Day: May 14, 2012

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Don’t Forget Your Supplemental Medical Coverage

I was just heading for bed when I remembered that my supplemental medical coverage expires tomorrow! I know that you can’t buy the coverage if you have already left the country, but couldn’t imagine them refusing to extend coverage.

Even though it was 9PM, I dialed the toll free number and after a five minute wait, I got a live person. He confirmed that I would not have been able to buy initial from the States (the phone system knows where you’re calling from and the web server can trace the IP) but since I still had a current policy, they could create a new one for me even though I’m in the States. I have no idea why they could not extend the existing one, but whatever.

I am now covered up to and including Friday and, yes, I will be submitting that amount ($23.20 or $7.73 per day) to the moron’s insurance company.

For the curious, I use CIBC travel insurance (underwritten by the Co-Operators), and have done so for years. It’s a little more expensive than Blue Cross (by about 10%), but I can order it through the CIBC website and have the amount taken directly from my chequing account, so it’s more convenient for me. The cost for 27 days was $91.26 or $3.38 per day.

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Update on the Aviva Claim

A supervisor at Aviva just called me back. He was a lot more forthcoming than my adjuster has been. A lot of what he said to me should have been explained by my adjuster. For example, the $1,000 she ‘authorized’ for a ‘hotel only’ can also include meals. I need to pull out all my receipts and can be reimbursed for up to $100 per day. Anything beyond that, they can submit to the moron’s insurance and see if they’ll pay.

What he had to say about payment on the repairs is not what I wanted to hear, but it was fine and perfectly logical. They can’t pay until the final invoice is presented and I sign off on the work. If I wasn’t in a time crunch, then I could sit here for a few days until the cheque is cut and go on my merry way. Instead, they will make the cheque out to the credit card holders and send the reimbursement to them directly. So that’s all well and good.

Now, I’m just grateful that I keep all my receipts when I am in the US as I need to prepare my claim for some recovery of the chaos my life has been the last two weeks.

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Praise for WS Campbell Towing & Repair and Anger at Aviva Insurance

The mechanic at WS Campbell dug through a salvage yard today and found the correct part for Miranda. Nothing is jury-rigged. She’s in as good a shape as she was before the moron rear ended me.

Once the part was on, it didn’t take long to get her road ready. I was asked to move her into the repair shop for some checks and then take her on a test drive. It felt SO GOOD to be back behind the wheel!

They want her to sit overnight (LEVEL AT LAST) so that the grease has time to work its way through everything. Tomorrow morning, they will make their final checks to the repair,  top up the air pressure, and check all the fluid levels. Enterprise is waiting for me at 8:30 to return the rental car. I should be on the road by about noon and will be able to take a reasonably leisurely place to Montreal.

But this is only possible because I can pay them for the repairs. Or, more accurately, I can pay for the repairs with a borrowed credit card and repay the loan when my car settlement comes in. There was no way (understandably) that they were letting me leave without the bill being settled.

This is where Aviva comes in. My adjuster, whom I am biting my tongue not to name, is consistently unreachable. I always have to leave a message. She wasn’t in again today. I went through the phone maze and got the Aviva claims department after a number of attempts. The lady who answered transferred me to another adjuster who transferred me to a supervisor who had already left for the day. It was 2PM in Vancouver for crying out loud.

My adjuster has been absolutely unsympathetic to the fact that the repairs are time sensitive and that Miranda is my home (never mind that I have a full-timer’s policy). She has barely made any effort to reach the third party insurance company, her excuse for the delays in processing the payment. I have tried to be patient and fair and understanding, but I have had it up to here!

My experience trying to get someone else to help me tonight gives me the impression that this is how Aviva operates. So heads up everyone. Yes, you can get insured as a full-time RVer in Canada, but good luck if you have a claim. If they are this bad for a not-at-fault claim, I’d hate to see them dealing with an at-fault one.

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Officially Pissed Off

The mechanic has decided to search for the discontinued axle part. I could be here for days and days and days and days.

I am thinking of having the rental car contract changed so I can take it to Montreal and back. I could drive up with Tabitha and Neelix and leave them at my mother’s while I come back here and get Miranda. I could do the drive in a very full day in the car. I am just concerned about leaving my home in the US and then coming back for it.

I also thought of requesting air fare, but there is no way I’m taking my brood on a plane and I am not leaving them behind.

Finally, I am wondering about the possibly of having Miranda transported back to Canada and having the repairs finished there.

Thoughts?

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Not Pleased

I just checked in with the mechanic and learned that one of the parts needed for the axle repair is discontinued, so they need to create a custom part (hence the cost of the repair). But they ‘should’ be done by tomorrow evening. He was busy with a state trooper, so I didn’t push the issue, but when I get home in a couple of hours (I’m at a Starbucks), I am going to grill him.

So now, best case scenario has me pulling out Wednesday morning for a cannonball run to Montreal. So unhappy.