Crunch – Enterprise Day Two

Posted: Tue 22 December, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Customer Services, Driving, Work-related | 2 Comments »

Following on from Friday’s fuck-ups with Enterprise Car Hire, we’d organised for the Norwich office to come and collect me between 10 and 11am, bringing me back to the Norwich office to do the paperwork and collect the car to drive home. Simple, you’d have thought. But no – because Enterprise Car Hire are a bunch of abysmally slack useless bastards.

Just before 10, they called to say that because of the condition of the roads (which were OK for the main roads, but a bit dodgy on back roads) they wouldn’t make it for 10-11, and would instead come over between 2 and 3. Fine with me, at least I knew what was going on.

Except, well, that’s not what they actually did. Instead, they gave the job back to the useless fuckbags at the Diss office. (which I’d explicitly asked to not happen, as Diss office were – um – useless fuckbags) The people at the Diss office decided to bring a car to me – why they did this and used up two of the three staff at Diss, rather than coming over to pick me up, as Norwich had planned to do is a mystery – and supposedly left Diss at 1pm.

After lots of phone calls to the Diss and Norwich branches, the car eventually turned up at 5.15. If the Diss office of Enterprise Car Hire are to be believed (and that’s a bit of a leap) it took them four and a quarter hours to travel 20 miles.

I’ve got the car for two weeks for sure, and we’ll see what happens after that. I can’t wait to see how Diss fuck up the returning of the car. Still, so long as they don’t charge me for whatever they fuck up, that’ll be fine.

As it is, I’m just glad I’ve finally got the car. It means at least I’ll be able to get in to work tomorrow, and sort out the stuff that’s waiting for me there.

Crunch – Enterprise Car Hire

Posted: Sun 20 December, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Customer Services, Domestic, Driving, Travel | 1 Comment »

Because of the damage to my car (and that damn fence) I’ve had to make a claim on the car insurance for the first time. Of course, it’s going to cost me the no-claims bonus and so on – and result in having to note it if I change insurer for the next few years – as well as the excess, but it’s going to be better to pay out £300 than the fuck-only-knows-how-much for both car repairs and fence reconstruction.

So far though – and as with previous things where I’ve used their recovery services – I’ve been really impressed with Tesco Insurance. Having had the accident, the recovery vehicle was with me within an hour as promised.

On Friday, having called them at 9am to register the claim itself, I was told that the car would be taken to their recommended bodyshop – I did have the choice of using my preferred one, but then it’s fucking about with estimates etc. – within four hours, and that the courtesy car people (Enterprise car hire) would be in touch also within four hours.

By 10am, the garage had called me, explained they’d need to get a different company to lug the car, and the different company had also called me to arrange collecting the car. By 12 the car was on the way to the garage on the back of a flatbed. Efficiency personified.

The only cloud so far has been Enterprise bloody car hire. The promised callback didn’t happen by 1pm. Fair enough, it was a shitty and busy day, but they’re a big company, you’d think someone would’ve been able to call, if only to say “We’re really busy, but will get back to you”. I called Tesco insurance back, and they got hold of Enterpriuse, and promised a call back again within two hours.

And still nothing. I ended up calling them at 4pm, and still not speaking to the right place “because they were too busy”. They finally called back at 4.30 to say “We’re not going to get to you today”. And that was it, so far as the Diss office was concerned. They weren’t open on Saturday, so *shrug*. We might be able to get out to you on Monday. Maybe.

I did sort out going to the Norwich office to collect one on Saturday, but that fell through for other reasons. So now I’ll be getting picked up to get to the Norwich office, rather than Diss. Frankly, I’ve no confidence in the Diss office at all, and have explained that to both Tesco Insurance, and the Norwich office.

We’ll see what happens on Monday, and whether Enterprise manage to sort themselves out for this one.

Crunch 2

Posted: Sat 19 December, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Travel, Weather | 3 Comments »

So – following on from yesterday’s post about crunching the car, this is what I did to it…

The result of my sliding into the fence

The result of my sliding into the fence

Fucked wheel, flat tyre, buggered headlamp and bumper, knackered plastic bodywork, and a bundle of crunched connections and wires.

I’ve still not had any news about how much the repairs will cost – I suspect that’ll be Monday’s news.

Crunch

Posted: Fri 18 December, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Domestic, Driving, Norfolk, Travel, Weather | 1 Comment »

Last night, as may have come to people’s attention, it snowed in Norfolk. Quite heavily in fact, with a heavy wind that meant the snow was horizontal in places.

It was also effing cold – in snow? Who’d have thought? – which meant that the road was slippy.

Coming home, I started slipping at one crossroads, and slowed down as a result. I knew the next bit was dodgy at the best of times – seen the results of several accidents there already – so I was down to about 15mph. The car slid, and rather than turning went straight on, up the verge, and took out the fence of the house that’s on the corner. (Again, that fence has been taken out at least four times to my knowledge – so I’m the fifth) It slid along the fence, popping out the wooden fence panels, and hitting the concrete fence posts.

It wasn’t a hard impact – just inertia and momentum really – and didn’t even trigger the airbags. But the entire front quarter is stuffed, I’ve lost a headlamp, front nearside panel’s gone, and the bumper’s stuffed too. It’s going to take some work to fix.

The insurance company I use (Tesco) have been really good so far. The recovery truck was out within the hour they said, and today I’ve started the claim, and just about everything has run smoothly. There’s one exception to that, but that’s a separate post.

More mortifying was the fact that someone had called the police – I don’t know if it was one of the houseowners, or someone driving past, but still, up they pulled, blue lights and all. Probably for the best, as the corner was still dodgy and slippery (the police car came up at about 15-20mph too) but all the same, pretty mortifying. Still, it means that as well as having my first “proper” accident, I’ve also had my first breathalyser test – blowing an absolute zero, which wasn’t a surprise – and given all my details to them about the crash. An interesting experience, to be sure.

So the car’s stuffed – but thankfully it appears to be mainly the bodywork, not the chassis or anything. And it could’ve been so much worse. After all, I’m not hurt, no-one else got hurt, and really it’s just a car and a fence.

Crossing to Nowhere

Posted: Mon 14 December, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: 1BEM, Driving, Norfolk, Stupidity, Weirdness | Leave a comment »

While out shopping for some bits yesterday, we came across this crossing in a carpark in Norwich…

Crossing to Nowhere

Crossing to Nowhere

Yep, that zebra-crossing actually ends up in a hedge. No pathway, no throughfare, nothing. Just cross the road, walk into a hedge.

Bizarre

111,111

Posted: Sat 12 December, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: D4D™, Driving | 1 Comment »

Yes, I really am this sad…

111,111 on the odometer

111,111 on the odometer

And yes, I was parked up at the time (as the speedo needle shows) but I did have to pull in to a car park just so I could take the photo.

Scratch List

Posted: Fri 11 December, 2009 | Author: | Filed under: Driving, Travel | 2 Comments »

So, following on from yesterday’s post, a list of the scratches on the car. (Just for laughs, it’s nowt special)

  1. Rear nearside wheel arch – scraped down a wall in Devon three days after I got the car. (Stuck on a single-track road, reversed, didn’t know the length/width of the car. Scratch)
  2. Slight dent on rear bumper – on the same trip in Devon, not knowing the length of the car and reversing in a car-park.
  3. Rear nearside passenger door – scraped on the bumper of another car. (Yes, that’s the one in the multi-storey car park in London)
  4. Rear driverside doors – scraped on the tight entrance to the car park at Little Ouse Moorings
  5. Another dent on rear bumper – reversed into in Reading while pulling out of a parking space
  6. Rear driverside door – the new scratch from yesterday, courtesy of Mr M 521 BNH

Along the way there’s also been the damage done by two collisions with deer, and the smashed driver-side mirror when got whacked by someone coming the other way.

And today it’s in the garage for a service and replacement handbrake cable. *sigh*

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