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Posted by tchandler on 11-10-2006 at11:03:

  so...

...i've been out here in nashville for 5 years and had never had enough time off to take Maria and the kids to disneyworld in orlando (a short flight away.) about a month ago, we stayed in a condo for a few days with paper thin walls which seemed to magnify every sound around us. (on one comically sleepless night, the guy on the floor above us kept rolling in
a chair, back and forth, every 45 seconds until 3:30 ih the morning. it was so loud it actually sounded like it was IN THE ROOM WITH US.)

while we were there, a truck from a local trucking company backed into our parked rental car causing $650 worth of damage. the people in charge at the condo complex took photos of the guy's license plate, photos of the damage, and filled out a full damage report including the name of his insurance company.

Alamo, of course, came after us for the damages. when i called their representative, and pointed out the facts, she said "well, they (the trucking company who should be liable) have an insurance company that we've never heard of, and we don't have a phone number for them."

incredulously, i (politely) said "well, can't you GET a phone number for them?"

and she actually said to me: "How?"

she's a "Recovery Specialist" for Alamo rental cars and she actually said "How (do I get a phone number.)"

am i somehow living inside of a bad sitcom or something?

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Posted by Mountain Fan on 11-10-2006 at11:22:

 

how terribly sad and funny at the same time!

Hopefully they will get it worked out soon and perhaps Alamo can find a better specialist to "stand up" to that no-name insurance company of the trucking firm.

I hope the rest of the vacation went OK, even though perhaps you were a little tired from lack of sleep. Did you try getting some mouseketeer earmuffs to stifle the noise at night? I know it was only rock n roll, but you couldn't like it.

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Posted by tchandler on 11-10-2006 at11:33:

 

Hey MF -- i could actually make out the exact words people were using in their conversations on the street two floors down, around the corner.

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Posted by .backs. on 11-10-2006 at11:35:



i'm sorry that i am laughing at your pain, Tim, i really am.


Are you having any anxious thoughts about knocking over the Thanksgiving table this year, or do you enjoy doing that?

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Posted by tchandler on 11-10-2006 at11:38:

 

.backs. -- don't worry about laughing. i'm laughing too. ya either gotta laugh or cry.

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Posted by joey on 11-10-2006 at11:39:



tim, i sell auto insurance for a living...
so your story doesn't surprise me at all...
but i do feel your pain.....

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Posted by Mountain Fan on 11-10-2006 at11:40:

 

quote:

Originally posted by tchandler Hey MF -- i could actually make out the exact words people were using in their conversations on the street two floors down, around the corner.

I guess the walls really were paper thin. Perhaps it was a house of cards?

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Posted by .backs. on 11-10-2006 at11:41:

 

i guess "recovery specialists" are as untrustworthy as weather girls.

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Posted by larryl on 11-10-2006 at11:43:

 

quote:

Originally posted by .backs. i guess "recovery specialists" are as untrustworthy as weather girls.

never trust them.

hi tim!

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Posted by tchandler on 11-10-2006 at11:47:

 

hey joey!

hey larry!

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Posted by larryl on 11-10-2006 at11:47:

 

by the way....that's the worst thing i have heard in a long while. somehow, i am not surprised at all. customer service is a lost art.

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Posted by Mountain Fan on 11-10-2006 at11:52:

 

I hope y'all weren't actually in the car.

Before we moved, we were parked at the realtor's office in our new town and a small postal delivery vehicle backed directly into our car. We were all inside, but fortunately no one was hurt. I fixed the car (put on another bumper from a junkyard) and then br wrecked it and totaled it the week before we moved. Thankfully, nothing happened to the rental car. Also, the government claims process wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Some years prior, a guy turned left into me and totaled my nice old Toyota station wagon. He was a firefighter turning into the fire station and had some farmers insurance company i hadn't heard of. We eventually got what I thought was fair settlement, but that insurance guy would always seem real busy and was gone a week a time or two on vacation or business, with no viable backup contact person. I let the car sit in the tow yard because they didn't offer a fair amount for it. The offered a bit more than medical bills, so I finally settled the whole claim. They would have come out cheaper if they had just paid me what I thought was reasonable for the car in the first place. Some of those insurance guys aren't so bright and at other times it is company policies or protocols that hamstring them.

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Posted by larryl on 11-10-2006 at11:56:

 

tim....perhaps this little gem i found will make you feel better.




feel better?

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Posted by Mountain Fan on 11-10-2006 at11:58:

 

flying high again?

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Posted by tchandler on 11-10-2006 at12:01:

 

larry, i feel much better.

but please also post derri's photos if you can find them. as i recall, they're perhaps even funnier looking.

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Posted by tchandler on 11-10-2006 at12:03:

 

for those who don't know (probably all of you) those photos are from a (bad?) video in which all the band members are diving over a fence into a pool.

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Posted by .backs. on 11-10-2006 at12:05:



Mrs. B wouldn't care. You could post a photo of Derri covered in vomit, and she would be no less enraptured.

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Posted by Mountain Fan on 11-10-2006 at12:05:

 

were you being chased by the sled dog, or the more lethal weather girl?

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Posted by Mountain Fan on 11-10-2006 at12:07:

 

quote:

Originally posted by .backs. Mrs. B wouldn't care. You could post a photo of Derri covered in vomit, and she would be no less enraptured.

were any of The Choir guys ever green-slimed on Nickelodeon?

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Posted by .backs. on 11-10-2006 at12:08:



Tim, the question that we have all been dying to ask you is

will you wear a facial bra???