1 /5 Michael Vaughan: I was in an accident a couple of weeks ago and was found not at fault by the police, State Farm, and the other driver’s insurance company. My vehicle took on serious frame damage, with up to 14 millimeters of distortion and 11 millimeter deviations throughout. It is no longer structurally sound or safe to drive.
Still, Jim Cornwell and his team did everything possible to protect the at-fault driver and his insurance company. That seems to be their default setting. Their job appears to be preserving money, not doing the right thing. They offered me ten thousand dollars for a vehicle Kelley Blue Book values between twenty-eight and thirty-three thousand. The other option was to get it "repaired" for ten thousand at Caliber Collision, which is laughable. You cannot properly repair a frame that damaged.
Now my vehicle is unsafe and worthless, and Jim is standing firm as if this is some kind of win. The guy comes off like a wax museum version of Ted Knight, acting tough for no reason.
If you want fair treatment, stay far away from State Farm and definitely stay away from Jim Cornwell.
EDIT: I see Jim responded. It will not let me reply directly so adding my response here just for other viewers.
Jim, your response reads less like an explanation and more like a performance. An agent playing the role of a helpless bystander while defending every inch of the outcome. You open by claiming I have “never had a conversation” with anyone in your office, then immediately admit I have spoken with your team. Which is it? That is not confusion, that is selective memory when the truth does not fit the narrative.
You hide behind the line “State Farm Claims teams decide whether to repair or total, not me” as if that absolves you from responsibility. Yet you spend paragraph after paragraph defending a decision you claim you had no part in. If you truly believed it was out of your hands, you would be standing next to me demanding State Farm do better. Instead, you are standing in front of them, taking the hits for a decision that leaves your customer in a structurally compromised vehicle.
The “frame can be repaired” line is a perfect example of the problem. You repeat it as if it is gospel because Caliber Collision, a shop that gets paid if they say “yes,” said it could be done. Fourteen millimeters of frame distortion and eleven millimeter deviations are not just “within thresholds.” They are the difference between a vehicle protecting someone in a crash and folding like a soda can. Independent shops, not tied to State Farm, have confirmed this. You did not seek those opinions because they might not give you the answer you wanted.
Then there is the value. Kelley Blue Book says $28K to $33K pre-accident. State Farm offers $10K. That is not “taking good care of customers,” that is taking advantage of customers in their worst moment. You can say you did not personally set the number, but when you defend it, you own it.
Your “Ted Knight” rebuttal is telling. Instead of focusing on the fact that your customer is about to be handed back an unsafe vehicle, you zero in on a joke about your demeanor. That is not professionalism, that is ego. And when you talk about my father’s patience versus my “choice words,” remember this: people do not curse out businesses that actually advocate for them. They curse when they are being stonewalled.
Everything in your reply boils down to this: you had a choice to be the agent who fought for his client or the one who defended the company’s bottom line. You chose wrong, and everyone reading this can see it.
