So, I know most insurance stories are horror stories, well, this one has been the feel-good story of the year (so far).

A couple of weeks I was driving on a flyover that had been narrowed from two lanes to one without any run-off on either side. Long story short, between an armadillo (who the hell knew they hopped??) and a tire carcass my front bumper ended up with cracked paint and the center piece (what is the correct term for that black plastic mouth piece, anyway?) pulled loose. I could feel the front kind of fluttering at freeway speed, so knew “Hmmm, it’s not supposed to do that.”

I called my insurance company, Travelers, (this is the first time I’ve ever had to file a claim with them, and have only been with them for a couple of months, so was kind of concerned about how it would go). Based on interactions I’ve had with GEICO and Progressive before I was expecting it to be a headache or like pulling teeth to get things done.
I got funneled to an agent almost immediately upon calling the 800 number, and she was pleasant, friendly, and helpful. She said she could recommend some body shops around me, or if I had a particular body shop I wanted to go to I could go there. She even asked if I wanted to drop the car off somewhere, have them pick it up, or have someone come out that day to my house to do the assessment. Wow, really? After doing some calling around and talking to buddies who’ve had their cars painted or had bodywork done recently I decided to NOT use the local Porsche dealership (not to mention the seriously crappy Yelp reviews), but had narrowed it down to a couple of independent bodyshops. I called Travelers again and found out that one of the main shops I was looking at (with great recommendations from friends and great Yelp reviews) actually had a Travelers Concierge Claim Center. Bingo, sounds like a plan! Within 10 minutes I’d gotten an email from the Travelers office with all the contact info for everyone working on my claim.

I ran over to the Concierge Claim Center at Excellence Paint & Body and was greeted immediately by the Travelers concierge. She introduced me to the adjuster and to the car rental agent, the rental agent started the paperwork on my rental while the adjuster and I went outside to go look at the car. (Word of warning: don’t walk around your car with an adjuster. They’ll find little scratches, dings, and chips that you’ve never noticed before, and you’re gonna drive yourself nuts seeing those from then on. LOL)
10 minutes later I was inside and the car rental agent met me at the front desk with my paperwork for my rental. Since I was coming out of a Porsche, instead of sticking me with some econobox the agent actually got a Mustang (I know, not nearly the same, but better than a micro-sized Kia) at $0 out-of-pocket for me. Suffice to say, I was incredibly impressed with the customer service.

The concierge told me that I’d get a full quote and breakdown of the damage and work needed in 24-48 hours. Within 12 hours I’d had an email that broke down all the costs and gave me contact info for everyone involved, all the way up to the management level. Again, wow, color me impressed.

But wait, there’s more!

So, since I’m one of those tinkerers who loves making the car “mine”, I’ve been planning for a while to replace the front bumper cover with the Aerokit bumper and adding a ducktail spoiler. While talking to USMC_DS1 he made the suggestion, “Why don’t you ask if the insurance company will let you get the Aerokit bumper and pay the difference?” Saaaaay, that’s a great idea! I called Travelers, fully expecting to get a resounding “No”, and instead I got a “Sure. Do you have a part number for the new bumper?” Umm, no, but I can!
I called Suncoast and got the part number and price. I called Travelers concierge again and passed along that info. He called and got a quote and delivery timeline, and called me back about an hour later with a quote for the difference between the stock bumper cover and the Aerokit. When all was said and done, even after paying my deductible and with the price difference between the two, it still saved me about 50% of the cost of doing it on my own! Woohoo!!

So far I’m absolutely thrilled with the service I’ve gotten. Granted, I don’t have the car back yet, so I can’t personally speak to the quality of the bodywork and paintwork, but if it’s any big on par with the quality of the customer service I’m gonna be thrilled and it’s gonna be gorgeous. I’ll definitely post an update with pics as soon as I pick it up!!

 

Nice to it go your way. Good choice on the Aero.

 

She's back! (The red 997S belongs to Rennlister USMC_DS1)