Month: January 2020

Sometimes will get you what you need.

Was on the phone with the insurance company again today. 

Apparently they decided to further investigate the circumstances regarding my car. 

I did raise hell with the insurance agent about the whole matter and that it was my thought the estimator should be limited to Camrys because he obviously didn’t know anything about higher end vehicles.

So, it looks like they’re going to pay their entire portion of the amount owed. I’ll believe it when I have the check in hand. But at least this time the person I ws speaking to in their claims department could vizualize and understand what I was saying.

There are benefits to speaking to a guy, (who knows what the parts of the car are called) and who also speaks fucking English!

I’ll grant you that were I in another country not speaking the common language, I probably wouldn’t have gotten anywhere. I’ve long questioned the validity of putting people on phones, speaking to Americans, who spoke pidgeon English. That being said, to someone from the UK Americans are speaking pidgeon English.

The problem I’ve had is that most women dont’ have a grasp of mechanical things. I know that’s changing and I’m thankful for the change.

Even today there are women who can’t change a tire (or tyre). Attempting to describe parts of cars to them or the mechanical bits that hold cars together is like describing the color cerulean to someone who’s been blind from birth, there’s little common reference.

There are a lot of Men today that can’t change a tire. Much less know what the bits a pieces of hardware under the hood of their cars do.

I’m slightly better than that in that I recognize and know the functions of the major components under my hood. To be honest, I haven’t actually worked on my own car for years but I do tinker with my motorcycle. It’s not that I wouldn’t but cars today are so computerized you need more than a set of gap blades, and socket wrenches. You need a diagnostic computer and the knowledge to interpret the information it provides.

That being said… I also listen to my car. I know the noises it makes and the normal sound of it’s engine. So while I can’t necessarily tell a mechanic what is wrong, I can usually detect a fault and describe the sound and conditions in which I heard something odd long before it becomes critical.

That too is a lost art. So I tend to gravitate toward older mechanics because they get what I’m saying. A lot to the young mechanics rely Only on what their computers tell them and will sometimes say there’s nothing wrong because the diagnostics tell them so.

I digress.

After speaking to an American, who knows something about cars, driving, and could actually visualize what I was telling him. He concluded that the damage their estimator had denied paying on was in fact within the realm of likelihood. 

After our conversation, he kicked the issue to the appropriate department and it looks like they’re going to pay their whole portion of the claim. 

His only request was that I send a scan of the final bill to him. Which I did.

In the email I listed what portions I was responsible for (including the paintless door ding repair that I’d authorized) and asked only that they pay the balance.

It appears that between the explanation, my insurance claim history, my driving record, and the shear logic of the situation, the insurance company finally decided to pay what they owed.

Of course, for the amount we’re talking about, it would have been cheaper to pay it in the first place because the administrative costs, and investigators have cost more than the difference.

Bureaucracy, thy name means inefficiency.