The husband and I were in a pretty bad car wreck the other day. Our Nissan Versa was no match for the pickup that rear-ended us doing 55 and bent the entire back frame of the car. Our poor Versa is totaled and we are currently in the process of dealing with the insurance company mumbo jumbo. This is where military life is making this whole process very frustrating.
For the past six months or so, my husband has been working rotating shifts. It took a while to get used to his ever changing comings and goings, but it was really convenient that, at least every once in a while, he was home during normal business hours and could handle talking to people like the insurance company and the bank. Now, he has settled into a schedule more closely matching normal business hours. I love that he is home at normal times, his schedule isn’t constantly changing (at least for now), and so far he hasn’t had to work nights.
Unfortunately, he is not allowed to have a phone on him at work, and his office number is for emergencies only. This means, that, when the insurance companies call for statements and to give estimates, I field the phone calls. Since he was driving at the time of the accident, nobody wants to talk to me.
Insurance Company: We need to speak to your husband.
Me: He’s in the Navy. He won’t be available until after your normal hours.
Insurance Company: Well, you aren’t assigned to an after-hours team member…
Me: Can we be?
Insurance Company: We’ll try again tomorrow.
Me: (head slap)
I'm not sure that normal business hours work for anyone in this situation, but repeating this scenario with agent after agent was maddening. After about five days we finally got in touch with a helpful agent who seemed unsure as to why we weren’t instructed to talk to an after-hours agent to begin with. She took his statement and has been more than helpful at putting us in touch with someone who is available to talk after my husband gets off work. Hopefully, we will be able to get a new car this weekend, drop off the rental, and put this mess behind us.
The kicker to this situation? It all happened less than two weeks after our move, and the same day we had family coming into town to visit and go to the beach. I’ve heard of the Murphy’s Law of Deployments, but has anyone else had Murphy show up during (or shortly after) a PCS? Anyone else tired of explaining over and over again that your spouse can’t always take phone calls?
