The Trials and Tribulations of getting my truck repaired

I mentioned on June 3 that my new truck got T-Boned by someone backing out of a parking space when we were stopped at the end of an aisle at a supermarket.

Well, their insurance company really stunk. First, it took forever to get a first call back. Then, we were supposed to have a website to visit to see how the claim was progressing. Well, the website didn't work no matter which browser I used. There also was a telephone number for a lady at their claims company to get information from. No matter what time of day you called, you always got a recording to call back during regular business hours. (It always was during regular business hours for almost a month straight). The same thing happened when you tried to call the supervisor. It was always the same recording. Finally, after three weeks I called the insurance company back directly rather than the claims people they use to find out when someone was going to come and look at my truck so I could get it repaired. We made an appointment with a repair place two hours away for Monday of this week. The adjustor was supposed to show up last Friday.

The truck is a 2011 GMC Sierra Extended Cab 4x4 with 5,000 miles on it. The whole back door is completely smashed in, as well as lots of damage to the front door and the bed of the pickup truck.

Everything was set up for Monday, then Enterprise called late Friday night and said there were not going to be any cars until Tuesday. (Apparently the insurance company never called them until after 5 on Friday to reserve the car).

We called the repair place first thing Monday morning to let him know that there were no cars, and he said to wait until this morning because he didn't want us to have to spend the night in Bangor and have to use a taxi to get around. I called back to the other insurance company and told them what happened. They put me on with a supervisor, and he gave me an upgrade for the rental.

(Part of the problem was that we had told them originally that we would definitely need our truck between the 29th of June and the 7th of July because we were planning on going to meet the kids and grand children in Mass. and spending a weekend camping with them. Then we were all coming back up here, and we would need the truck because we would have to have room for three car seats in the back. We will be doing a lot of baby sitting while the parents spend time with friends, and we need to be able to take the kids with us. (The parents aren't registered to drive the rental, so we can't switch cars). Of course the Ins. Co. scheduled the repairs for the week we needed the truck, so we had to cancel our plans for the camping weekend. The kids live 15 hours away, so this was a big deal for us. Anyway, we ended up getting a larger car from the insurance company, so we could at least take the kids swimming and things.

We had the car at the repair shop at 8 this morning, and picked up the rental. On the way home, the repair shop called and said that the ins. co. would only go for a skin for the rear door, and that was unsafe because the door was beyond repair, as well as the reinforcement things being cracked and bent and it was a safety issue. The repair shop actually got hold of the claims adjustor, and he said no. The repair shop refused to do work which would make a vehicle unsafe, plus the truck would not pass inspection because of it.

We headed back to Bangor. I tried calling the claims adjustor and his supervisor back, and leaving messages. As of 1 pm, they still hadn't called back, although once I got a call from the supervisors number, and the minute I answered he said "wrong number" and hung up. It was his number that called my cell phone, so he must have hit my number by mistake. After that, I called our insurance Co, the Hartford, and found out that we would have to come up with the $500 deductible immediately, but we don't have $500. We took the truck to the dealership, and also to another repair facility, and they all refused to touch it because of safety issues. Both repair shops, the dealership, and apparently the Hartford had been making calls to the other ins. co., but none of them could get a response.

At 3:45, all of a sudden, the Hartford called back and said they had wavered the deductible, and an adjuster was on his way to look at the truck. They said that since the other guy's insurance had claimed full responsibility, (The other company only took responsibility after calls from the police about the accident, and finding out that it was all on the supermarket's security cameras), that they, The Hartford would fix our truck right and go after them for everything including the deductible. The Hartford was really mad because even they couldn't get a call back, and two repair shops were both staying open after hours trying to help us.

The Hartford called Enterprise and switched the rental to them from the other company, and told us to keep the car, and leave the truck and have it repaired. Buy the time the adjuster came, and everything was done, we didn't get home until 8:15 tonight. We thought everything was going to be fine, but now we find out that we are still going to have to go after the other company to pay the difference on the rental, because it is $50 per day, and they will only cover $20. The truck won't be done until the 6 of July at the earliest because there is so much damage, and they ordered the parts last week, but the company shipped some of the wrong parts. Since next week is a holiday week, everything is going to be later than usual.

I thought everything was straightened out, but tomorrow will be spent trying to straighten out the car rental.

Here's an update. This morning I got up dreading the long trip back to return the rental. I went on line to get the information I needed, and in my email, I saw a message about comments to a photo on my SCS gallery. The lady congratulated me on receiving customer card of the day at Our Daily Bread Designs. Wow, what an honor, and on a day I was dreading! Right after I posted a Thank You on the ODBD Blog, the phone rang. I think the car rental is straightened out. It was a call from the bad company, and he was livid about all the phone calls yesterday and was really nasty, but he said they will take care of it. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Maybe God is smiling on me today. :-)