The Think Tank

As the title of this post suggests, its been a bit of a bummer of a week.  Well, to be fair, it started out as a bummer of week, the ending has been getting better.  It just feels like the whole week has been crappy because I have spent a large part of it dealing with insurance companies, and I really, really, really hate insurance companies.

Especially Geico.

It started last Friday night when Shannon and I were on our way to see Iron Man 2.   (Not bad, by the way.  Not fantastic, but entertaining nonetheless.)  We were pulling into the parking lot at Bridgeport Village when the woman driving the big SUV in front of me decided she wanted a parking space that was about to become available, so she put it in reverse and started backing up – toward me.  I backed up as far as I could, but eventually ran out of room, and she just ran smack into me.  As if that weren’t bad enough, after she hit me she paused for a few seconds, allowing the car behind me to back up a little which in turn allowed me to back up a couple of feet, and then she backed into me a second time! The damage, as you can see, is not horrible but it certainly did piss me off.

I hopped out of my car and slapped my hand on the back of her Pathfinder, finally getting her attention, and she rolled down her window.  I said “You just hit my car twice, lady!”  to which she shrugged her shoulders and pulled into the parking space.  Now I was very cranky.

I made these diagrams of the accident using Google Maps and some pirated cars from an advertisement I had done recently for work.  (Yes, I know I’m anal, but the little diagram maker on the website didn’t have anything that really matched the scenario.)

I pulled up and parked behind them and got out of my car to get their insurance information.  A man and woman of approximately 60 years got out of the car and the guy asked why I had gotten so close to them, which was the final straw for me.  I had been several feet away when the whole thing started, and then I backed up more than a full car length before they hit me the first time, not to mention the second time.  I’ll just say that I was not exactly civil about his assessment.

We exchanged all the pertinent information, took pictures of both cars, and did all of that.  To be frank, I was a bit surprised when they handed over their All State insurance card. Their driving abilities had not inspired confidence that they would be carrying proper paperwork.  However, my original concerns were proven to be justified when I noticed that the insurance card they gave me had expired in April of 2009.  To top things off, the car did not have any license plates, it had only those dealership advertisements they stick in the plate frames on the lot.

I filed my claim online with Geico the next day – after having waited on-hold for 35 minutes the night of the accident before finally giving up – and provided them with all of the information I had taken off of the card they gave me, including the make/model of the car and the VIN Number.  Geico Steve called me back a few minutes later and told me that the information I provided to him was wrong: it corresponded to a homeowner policy which was expired and did not match the names I had provided.  I had him double check the policy number with the same result.  Then he told me that since they could not contact the other party, and since I did not have collision insurance on my car, Geico was not going to be able to help me.  Thank you for calling.  Have a nice day.  Oh, by the way… your next premium is due on the 17th.

I really, really, really hate insurance companies.

“Wait just a second,” I said.  I wasn’t buying the bit about the policy number being for a homeowner’s policy because the card had all of the vehicles information on it, but if –  just for arguments sake – we assumed the information they gave me was bogus, then the accident had to qualify as either hit-and-run or uninsured motorist.

“Oh,” said Geico Steve.  “I don’t think we can do that.  But, let me check for you.”  He put me on hold for about seven seconds, then came back and told me that they could cover it as hit-and-run.

But there would be a $300 dollar deductible for that.

I was not overjoyed, but it was the best I could get at that moment.  I told him we could proceed on that route for now, but I also made sure that if I got more information that we could get All State to pay for the repairs as they should.  He said that would be great if I could track them down, but he was doubtful.  He’d done a google search for their names and not found anything, after all.

I looked at my pictures of their car and found that the license plate advertisement was for Salem Nissan, so I called them.  I explained my situation and asked if they could check the VIN and, if they had indeed sold the car, if they could provide contact information to my insurance company.  I was passed around a few times, but eventually I got a hold of Salem Nissan Molly and she was able to help.  I gave her all the Geico info, and she promised to call.  That was Monday morning.

That afternoon on the way home from work I still had not heard anything from Geico or All State.  My confidence in Geico Steve was pretty low and I didn’t want to bother  Salem Nissan Molly again to see if she had called Geico Steve or not, so I decided I should probably just go straight to the horses mouth and call All State.

I spoke with Melissa at the All State Claims desk.  I explained the whole situation and gave her the policy number.  Apparently All State Melissa’s  inputting skills are more adept than Geico Steve’s, because she miraculously found the correct policy on the very first try.  She took my information and before we had even hung up the phone, she had agreed that All State would pay to have my car fixed and even offered to pay for a rental car if I needed one. So far I was liking All State quite a bit.

Score:  All State 1, Geico -1,356,714.

Tuesday I took the car in for some estimates.  Despite All State Melissa’s pleasantness, I have a deep-seated dislike and mistrust of insurance companies, so I wanted to get some unbiased estimates before I got the “official” estimate from the All State shop.  I settled on Leif’s and Kadell’s because they have good reputations for both workmanship and making sure the insurance companies don’t get by with crazy lowball estimates.  The estimates were (in the order which we received them):

Leif’s: $1,500
Kadell’s: $1,000
All State: $500

Returning home we discovered that poor little Growler had a very badly infected bite on her tail.  She had to have a procedure to remove the worst of it and insert a drain, which meant that she has to wear a one of those cone things on her head.

She really, really, really hates that cone thing.

Everywhere she goes she rams the edge of that cone into something, then she’ll back up, aim for the other side of that obstruction, bang the cone into it again, back up again, turn around and go in the other direction until she hits some other obstacle (usually about a two foot journey) and then it starts all over again.   Its funny the first couple of times, but after that you just start to feel bad for her.  It is clearly very frustrating for her, her poor tail hurts, and she is very clearly unhappy.

Last night we had to give her the first dose of medicine.  It did not go well.  The first syringe full of pain medicine wound up in her ear instead of her throat, which we guessed probably wasn’t going to do her a lot of good.  Five minutes and a dozen scratches later, we got the second syringe-full down her throat.  She was good and pissed off for a while, but once the pain went down she was finally calmed and managed to sleep the whole night on my bed – as opposed to the kennel, where she was the night before because she was running a racetrack around my room, banging the cone into everything and knocking the lamps over.

Anti-climatically, that is where this story ends.  the cat gets the drain removed on Friday which supposedly means she can ditch the collar too.  That will make her happy.

I will probably take the car to Kadell’s, because they sounded like they would be tougher with the insurance company, and if I choose to have some of the additional work done which I would like to do, they were going to be more affordable.  Plus, Shannon has used them before they and did a great job for her.

So that its for now.