There's the expression "Out with a bang." That was how 2008 concluded; and it most definitely made that "bang" sound, even if I did not officially hear it myself.
Let's just let it all hang out within the first couple paragraphs. This is how it all went down.
1) We go to Chicago for a weekend and parked the car on our street. (Our quiet, rather residential street). We come home to find out that the front end of our car was hit. It was a neighbor hit and run.
2) Civic LX gets hit again (while backing out) in the parking lot at Trader Joe's. No damage. It does, however, surface the anger from stupid neighbor hitting car and not confessing....[Watch face turn dark shade of pink]
3) The final incident: Car is parked outside of friend's home well away from the curb. (Friends live in a very residential area - so residential in fact that if you do not know someone who lives there or live there yourself you do not go there.) Civic is side swiped and totaled by a 17-year old who is 4 points away from losing his license.
Talk about bad car karma. Not to mention this happens just before the holidays, leaving us out of car and needing to get to Milwaukee. Ironic that when someone hits you and it is clearly their fault you suffer more.
And why do you suffer more, one may ask. Well, here is why.
I happen to be one who believe, much like Anne Frank once said, that all people are good at heart. For this very reason, I did not take insurance information from the driver, write down his license plate number or call the cops. No, instead I simply took his cell phone number. Very, very fortunately for me, the driver is a neighbor of our friends and daddy (with son in tow) came by to "access" damage and talk about next steps. They seemed like decent, fair people. No problem, right? A simple estimate and we'd have the check in hand. Hahaha
It was very clear they did NOT want to go through insurance. No big deal. (We did not know at this time of the kid's already tainted driving record). Avoiding insurance seemed like the best for the both of us. I have been brainwashed to think that all insurance companies want to do is steal your money and make a profit...oh wait... nevermind... (this may be a topic for another post ;))
So come Monday morning we bring the car in to get a couple of quotes. Each of these quotes nearly wiped me clean off my rocker. The estimates were for well over the value of the car. So it was deemed a "total loss." The real loss though was that the kiddo was no longer taking my phone calls and the parents didn't seem to think they'd have to cough up 3k.
To make a very long story short - we went through their insurance. I made a $250 profit (yes, profit) on the car. Bought it for $250 less than what insurance gave me three year ago. Sweet deal. As it turns out after all the going back and forth, being pulled through the mud with this family and their crap-driver son - we did end up ahead of everything.
However, that is the last time I assume everyone is good at heart. I have learned that there are plenty of people, that even after knowing what they did was wrong will still try to cheat you out of a buck. The whole, "Angela, we have tuition to pay. We need to reach an agreement that is fair for each of us" or the "You want 3k?! You want to rip me off? I'll give you 1500" or "Fine, we'll give you 3k and we keep the car." or my personal favorite "You'll have to talk to his mother. She will be dealing with this and her son."
I could go on, but it's really beside the point. It was an unfortunate thing that happened, but we got rid of a car that was starting to cause us problems and cost us money, and we got a good lump on money to get us a newer and better car. Happy Holidays from Progressive. :)
Lordly lordly lord. What a wonderful world we live in.
----
Side note: These are the following steps to make if ever in an accident.
1) Get all their information. (Insurance, license, address, cell phone, full name, SSN, birthday, sign... :))
2) Call your insurance and file a claim immediately.
3) Call the cops and file a report. (If they seem angered by this, do it from your car so they don't know the cops are a coming.)
4) If there are witnesses, get their names.
I would never want a friend (or enemy for that matter) to have to go through this process. It's a bear, plus being out a car makes for an uneventful life in these USofAs.
No comments:
Post a Comment