Interesting thread

I am a claims adjuster for one of the aforementioned companies. Here is the scoop!

Your claim is handled as outlined in your policy, yes you all get a policy when you start with an insurance company, you know that big packet of paper you file or throw away without reading.

As for the types of parts used for repair, this will be addressed in your policy
Typically, 2 years or newer based on build date, OEM is used, 2 years or older, "quality replacement parts" is typically used.

State Farm(and this is not my company) uses OEM for all due to a big lawsuit some time back.

As for the claims process in general, You have to understand, it is like any other biz, you have good workers and you have bad workers, I have co-workers that I would let adjust my claim without thinking twice, and there are co-workers that I would freak out if I had a claim and they were handling it. Like anything else, it luck of the draw.

Insurance is a heavily regulated industry and attorney's feed off claims adjusters that make mistakes. That said, even the bad adjuster, work within the regulations to avoid having their name included in a Bad faith law suit. Keep in mind, just because a claim may go to suit, It is not very often a claim goes to suit for bad faith.

The name of the claim game is:

Know your policy and coverage before you need to use it
pay the little extra for the rental car coverage, its worth it.
Understand that your adjuster, believe it or not, is human just like you and is being overworked by a big corporation
That accidents happen, they suck, they are stressful, etc, listen to and work with your adjuster, and more times then not they will bend over backwards to help you.