Teak Claim Consultants

06/03/2026

🚗 YOUR AUTO INSURANCE STORY MATTERS 🚗

As we roll into summer, we have some exciting things in the works for Montana consumers, and we need your help.

The mission of My Crash Story Montana is simple: Educate consumers about their rights, including the Right to Appraisal, while exposing emerging issues impacting auto insurance claims across our state.

Whether your claim experience was excellent, frustrating, confusing, or somewhere in between, we want to hear about it.

✅ Did your insurance company treat you fairly?
✅ Were you involved in a total loss dispute?
✅ Did you struggle with repair delays or valuation issues?
✅ Did you use the Right to Appraisal?
✅ Were you left feeling unheard during the claims process?

No matter your experience, your story can help other Montanans better understand what to expect when navigating an auto insurance claim.

📖 Share your story today at:
www.mycrashstorymt.com

👍 Follow our page:
My Crash Story Montana

Together, we can educate consumers, identify industry trends, and help ensure every Montanan has access to the information they need when dealing with an auto insurance claim.

Your voice matters. Your story matters. We want to hear it.

06/02/2026

May is over and we are looking forward to a big June!

06/01/2026

Day 8 Progressive Diaries of Montana

Not every entry in this series is about ignored emails or changing positions.

Sometimes it's about results.

In May, Progressive claims resulted in an additional $12,939.52 being paid to consumers through appraisal and negotiations.

And we're not done yet.

We currently have 10 open Progressive claims, so there will be plenty more updates coming in June.

Stay tuned.

05/29/2026

Day 7 Progressive Diaries of Montana

Today's post highlights the care and attention Progressive's Montana staff put into their claims.

Appraisal invoked: 5/7
Follow-up email: 5/12
Follow-up email: 5/27
Follow-up email: 5/28

Responses received: 0

Maybe this post will get the claim moving in the right direction.

We'll keep you posted.

Public Adjuster serving Mountain West states. Assisting customers manage the complexities of insurance claims

Services Provided
-Public Adjuster Representation
-Appraisal Clause
-Diminished Value
-Independent Appraisals
-Claim Denials

05/21/2026

05/20/2026

Day 6 Progressive Diaries of Montana

At this point, our name alone might be increasing claim values.

Today we received this message from someone handling a Progressive total loss claim for his mother.

“I got Progressive to bump up my mom’s value to 21k just by telling them I would hire you.”

That’s both hilarious and concerning at the same time. Do they know they are underpaying the claim up front and then making adjustments when they hear about a public adjuster?

05/19/2026

Day 5 Progressive Diaries of Montana

Progressive initially valued this claim at $16,682.88. After appraisal, the final agreed value came in at $23,000.00, an increase of more than $6,000.

The problem? Progressive apparently didn’t like the outcome.

Our client had already retained the vehicle and paid for repairs out of pocket. After nearly a month of waiting, we followed up with the adjuster and were suddenly told the vehicle was now going to be treated as a repairable instead of a total loss because of the increase in value.

There’s just one issue with that position.

We have documentation from Progressive’s own handling guidelines confirming they no longer change claim disposition based on subsequent valuation changes. In other words, the exact thing they’re now attempting to do.

We provided the documentation and have yet to receive a response.

If Progressive wants these posts to stop, the solution is pretty simple.

Handle claims fairly. Handle them accurately. Handle them timely.

None of that happened here.

05/15/2026

Day 4 Progressive Diaries of Montana

We thought we were probably done with this series for a while after Progressive finally hired appraisers on the last three claims we discussed.

Then came yesterday.

This was a double Progressive claim. The insured had Progressive and the claimant had Progressive. When the appraisal clause was invoked, the same supervisor who has ignored calls, emails, and messages since this series started immediately responded saying appraisal was not allowed because our client was a claimant.

Except this was a double Progressive claim.

Once we pointed that out, the position suddenly changed. Progressive increased the valuation, refused to send it to us as the insured’s representative, and instead texted our client directly to discuss it. During that text exchange, they also suggested a claim would need to be opened under our client’s own policy in order to proceed with appraisal, something that was likely done day one as this is common practice in double carrier claims.

What stood out the most was the timing.

Ignored until they thought they had a “gotcha” moment. Then once corrected with factual information?

Silence again.

05/11/2026

Progressive Diaries of Montana Day 3

Another claim.
Same management group.
Same unreasonable requests.

The appraisal clause was invoked on Wednesday, 5/6. The very next day, the adjuster asked for a list of disputed items on the estimate, completely ignoring our Letter of Representation and the fact appraisal had already been invoked. After several follow up emails requesting status updates, Progressive still failed to communicate directly with us as the insured’s representative. Then over the weekend, the supervisor suddenly changed course and advised they would be hiring an appraiser after all.

One day appraisal is questioned or delayed. The next day they proceed like it should have happened from the beginning.

Consumers deserve consistency. Claims should be handled in a fair, accurate and timely manner, nothing else.

05/08/2026

Day 2 of the Progressive Diaries of Montana.

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This example shows the new flavor of the month, adding requirements to the existing policy. For those that don't know, these policies are submitted to each state, reviewed and approved or denied. The policy was approved as written, the additional requirements they want to add to the appraisal process have not been reviewed or approved by the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance

What they are asking their insured to do is inappropriate and impractical. Our client is not an insurance professional and has no idea how to answer this question. Her knowledge of the situation begins and ends at the shop charging $8,981.17 and Progressive paying $7,817.90.

The questions and requirement to provide a detailed list of repair procedures is designed to trap our client into saying the wrong thing. They want to trap her into saying the wrong thing to deny appraisal. Not because they don't owe for it, because they don't want to pay for it. Also, we still have not received a response, let's hope their in-house counsel is reviewing and drafting them an email now to stop this behavior. Again, weird because we don't see this requirement listed in the appraisal provision of the policy.
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