Anyone have experience with Geico?

[CLKeenan]

I was driving back to school in upstate NY for the long weekend to catch up with some friends (I'm currently on a co-op assignment at GE Corporate for the semester in CT). About 20 miles away from school I hit a bad patch of ice, start skidding, eventually go sideways down the expressway and crash into the snow bank on the side of the road and flip over my car.

No, I wasn't speeding or doing anything stupid, just some bad luck on my part. However, I am completely fine without a scratch on me so I probably should've gone out an brought a lotto ticket at that point haha. The combination of wearing a seat belt and the 4 feet of snow on the ground probably saved me a lot of pain haha.

I was able to get out of my car just fine and no glass was broken/major exterior damage to the car was done. However, when the tow truck flipped the car over they managed to break the windshield and the passenger side front window, as well as dent the entire passenger side and smash in the roof of the car.

The car is still in the shop 20 miles away from school... just waiting on the claims inspector to check it out and let me know whats up.

With that all said, what have you heard about Geico and their handling of claims like this? Are they usually pretty fair about estimates and such? Also, how will they know what damage was done to the car during the accident vs. what needed to be repaired before hand? Does anyone have some tips on how to handle claims like this with the insurance company to make sure I don't get shafted?

Thanks for your help guys
-Chris

 

[mkrongel]

Geico has contracted repair centers that if you use their centers you only pay your deductible the body shop fixes everything and Geico pays them direct.

My mom got in to an accident with one of my cars, she isnt a driver on my policy but Geico fixed the car within a week and gave me no hassle at all.

They are actually very easy to deal with when it comes to claims from my experience

 

[CLKeenan]

Just heard back from the Geico inspector and got my estimate. Just under $7500 incl. labor. That is just for all the body work and doesnt include any mechanical problems that they find. I told the inspector that I wanted the mechanics looked over completely because you just never know what could happen when a takes a hit like mine did. So hopefully I don't get too much of a hassle if/when they find problems.

I'm having the repairs done at the local BMW dealership (Service SUVs, Trucks, and Cars) that way if there are mechanical problems, they can just pass it off to their service center and have them fix it as well. Make sense?

I'll let you guys know more when I hear anything.