LPT: If you are injured or your property is damaged by a company and they offer to pay for the damage if you sign a "standard business release form", don't do it...even if it is a well known business.

A few weeks ago I was driving on the highway and a PODS container delivery truck was a few car lengths in front of me. The large PODS sign on the side of the container blew off and landed right in front of my car which smashed through it like a football team running through a banner and did damage to the front and passenger side of my car. The driver saw what happened and we both exited the highway at the next off-ramp to exchange information. I immediately called PODS corporate to put in a incident report, took pictures and exchanged information with the driver. Over the next 2 weeks I was in contact with a PODS "Executive Resolution Specialist" who gave me a claim number and asked me to send the the photos and repair estimate. After many unanswered calls and emails to this Resolution Specialist I was informed that my estimate had been accepted (around $1,900) and that they would send me a check after I signed a "standard business release form" they also stated that they would not be paying for a rental car while my car was being repaired. This sounded very odd to me so I checked with my insurance and they advised me NOT to sign anything and check with someone else at PODS insurance provider. I called their insurance provider directly and lo and behold a claim had never even been started. Apparently the "claim" number I was given was an internal incident number and they were trying to resolve this without going through insurance or telling me.I forwarded the insurance company my pictures, description of the incident, email correspondence with PODS corporate and my estimate. While they officially could not comment on how PODS was trying to handle it, they made it clear that this was not the right way to do things. Within a few days the insurance company had approved my estimate and rental car and agreed to pay any overages that may come up during the repair. What PODS was trying to do was just send me a "settlement check" and have me sign a release form which would waive their further responsibility. If during my repair the body shop found additional damage or determined that the price would need to be higher I would have been on the hook for the difference. The shady thing is they made it sound like they were processing it with their insurance the whole time by giving me a "claim number" and using language to make me believe they were processing this incident the right way.EDIT: Several comments asking why I didn't go through my insurance. Because there was only damage to my car and there was no doubt about the cause and the fault I decided not to go through my insurance (but I did contact them) because if I had my insurance handle it they would have set up the repair and rental car but I would've had to pay my deductible and then wait for it to be refunded once PODS' insurance agreed to the liability which can take weeks or months. I didn't want to have to go through that....I had to do it several months ago when a 16 year old girl hit my car and her insurance was dragging their feet with accepting liability. Waiting weeks or months to get your $500 back is no fun.EDIT 2: I should clarify....My problem with the situation is NOT that they offered to deal with this without using their insurance, it was that they lead me to believe that it was being processed through the insurance the whole time and never informed me that this was a "settlement". Had they let me know they would like to try to handle it directly and offered to pay for the repair in full (including any overages), pay for the rental car and then have me sign a waiver I would have completely understood and would not feel like they were being shady. I would have declined and requested that it go through insurance or had my insurance take over but at least I would have felt like they were being honest with me instead of trying to screw me over.EDIT 3: There is a lot of good and bad info in this thread. I am not a lawyer, I am not an insurance expert and I am not an finance expert. I am only sharing details of a situation that happened to me in the hope that it may be beneficial to someone else in the future. I do not believe all companies are evil, nor do I believe that PODS is a shady company. I have used their services in the past and it was fantastic....I do believe, however that there was some dishonesty with the way this was handled from a company representative. via /r/LifeProTips http://ift.tt/2DGSaDg

A few weeks ago I was driving on the highway and a PODS container delivery truck was a few car lengths in front of me. The large PODS sign on the side of the container blew off and landed right in front of my car which smashed through it like a football team running through a banner and did damage to the front and passenger side of my car. The driver saw what happened and we both exited the highway at the next off-ramp to exchange information. I immediately called PODS corporate to put in a incident report, took pictures and exchanged information with the driver. Over the next 2 weeks I was in contact with a PODS "Executive Resolution Specialist" who gave me a claim number and asked me to send the the photos and repair estimate. After many unanswered calls and emails to this Resolution Specialist I was informed that my estimate had been accepted (around $1,900) and that they would send me a check after I signed a "standard business release form" they also stated that they would not be paying for a rental car while my car was being repaired. This sounded very odd to me so I checked with my insurance and they advised me NOT to sign anything and check with someone else at PODS insurance provider. I called their insurance provider directly and lo and behold a claim had never even been started. Apparently the "claim" number I was given was an internal incident number and they were trying to resolve this without going through insurance or telling me.

I forwarded the insurance company my pictures, description of the incident, email correspondence with PODS corporate and my estimate. While they officially could not comment on how PODS was trying to handle it, they made it clear that this was not the right way to do things. Within a few days the insurance company had approved my estimate and rental car and agreed to pay any overages that may come up during the repair. What PODS was trying to do was just send me a "settlement check" and have me sign a release form which would waive their further responsibility. If during my repair the body shop found additional damage or determined that the price would need to be higher I would have been on the hook for the difference. The shady thing is they made it sound like they were processing it with their insurance the whole time by giving me a "claim number" and using language to make me believe they were processing this incident the right way.

EDIT: Several comments asking why I didn't go through my insurance. Because there was only damage to my car and there was no doubt about the cause and the fault I decided not to go through my insurance (but I did contact them) because if I had my insurance handle it they would have set up the repair and rental car but I would've had to pay my deductible and then wait for it to be refunded once PODS' insurance agreed to the liability which can take weeks or months. I didn't want to have to go through that....I had to do it several months ago when a 16 year old girl hit my car and her insurance was dragging their feet with accepting liability. Waiting weeks or months to get your $500 back is no fun.

EDIT 2: I should clarify....My problem with the situation is NOT that they offered to deal with this without using their insurance, it was that they lead me to believe that it was being processed through the insurance the whole time and never informed me that this was a "settlement". Had they let me know they would like to try to handle it directly and offered to pay for the repair in full (including any overages), pay for the rental car and then have me sign a waiver I would have completely understood and would not feel like they were being shady. I would have declined and requested that it go through insurance or had my insurance take over but at least I would have felt like they were being honest with me instead of trying to screw me over.

EDIT 3: There is a lot of good and bad info in this thread. I am not a lawyer, I am not an insurance expert and I am not an finance expert. I am only sharing details of a situation that happened to me in the hope that it may be beneficial to someone else in the future. I do not believe all companies are evil, nor do I believe that PODS is a shady company. I have used their services in the past and it was fantastic....I do believe, however that there was some dishonesty with the way this was handled from a company representative.