Everybody hates them. Yet you can't live without them.
Whether it's Life, Car, House or whatever, the Insurance racket will get you.
I know. My early business career was IN the insurance industry....first life, then personal property. So I learned early that this was a racket, but was also, in some ways, a necessity to prevent huge problems later. It was kinda like a savings account, but you put WAY more money into it (ultimately) than you would ever get out of it!!
I have put an awful lot of money into my present car insurer. But, then, we insure 2 trucks, a car, several trailers and a camper. I have made zero (0) claims on them. ZERO!
Then there came the wreck. A UPS truck didn't stop and the little care was impaled in its front tire lug nuts. Fortunately, my 2003 Hyundai Elantra did what it was supposed to and the seat belt and air bag prevented hubby from going through windshield or worse. The impact was so hard, that the mirror bar from the truck created a crease in the front hood!!
I have to admit that at first, they did a great job. They found a rental car for us, 2 days before Christmas. Awesome. But then.....they would only pay $20 a day for the car (which was less than the day rate); and they would only pay it for such and such a time. This we learned the hard way.....after they had offered us a payment we only had a week left for them to pay. The offer was pathetic. There was no way we could replace the car for $2,000. Yes, it was a 2003 Hyundai....and it had high miles......but all you can get for $2000 is a 2003 rust bucket with nasty looking stains and debatable care and even higher miles.
Oh, and there is the $250 deductible.
Say WHAT?
We are not at fault here. Why in the world are they acting like we got drunk, ran off the road and wrapped our car around a tree? After all this money we've put into them, why are we being low-balled? Aren't THEY suppose to advocate for us?
Oh, yeah.....UPS is ALSO their client.
How convenient....just use OUR policy to pay us off for something we did not do!!
So far, it's played out:
We have a $250 deductible
We can only recover the "cost" not the "replacement" of said vehicle, after all, that's what OUR policy covers
We had 1 week to find a vehicle after the first offer, because they were no longer going to fund the rental. Of course, this all happened during the end-of-year-push all car dealers were going through, plus holidays, etc. Hardly enough time to really be able to look around to see what was available.
In other words, we had, basically, 1 WEEK to find and acquire another vehicle!!
We did try. We went to the Bedford Auto Mile....we went to the Mentor area, and obviously tried locally. After what happened, we really wanted another Elantra.
The 2007 with 40,000 miles was $10,000. The 2009 was also $10,000 (with high miles) but was, unfortunately, sold right as we were going to negotiate for it. The used 2010's with 21,000 miles were $15,000 and the new 2011's were $18,000. One of the new 2010's was a manual transmission (which I like, but not in snow), but it was priced at $19,000 since it had leather seats (which I do NOT like). Those were in the "considered" group. There were others (like a 2005 priced at $12,000[go figure]) that had things I really didn't want (like leather seats).
Obviously $2,000 wasn't even going to be a good down payment!
It's not like we were looking for a new/different vehicle......it was not in the financial future. And, it's not like everyone has a few thousand dollars to toss around in this economy (if you have it, I give you kudos).
Yet we've been forced to go in a direction we did not want to go at a time we need to be financially conservative.
I can understand the company wanting to keep their costs low. But fair is fair.
I am being punished because an Insurance Company is playing games. Like the Ally commercial says...."even kids know when something is not right."
Saturday, January 15, 2011
Saturday, January 1, 2011
OH MY GOD, IT SNOWED!!
What is it with people?
It snowed in NYC. OK, so it's not normal for NYC to get dumped on. Life gets a bit messed up. But, Gee Whiz, gang....what's with all the whining?
Yeah, I live in the county (my choice).
I live in the SNOW BELT of Ohio.
We get dumped on for 5 months out of the year.
It's not unusual for us to get 1, 2, 3 FEET at a time.
And, yes, we get snowed in.
We ALSO lose power, heat and water.
I didn't hear about THAT from NYC.
I heard how the busses weren't running, the garbage wasn't picked up and EMS/Fire couldn't get through streets.
And I heard the same remarks from CLEVELANDERS when THEY got dumped on.
Well, EXCUUUUUUUSE ME!
I saw the videos. Cars stuck, traffic gridlocked, it was a mess. And I sympathize.
But....HELLO.....
Plows can't plow when there are abandoned cars all over the streets.
Cities have lots and lots of streets, and when it snows THAT hard, the plows can't keep up. Heck, WE have that problem too! and we don't have that many roads. They attempt to keep the main roads open so that Fire/EMS CAN get close enough to people in need and get them to the hospital. And there are times that people die because they "chose the wrong time" to get sick.
As a Firefighter/Paramedic, I know. I know how it feels from BOTH sides. There is NOTHING more frustrating than knowing someone is in bad shape, but you can't get there, or if you DO, you end up getting stuck, or instead of a 5 minute ride to the hospital it takes an HOUR! But don't beat up people who can't get to you.
But what is most amazing is the griping about things like garbage pickup. I mean, COME ON! Let's see, you want all the streets plowed.....and of course all that snow has to go SOMEWHERE....but there's no place to put it so you have to bulldoze it and use front-end loaders to put it into trucks who can't go anywhere because the plows can't get through the streets because there's cars abandoned or parked illegally... and ANYWAY, most city people can WALK to where they absolutely NEED to go.
Now, before you jump down my throat.....I was born and raised in CHICAGO. I remember snowstorms and blizzards that closed that city down for a day or two. But there, people just waited it out and SURPRISE! 2 days later the streets were clear and busses were running, and garbage got picked up (they even plowed the alleys).
Life changes in a bad snowstorm/blizzard. We have gotten so used to doing whatever we want whenever we want, that we have forgotten everything else around us. Somehow, we have gotten the idea that we can do our thing regardless of weather (and, for the most part, we DO) but sometimes you just gotta realize that when it comes down to it, Mother Nature always wins. And when she's winning, just sit back and wait it out. Eventually, everything straightens out.
It snowed in NYC. OK, so it's not normal for NYC to get dumped on. Life gets a bit messed up. But, Gee Whiz, gang....what's with all the whining?
Yeah, I live in the county (my choice).
I live in the SNOW BELT of Ohio.
We get dumped on for 5 months out of the year.
It's not unusual for us to get 1, 2, 3 FEET at a time.
And, yes, we get snowed in.
We ALSO lose power, heat and water.
I didn't hear about THAT from NYC.
I heard how the busses weren't running, the garbage wasn't picked up and EMS/Fire couldn't get through streets.
And I heard the same remarks from CLEVELANDERS when THEY got dumped on.
Well, EXCUUUUUUUSE ME!
I saw the videos. Cars stuck, traffic gridlocked, it was a mess. And I sympathize.
But....HELLO.....
Plows can't plow when there are abandoned cars all over the streets.
Cities have lots and lots of streets, and when it snows THAT hard, the plows can't keep up. Heck, WE have that problem too! and we don't have that many roads. They attempt to keep the main roads open so that Fire/EMS CAN get close enough to people in need and get them to the hospital. And there are times that people die because they "chose the wrong time" to get sick.
As a Firefighter/Paramedic, I know. I know how it feels from BOTH sides. There is NOTHING more frustrating than knowing someone is in bad shape, but you can't get there, or if you DO, you end up getting stuck, or instead of a 5 minute ride to the hospital it takes an HOUR! But don't beat up people who can't get to you.
But what is most amazing is the griping about things like garbage pickup. I mean, COME ON! Let's see, you want all the streets plowed.....and of course all that snow has to go SOMEWHERE....but there's no place to put it so you have to bulldoze it and use front-end loaders to put it into trucks who can't go anywhere because the plows can't get through the streets because there's cars abandoned or parked illegally... and ANYWAY, most city people can WALK to where they absolutely NEED to go.
Now, before you jump down my throat.....I was born and raised in CHICAGO. I remember snowstorms and blizzards that closed that city down for a day or two. But there, people just waited it out and SURPRISE! 2 days later the streets were clear and busses were running, and garbage got picked up (they even plowed the alleys).
Life changes in a bad snowstorm/blizzard. We have gotten so used to doing whatever we want whenever we want, that we have forgotten everything else around us. Somehow, we have gotten the idea that we can do our thing regardless of weather (and, for the most part, we DO) but sometimes you just gotta realize that when it comes down to it, Mother Nature always wins. And when she's winning, just sit back and wait it out. Eventually, everything straightens out.
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