Now one of the good questions we need to add to this discussion - has anyone had a claim for their old truck?? How did THAT go?
Peg
You know the old cliche,
"You don't know how good your insurance is until you have to use it"
This one takes it to a new level.
When I bought my 1954 Chevrolet Panel truck, I was 2,300 miles from home.
It turned out that there was a auto transport company a couple miles from where the truck was located.
Before I left home I made prior arrangements with the auto transport company, that if I decided to buy the truck,
I could park the truck at their facility, until one of their drivers that was passing through picked it up.
It was Friday evening when I arrived to look at the truck. I decided to buy the truck.
But I did not want to buy the truck unless I could insure it.
Otherwise, if something went wrong during transport, I could lose what I invested in the truck.
I was going through a agent the sells Hagerty insurance along with other insurance.
Hagerty's business hours are 8am to 8pm M-F, 8:30am to 4:30pm Saturday, 12pm to 4pm Sunday Eastern Time.
I didn't know that Hagerty would be closed at 5pm Pacific time.
So I had to wait until the next day.
The next day Saturday at 8:35am, I called Hagerty and they told me to have my agent call
them and within a couple minutes I had a insurance rider on the truck.
I think, at the time all Hagerty had was the truck's VSN vehicle serial number.
I called the seller, he picked me up, we did the necessary paper work.
I drove the truck to the auto transport company's facility. Filled out the necessary paper work.
The owner of the auto transport company gave me a ride to my hotel.
At the hotel I took pictures of the truck's title, bill of sale and the transport company documents, emailed them to my Hagerty agent.
The next day Sunday I crossed my fingers and flew home.
The following Thursday night the transport company driver called me and said he was going to drop the truck off Friday morning.
Then he asked me how I was going to get the truck off the multi-car hauler/trailer.
I said 'Drive it off'
He said 'It does not drive'
Friday he shows up and there is something wrong with the truck. Speedometer moves but truck doesn't.
It turns out the transport company farmed out the transport to another transport company.
Somewhere along the line they busted something.
The truck has a enclosed torque tube, so you can't see what is broke.
I called the original transport company and they pretty much blew me off.
I called the seller and he said the truck was working fine.
I agreed, because when I dropped the truck off at the auto transport company there was no hint anything was wrong.
I called Hagerty and told them what was wrong.
Within three days they had a claims adjusters come and take a look at the truck.
He told Hagerty that because of the enclosed torque tube, a mechanic would have to open it up to find what was wrong.
The claims agent at Hagerty let me choose the mechanic that would work on the truck.
The first mechanic I chose, wouldn't let me under the truck to take pictures and they left the key on, which drained the battery.
So I had the truck towed to another shop. Hagerty agreed.
The second mechanic I chose was a real classic car guy.
He understood that this was a insurance claim and pictures needed to be taken and sent to Hagerty.
At this point I did not know if the Hydramatic transmission was damaged (Big Bucks) or something else in the drive train.
Sliding back the ball housing revealed the rear yoke was broken in half.
Picture I had to hunt down all the parts and the mechanic put it back together. It runs like a champ.
I emailed the pictures, towing, parts and labor receipts to Hagerty.
Within a couple days I received a check in the mail that covered all the cost.
In summary, I bought insurance from a company that didn't know me at all, three weeks later
they sent me a check that was four times the amount that I originally paid for the insurance.
I would say that Hagerty is a pretty good insurance company.
