Feb 10, 2005 13:10
In the ongoing drama that is my rear bumper, I got a call from AAA today. AAA isn't my insurance agency but they are the ones paying the bill for my bumper because the guy who hit my car belongs to them. The AAA guy on the phone told me I needed to get my car inspected. According to AAA phone guy, they don't have any "Ann Arbor" AAA locations that can do inspections. So I had him read me the list and found they had one in Canton. He wanted to stop but I had him keep reading the list. Wouldn't you know it, there's one on Carpenter Rd. between Washtenaw and Packard. Oh, but that's not "Ann Arbor," that's "Washtenaw."
So I set up an appointment at 11:00AM and the guy asked if I wanted them to recommend a mechanic. I told them that my insurance agency had already set me up with one and that they had my new parts on order. He said OK and finished up.
When I got to AAA I got to spend about 10 minutes waiting around, then they came out and got me and I pulled my car into their inspection bay. I got to spend another 10 minutes waiting inside for the inspector to do some paperwork, then he called me by name (which I hadn't given him, so I assume he got it from the computer) and we went back to the inspection bay.
He looked at it and said it looked like I didn't need a new bumper, they just needed to pop the dent out. I said that the shop that I had gone to had said it would need a new bumper. He immediately bent down and without pause put his thumbnail in a crack, and said that if you could put your thumbnail in a crack it meant you need a new bumper. It's almost as if he had seen that before but didn't want to order me a new bumper if he didn't need to!
So we go back inside and he says it'll be another 10 minutes because we need to get a log number. I ask him if he knows that my claim is being handled by my insurance agency, just to be sure. This catches him off guard, he was assuming that I was filing a claim with AAA. Then he says I didn't even need to come in, and that I could head out.
Nice use of an hour of my time...