Okay, time for an update. Geico came up with an estimate of $5223, which was
based on $44/hr labor rate (which everyone tells me is too low by about
$10-20/hr for this area) and parts from several vendors. The estimate is pretty
detailed, even listing who they talked to at which vendor for each part. Maybe
this is common - I don't know. When the adjuster brought me the check, he said,
"Yeah, everywhere we called about parts, they said 'Oh, this must be for
Gordon's car.'" Ah, the power of the Internet.
They assured me that accepting the check did not close the claim, it was just to
make sure I had some money to get the repair process started. However, the fine
print requires that any further damage that is found by the body shop needs to
be documented with photographs, etc. Probably not unreasonable to prevent
blatant ripoffs. So, not too bad so far. Inspected on Tuesday, check in hand by
Friday with no whining. I could have had the check on Thursday if we could have
made connections.
On Wednesday "my" bodyman, Jay Newberry, came by to look at the car and
confirmed most of what the adjusters had said. Jay did find a bit more damage
that they hadn't spotted, but not necessarily a lot.
Now comes the difficult part. Jay isn't actually in the auto body business at
the moment, so he doesn't have a business license, thus he can't do formal
estimates that Geico will recognize (probably). We're trying to see if he can
subcontract through a body shop in his area so that he can do the work and still
get Geico to listen to him. I really want Jay to do the work if possible because
he already knows the car and the custom mods we did on it, he's local so I can
help work on it, and he's a great craftsman. I know both Ross and Les would do
an equally great job on my car, but I want to keep the car close enough that I
can actively participate in the process. If all goes well, I'm going to make a
few more mods that I've been thinking about.
Today another adjuster from Geico called me to see about the medical claim (I'm
still sore). He wants to get a statement for the record. I may just direct him
to my doctor.
I also encountered somewhat of a "crisis of conscience" if you will. On the
advice of my doctor, I consulted a lawyer, just to see if I needed one. She was
pleased with the way things were going on the damage claim, and said she didn't
need to get in the middle of that. And they know my doctor, so they know he
knows how to handle the insurance claims. Then she said, "So that leaves pain
and suffering." (Of course, this is how they make their 30%).
That gave me a problem. I'm tired of hearing about people making bonehead moves
that hurt themselves and then sueing everyone in sight. It's like they think
they just won the lottery or something. A few years ago, Joanne totalled our
Sentra SE-R in an accident with a Volvo (her fault). She got some bruising from
the seatbelt and the woman driving the Volvo broke a couple of fingernails.
Joanne went to the hospital to get checked out; the Volvo driver didn't. The
insurance process got started, and then we were notified that the other party
was sueing us for over $100,000!
Our insurance company investigated and found out this woman was taking 5
different mood-enhancing prescription drugs from 4 different doctors, none of
whom knew about the others. In addition, she and her husband had had several
failed business ventures and filed for bankruptcy twice. After our insurance
company presented this information to their lawyer, they settled out of court
for some amount (we never found out how much) that I'm sure was less than $100
large.
So when my lawyer mentioned "pain and suffering," I had kind of a negative
reaction. My reply was "I haven't had any." She said, "Yes, you have." and
proceeded to point out all the things I was having to go through as a result of
this accident which wasn't my fault. I thought about it over the weekend and
decided that she had a point. Here's the stuff I'm dealing with:
Every time I have to go to the chiropractor, I have to drive to work instead of
taking the bus (subsidised by my company). That's 30 miles plus $8 for parking.
Same situation if I have to go meet the adjusters, etc.
I am having to leave work early frequently to deal with all this, because
businesses, doctors, lawyers and body shops keep daytime hours. This doesn't
look real great at work, because I'm still new at this company, we have a very
aggressive software release schedule and most of the other people are working
overtime. So when I come home, I have to get on the computer and do some more
work from here (instead of enjoying the evening with my wife).
Driving the roadster is done for this year. Summer is short enough up here as it
is and we were just getting into the good part of it. And that's still my hobby.
I love just taking the car out for a drive in the evening or going out with the
club for a tour. No more this year.
I'm still stiff and sore, which is keeping me from doing any work on the car
(not to mention any number of other things). I had projects I wanted to do, but
now they're going to have to wait until I get all this damage fixed, both to me
and the car.
The bottom line is, yes, my life has been negatively impacted in a fairly
significant way. I didn't see it that way until I really started to list all
these things, and I still can't put a dollar value on it, but I guess that's the
only way we have in this society to "even the balance." So I told her to go
ahead, although I didn't give her a number. Besides, like she said, "If you
really feel that strongly about it, take the money and give it to your favorite
charity."
It's been an interesting week.
Gordon Glasgow
Renton, WA
[demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/ms-tnef which had a
name of winmail.dat]
/// datsun-roadsters@autox.team.net mailing list
|