Insurance Part V

  

This is part 5 in a ? part series.

Part I: http://www.theangryaussie.com/2020/09/insurance-company.html
Part II: http://www.theangryaussie.com/2020/09/insurance-company-part-ii.html
Part III: http://www.theangryaussie.com/2020/09/fucking-insurance-company-part-iii.html

Part IV: http://www.theangryaussie.com/2020/10/insurance-company-part-iv.html
Part V: You are here!

Where we left off, I had just been able to take my car in to get it appraised, and it looked like I was finally going to start getting a resolution.

The smash repairers replied to me with their quotes (for the car/collision, and the window).

The car quote was for $6 517.59. WTF?

This is the damage:

That little diamond shaped scuff on the bumper cover where he initially rammed me.

The ding on the front of the wheel well, where he drove into me the second time, and that little wrinkle in the door

The hubcap got knocked off, and some scrapes on the crappy steel rim, and the tyre. The hubcap was fine, until he backed over it, when the police told him he could leave, as it ended up under his car, behind his front wheel.

Most of those marks on the door are dirt. The scuff behind the wheel is old, from some shitty driver who would have brushed against my car backing out of a parking space or something.

The front plastic bumper cover is cracked, scuffed, and the plastic from around the fake fog light fell out, but I have it, and it's fine..

Somehow fixing that is $6 500?!

That's only a preliminary quote too, and will most likely be more, once they do the work.. Ridiculous.

They have just piled on any and everything they can think of:

I'm just looking at this..

The first thing I see, "blend roof rail"? WTF? Are they expecting to be painting the entire door, which is all plastic, like the rest of the crappy car, from the window level above?!

What a scam. I don't even want to read the rest of this.

The window quote was for $524.32. $235 for the glass, and then a bunch of crap.

I forwarded them over to the insurance company:

Hi [redacted],

I took my car in on.. whatever day it was, and had the photos taken. Bemac replied to me this morning..

Good Morning!

Sorry for the delay in getting this to you.

Please see the attached repair estimates for your collision claim and your back glass replacement.

Let me know if there are any questions. 

Thanks,
[redacted]

Appraiser
CSN Bemac
900 Clyde Ave N.
Ottawa, Ont.
[ phone number ]

and she attached the estimates which I have included here for you..

The prelim is the one I imagine you are interested in, and the window, not being covered, I just included for whatever (any?) value it may provide you.

I am still attempting to get in contact with the Quebec police officer who attended the scene and collected the other driver's details. Last Monday I called them, and they told me he would contact me, but he has not, so I called them again this morning, and they are going to ask him to contact me again, and he's not working today. So I continue to play the waiting game. Except the waiting game is boring, and I would rather play Hungry Hungry Hippos.

I mention that I am trying to get in contact with him, both for the purposes of attempting to obtain the other insurance company's details to provide to you, as well as so I can then attempt to contact the other driver, to find out if he would like to just pay for the window, or if he'd like me to press charges against him for breaking it, and then suing him for the cost of the replacement, and then him paying for it.. Sigh,

In our previous conversation, at some point I recall you (or [redacted]?) mentioned the possibility of a cash settlement, rather than paying for the repairs directly. I would be interested in discussing this option, as I can probably do some of the cosmetic repairs to the vehicle myself (just as I may end up just buying and installing a new piece of glass in the rear door myself, depending on what happens with all that..), so please let me know what the options are there.

Thank you very much, regards,
Simon

I started researching how to get my hands on the window, or the entire door, so I could replace it, as at this point, I have no idea if I am going to be able to get it paid for by the window puncher, or I'm just going to end up paying for it myself.

I find a guy in the middle of Michigan, or maybe he finds me, I can't recall, I think he contacted me after I posted in the Facebag group for the Mitsubishi POS, err, RVR, ranting about trying to find a replacement window.

He's trying to get me to drive the 11 hours or more, each way, from Ottawa to Detroit, to collect the entire rear door from him. No. I am not spending 22 hours driving, listening to a garbage bag flapping, plus all the other crap of having to cross an international border during Covid, stay in a motel somewhere, fuel and food costs, to end up being paid about $3/hr in order to do it and save any money vs just paying to have it replaced.

And we never even negotiated a price on the door..

I find this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJVch1zCYLE

and this FAQ: http://shipgreyhound.com/faq/#:~:text=We%20currently%20deliver%20throughout%20the,services%20in%20Mexico%20or%20Canada.

There also seem to be a bunch of third parties/brokers involved in this for some reason, eg https://www.busfreighter.com/our-rates/rates/

As I cannot find a way to calculate the shipping cost, nor find a definite answer regarding getting packages across the border, only within the same country, I send them an email to find out:

Hello,

I am currently trying to find a way to have a car liftgate (rear door/hatch etc) shipped from Detroit, Michigan, to Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Mine was damaged in a collision, after which the other driver put his fist through the window, which other than being quite exciting, is not being covered by insurance as it was not part of the actual collision (gotta love insurance companies!), so I am currently investigating the viability of having a second hand replacement shipped via your services, from a friend who lives near Detroit.

I think the cost will be quite reasonable, though I haven't been able to work that out exactly, as I can't seem to find if you actually ship things across the border from the US into Canada..

If you do, and shipping an item of this size and weight is reasonable, please let me know, and then we can go through the process of working out how much it would be expected to cost, so that then I can decide if this whole plan is not as ridiculous as it initially sounds.

Thanks,
Simon

They eventually replied, simply saying:

I am sorry but we do not ship across the Canadian border.

Great. I tried looking up some other ways to get it moved for a reasonable price, but they didn't exist, so I gave up on that idea.

Also, Blogger you suck. I published this, and you mangled the date, and even when I edited to fix it, it wouldn't fix the URL, so I had to delete and republish the entire thing. Ugh.