For those of you who have been watching my Twitter feed, you probably know that on Monday night this week my car was broken into and my GPS system was stolen. The car was parked out the front of where I live in Melbourne and at some point during the night my drivers side window was smashed (and GPS removed).
I found out about it at about quarter past four in the morning when I walked out to the car to head off to the airport for an early flight. I was still a bit sleepy and didn’t notice until I actually saw glass on the ground next to the car and even then it took a good few seconds for it to register what had happened.
Anyway - I decided not to go to Sydney and stay in Melbourne to sort out the repairs and insurance side of things as well as lodge a police report. The fun as you can imagine started when I called the insurance company.
The long and the short of it is that I am indeed covered for window breakage, however there is an excess of $450 dollars on the policy (I was clearly a cheapskate when I took out the insurance). Anyway - that seemed a bit steep for a drivers side window so I called the glass company and they quoted $320 including labour. I cancelled the insurance claim since I already have a spare GPS and doing the running around would cost me more than $100 dollars.
However - this entire episode got me thinking about the value of insurance and I asked the lady on the line at the insurance company what the value of the product really was and she suggested that its really helpful if I run into a Ferrari and its my fault. Great - I’ve got Ferrari Insurance.
I want Jedi insurance. You need it when, after watching a Star Wars movie, you have the sudden urge to grab the nearest broom handle and pretend that the force is with you. Jedi insurance would cover all paint scratches on your wall, broken glasses, and bent broomhandles.
@Paul, maybe these guys could help out http://www.jedichurch.com/
damn…I seriously feel your pain Mitch!!
One of the few things that will severely tick me off, is stealing/breaking into my car..it happened to me last year as well (http://msmvps.com/blogs/brianmadsen/archive/2007/03/11/explicit-what-pisses-me-off.aspx) but luckily i was insured as well, by RAC that is…and my policy gives me 1 free window/winscreen per year..fully covered….second time it happens i have a $300 excess but that’s about it.
i don’t think our insurance is anything fancy..just standard RAC motor insurance..
maybe it’s time to change your insurance company? it’s the small things that counts the most…and seriously, if i were told that my insurance would be good to me if i ran into a ferrari i’d seriously consider swapping it out…
at least the woman on the phone were honest with you…could have filled you with all kinds of crap..instead she honestly says “it’s good if you hit a ferrari and that it’s your fault”…so, if i were you, i’d start to count ferrari’s on the road…if they ever get in the immediate vicinity of your car (eg, you could actually hit if if you really wanted to) it’s 1 point…0 points if you have to move through other cars to get to it…if the score of the month is less than 5, you don’t really need insurance as you’ll have a 4 in 5 chance of not hitting the ferrari