King of the World
I thought I'd tell you all the exciting conclusion to the van story. Once again, to save space on everyone's friends page, I'll tell it in here...
As you know, we got the van back within 48 hours of the time it was stolen. The insurance people sent us papers, eventually got around to going out to appraise the damage (right around $5000, almost $2000 of which was the back seat assembly), and the repair job was started almost a month ago today. There were a variety of things that caused delays in the repair process, including the delivery of the wrong glass and the Independence Day holidays, but we finaly got the Dan back on Wednesday night.
As usual, this is never just a cut-and-dried process for me. I always have to have some interesting things happen. The Mid-City Automotive guys, Chris and Joe, have been just great through this whole process, right down to finding a nice used back seat assembly and saving me my entire deductible. The body work is excellent, though the Dan does bear one tiny scar in the rubber on the back bumper. It looks like they were moving something very heavy into or out of the van and scraped a little bit off that. Other than that, he looks great -- the wheels haven't been that clean since I got the vehicle. :)
So when we get into the car, I look into the back and see that we have no back seat -- oops. When I tried to open the door to get out to tell him this, I couldn't -- oops again. Those are the only two minor details we still have to clear up -- Joe needed to let the seat finish drying from its cleaning, but since we need to get the brakes worked on anyway, we're just gonna call today and make an appointment to come over some time next week and do all that at once. (Well, we might go get the seat today, but the other can wait a bit -- it's kinda nice to have Jaye come around and open the door for me, though I could do without the "Now, watch your step, Miss Daisy..." part...)
The other really interesting part was the payment process with the insurance company. Progressive has been just fantastic throughout this whole thing -- prompt, responsive, helpful, everything I've been led to believe an insurance company cannot be. They cut me a check for the repairs right away and sent it to me with the appraisal. (That caused some complications come actual payment time, but those were quickly worked out.) However, because of delays in the mail, I ended up having the rental car for six more days than was covered on my policy, and I was prepared to eat that until l noticed that Norman (our adjuster) had told me that I had a limit of $25 per day, but my policy said I had $30 per day. He allowed me the $30 per day, which was just exactly enough to cover the entire rental including the extra days. I thought that was particularly fortuitous. :) Not only did he approve the payment, he gave me a check right on the spot -- amazing.
So we have the Dan back and are now setting about getting him comfortable again. The music isn't going to be as hard to replace as I'd originally thought. Jaye has almost everything that was stolen on his iTunes, and we tested last night to be sure we could play things burned on the iTunes in the car. Copacetic. I still have to perform stringoplasty on Bogie, but he's hanging from the window now by the shredded remains of his original string. We need a new (and better designed) trash receptacle, and I imagine that a pillow will be added on the first road trip we take. I also have to replace the cell phone charger.
Ah, I almost forgot the funny thing we saw on the way home. We're sitting at the red light on Conti at Decatur, waiting for it to change so we can head into the Quarter, when a mule, harnessed, sans buggy or driver, came charging through the intersection. I've lived here for eleven years, and that's the first time I've seen a runaway mule. He was high-tailing it up Decatur and turned into the projects at Bienville... One of the funniest things I've seen here ever. :)
All in all, it's been a pretty benign traumatic experience. ;)
As you know, we got the van back within 48 hours of the time it was stolen. The insurance people sent us papers, eventually got around to going out to appraise the damage (right around $5000, almost $2000 of which was the back seat assembly), and the repair job was started almost a month ago today. There were a variety of things that caused delays in the repair process, including the delivery of the wrong glass and the Independence Day holidays, but we finaly got the Dan back on Wednesday night.
As usual, this is never just a cut-and-dried process for me. I always have to have some interesting things happen. The Mid-City Automotive guys, Chris and Joe, have been just great through this whole process, right down to finding a nice used back seat assembly and saving me my entire deductible. The body work is excellent, though the Dan does bear one tiny scar in the rubber on the back bumper. It looks like they were moving something very heavy into or out of the van and scraped a little bit off that. Other than that, he looks great -- the wheels haven't been that clean since I got the vehicle. :)
So when we get into the car, I look into the back and see that we have no back seat -- oops. When I tried to open the door to get out to tell him this, I couldn't -- oops again. Those are the only two minor details we still have to clear up -- Joe needed to let the seat finish drying from its cleaning, but since we need to get the brakes worked on anyway, we're just gonna call today and make an appointment to come over some time next week and do all that at once. (Well, we might go get the seat today, but the other can wait a bit -- it's kinda nice to have Jaye come around and open the door for me, though I could do without the "Now, watch your step, Miss Daisy..." part...)
The other really interesting part was the payment process with the insurance company. Progressive has been just fantastic throughout this whole thing -- prompt, responsive, helpful, everything I've been led to believe an insurance company cannot be. They cut me a check for the repairs right away and sent it to me with the appraisal. (That caused some complications come actual payment time, but those were quickly worked out.) However, because of delays in the mail, I ended up having the rental car for six more days than was covered on my policy, and I was prepared to eat that until l noticed that Norman (our adjuster) had told me that I had a limit of $25 per day, but my policy said I had $30 per day. He allowed me the $30 per day, which was just exactly enough to cover the entire rental including the extra days. I thought that was particularly fortuitous. :) Not only did he approve the payment, he gave me a check right on the spot -- amazing.
So we have the Dan back and are now setting about getting him comfortable again. The music isn't going to be as hard to replace as I'd originally thought. Jaye has almost everything that was stolen on his iTunes, and we tested last night to be sure we could play things burned on the iTunes in the car. Copacetic. I still have to perform stringoplasty on Bogie, but he's hanging from the window now by the shredded remains of his original string. We need a new (and better designed) trash receptacle, and I imagine that a pillow will be added on the first road trip we take. I also have to replace the cell phone charger.
Ah, I almost forgot the funny thing we saw on the way home. We're sitting at the red light on Conti at Decatur, waiting for it to change so we can head into the Quarter, when a mule, harnessed, sans buggy or driver, came charging through the intersection. I've lived here for eleven years, and that's the first time I've seen a runaway mule. He was high-tailing it up Decatur and turned into the projects at Bienville... One of the funniest things I've seen here ever. :)
All in all, it's been a pretty benign traumatic experience. ;)