Ill omens at the body shop.
After nearly a month of waiting for my appointment at the body shop, I take the car in. Naturally I'm worried that they're going to find frame damage and it's going to be more than the estimate (more than the car is worth) at the end and I'll have to tell them to scrap it.
I come in and it's obvious they weren't expecting me to drop off my car. After looking me up, and obviously not finding me in the system, they're kind enough to take my car without being asked. Apparently "it won't be an issue" that they haven't ordered my part yet, since they're fixing other stuff first. The last thing I want to hear later in the week is that they can't get a salvage part and will have to carefully repair my door by hand for an extra $1000, else not fix it, after they've begun repairs on the rear panel.
I get some paperwork on the loaner car, and naturally want to read through it to make sure it's free. The guy at the desk pressures me to rush through the legalese, but I resist. I don't appreciate being pressured after becoming worried about their getting the parts. Naturally there are warnings that I'm responsible for all damages, which gets me a little paranoid; wrecking a new car would cost almost an order of magnitude more than I'm paying on this one, and I'm a lot more likely to get into an accident since I'm driving a vehicle I'm not used to.
I get taken to the loaner car. There's a woman inspecting her car with a destroyed bumper, which I had parked next to when I arrived. I had guessed that this car was in line ahead of me to be repaired. She asks the guy taking me to the loaner if she can take anything she wants. Maybe she had forgotten something in the car and came to pick things up today? "It's your car." She pulls off the license plate. They were scrapping her car for bumper damage. The car was much newer than mine; I would guess it was still worth $5000+. There's no way there was that much damage behind the bumper. When my mother's car hit a deer the front end crumpled like an accordion up to 30 cm from the window, and that didn't total her 10-year-old car.
The guy notes a ding on the hood. I sure hope he wrote that down, because I could hardly grab his paperwork to check. Finally I try to give him the fuse I had to pull to prevent the dome light from draining the battery, since the door wouldn't close properly. I figured the body shop would want to put it back so they could test the door. It look 3 explanations before he would take the fuse. I'm betting they lose it.
I come in and it's obvious they weren't expecting me to drop off my car. After looking me up, and obviously not finding me in the system, they're kind enough to take my car without being asked. Apparently "it won't be an issue" that they haven't ordered my part yet, since they're fixing other stuff first. The last thing I want to hear later in the week is that they can't get a salvage part and will have to carefully repair my door by hand for an extra $1000, else not fix it, after they've begun repairs on the rear panel.
I get some paperwork on the loaner car, and naturally want to read through it to make sure it's free. The guy at the desk pressures me to rush through the legalese, but I resist. I don't appreciate being pressured after becoming worried about their getting the parts. Naturally there are warnings that I'm responsible for all damages, which gets me a little paranoid; wrecking a new car would cost almost an order of magnitude more than I'm paying on this one, and I'm a lot more likely to get into an accident since I'm driving a vehicle I'm not used to.
I get taken to the loaner car. There's a woman inspecting her car with a destroyed bumper, which I had parked next to when I arrived. I had guessed that this car was in line ahead of me to be repaired. She asks the guy taking me to the loaner if she can take anything she wants. Maybe she had forgotten something in the car and came to pick things up today? "It's your car." She pulls off the license plate. They were scrapping her car for bumper damage. The car was much newer than mine; I would guess it was still worth $5000+. There's no way there was that much damage behind the bumper. When my mother's car hit a deer the front end crumpled like an accordion up to 30 cm from the window, and that didn't total her 10-year-old car.
The guy notes a ding on the hood. I sure hope he wrote that down, because I could hardly grab his paperwork to check. Finally I try to give him the fuse I had to pull to prevent the dome light from draining the battery, since the door wouldn't close properly. I figured the body shop would want to put it back so they could test the door. It look 3 explanations before he would take the fuse. I'm betting they lose it.