The Neverendingstory

Decided to get off my ass an do something about the bike. It you have been reading it was damaged in a deer bike collision on May long weekend last year. This is like the story that keeps on giving.

After the incident, I had to do a police report. I tried at Edmonton Police Service, that was a waste of time. The officer was not going to help me right from the start. I guess he preferred doing nothing all day at the Scona Community Station.

This was resolved when I went to K Division, the RCMP took the report. I made sure everything went to the insurance company. My broker told me it would be covered as it was an animal. I wasn't so sure.

The adjuster came out and reviewed the bike, about a week later.So we are in June now. I have collision on my bike. The broker told me that collision allows you to sit back and let the big boys do all the work.

At the end of July, no one had contacted me about the claim. I was not eligible for a replacement bike - as they don't do that. Disregard the fact that collision and PLPD for a bike is almost the same price as for a car. I went in and cancelled collision on my bike and car. I could use the money for the deductible.

Finally in August, after I chased the broker to find out what was going on, I got the ok to fix the bike.

I went to the bike shop and then tried to get them to order the parts, so I would not be without the bike for the rest of the riding season. The bike shop said they wanted to disassemble the bike and do a thorough check. I called the claims person. They said they'd get back to me.

Nothing until November. They said they did not agree with the bike shop taking the bike apart. They were only going to pay what was on the estimate. If the bike had to be taken apart, I would be paying for it. It would be a cost on top of the deducible. I told bike shop, they spoke to insurance company. It was up to me, if I wanted to get the bike fixed at that shop, I was going to have to pay $1000 to have the checkup done. The insurance company was wondering when I was taking the bike in to get it fixed. The lady was in Calgary in November, I said it is kind of cold. I said I would do it in the Spring, when I could ride the bike home after it was fixed. I did not want to pay for storage.

As there was an impasse with the bike shop, I decided to find another one. i went in and explained the whole situation. They told me they would do it the normal way, start fixing the bike and if other stuff had to be fixed they would contact the insurance company to adjust the quote.

So this is the latest. After attending the bike show last weekend, I decided it was time to get my ass in gear and get the bike fixed. You only have a year after the incident.

I didn't have the quote, the other bike store had it. I thought I'd just call up the broker and have them fax it to the bike shop. The broker said it would be better if I did it.

I call the number that the broker gave me and asked for the claims person who was handling my case. The number didn't work in Alberta....I was calling Calgary. So I went on the insurance company's site. I called the number on there, it was an office in Toronto.

Background time, about the time of the incident, my insurance company was bought out by another insurance company. It was the new provider I was calling, as there was no way to call the other company directly.

They could not find anyone by the claims adjuster's name, as an employee of any of their companies. Then gave me the phone number of the old company in Calgary. Apparently they had not got around to completely merging. Toronto told me who the new adjuster was, I had them spell name....this will become apparent in a minute.

I called the Calgary number, after the 'please listen closely as our menu options have changed' announcement, I was given an option to key in the extension number the lady in Toronto gave me. The number was invalid. I then had the option of saying the person's name. I did, the voice recognition software could not find her. I then used the keypad, it could not find her.

I pressed 0. That option was not available. I called Toronto back. They gave me more numbers. Rather than try them, when I called the Calgary number I used the Receptionist option.
This receptionist was a complete violation of Canada's privacy Act. She was asking for information they already had. She could not find my policy, so she was asking all kinds of stuff. Under the guise of helping me. The only problem was, she was the receptionist and she was not going to pass me along to any of the people authorized to work on my file.

After 10 minutes I asked to speak to her supervisor. She delayed this for a long time, she said she finally found my adjuster and would I rather speak to her than supervisor. I told her that Toronto could find my file, my adjuster and all kinds of other stuff and they did not have my file. She tried to tell me she worked with 'intact' not JEVCO. I happen to know that Toronto gave me the JEVCO numbers. I spoke to the Supervisor and told her how I had wasted 45 minutes just trying to get a quote faxed to a bike shop. She told me the agent was out to lunch, she gave me her number, Direct Line and I could call her at 13:05.

I called back at 13:05 and related the information. she was going to send an email with the quote right away (I have not gone to the bike store yet to see if they got it). She also asked where the bike was, she said she'd contact their towing company to have it towed. No one had mentioned this before, I was going to put it on the back of a pickup. I was psyched!

The towers called me later, they made arrangements to tow the bike. I told them to call me and I would run over and open the garage up when they were in town. I live 3 minutes from work, 5 in a traffic jam. Every thing was set.

I was going to head into Edmonton right after work, but I decided to have a nap first. I am glad I was not on the side of the road for this.

The towers called back. They were not going to send a truck out on Monday unless they had 100% assurance that the bike was accessible. I told them about the arrangements. They said that was not good enough. They wanted the bike outside with the key in it for pickup. It did not matter that I could be home before they even got to my place upon entering town, that was their policy.

I said how long would the bike be out there and when were they coming. She could not guarantee Monday or Tuesday. I asked her if she wanted me to leave my bike out there for three days, she said, no, no that's not what she meant. When I asked what she did mean, she stopped talking.

I don't think they are coming to tow bike. I called adjuster back to inform her of this, but she was gone home. I am going to see if I can deduct the cost of the towing off the price of the deductible. As there are certified towers in town that could do it.

At the bike show I got a quote from a different insurance company, it was 3/4 of the price I was paying per year at the other company - collision was included.

i am sure glad I collected deer hairs off my bike and clothes in the days after the incident.