I’m the opposite. Cars are complicated and intricate enough now that if one is thoroughly crunched, I don’t want it repaired. I want it replaced.
The actual list of parts that have been overstressed and ought to be replaced is always more than the insurer is willing to pay for. Most of the replacement parts are copies, not factory originals. Good luck getting the insurer to pay for the genuine stuff; they won’t. If I had wanted a car made with half counterfeit parts, I’d have bought it from some shady chop shop, not from a dealer.
And even if they give you your car back supposedly fully fixed, you still took a massive loss on its resale value. A loss that you are not compensated for.
A friend in high school wrecked his Fiat. He assumed it was totaled, but his insurance company decided to repair the car. He fought with them about the situation, but they won.
Then he picked up his repaired car. On the drive home he smelled something burning. He got out of the car and saw flames. Eventually a firetruck showed up, but the car was destroyed.
There was an investigation. The insurance company assumed he’d deliberately set the fire, but couldn’t prove it.
I did go back last night, almost 2 hrs round trip, which means I didn’t get to do what was planned for last night. I also said something when I went to check out; he said that’s their winter hrs & they’re open to 10pm later in the week. I said the website said M-Sat was 'til 10pm. He responded with a very casual, ‘we’ll get around to fixing it…maybe’ comment.
Given they’re now the only place in multiple counties that carries these beers (& they don’t even carry all of them anymore) I think this may be the last year with George, Clarence, & the progressively bader elves
I went to get groceries and put them in my fridge. My guy said he had business and would be back at his place by 3 or before. I stay there a lot. For an hour and a half he read my texts but didnt reply. Finally at 4.30 he called and said he was in Pennsylvania for the night. He and his friend go to auctions there.
If I’d left my last dose of antibiotics there, I wouldnt have completed them and probly gotten infected again.
I have been practically staying there for 2 months. He told me the day before he wanted to stay at mine, why I got the groceries… Have not heard back.
It always amazes me the blasé attitude many businesses have to keeping their website synced with their reality.
Of course if you’re talking to a cashier at anything bigger than a Mom’n’Pop store, that person has shit to do with the website, and probably no effective way to even communicate to anyone in the company who could give a hoot, much less cause it to be fixed.
I don’t necessarily disagree with you, but it can go both ways. A repaired car can be repaired well, or badly and/or with inferior parts. A new car is much less of a risk but still might be a step down from a former very reliable car, and will cost you big money regardless of what insurance offers you.
I don’t claim there’s much to learn in terms of basic principle from my story, but the fact that the Camry had been a very good car and that the body shop owner was known, trusted, and competent rather stacked the odds in favour of the repair option. As it turned out, with several years of subsequent evidence, it was the right choice.
I think I’m also a little sensitized to the whole “get a new car” pressure because it’s not just from insurers, but in recent years also from governments whose emission and mileage standards all seem to encourage consumers to dump perfectly good cars and get brand new ones, irrespective of the fact that the environmental cost may ultimately be greater than if they were just left the hell alone. Fortunately, at least around here, governments have eased off on that a bit. The biannual emissions testing scam, for one, has been discontinued. I’m all for a clean environment, but that scam was ineffective and easily circumvented in all kinds of fraudulent ways.
I have the sinus infection from hell right now. My head hurts so bad I don’t even remember the last time I was in this much consistent pain. Constant wakeups from the pain. I do better upright, so eventually I just gave up on sleeping, and started my day. In the daytime it has gone from horrible to unpleasant, but I dread trying to sleep again tonight, because I know it will get worse. I’m worried this is going to interfere with Christmas.
My gf occasionally has sinus problems and the only thing that makes her feel better is the medication that requires paperwork because of meth (Sudafed?).
When I pick it up for her I have to show ID and explain why it is needed. One time after I paid I jokingly said that after all that it would be a waste not to make meth out of it. The pharmacy tech glared at me.
#1: This may seem like a silly thing to rant about, but we had to call a plumber at the end of October to replace the water heater at my stepdaughter’s house (which we own). We still haven’t received a bill. I called them earlier in the week and the guy said the bill was mailed early Dec, but it hasn’t shown up at either house yet. He said he could email us a copy, so I texted him both my and my wife’s email addresses. Three days later, still nothing. (Upside: free water heater! I guess)
#2: Texted my brother and sister about coming in to town for our Xmas visit over NYE weekend, which is when we’ve come in nearly every year for the past 30 years. Nope, everyone already has plans that weekend. Y’know, we never had this problem when mom was still around. (#2a. Mom’s birthday would have been today. )
#3. My wife was out running errands and her car died, so I had to go pick her up. When I got there, a large chunk of her front bumper was just sort of dangling off. “What happened here?” “I don’t know…” I’m pretty sure if I had hit something hard enough to knock a chunk of my front end loose, I would have remembered it.
Wow. The last time we had a plumber come to our house, he discussed payment before he began working. He gave us the bill and my gf wrote him a check the moment he was done.
Pseudoephedrine HCl, and yes that is prescription-only because it is a common ingredient in the creation of methamphetamines.
Sudafed is probably the most well-known brand name of pseudoephedrine but don’t just go by the brand name, because they also make a non-prescription nasal decongestant made with phenylephrine, and recently an FDA panel determined that it doesn’t work.
That’s the most common oral decongestant that people use because it doesn’t require a prescription. I’ve been using it for years and always wondered if it worked because it didn’t seem to help. I’ve disposed of the pills I still have.
Years ago we had a mole problem in our yard. All my pitiful DIY attempts failed, so we called an exterminator my then-wife knew from her small biz networking group. Nice guy. He came out and whatever he did worked, as the moles were gone and never returned. Fast forward 6 months. Despite much phone calling, yaks before & after their monthly networking club meetings, etc., no bill.
So she did what any good lawyer would do. Got her fancy letterhead, her expensive stationery, and wrote him a sternly worded demand letter sent registered mail to his office. Ending with
Either send us a bill forthwith, or return our moles!
He had the bill for her at their next club meeting. With a laugh.
My son has had two occasions this month where he was screaming inconsolably due to pain, and I suspect he was probably also responding to a sinus infection, because screaming sounds pretty good right now. He bounced back the next day, though. He is just really resilient when it comes to his health.
I just wanted to note that I sympathy with you @Spice_Weasel and anyone else with sinus infection issues.
I’ve had sinus problems since I was a little kid, I still do on occasion, and it is cripplingly painful. I even get migraines from them at times. It’s the only way I’ve ever had a migraine. They are the worst. I haven’t had an actual infection in a while but ugh. They are the worst. The only pain I’ve had worse than that is a kidney stone. Even a broken limb doesn’t come close.
My friends and I joyously abused ephedrine in our youth. It was an over the counter drug that even young, wasted kids could buy. It became hard to find, then impossible. Pseudo-ephedrine (as in Sudafed) and nor-pseudo-ephedrine can also be used to make meth but the chemical reactions are more complex.
The hangovers were beyond intense; don’t try this at home! Unless you are like 17 years old and you don’t care.
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