Whole lotta shit.
Well, where to start?? It’s been a very busy period lately. And in addition, we’ve run out of broadband goodness because I downloaded too much stuff and we are demoted to dial-up speed until account turnover date. So it takes forever to load a page, even LJ.
Anyway, after the Jack burnt out, we went looking for new wheels. New second hand wheels. Everything decent was $10K and above. The insurance payout was going to be half that.
Going to be. Yeah, right. Then I heard from the insurance company. They charged me $500 excess (the woman on the claims line told me there’d be zero excess) and in addition, the evil thieving bastards deducted a full year’s premium from the payout. Even though I wasn’t covered for the rest of the year.
Anyway, on Thursday I had a call from Meals On Wheels, asking me to do a stand-in run in Friday. I am usually available to cover extras, as I don’t have to go to work. So on my rounds, I saw three possible vehicles for private sale. (Here in the sticks, if you’ve got a car for sale you park it next to the main road with a ‘for sale’ sign in it.)
I arrived home at 12.30PM and we had lunch with one of the young ladies who has been in some of our recent productions. After she left, I checked my bank account, and the bastard insurance company had paid out !! So in the rain, we went out to look at these three vehicles. The first one looked very nice, mid-blue paintwork with a silver panel down low on the body. Square, boxy 4x4 Mitsubishi Pajero, 1989 vintage. We rang the owner and had a test drive - and bought the thing on the spot. Even though it’s an automatic. The thing is, the price was right. We had change from the insurance payout, even after the bastard insurance company stung us for $1000.
That was Friday. Since then we’ve taken the dogs to the beach (long overdue, they all had cabin fever) and last night we went fishin’. Not me and Her, me and Richard. There are a few things to be done, to the new beast, like replace seat belts and tighten up a few trim screws here and there, but overall it’s a neat little unit.
I rang the bastard insurance company to insure the new beast. That was another surprise. The previous car had an agreed value of $5600, and the premium was $420. On the new one, they wanted $470 per year comprehensive, on an agreed value that was $2000 LESS than the previous car !!
So I said to this young whippersnapper on the phone. “Is that your best deal??” to which he replied in the affirmative.
“So, for a Gold Customer, who has six policies with your company, and who’s been with your company since BEFORE YOU WERE BORN (I love saying that to bank and insurance company bastards) That’s your best deal??” “That’s right.” Well, see ya later, pal, not good enough.
Five minutes later, with a competing company, I had insurance for more than I paid for the car, for a premium that was $70 less than the bastard company, even though I had no other policies with the new company. There will be serious re-evaluation of insurance matters in coming weeks.
There’s a whole lot more, but unfortunately most of it relates to poor customer service and thievery from other businesses, so I might just save that for another time, and go off and shoot some more Germans. (Allied Assault - Airborne) As you’d imagine, for games manufacturers, Allied Assault means American Assault, but it’s not a bad shooter, despite some cringe-worthy aspects and anachronisms.
I gained some cred points for being an Old Fart Legend the other day - young Finbar (Aslan from our recent production) has been doing some gardening for us lately, and he walked in on me exterminating Nazis with glee and abandon - he was a bit gob-smacked, perhaps Old Farts aren’t supposed to do stuff like that. News for him!!
Anyway, after the Jack burnt out, we went looking for new wheels. New second hand wheels. Everything decent was $10K and above. The insurance payout was going to be half that.
Going to be. Yeah, right. Then I heard from the insurance company. They charged me $500 excess (the woman on the claims line told me there’d be zero excess) and in addition, the evil thieving bastards deducted a full year’s premium from the payout. Even though I wasn’t covered for the rest of the year.
Anyway, on Thursday I had a call from Meals On Wheels, asking me to do a stand-in run in Friday. I am usually available to cover extras, as I don’t have to go to work. So on my rounds, I saw three possible vehicles for private sale. (Here in the sticks, if you’ve got a car for sale you park it next to the main road with a ‘for sale’ sign in it.)
I arrived home at 12.30PM and we had lunch with one of the young ladies who has been in some of our recent productions. After she left, I checked my bank account, and the bastard insurance company had paid out !! So in the rain, we went out to look at these three vehicles. The first one looked very nice, mid-blue paintwork with a silver panel down low on the body. Square, boxy 4x4 Mitsubishi Pajero, 1989 vintage. We rang the owner and had a test drive - and bought the thing on the spot. Even though it’s an automatic. The thing is, the price was right. We had change from the insurance payout, even after the bastard insurance company stung us for $1000.
That was Friday. Since then we’ve taken the dogs to the beach (long overdue, they all had cabin fever) and last night we went fishin’. Not me and Her, me and Richard. There are a few things to be done, to the new beast, like replace seat belts and tighten up a few trim screws here and there, but overall it’s a neat little unit.
I rang the bastard insurance company to insure the new beast. That was another surprise. The previous car had an agreed value of $5600, and the premium was $420. On the new one, they wanted $470 per year comprehensive, on an agreed value that was $2000 LESS than the previous car !!
So I said to this young whippersnapper on the phone. “Is that your best deal??” to which he replied in the affirmative.
“So, for a Gold Customer, who has six policies with your company, and who’s been with your company since BEFORE YOU WERE BORN (I love saying that to bank and insurance company bastards) That’s your best deal??” “That’s right.” Well, see ya later, pal, not good enough.
Five minutes later, with a competing company, I had insurance for more than I paid for the car, for a premium that was $70 less than the bastard company, even though I had no other policies with the new company. There will be serious re-evaluation of insurance matters in coming weeks.
There’s a whole lot more, but unfortunately most of it relates to poor customer service and thievery from other businesses, so I might just save that for another time, and go off and shoot some more Germans. (Allied Assault - Airborne) As you’d imagine, for games manufacturers, Allied Assault means American Assault, but it’s not a bad shooter, despite some cringe-worthy aspects and anachronisms.
I gained some cred points for being an Old Fart Legend the other day - young Finbar (Aslan from our recent production) has been doing some gardening for us lately, and he walked in on me exterminating Nazis with glee and abandon - he was a bit gob-smacked, perhaps Old Farts aren’t supposed to do stuff like that. News for him!!