WEAZEL NEWS INVESTIGATES - Policyholders Say They've Been "Tinkled On"

For nearly a decade, Tinkle Car Insurance has built its brand around a bright yellow mascot, a jingle that's impossible to forget, and a promise splashed across every billboard from Sandy Shores to Paleto Bay: "We Never Leave You High and Dry."

But a two-week Weazel News investigation has found a growing number of policyholders who say the opposite is true — and they're using a word that's started showing up in complaint filings, reviews, and at least one small claims court transcript obtained by this station: "tinkled."

"They tinkled all over my claim," said Okafor, a Sandy Shores hairdresser whose 2019 Bravado Buffalo was totaled in a hailstorm. "Three months. Three months of phone trees and 'your adjuster will call you back' and then they offer me forty percent of book value and act like they're doing me a favor."

Okafor is not alone. Weazel News reviewed 63 complaints filed with the San Andreas Department of Insurance over the past eighteen months naming Tinkle Car Insurance, more than any other mid-sized carrier operating in Blaine County. Thirty-one of those complaints use some variation of the phrase "delay and deny." Four use the word "tinkled" specifically, unprompted, in the narrative section of the form.

Court records show Tinkle Car Insurance has been named in nine civil suits since 2021 alleging bad-faith claims handling. The company has settled seven of them. The terms are confidential. One of the two cases that went to judgment was brought by Duane, a tow truck operator from Grapeseed, after the company allegedly denied a windshield claim on the grounds that the crack was "pre-existing," despite a dated photo from Duane's own insurance inspection showing an intact windshield eleven days prior.

"They had the picture. I sent them the picture. Their guy looked right at the picture and told me it didn't prove anything,"

Reached for comment, a spokesperson for Tinkle Car Insurance provided the following statement:

> "Tinkle Car Insurance takes every customer concern seriously and stands behind our claims process, which meets or exceeds all San Andreas Department of Insurance guidelines. We are proud to serve over 40,000 policyholders across the state and our satisfaction ratings remain strong. We decline to comment on pending or settled litigation."
>
The company did not respond to a follow-up question asking for the specific satisfaction rating figure or the survey methodology behind it. Weazel News also reached out to Molester Tinkle, listed in state business filings as the company's founder and majority shareholder, for comment. A man who answered the phone at a number associated with Tinkle Car Insurance's corporate office said Mr. Tinkle was "not doing interviews at this time" and hung up before a follow-up question could be asked.

San Andreas Department of Insurance officials say policyholders who believe their claim was handled in bad faith can file a complaint directly with the department, request a claims file audit, or consult a private attorney about a bad-faith insurance claim, which in San Andreas carries its own separate cause of action distinct from a standard breach of contract suit.

"If your insurer is stalling, lowballing, or manufacturing reasons to deny a valid claim, you have options," said one department official who spoke to Weazel News on background. "You are not required to just accept the number they give you."

For Okafor, that advice came too late to save her Buffalo, which she ultimately sold for parts. "I paid my premium every month for four years," she said. "I never missed one payment. And when I needed them, they tinkled on me and called it customer service."

Tinkle Car Insurance's current advertising campaign, still running on billboards across the county, reads: "When Life Rains, We Shower You With Coverage."