Sometimes, owning cars is more trouble that it's worth

[selenay]

The good news is that the insurance company is already being quick to move on getting my car fixed after yesterday's little incident, helped by the fact that it wasn't my fault so they're not going to be paying for it in the long-run :-)

I've got the car booked into the garage for Saturday and I'll have a courtesy car while it's being fixed.

The bad news is with the courtesy car: the insurance company has only authorised a manual so I now have to battle with them tonight to get an automatic. The car hire people who are providing the courtesy car have booked me with an automatic to make sure that a car will be available, so it's just pursuading the insurance that I really, really can't drive a manual and getting them to put through the upgrade. The car hire people have offered to battle with the insurance company if I can't get them to see sense. So yay. But it's still another phone call to the insurance company tonight to get this all sorted.

It would be so much easier if you just spoke to one person, who made all the arrangements, rather than speaking to the insurance, garage and hire people seperately requiring multiple phone calls and call backs to confirm. Erf. I'm remembering why I hate having my car crashed into.

Still, at least the woman who crashed into me yesterday gave me valid details and can be traced, unlike the time a few years ago when someone reversed into me and refused to provide any details. I also had the sense this time to take down the registration number, which meant that even if the girl hadn't given me her insurance details my company could trace her. That was something I didn't think of with the other woman, which was why my car remained unrepaired until it was stolen a couple of months later.

Thank goodness it's Tuesday and I can veg out in front of the TV tonight with Life on Mars but no Holby, the bastards.

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Is your difficulty with the manual "a general reluctance", or do you only have an automatic license? I'd hope that the insurance would accept the rationale of "It's got to be an automatic, otherwise it's not legal!"

Hell, you'd think that "I haven't driven a manual for XX years, and if I have an accident it'll be your fault" might work on an insurance company!

[selenay]

*g* I have problems with my joints, particularly my back and left hip. They're generally painful all the time, but driving a manual car makes them even more painful. It was the reason I changed to driving an automatic a year ago, when the doctors declared that they couldn't see any hope of making things better. So it's a physicially incapable without even more painkillers than I usually take case. Woo me.

I'm having to use my walking stick today, so I'm rather inclined to track down their head office and klonk them with the thing if they refuse to help :-) The dratted thing has to have some practical advantages!