What is This Wicked Pastime?

Some of you have figured this out by now – most of these posts are my musings, me speaking to myself. There’s a fair amount of reflection, wishful thinking and commentary on the world around me that reflects directly back to me. You know, the world according to Garp; if I were king for a day kind of stuff. But what does it all do? Does it cause me to revise my thinking, enable me to improve myself or my outlook? It should, but one needs to be receptive, open to being wrong, open to admit having made mistakes. In other words, it depends on the day.

Some of the wonders of writing journals or diaries are the recognitions, realizations, and epiphanies that accompany the act of putting thoughts to paper. Writing gives our mind something to feed on with a jumping off point to ponder new thoughts and ideas, ones we might not otherwise admit to ourselves. It’s often a cathartic process. That cleansing is a good thing we all need now and then. Today, I feel the need to do some cleansing. I’m guessing this trip to the bathtub will strike a chord with many of you.

Insurance companies. I’m probably not alone when I say, generally speaking, I detest them. I often view insurance agents as innocent bystanders, the people caught in the middle between insurer and insured. While at times they can give good advice, when it comes to actually filing and resolving a claim I find them mostly ineffectual. So I pretty much discount them from satisfactorily resolving issues; they rarely have much to say in the process.

Claims adjusters – my beef starts with them. First off, insurance companies intentionally understaff their claims departments. That way, it takes longer to pay out on your claim; they get to hold onto your money longer. Those adjusters then work their tails off to delay and obfuscate responsibility to pay any claim. My latest and greatest insurance complaint is centered around an auto accident involving our GMC SUV. This accident was caused, unequivocally, by a 90 year old driver. He had come to a complete stop in a line of cars at a red light. He had intentionally left room for my wife to pull out of a parking lot into traffic ahead of him.

They had made eye contact, he was at a complete stop and waved her out, so she pulled into the street ahead of him in the space of about one-and-a-half car lengths. My wife pulled out as far as she reasonably could and was completely in the road before coming to a stop, now in the line of cars at the red light. At this point, the 90 year old inexplicably began moving forward and continued to move forward until he struck the left front side of our GMC.

If he had wanted to go around, there was space in a vacant two-way left hand turn lane, but he made no effort to swerve or avoid the stopped vehicle in front of him. He simply hit it. We had an impartial eye witness who confirmed the whole incident – the other driver was clearly, 100% at fault.

In the finely honed delay tactics of insurance these days, their insurance company, Progressive, refused to pay. We enlisted our insurance company, Farmers. They ended up in arbitration, to me just another delay tactic. Our adjuster told us we had a better than 9 out of 10 chance it would go our way. Somehow, the arbiter found for the 90 year old. I have no idea how this is possible. We have appealed, but in the land of insurance, common sense means nothing and lying is the rule of the day. Naturally, communication has been spotty and minimalist. They never have answers for specific questions.

Top that off with this: I had to pay an additional $4,500 to get our SUV one, repaired with OEM parts, two, at the shop of my choosing, and three, restored to its pre-collision state of condition. Farmers adjusters excused their poor performance by claiming we should have picked one of their approved auto repair shops. Excuse, me?! Why on earth would I pick a shop where you get to dictate the quality of the repair? These cars are worth a lot of money. We’re entitled to have our car restored to its former glory without diminished value, of original quality and condition. OEM parts ensure that.

I have used this particular body shop, Big E Auto Rebuild, for over 45 years. They do excellent work. Our agent said Farmers routinely does work with them because many of their quality-conscious customers request Big E do the work. So what is the big mystery, and now dispute by Farmers, over the labor rates Big E has charged, unchanged, for several years? They are not excessive, capricious or arbitrary. To use Farmers own words, they are customary for this area. So, for now they’ve stuck me with the extra bill.

Now I have to go after the insurance company for reimbursement through an independent appraiser and/or a lawyer. At this point, I could do small claims court, but I’m not entirely confident I can fight off the sneaky insurance company’s ability to manipulate that avenue. So, I think I’m better off approaching the appraiser first.

I’m sure this thing will drag on for at least another six months, more likely a year. It’s been three months since the accident and we just got the car back yesterday. I had to constantly cajole, pester, and barter with all the involved parties for three months just to barely get the vehicle back in time for the ski trip we leave on in two days. And you know they’re going to sit on my $4,500 bucks for as long as they can. Fuckers. They make money, we lose money.

It irritates the hell out of me we end up fighting someone we pay to be our ally. And they do a shit job of defending us at an arbitration. It’s like a tribunal court – we have no say, no rights, no idea of the process or how decisions are rendered. Just take it up the ass and smile when it’s over. I’m thinking of George Harrison now and his song, The Taxman. He should have written one about insurers.

I’ll be complaining more; probably to the state insurance commissioner. Like that will do any good. This is only a partial cleansing. You know – I’m healing in stages. Right now, I have a really sore ass. I think it might be infected….