I wish I could give Mercury zero stars
I wish I could give Mercury zero stars. My experience handling a claim with them was unbelievably frustrating from beginning to end. After an accident on August 3, I immediately reported that the car needed to be moved urgently because it had damaged a gas line and PG&E could not complete repairs until it was removed. Despite explaining the emergency, I ultimately had to coordinate and escalate the towing situation myself. Communication after that was somehow worse. I repeatedly asked Mercury whether my vehicle was going to be repaired or totaled because I did NOT have rental coverage and was paying for a rental entirely out of pocket. Instead of giving me an answer, Mercury authorized repairs, the body shop gave me an August 31 completion date, and I continued receiving updates for more than two weeks saying repairs were underway. On the MORNING of August 26, the shop told me my car was “nearing completion.” That afternoon, Mercury suddenly called and told me the vehicle was a total loss. By that point, I had spent more than $3,200 on rental cars while reasonably believing I was simply waiting for my repaired vehicle to be returned. Had Mercury communicated properly, I could have put that money toward replacing the car weeks earlier. The problems continued even after the total-loss decision. I had to chase people down regarding reimbursement for my daughter’s car seat, figure out which department was responsible for different pieces of the claim, and I even had to catch and report that Mercury put the WRONG VIN on my DMV transfer paperwork. Eventually, after I formally complained and escalated the situation, I finally started getting help with some of these issues. But a customer should not have to send formal complaints, cite their rights, repeatedly follow up, and escalate to supervisors just to get an insurance company to properly manage a claim. The accident itself was stressful enough. Mercury’s disorganization, lack of communication, and repeated mistakes made the entire experience dramatically worse. I would absolutely not recommend them.