In the middle of December during one of the big snow storms, Tom's (relatively) new car was hit. We didn't think it was that much damage, even though he was the only one of the 3 cars involved that couldn't drive away from the accident. As time went on though we found out that since the frame of the car was bent, it was totalled by the impact. He wasn't at fault so we were confident that our insurance company would take care of us, and be able to compensate us fully.
Unfortunately we found out that we will only be getting about 3/4 the value of our car loan and about half of what we thought the car's value was. When Tom talked to the adjuster and asked about the remaining money in the loan, the adjuster told him he would be able to get the money from the other car's insurance company. Once our insurance agent came back from the holidays she told us that the this wasn't really the case, that the money we had been originally offered was all we were going to get. We then contacted my aunt Diane (attorney-at-law) who said that we should call them back and try to retract our acceptance of the money. Our agent said that wasn't a problem and she would retract the check first thing in the morning. Then we found out that her manager didn't want to let us retract our (misled) acceptance, so wouldn't let her take the check back. So after countless calls between Diane, Tom, and our insurance company, we are not only carless, but now owe $3,000 on a car that is no longer in existence, by no fault of ours. Awesome! Thanks All-State!
We are still trying to work with our insurance company, but at this point doesn't look like there is much else we can do. We'll keep you updated if anything good happens! Cross your fingers for us!