Auto Loss

The
Diminished Value fairy tale begins with «you have a great diminished value claim!» «If you pay us $ 249, we will handle everything, including negotiations, from beginning to end.» «You absolutely must have a diminished value appraisal in order to negotiate a diminished value claim with USAA.» The fairy tale continues with «we have lots of experience dealing with USAA» and «have done very well against USAA». Oh no, don’t call the USAA first to see if they require an appraisal prepared by an outside company and will actually use the diminished value appraisal.
After I paid the $ 249, the fairy tale quickly turned into a nightmare. I found out that
would not be handling «everything». I was sent a «diminished value manual» and a «diminished value appraisal» which was nothing more than a template filled with grammatical and typographical errors.
The nightmare became worse because I next found out USAA did not accept or use outside diminished value appraisals such as the one prepared by
. In fact, it has always been USAA’s policy not to accept such appraisals.
Don’t believe the
fairy tale that there will be an actual «negotiation process.» There wasn’t any «negotiation.» USAA determined the amount of my diminished value claim and sent me a check for $ 862.87.
Also, don’t believe Autoloss.com’s exaggerated amount of diminished value fairy tale.
appraised my diminished value claim at approximately $ 8,000. USAA determined my diminution of value claim to be $ 862.87. Following the accident, I traded my car. The difference between clean condition (which I would have received if my car had not been in an accident) and rough condition (which I received because my car was in an accident) was $ 800.
When I came to the realization that I received nothing of value and had been scammed, I requested a refund. Even though it has always been USAA’s policy not to use appraisals from outside companies and USAA did not use the
template appraisal, Mrs. Fisher refused to refund my money.
For obvious reasons, I do not recommend this company.
I hope this review of my experience with
will save other consumers from wasting their valuable time and hard earned money on the
diminished value fairy tale. I wish there would have been reviews on Unilocal before I made the mistake of giving any money to
. It was difficult enough to have my beautiful brand new car damaged via an accident that was not my fault. However, to be further victimized by
only added salt to the wound.
If, despite reading this review, you still believe that the
diminished value fairy tale may be true, BEFORE you give
any money call the insurance company that you are negotiating your diminished value claim with and confirm, in writing, that they will accept and actually use an appraisal from
to determine the amount of your diminished value claim. Based on my experience, once you have given
money, you will not get it back!

Please do not use this company!!! They are friendly and very responsive until they charge your card. As soon as you receive the generic template they generate for each claim you will get no assistance, no reply emails and no returned calls. This company and what they claim to do for you is very misleading. All you get for $ 300 dollars is a template you could do yourself and a very frustrating experience, not to mention you will be out 300 dollars. My insurance company laughed at the template sent to them and denied immediately. I am still awaiting a call back from Monica its been 5 months… Stay far away and find a reputable diminished claim company Autoloss is not it!!!

I honestly don’t know what to think. When I first got a call from Monica, she said she’d help me negotiate and so forth. I only heard back from her TODAY, for the first time since I started the process. Why? Well, my car suffered substantial loss (retail on my car is still over $ 13,500, but no dealer since the accident would give me more than $ 5 – 6000), and I thought «great, I’ll need an appraisal to get what my car is actually worth and get my diminished value.» Instead, I received an over-​the-​counter set of sheets which had comps (with no VIN) that were looked up on
. It also listed my car is now worth $ 8999 and would have been $ 11,887 before the accident. I contacted them and said their valuation of my car is actually high and the comps are much higher than what they are listing; instead of adjusting the bottom number, they increased the value of my car, stating $ 13,887 and $ 10,400, or 3487 is the diminished value. Basically, they ignored what I said or what ANY dealer stated the value of my car to be and made it worth more than it is after the accident. So, I went to Carmax; got an offer of $ 5000. Basically, if I went with Autoloss’s report, I’m losing $ 3400. I’m sure others have had a decent experience, but, really, all they do is slop together a report and send it on, with no realistic values. I haven’t asked for my refund (yet), because, well, I want to see what they come up with. However, do yourself a favor: go to a few dealers, get what they’ll give you for a trade-​in after the accident, get it in writing, then go on
or NADA and get an online appraisal (which is the same thing as Autoloss does) for free, and send it to the insurance company. If they fail to award you diminished value (which is illegal, by the way), point to a couple statutes where they are required to make you whole again and the value of your car before the accident was this much and after is what you got from the dealers.

I can’t even express in words how disappointing and frustrating the experience we had with this company. It took so much longer to sent their report to Insurance company, than they promised. Also, it was impossible to get any advises — the communications was very poor, most of the times responses were taking very long (to get any kind of response takes several calls and several emails for several days) and they were either worthless (it seems nobody even reads your questions neither listens to the answers) or we just got referrals to their amateur handbook, which contains less useful info than simple google search. The report was not professionally prepared and was too general, lacking arguments based on specific situation, therefore it didn’t effect Insurance Company’s initial offer. We didn’t receive any other help nor advise was given from
, nevertheless «help through all the process» was promised upon so we asked for refund. We were advised that the refund checks are being send in 30 – 90 days. We have patiently waited 90 days (they refused to check the status of refund before 90 day period) and sure enough, we didn’t receive it even after 90 days. It has been one excuse after another, and the same result — 90 days+2^nd week, still no refund… The bottom line is — so many negative reviews about them must be true, because we have experienced the same — they didn’t only ripped us off, but added so much more frustration to already difficult situation…