... and Then They Got Worse

Yesterday I wrote about accident with car: dented and scraped paint off passenger side door. Wife now has similar scratches where I hit her with the axe ... except hers are red on white instead of vice versa. She's recovering nicely but keeps complaining how the chains hurt her ankles and how dark it is in the closet.

This morning we drove car to nearby repair place, Autodex. They had handled fixing the ding I'd put on the rear bumper last month. Nice guy there: Estimator Alex. Took excellent care of Wife on Saturday. Actually walked to our house on Saturday to give preliminary estimate on car. Helped calm Wife down to reasonable extent too: she didn't jump out of our 3rd floor window, which was good. No fun beating a dead horse, as they say. Saturday he'd guessed £800 damage. OK, bearable. We probably wouldn't turn that into insurance company because we have £500 deductible. By the way, you won't be far off by multiplying every number in this post by two to get value in US Dollars.

Today though, at his shop, he does full computerized estimate; £1400. Gulp. Wife is now very white. I say, "Sorry. Gotta take this to insurance." He says, "OK, let me know when they'll have their adjuster look at it."

We go home, get organized, call our insurance company. We're told: (A) Yes, you can take it to Autodex, and (1) we won't warranty that service, (2) you won't get a rental car, (3) we can't have our adjuster look at it until next week because he's based at our facility, not theirs.

So I ask,"What's plan B?"

Answer: we'll call you either today or tomorrow with an appointment time at our contracted repair facility 20 miles (that's 40 minutes) from where you live; you bring it there at the appointed time; then we'll estimate it and then we'll see when we can fit you in to actually do the repairs.

We fly toward US in three weeks and I have to have the car sold before then, so, I'm caught between a rock and a bigger rock. I have to say yes to the guy.

I'm pretty sure this won't turn out well.