Fried Green Tomatoes

You know you're getting older when you value good insurance. We pay higher rates, but we get absolutely better service for them. I'll give some props to State Farm and our agent. He is in Fort Worth even though we're 40 miles north of him, but he and his staff have taken such good care of us for the past nine years, that we don't switch.

Recap: Old bitty (she has lost her status as sweet old lady) fails to yield, I hit her, she drives off in her old tank with nothing but some scratches and broken tail lights. Me: I am screwed. My front passenger headlight aims at the ground, the turn signal doesn't work and when I pull a Nascar (turning left), my tire scrapes the car. Oh yeah, and the car is making some godforsaken noise when I start it now.

Ok, her insurance *boo, hiss* is Allstate. I called my insurance at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday morning. I called Allstate about 9 a.m. same day. My claims adjustor called me back at 10 a.m. Their claims adjustor *cricket chirping* nothing. So, my Ms. Nice Gal attitude is now all spent. My goodwill from celebrating my anniversary is over. I call them this morning to tell them that I'm ruining my tire while driving the hoopty around town and that I need a rental. Well, Ms. AoM, our insured hasn't called us back, so we can't go forward. Well, I'm sorry if your insured doesn't want to call back and admit fault, it isn't MY fault and in the meantime I'm ruining my tire and potentially my car by trying to do the right thing. Well, Ms. AoM, here is the number for the adjustor assigned to your case. Guess what? I called and the woman *using restraint here* is out of the office for the day. What a surprise. So, I'm in full-blown meltdown crying rage at this point. I leave her a message and then call my insurance back. My claims adjustor said he'd make sure that both State Farm and I will get our money back on this. The police report wasn't ready yesterday, but he'll try again today, and with that, they'll know that she was at fault.

Within 20 minutes of talking to my claims guy, I get a phone call from the rental car folks to know where and when to pick me up. Last big wreck I had back in 95, me and the other gal both had State Farm and even with the other lady making up crap, the issue was settled really quickly. You get what you pay for sometimes. In this case, I'm really happy that we didn't compromise on cheaper service.

And, Chris - that threat of a lawsuit is looking better all the time to me. Mental distress on top of the car. But, I have to say, it was good to have a big old cry this morning. Usually, I have to watch Steel Magnolias to cry like that.