Insurance company tries to pay car owner for his vehicle at ‘market value’ but lowballs by $2500, so the car owner demands all the required paperwork to prove their offer is market value: ‘I scared them right back’

Author image for Lana DeGaetano
Lana DeGaetano • "Show me to me please."
Oct 3, 2025 6:00 PM EDT

A hard pill to swallow is that insurance companies, which exist to help us feel protected in life, are not on our side. Whether we're talking about car insurance or health insurance, the goal for insurance companies is to:

1) Make the most money possible.

2) Save all the money they can.

This isn't to say you shouldn't purchase insurance, because it still helps a great deal where it counts; The issue is when insurance companies try to pull a fast one on us when we're vulnerable and in need of assistance.

The car owner in this next story realized his vehicle was damaged to the point where it'd be uneconomical to fix it, so he reached out to his insurance company to see how much they'd offer for it.

They lowball the car owner by $2500, so he decides to take matters into his own hands. There's nothing that legal threats can't do!

Scroll below to read about how this car owner refuses to be another victim of the car insurance game. What are your experiences with your insurers?

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  • "My car is worth very little? Okay... prove it, in great detail."
    via Frank Flores For Unsplash+

  • "My car is worth very little? Okay... prove it, in great detail."

    My old car got into a very small bump that was juuuuuust bad enough to crack something critical,
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  • which meant repairing it would just not be economical.
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  • My insurance people said they'd give me its market value, which according to them is $5000. I did
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  • some research of my own (a big Excel spreadsheet was involved and lots of averaging) and found it was actually closer to $7500.
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  • I didn't want to go full K n on them from the start. I'm sure there's a logical, reasonable,
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  • compliant explanation, I just have to find it! It went on for weeks, y'all. I've shortened it a LOT.
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  • Me: I found car X worth $8k and car Y worth $6k. How come they're still more than what you quoted me?
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  • Them: We can't consider the first one, it's in a different state. (In my country this is like saying different astrology). But we
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  • will give you the price of the second one! Me: They're both interstate. Why can you still consider the
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  • second one? Also I've just noticed, the second one has a worse odometer than mine. Are you
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  • saying a car in worse condition than mine is still worth more than what you quoted me?
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  • Them: Look, it's a really good price! We didn't even take into account the delamination! Me: then by all means,
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  • take the delamination into account, as long as you can prove the price difference. I
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  • am actually begging you to throw the book at me and confound me with legal jargon. Give me something.
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  • Them: [silence for several days]
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  • man looking at a tablet in his parked car, going over his car insurance policy
    via Curated Lifestyle For Unsplash+

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • Me: look, [government body] says if I don't hear back within another 2 weeks I'm allowed to file a complaint. I
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  • understand you're busy, so I'll make it 3. I've also made a complaint to your customer service department making
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  • it clear I'm looking for either a) $7.5k according to my research, or b) a good reason why I should accept less.
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  • Receipts, laws, terms of service, paperwork, that sort of thing. If it takes a while to put together
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  • the facts, that's okay, letting me know that's what you're doing is fine too. If I can't get any of what I've asked
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  • for, I will have to ask [govt body] if they can help sort this out.
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  • They responded within 5 minutes letting me know I was being transferred to a different rep. The
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  • new rep offered me all the hard facts I could ever hope for, AND my $7.5k. (With a note that the price is only guaranteed if
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  • I don't go to that govt body. I wasn't planning on it now I have my facts lol).
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  • TL;DR insurance company tried to scare me into accepting less money than I'm worth, otherwise they'll bamboozle me with reasons to take it all
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  • away. I scared them right back by asking them to show their working and quoting my consumer rights directly from a government website. I won.
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  • mvcjones Insurance companies are 100% about paying out as little as possible vs a fair payout. I have them just below trial lawyer and members of congress on my scale of integrity and honorability.
    via mvcjones
  • Holygeni Fact of life, insurance isn't there for you. Never accept their first price
    via Holygeni
  • softlywhisperxo This is how you handle bureaucracy: calmly, firmly, and armed with receipts. Love seeing it actually work out in your favor.
    via softlywhisperxo

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customer support insurance malicious entitlement malicious compliance revenge customers malicious-compliance-reddit reddit story entitled people karma entitled reddit thread Reddit car insurance malicious compliance reddit entitled people compliance
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