Insurance or No Insurance ... Repairs Are a Go

Parked and plugged in at Alfateers until Monday morning.

Our little misadventure turned out to be more expensive than we imagined -- by about four times. Isn't that usually the way it goes?

It was Monday, the 8th, when Alfateers advised Mark to head on over and they'd look at the damage and then we could discuss what to do, so we left Caliente for Fontana the following day. Samantha, our lovely Alfateers customer service specialist, looked everything over right away when we arrived and gave us her honest opinion that the cost of repairs would make it worthwhile to submit a claim to our insurance company, and so we did. 

The good news is that our insurance company, National General, whom I'd never heard of before buying the motorhome, has an excellent relationship with Alfateers. As a matter of fact, Alfateers is one of their "preferred vendors," and they pretty much always approve repairs without delay and without sending out an adjuster to review the damage personally. 

Now, in the meantime, when we left Caliente Springs, we really did intend to return for the remaining days of our stay, and so instead of dragging the car around with us, we left it parked in our space at Caliente. Our original understanding was that Alfateers would either be able to fit us in for a quick repair on Tuesday or Wednesday and get us on our way, or they would schedule us for repairs on the 29th and we would return to Palm Springs until then. Either way, we expected to return to Caliente fairly quickly. But once we were here, they decided it would be best if we stayed, and they would fit us in as quickly as possible.

How to get the car?...was our next challenge. We thought about renting a car for a day, but then I would have to drive back either our car with the trailer or the rental, something I especially did NOT want to do. The idea of driving or riding in a car for five hours to accomplish this task was not a pleasing one. I had come down sick with a head cold and was very much under the weather. In the end, we decided that Mark would rent a U-Haul truck, drive down and tow them back, which he did on Thursday, the 11th. While he was doing that, Alfateers pulled our coach into their bay and did a full diagnostic. Not only was the back cap separated, but the furnace (yes, the very one on which we had spent almost a thousand bucks get working not many weeks ago), had a cracked case and needed to be replaced. 

Once we opened a claim with National General, Samantha promptly submitted the necessary pictures and cost estimates to the adjuster on Friday, the 12th, by email. The following Monday, Mark called the insurance company and learned that they'd never received the email, and so Samantha resent them right away. By Tuesday, the day we should have been leaving to go to Quartzsite for our much anticipated Alfa Roadrunner Rally, National General had received what they needed and assured us we should have their ruling by Friday. There would be no Alfa Roadrunner Rally for us. At least not this year.

Friday is tomorrow. We've been here, parking lot camping, for ten days now. Fortunately, Alfateers dumps our tanks for us periodically so we don't have to worry about going somewhere else to manage that very necessary function. 

Perhaps we're jumping the gun, but Mark and I came to the conclusion that we have two choices:

   

   Choice #1 - We can wait for the insurance company to approve everything before we allow Alfateers to proceed with repairs-- repairs, that must be done whether or not the insurance company pays for everything. 

   Choice #2 - We can give Alfateers the go-ahead to repair what needs to be repaired, accepting responsibility for the cost of anything not covered by insurance.

In either scenario, the repairs get made. The only difference is time. They either get done quickly or who knows when. Since they need to get done regardless of whether the insurance company covers everything, we instructed Samantha to start repairs with or without approval from the insurance company and we would pay anything the insurance company denied. Our hope, of course, is that the adjuster will find all the repairs necessary and our final obligation will be the deductible.

On Monday, they will pull us in and get started. While they're working on our house, we will be enjoying the hospitality of our son and daughter-in-law for another week. And just maybe I'll have one more opportunity to spend an afternoon with my darling grandbaby, Sophie.

Thanks to a plethora of natural remedies, I have recovered fully from my head cold and am well enough to toss babies in the air and smother them with kisses. 

I haven't told Sweetie about this new development yet, and I don't expect her to be happy about it, but we must all make adjustments when circumstances beyond our control prevail.

But for now, Alfateers has moved us to a spot where we can plug our gray tank into the sewer system so we can shower, wash clothes and dishes, and otherwise use water normally without worrying about filling up our tank. That will get us through the weekend comfortably until we leave for Steve and Al's. Then by the end of next week, we hope to have our home back, in even better shape than it was before.

Then we'll be heading to Florida.