm not sure about your particular situation, but, i do know that when i lived in fla but was stationed in nc, my insurance co. said i would have to insure my vehicle in nc. they would honor my ins. in most states but nc was one of the ones they wouldn't. they said it was called a seated state, as far as ins goes.

 

Are Unions pretty big in NC? If they are, then I'll bet they are linked to one or several that are "required" to do the work. It'll all have to be "OK" from your NC Insurance Department too. They are supposed to look for stuff like that, but if that's the way the NC Insurance Department has it setup for your state, you're basically SOL.

Good Luck man. That would just suck.....

 

I don't know why a dealer has to do glass work and body dent work. Some would just farm it out anyway, right? If the repair was structural and internal workings I would prefer a dealer but, there are a lot of good glass and body shops that would want the work. Did the ins co. cut you a check or do you have to get an "approved" VA repair? I don't understand the problem.

 

Thanks for all the replies on this. Well I have gotten my buddies shop to call the insurance company and let them know he CAN do the work on the vehicle for what the estimate is for. In fact his time to re-paint it is a little more but he is including that. The insurance company may approve it to get done in NC versus the strictly VA they told us earlier. We are supposed to find out by the end of the week. They should be happy since we will be saving them weeks of rental car payments this way. He will use my truck for the times he needs it during repairs and the father-in-law has graciously given me the keys to his vette to drive for the period of time it takes.

Raoul,
Thats what they were trying to push on the phone "A Approved VA repair". They stated that this was the only way they would pay for the repair. I asked what would have happened if he was hit by the storm in NC while visiting what would have happened. They wouldn`t say in what state it had to be repaired in then or didn`t want to say. The glass has been repaired already by a local auto glass shop(OEM glass) so he can at least drive it. Then the repairs were being done at a dealer in VA months away. I just pushed to get it done at a dealer in NC so it could get started in days and not months. The insurance company is cutting a check directly to the repair shop for the repairs since there is no deductible involved.