From My Mind to....

Hail Sure Leaves a Dent

Just met with a guy who my wife called an Insurance Adjuster. He didn't really 'adjust' anything, nor come up with an actual estimate. But he was a very affable guy, explaining what he was doing as he did it.

Jeanette worked in the insurance business for more than 35 years, so she should know the terms. But I was talking with the guy and all he does is look at my car for the hail damage--the reason for calling the insurance company. He takes pictures, makes an estimate of the hail dings in the roof, hood and elsewhere, and sends all that information to someone at the company who actually comes up with the cost estimate.

The last hailstorm in our area was this past March. I thought I had about 15 to 20 dings in my roof and hadn't planned to spend my $100 deductible on a few dings I could hardly see. He had a three-foot diameter screen that when held over the car revealed more than 250 dings ... on the roof alone! And he said once the repair folks came out with proper lighting, more dings might be shown. O-M-G, I thought someone will have to replace my roof.

"Nope," he said. "The just drop the cloth covering inside the car and push out the dings from the inside."  He added that they could come out and do it in my driveway. I think I'd like to watch that.

My wife's son is trying to get into damage adjusting and this guy passed on a lot of useful information regarding this industry, like which companies to sign on with after passing his test. He strongly suggested her son get his drone's license--drones are being used more and more for getting exact measurements of a disaster or accident site, taking pictures from a wider range of vantage points, and so on. A drone won't alleviate the need for boots on the ground. But it does save a lot of tape measure grunt-work.

The adjuster said most folks with older vehicles just take the estimate money passing on the repairs, a thought which I had considered. I wonder how much the estimate will be.