So at the end of a really lovely weekend in West Virginia, I was backing out of a new and unfamiliar driveway and my left back bumper met a tree, hard. What is worse than ending the weekend by smashing my car, was that my car actually has a special sensor on the back bumper that beeps at me when I am too close to something, and it was working. I have had THE WORST allergy/congestion – turned ear infection of ever the last two months, and I didn’t hear the sensor. Ugh!
So, oh well, shit happens. At least it wasn’t another car, or a new neighbor, or something.
So I take the mushed up car in to a shop in Bethesda Monday morning to get a handle on what the damage would be. This is before I called the insurance company, incase we can cover it and avoid the inevitable rate increase. The shop gal followed me out to the car, looked it up and down, noting all the obvious smashed parts, and then bent down and reached under the bumper to feel the rail that the tow hitch is attached to. ”Oh,” she says, “The bar is bent.” I did not think to ask her to let me feel it.
So we go back inside to add up all the good news. Sigh. She looks up the bumper, the tail light, and then the bar underneath. ”I need to go check to see if you have a class 2, or a class 3 tow package.” ”Okay,” I say. I have a class 3 tow package, incase you were wondering. So she sits back down at the computer and looks up the class 3 tow bar/hitch thingy, and says, “That is an expensive part.” $700 expensive.
Okay so now fast forward to me running home and calling Geico after I realize it is going to be upwards of $2000 to fix my car. They set me up with an estimate at their center early this morning, and I received the call around 4:oo p.m. this afternoon. Total for repairs will be $1200. (We have a $200 deductible, so this was very good news. I won’t have to work any extra Saturdays for now.) I repeat to the guy on the phone, “So what was the deal with the tow bar underneath?” (I had specifically asked him to check it without telling him I had had an estimate that morning.) ”It wasn’t bent,” he says.
So I sit here this afternoon and ponder. Someone is lying. Is it the shop who thinks I am going to fork over the cash to fix the car? Or is it the insurance shop who is trying to save money for the insurance company? Either way I am a little mad, and either way, I want my car to be safe the next time I pull my 17 foot pop up camper with that tow bar.
What would you do?
COMMENTS
I think you should go to where the car is and demand to be allowed to check out that bar yourself. This is a perfect opportunity to see exactly what the situation is. Other than that, my gut feeling tells me the bar is not bent. I would love to hear “the rest of the story”!!
