All shops were asked an estimate on how much to address this problem: Massively Dented Quarter Panel, with scratches, paint chips and starting to rust.
The wonderful world of body shop quotes:
$750 - “Is Insurance paying for this? No?, Come with me.” <takes me in and writes on business card>
$700 “That’s a lot of body work boy…$700”
$400 - “This line is hard to reproduce…leave it with me for a week but I can’t take you till 2 weeks from now”
$500 - “5 bills, we could do it for 4 bills but it won’t be a good job and you will notice waves because it’s black. 5 bills for a good job, we’ll need the car for 3 days”
$? - “Guy’s not here to give you a quote, come back at 5pm”
$650 - “It’s good that it’s black and not silver, otherwise we’d have to blend the door…”
$1600 - “Because it’s black we’ll need to blend the door” <first guy to give me fully detailed quote on paper>
So thousand dollar question: if it’s black….does the door need to blended to match? Obvious contradiction on the last two quotes, both from bigger shops….
Bottom line: Find an amazing Cantonese speaking guy who has connections and a relationship with a shop….SPECIAL THANKS TO MAH FRIEND ALMOND!!!!!
- March 25
- , 2011
Received from a friend, something to be aware of: Normally don’t send out these type of emails but I think this one is important. About 3 weeks ago I had someone call my house claiming they were from Rogers cable and wanted me to log onto my computer and enter some commands on my PC. I played along with them for several minutes as they tried to get my IP address from me. Obviously I didn’t proceed past that point. Today I had another attempt by someone claiming to be from Microsoft and said my computer was infected with viruses and sending alerts to them. Again I played along while they attempted to get me to go to a very non Microsoft site. Even though I find these pathetic attempts to be very humorous, especially since I love to keep them on the phone as long as possible, I am very aware I have friends and family that are not so security and IT savvy as we are. I’m not sure if I am the only lucky one in this case but you may also want to educate some of your non IT family and friends on the dangers of social engineering
- March 25
- , 2011
Insurance for Senior’s in Ontario:
Grey Power timeline:
- Sept 9th, 2010 Online Application filled out
- Oct, 2010 Call about online quote, told they will send out a form.
- Nov, 2010 Called to confirm form was filled out, sent it back.
- Early Jan, 2010 Called them to see what’s up, they said they didn’t know so sent us to a new agent.
- Mid Jan, 2010 Called them to see what’s up, they said the form was not filled correctly, will send back with highlights so we can fill out the missing parts.
- End Jan, 2010 Nothing received, new agent said it probably did not get sent, will try to send again.
- Feb, 2010 Still not received, called them to ask what’s going on…new agent said notes were too complicated, will get previous agent to call tomorrow.
- No call received. Called again angrily…said they would call back tomorrow and CC the previous agent’s manager.
McLennan Insurance (through CARP)
- Mar 12th, 2011 Filled out online application.
- Mar 14th, 2011 E-mailed Quote in written letter via PDF received.
- Mar 15th, 2011 Agent called to confirm all information.
- Mar 15th, 2011 Temporary insurance liability forms e-mailed today.
- Mar 22nd, 2011 Actual pink slips received in the mail.
5 months vs. 10 days to get insurance for senior’s….hmmm someone should make a commercial about that…
Spread the word:
http://www.themclennangroup.com/carp/_product_pages/add.html
- March 22
- , 2011
Used Car Buying Guide: Some questions you’ll want to ask/e-mail before checking out the car: With a VIN you can get an autocheck while shopping (Unlimited reports for 30 days for $44.99) http://www.autocheck.com/?siteID=0&WT.mc_id=0 When you find a clean one, and are about to buy it, make sure you buy a carproof for $49.95 https://www.carproof.com/Default.asp Once you have the VIN you can check to see when the last Etest was done: http://www.ene.gov.on.ca/en/air/driveclean/index.php a) Go to Light Duty Vehcles b) My Vehicles test history. If the answers above look good then you should ask when they are free for a test drive and check the following: Test Driving: 1. Make sure all controls and features work (A/C, wipers…etc) 2. Listen for rattles. 3. Listen for wind noise. 4. See if the car pulls one way or the other to identify potential alignment problems 5. Test the brakes for squeeling, pulsating or grinding. 6. Does the automatic transmission shift nicely? 7. Check for any signs of rusting @ the fenders 8. Check under the hood and check welds, they should be very smooth & consistent on both sides 9. Check inner door metal for signs of work
- March 14
- , 2011
