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It's Just Not Working
Jul. 4th, 2005 01:39 pmActually, I'm just not working. As you can tell by this entry, I've been LJing, reading some favourite blogs, just coasting through the day.
And Derek called.
Let me explain how dumb I am. Very, very stupid. I made a cop laugh at me yesterday when he gave me a form to fill in and I asked if it was the form confirming my stupidity. Why was I talking to a cop, filling in forms? Why, because I'm stupid!
I went for groceries yesterday afternoon. I went to the library first, enjoyed the cool, sunshiney day, then hit Food Basics. I had my list (of which I left a number of items off), so I hopped out, grabbed a cart and went in. As I was paying, a voice came over the speaker. "Would Derek W- please come to till 8?" I'd already noticed the cop at the till, and hadn't seen him buying anything, so I went to a different till. They were ringing my groceries through, so I excused myself and dove over to talk to the nice policeman. Here's the stupidity. I left the car in drive. And it rolled into another parked car. Yay me! Anyway, no damage to the Camry, a little scrape on the other car, and no ticket because it was private property, so I got off easy there. The cop actually said, "I bet your other car is a standard, right?", so hey, a cop with a sense of humour.
The not so easy was the repairs to the victim's back bumper. It's a matter of buffing it out and giving it another coat of paint, so we thought we'd do it privately. I'd resigned myself to paying a couple of hundred to make amends for being stupid (god, it could have been seriously bad). Anyway, they called today to try and make arrangements. D took the call and told them I'd call back - he had nothing to do with it, so he's staying out of it. I called and once I started to get past the accent, we started to get down to business. I asked them to get a second estimate to be sure they weren't being ripped off - they were too busy. I asked them to fax me a copy of thier first estimate so I could have the paperwork - they got an estimate verbally. Finally, I agreed to talk to the guy they'd spoken to just to move forward - nicest guy ever. He was firm on the price, faxed over an estimate, oddly doesn't take cash, but whatever. I'd like to see if his work is as good as his attitude - I recommend him to all the Guelphites if it is.
So, I finally buckle to thier request, and tell them to make an appointment, get the car fixed, and I'll pay the bill. He says fine. 10 minutes later, D calls again to say they want me to call them. They want to know how they are going to get their rental car. Okay, what? Apparently, they expect me to be responsible for getting the owner of the car to work as well. That, I think, is pushing it. I've already spent an hour trying to get this worked out, trying to make sure everyone is being honest with me and I'm not going to get screwed later. I'm starting to get dirty looks from my co-workers. I very politely tell them no, I am not prepared to be responsible for getting you to work. I am not prepared to rent a car and let you drive it. I have no intention of doing that. I think we'd better go through insurance. They agree (the first time they've agreed to anything). So I call D, tell him where it's at, then I call our insurance agents.
We love our insurance agents. All those State Farm ads? Totally true. They rock. So I call, tell them the deal (leaving out the part when I wasn't going to report it to them), and they are kind, and sweet and helpful. They make sure first that no one is hurt, then they take all the details, and then give me the good news - despite the fact it was my fault, it will not raise our premiums. Our insurance is actually an off-shoot from D's dad's original policy from 1970, so we have such a long-term, good-standing relationship that this will not affect our payments.
So finally, after almost two hours of trying to sort this out, State Farm deals with it in mere moments, and my worry is over, and my pocketbook remains closed. I guess that is just yet another example of how stupid I can be.
And Derek called.
Let me explain how dumb I am. Very, very stupid. I made a cop laugh at me yesterday when he gave me a form to fill in and I asked if it was the form confirming my stupidity. Why was I talking to a cop, filling in forms? Why, because I'm stupid!
I went for groceries yesterday afternoon. I went to the library first, enjoyed the cool, sunshiney day, then hit Food Basics. I had my list (of which I left a number of items off), so I hopped out, grabbed a cart and went in. As I was paying, a voice came over the speaker. "Would Derek W- please come to till 8?" I'd already noticed the cop at the till, and hadn't seen him buying anything, so I went to a different till. They were ringing my groceries through, so I excused myself and dove over to talk to the nice policeman. Here's the stupidity. I left the car in drive. And it rolled into another parked car. Yay me! Anyway, no damage to the Camry, a little scrape on the other car, and no ticket because it was private property, so I got off easy there. The cop actually said, "I bet your other car is a standard, right?", so hey, a cop with a sense of humour.
The not so easy was the repairs to the victim's back bumper. It's a matter of buffing it out and giving it another coat of paint, so we thought we'd do it privately. I'd resigned myself to paying a couple of hundred to make amends for being stupid (god, it could have been seriously bad). Anyway, they called today to try and make arrangements. D took the call and told them I'd call back - he had nothing to do with it, so he's staying out of it. I called and once I started to get past the accent, we started to get down to business. I asked them to get a second estimate to be sure they weren't being ripped off - they were too busy. I asked them to fax me a copy of thier first estimate so I could have the paperwork - they got an estimate verbally. Finally, I agreed to talk to the guy they'd spoken to just to move forward - nicest guy ever. He was firm on the price, faxed over an estimate, oddly doesn't take cash, but whatever. I'd like to see if his work is as good as his attitude - I recommend him to all the Guelphites if it is.
So, I finally buckle to thier request, and tell them to make an appointment, get the car fixed, and I'll pay the bill. He says fine. 10 minutes later, D calls again to say they want me to call them. They want to know how they are going to get their rental car. Okay, what? Apparently, they expect me to be responsible for getting the owner of the car to work as well. That, I think, is pushing it. I've already spent an hour trying to get this worked out, trying to make sure everyone is being honest with me and I'm not going to get screwed later. I'm starting to get dirty looks from my co-workers. I very politely tell them no, I am not prepared to be responsible for getting you to work. I am not prepared to rent a car and let you drive it. I have no intention of doing that. I think we'd better go through insurance. They agree (the first time they've agreed to anything). So I call D, tell him where it's at, then I call our insurance agents.
We love our insurance agents. All those State Farm ads? Totally true. They rock. So I call, tell them the deal (leaving out the part when I wasn't going to report it to them), and they are kind, and sweet and helpful. They make sure first that no one is hurt, then they take all the details, and then give me the good news - despite the fact it was my fault, it will not raise our premiums. Our insurance is actually an off-shoot from D's dad's original policy from 1970, so we have such a long-term, good-standing relationship that this will not affect our payments.
So finally, after almost two hours of trying to sort this out, State Farm deals with it in mere moments, and my worry is over, and my pocketbook remains closed. I guess that is just yet another example of how stupid I can be.
