February 2021

Covid made cheering at a game....very boring. No spectators other than those with tickets. Tickts were only given to parents of athletes. 

Watched the fireworks in our car across the street from the Asian Market in Roy to celebrate Chinese New Year. We went and got some nachos from Betos and shared it while watching. Life with Covid, you take what you can get.

Ellyse and Kobe tried out a Tik Tok recipe. Buffalo Mac and Cheese. It was nice to have Ellyse make dinner. 

Playing with puppy and experiencing 'Schitt's Creek.' Such a funny and cute show!

I wanted to go sledding for my birthday and so we found a spot up in my favorite place, Trapper's loop. It was so fun..until Allie got hurt. 

She decided to go down a bigger hill, the sled took a turn and she ran over a metal gate. X-rays showed nothing broken but this is what was left. Poor girl.

Birthday Dinner for Emma's and I's birthdays. 

Birthday Twinners

Flowers from my momma. 

The Accident

On the way to get a friend to take her to lunch for her birthday, I saw a very bad car accident at the intersection of 1050 and Riverdale Road off to the left.  I went through the intersection as the light was green.  I was looking at the accident and ironically thinking "that suuuckkkss" and then BAM!  I ran into the back of the explorer you see below. The explorer then kissed the car in front of it.  I guess traffic had stopped and I didn't. Until it was to late.  Luckily, no one was seriously injured!!  Thankfully!! 

My poor minivan baby.

I NEVER thought I'd miss a minivan.  But I do.  I really, really do.  

The air bag did deploy and left me with this beaut of a burn.  Again, very thankful to not have had any other injuries!!

Warning: the next pic is somewhat graphic.

I am so grateful for insurance and let me tell you that this accident showed me how grateful I am to have moved from State Farm insurance to Travelers!!!  There are not enough exclamation points for that expression.  The 1st business day after the accident, I got a call back from the claim adjuster.  I received a call from our agent to make sure we were okay.  I also got a call from the guy who was assessing the damage!  Everyone was on top of their game that day and I couldn't help but tell them how much their great customer service was appreciated!  The assessor even offered to grab a little thing that was left in the van and deliver it himself! 

The accident brought with it confusion, guilt, an a whole array of emotions along with it. Not to mention how it has turned our lives upside down for the past 3 weeks. Getting the claim all taken care of and a generous check within a week and 1/2 of the accident was a treat!  If you are looking for a new insurance company that is reliable and fair, Travelers is for you.  Also, Bret Weston was and has been fantastic to work with.  He even sent us a little Sorry-for-your-accident consolation gift.

If you don't remember the hell we went through with the last accident, here's a little refresher course.

There are 3 parts to the saga.  You will find the links for part 2 and 3 at the bottom of the 1st post.

The accident...from Hell.

The Wreck: Part 3

Let's see here, it's been 7 months since Jason was in a car accident. We now have a nice new car and are very happy with it and the new insurance company we are with.  Anyway, 7 months!  So, you can understand my confusion as to why I received a call today from our local State Farm agent's assistant asking if we could come into the office and sign a Power of Attorney.  Keep in mind, this is the same assistant I had issues with all those months ago.  Apparently, at the time that they delivered the check, they forgot to get that signed.  7 months ago. Woo boy, aren't they on top of things?

A Power of Attorney?

Last I checked, a power of attorney is a document you sign when you can not represent yourself legally any further. I'm pretty healthy,  I can still sign things and represent myself  just fine.  In fact, I'd give myself an A+ at signing my signature and representing myself.  I can sign  the crap out of my signature and I'm pretty mentally stable. Most days.

I digress.

 I asked her to repeat herself.  She said that it was in fact a power of attorney that we needed to sign.  Confused, I asked why.  I told her that I can see signing to receive the check but not a power of attorney.  She cut me off in the middle of my question asking me if we'd kept the car.  I said no. She said 'Well, that's what it's for.'  That's the explanation she gave me.  I'm not sure exactly what other words were exchanged but when I asked her if she could send me the paperwork in the mail, I very vividly remember her telling me that NO! she could not send the paperwork in the mail. We would HAVE  to come to her office in order to sign the document.  I've said this before but I do pretty much the same thing she does for a living.  I know that when a client asks you to send something to them in the mail, you kindly oblige.  That's just basic good customer service.  She refused.  I told her that we'd have to see how our schedules worked out because um, have you looked at the calendar any time lately?  Christmas is next week.  Like, less than 7 days away next week.  We ended the conversation.  

I thought and thought.

I explained the situation to Jason and began pondering how rude and short she was with me. My emotions started to fume once again at this assistant who was being of very little assistance. I called her back and she didn't answer the phone.  Hello, caller ID?  I think this lady does not like me one little bit.

I left a message asking her to scan and email the document to me so that I could read it over before signing it.  That's just good common sense.  This she did.  Why she couldn't just slap a stamp on it and stick in the mail is beside me.

I called my current NEW agent.  After conferring, we both decided this was a bit strange. 

I called the State Farm agent's office again and got the same assistant. Yay!  She did answer this time, I wonder if she saw I was calling from work and didn't recognize the number? I asked to speak to the actual agent and she told me that the agent had left for the day.  The assistant was very courteous this time.  I still needed answers though. I called State Farm's actual loss department to get a straight answer.  They explained that it was in fact a power of attorney that by law, they needed in order to get the title to the vehicle that was listed as a total loss.  At least, this sounded better than the answer I got previously from the assistant.  I asked her if she would kindly mail it to me.  She agreed.  Was that so hard?  No. It is not hard to stick something in the mail. 

After looking over the form, it looks legit.  We'll sign it..when we get it in the mail. Although, with the amount of time it took to get our claim check and all the runaround we had to do, I'm seriously considering letting it sit around for a few months before signing it.  Let them squirm a bit.

 I wonder if calling the State Farm agent and explaining once again, that her assistant provided less than satisfactory assistance is something I should do.

If this was your employee, wouldn't you want to know?

Click here for Part 1.

Click here for Part 2.

The Wreck: Part 2

Click here for Part 1
Click here for Part 3 

Okay, so where was I? Oh yes, State Farm had the police report, only it was illegible. Perfect! They had received a copy of the report from the guy that had hit Jason in the accident. So, they should just contact him to get another copy right? Yeah well, this wouldn't be a good story if that happened. State Farm that that guy wasn't returning any phone calls any more. He was probably as done with State Farm as we were by this point. So, State Farm had to go through Roy City Police to get another report. They required another fee for this report which, State Farm paid but from the sound of it, it took them a while to still get it in their possession. Of course, it did.

 Next, we got a final word from State Farm that the car had been totaled. After it'd been sitting at a repair shop for oh, about 2 weeks?? But, because they had no legible police report, no liability could be determined yet. We were not offered a rental car in the 2 and 1/2 weeks since the wreck.  Really? 2 1/2 weeks later?  Would've been nice like 2 1/2 hours after the accident.  Luckily, Wood's had a car we were able to use during that time!

 We were told we could go ahead and use our insurance to get a claim check minus our deductible in order to purchase a new vehicle. After liability was determined, we would get a refund of the deductible. Yes. We agreed. They processed the claim and gave us a very generous amount of money for the vehicle. We were impressed with that. Also, they agreed to over night the check to our agent's office free of charge. Very nice. Thank you!

 Last week, on my ride into work, my agent's assistant call me to let me know that the check was in their office and to come and get it. Awesome! I kindly ask her if they had taken the deductible out and they had. Then I asked her if she would call the claims department to find out if they were able to determine liability at that point. She basically fumbled for a few minutes and then said that there was a bunch of paperwork there that would explain all I need to know when I come in. Now, this is the same girl I yelled at and who told us to begin with that it was the police's job to determine fault on the day of the accident which just confused us because the cop said it was not his job, it was the insurance's job. Also, I basically have the same type of job she does. I know that if a client asks me to call and check on something, I say sure, do it, and get back to them as soon as possible. So, here I am, I'm a client, asking her to complete a task for me. She basically tells me no. In that moment, I just sort of blinked my eyes a few times in disbelief of her lack of professionalism. Not wanting any more trouble, I said thank you, goodbye.

 Later that same day, as I texted my agent. Remember how sweet she was to me? She was great! She mentioned she would be willing to drive the check out to our house that night. I explained I wouldn't be home till later and would she wouldn't mind dropping it by work? She agreed. How very nice! That was very appreciated.

I decided I needed to bring some of the problems I had with her assistant to her attention. I hate doing this type of thing. So, I wrote out some of the problems that I had with her assistant on paper so when I was speaking, I wouldn't get side tracked. She came, she delivered the check, she listened to my complaints. She stood up for State Farm, as she should. She touted that  '3 weeks is a pretty speedy time to receive a check.' I'm not sure I agree with that. I go on to mention a few other things and she says she'll talk to her assistant later that day about but for the most part she stood up for her team.  Which, I totally understand and think is good.  However, well, I just wanted her to know so some other schmuck down the road doesn't get as confused as we were all along.  I hope I reached that goal.

 I tried to be as fair as possible with the assistant, knowing how awful it feels to be ratted on by a client, but I just didn't feel like I was treated as I should have been. Now, may be the assistant feels the same way??  Every story has two sides.

Jump to today. We have bought a new car. We're happy with it! But still no deductible reimbursement check.........

We've already given our info to another agent to begin quotes with another company.

The wreck. Part 1

So Jason got into a fender bender about a week ago.  He's fine, just was a bit sore.  Jason got hit by a guy turning left.  Both parties involved have State Farm insurance.  It has been one confusing answer after another. 

First , the cop couldn't place blame.  We call State Farm and they say it's the cops job to place blame,. We ask the cop again, he says it's not his job.  Jason then called the claims department and was on the phone for about 1/2 hour explaining things and answering questions to get the ball rolling.  We thought we we're good to go.  

Then the plot thickened.

State Farm first told us our car was totaled, then the next day it was repairable.  We were told we had to sign papers to get the car repair started.  Upon signing, I noticed our insurance was to be billed for the damages.  We were under the impression that we were not at fault so I called State Farm to discuss.  They said they just did that to get the repair done till liability was declared. They would pay because again, probably not our fault.  I checked with him to make sure everything was going okay, he checked and said they were waiting for Jason's statement.  ??????  Remember the 1/2 hour convo he had the day of the wreck?  Wasn't that a statement?  Jason called again...... They said they didn't need his statement, they were just waiting for the police report.   Ok.  We asked them how to go about this.  About now I was thinking to myself, why are we the one finding all these things we need? But trying to get it all taken care of, I called police department to get the report.  The police tell me I'm not suppose to get the report, it's the insurances job and that they were trying to get me to get it, to avoid paying the fee. 😡😡😡😡 What?!  I asked if she would stay on the phone while I call State Farm to find out who is REALLY suppose to get the report.  By this point I'm wondering what the crap State Farm is doing for us. A poor administrative assistant gets on the phone and tells me ONE MORE TIME that it's MY job to get the report.  I lose it!  I start yelling at her, she yells at me, the cop soon decides to hang up.  I end up in tears trying to explain all this to the agent, who was nothing but nice.  I'm thinking this is absolutely ridiculous.

Sooo, agent calls claims department, they tell her once again that they are just waiting on Jason's statement.   No, freakin way! ARE YOU MESSING WITH ME?  I thought he just gave it AGAIN..... That day!  I call Jason, he says he gave the statement already again that day and that something was messed up.  I explained that he needed to call them and straighten it out.  He calls, they finally figure out that there are two seperate State Farm cases being confused here, our's and the guy who hit us.  SERIOUSLY?  Surely, two State Farm clients have been in an accident together before our's right?  

Come to find out State Farm had ordered the police report but hadn't received it yet. We could go get it and get reimbursed to speed things up, but it wasn't our job.  

Finally, something sounds correct.

Jump to today. We call to check status; It's almost 2 weeks after the accident.  I make sure the person I'm talking to knows that there are two cases involved.  She explains that the car is listed as a total loss.  Huh?!  Why haven't we been told this?  Then explains liability still hasn't been determined. I leave a message for our case manager. The guy calls Jason back tells him, they got the report but there was something wrong with the report.  

We're smacking our heads by this point!!! We still have only been called once  by State Farm when these things have come up.!!

Oy vi!!!!  We are so discouraged!!!

Click here for Part Two
Click here for Part Three