It's a pretty large and what appeared to me to be a fairly new facility. I pulled into the lane outside and a very nice guy named Jeff came out, addressed me by name (I had an appointment), explained what he was going to do, and invited me to go inside the building to the lobby where they have drinks and snacks and wait while he does the voodoo that he do so well.
I was the only person waiting in the cavernous lobby. They had flat screen TVs in there. One was showing CNN (coverage of the small plane accident that Harrison Ford had earlier today where he crashed onto a country club fairway in southern California) and the other TV had a college basketball game on. The lobby also had plenty of chairs, a few fake plants, and a cardboard cutout of Flo, the woman who is in many of the Progressive Insurance commercials that are on their current advertising campaigns.
After about fifteen minutes, Jeff brought me some paperwork and showed me the figure. Damage estimate came to $553.61. After my $500 deductible, they would pay $53.61 and I'd have to pay the difference. They did tell me that they found some preliminary information about the guy driving the Honda Accord with the Arizona license plate 435DNY that hit me and then denied anything happened. His name is apparently "Bill", and his insurance company is some cheap ass outfit named Apco. They told me that they were reaching out to Apco to see if "Bill" will acknowledge the accident happened and allow Progressive to go and photograph his car to see whatever damage may (or may not) be on his car.
What it translated to: Unless "Bill" decides he has a conscience, there is basically no chance that his insurance company will pony up the $500 and I have a decision to make. If I take the $53.61 from Progressive, then it could raise my insurance rate (of course it would, who am I kidding) and I have to pay the other $500 for the paint damage. Or, I could just not proceed with the claim and not have them write me a check, and pay the entire $553.61 myself. It's an ugly situation either way. If, and of course it's a gigantic if, he acknowledges that it happened and his insurance company pays up the $553.61 in damage, then I'll get a check for the whole thing from Apco.
I wish even more now that "Bill" sleeps poorly at night and has a lifetime of diarrhea. Or maybe never gets a good haircut for the rest of his life. Something awful like that. He isn't a nice person to do this to me. I can't resist the urge to wish him a life of misery if he denies that it happened like he did to my face on Tuesday morning.
I will say that the folks at Progressive have been wonderful. They've been friendly, clear about how this works, and super helpful. Based on this experience, even though I've been a customer of theirs for years now, I will continue to keep this insurance policy and them as my insurer. Flo runs a tight ship over there. Thanks, Flo!
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| A cardboard cutout of Flo from Progressive in the Progressive Service Center lobby in Tucson. She looked thin... and cardboardy. |
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| The cavernous lobby at the Progressive Service Center at 22nd and Alvernon. The grass in that planter is plastic. |
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| Another view of the lobby |
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| Jeff from Progressive assesses the $553.61 worth of damage to the Ken Carr car while I wait in the lobby. Thanks for nothing, "Bill". |