I will attempt to compress my three day ordeal to try to re-insure my car into just a few bullet points. It started of course with it breaking down on Sunday. Monday and tuesday it was in the shop, but tuesday night I got it back.
When I first got into the car there was an odd “ticking” sound, sort of like the blinker was on or the “dumbass you left your lights on” warning was going, but neither were. I went back in and asked $cardude, and after mucking around a bit he said that it was the alarm resetting itself after being disconnected from power and basically just saying “hey, something odd might have happened,” and just needed to be armed and disarmed a couple of times. Ok, whatever, more to do.
Immediately after getting the car back (and dropping lots of $ into the mechanics pockets) I drove across the street to get insurnace at the handy close by Insurance agent. The sticker on the side of the computer proudly exclaimed “ask me about third party insurance!”, so I did, as I was going to anyway, as being screwed over by ICBC for another year wasn’t all that nice.
So after an eternity of waiting for the nice lady to learn how to use a computer, she took my paperwork across the desk and said “you don’t have aircare” and proceeded to pack things up. “And aircare closed at 5:30,” she finished. She did think that third party insurance could probably save me about $300 a year, but she couldn’t confirm this because the computer wouldn’t let her past the “aircare” thing. This of course, is on the form I recieved, but in a tiny box and not something nice big and obvious (to me anyway).
So now I paid another $25 for a one day permit and drove home. The next day (yesterday) I race from work, past the insurance agent to aircare, which is back past where I live (about a 20 minute drive). I was the last car processed and after being screwed by the goverment for another $47, I went to the nearest insurnace agent, about halfway between aircare and the insurance agent by the garage.
I get in and ask the lady about third party insurance. Obviously either scared or threatened, she told me that it’d probably cost more, and why would I want to leave ICBC anyway? So thanks very much, and I head back to the first place. I get there and another person is in the place of my original agent, but tells me that their third party insurance would cost more.
sigh
So for now I’ll go with ICBC. Since the big hit of the car repairs I can’t do it yearly like I normally do, so I ask for it monthly. “You have a void check sir?” ARGH!!!! Fuck. So, drive another 20 minutes back home, and then back with a void check. I finally get insurance. I finally get to drive home.
The next day I realized that my car alarm wasn’t working at all, or at least, was working perfectly but noiselessly. Not all that useful. So I called them up and explained and she took my name and told me to come on in after work, which I did. The person there didn’t believe they had time/people nor that I had an appointment, and tried to tell me that they didn’t know anything about aftermarket alarms. Luckily my irrefutable logic of “It was working before it came in, and was not working when it left, therefor something happened here” took a few tries to get through the guys head, but finally he got someone to look at it and told me it was just a power wire was unhooked (which I figured).
Then, finally it was over, and I had working and insured car. I still have to call up HSBC or Canadian Direct and see about getting third party insurance that is affordable and that doesn’t make me feel like I’m getting screwed over of course.
sigh