I decided to rename this post after I told my husband about this story… he had one question..
WWBD
What Would Beiber Do?
A couple weeks ago I sat in my car with son making a few phone calls when all of the sudden WHAM!!! I thought a car had backed in to us. My son pointed behind me and there was a shopping cart t-boning us. I immediately whipped my head back around and caught the woman getting in her car next to me. She had no idea she never engaged the parking break on her cart. I got out and tapped on her window. “Hi, your cart (pointing to the offending cart) yea your cart that you just parked? It just hit my car” The woman acted a bit surprised somewhat confused and a touch annoyed. She rolled her window down and told me she didn’t know anything about a cart. I told her that I watched her walk behind my car in my rear-view mirror and I KNEW that she was the last person touching that cart.
You’d think I had just hit a hornet’s nest with a baseball bat the way she flew out of her car wanting to inspect the “HUGE” dent in my car.
I quickly pointed out those were HER words and not mine. I told her it was a significant dent and certainly something that I wanted fixed after all this car has less than 4000 miles on it and make no mistake this was no little door dent either.
Thank God for cell phones. She made her friend get out of the car and come look at the dent. She claimed she could barely see this.
Are you kidding me? Really?
I tried to be as nice as possible because a) it was an accident and b) it was just bad luck.
As I was photographing the new “dimple” in my wheel well. I should also point out this woman made a comment that my phone was unfairly ENHANCING the damage. To which I fired back, what could that possible matter to the person fixing it? I mean really. I just wanted to make sure you could see it, the body shop is not going to give me an estimate based on a photo I promise you that.
She started in with the insurance talk which I assured her she would not want to go that route for something so minor. I told her I had friends (which she later told me that thought sounded “shaky”) that would probably be able to suction the dent out without a problem. Here I was trying to tell her I was going to make this as easy as possible all the while she was yelling and insisting this was something over nothing.
Well that nothing turned out to be $147 worth of damages and that was the cheapest route and did not restore my new car to its original condition I might add, the dent as imperceptible as it may seem is still there and I am OK with that, really I get it its just a car. But that said I happen to take great care of my cars and I really enjoy my car I don’t treat it like a trash can and when something is damaged cosmetic or not I fix it. I even had an insurance package on my last car that allowed me 4 visits a year to repair any damage on a vertical service, meaning every 3 months all the door dings, chewed rims and scratches were removed. I take my car care seriously no apologies for that.
So after a few trite emails, (she was “disappointed” the way I handled myself because I went ahead and had the repair done without her knowledge or consent – it was with good reason) she sent a check (because according to her email ‘its what the Lord would have her to do’) along with what looked like 2 playing cards from the deck of Jesus and the Latter Day Saints. Her note read:
Dear Lindsey,
Enclosed please find a check to fully compensate you for the unfortunate circumstances that ended in the small ‘dimple’ in your new car. Also, please find two cards that can, if used, work to bring far more blessings then any monetary compensation or any number of new beautiful cars can ever begin to give.
Sincerely,
cart woman
Can I get an Amy Poehler & Seth Meyer style REALLY?!?!
Cart woman do you think that including a patronizing note with your check was going to lead me further down to the path of Jesus, let alone Mormonism?
REALLY?
And by asking YOU to be accountable for YOUR actions I am the one who needs to find Jesus in their heart?
REALLY?
You must have skimmed over the part in my email where I apologized for your misfortune and genuinely appreciated your willingness to pay. I guess my point you only get what you give was completely lost on you.
You may think you got in the last word but I have news for cart lady, you don’t have a blog.
Amen.
Phenominal post doppelgänger (not in an evil way, only positive).
Really.
See, I would appreciated that from the burglar who broke into my car in 2009, the day of my son’s birthday party. Which, by the way, is finally getting fixed as soon as the direct deposit from the Feds activates. Seriously, I have a punched doorlock, that I haven’t been able to use since 2009.
And we won’t forget the collision with the pole at Walgreens in Woodbury in December. Angry Husband’s truck still has the dent.
Is there someone I can blame it on..
And Amen for the iPhone!
that’s when a beater car comes in handy, in the span of all our cars hubs and I had ONE we called it the ‘turd’ and the beauty of it was we would squeeze it in the smallest of spaces and wash it quarterly, got dents? who cared… there is something freeing about that.
PS where is your Gravatar?
Since Justin Bieber cut his hair for Selena Gomez I think he would have his ‘people’ handle the repair so he could celebrate his 17th birthday with a romantic dinner at Maggiano’s at The Grove. {Personally, I would have chosen The Cheesecake Factory}
Beiber would have bought me a new car (drop in his bucket) and graciously given the dented one to the cart lady so she could now spread the word a little faster in her new beemer.
Brilliant! I was rear ended in January while driving my son’s truck and I must admit, I was probably not the nicest of Christian’s when we pulled over to inspect the damage. The young girl was very apologetic and we exchanged info. When I saw the “damage” in the light of day, it wasn’t as bad as I thought. I took it to the repair place for an estimate and it would be only $68. I called the girl and told her that I wouldn’t file any claims and would like her to pay for this. She thanked me. I was shocked. She drove to the repair place and prepaid. I got it fixed and it was easy. When her kindness and apology got to me, I returned it in kind. (ps, I know it wasn’t much, but we had just had the entire rear end repaired after another jerk ran into the rear of my son’s truck and then claimed that it was my son’s fault and our insurance company actually had to take the asshole to court where the Highway Patrolman had to say that it was not my son’s fault for being in a turn lane with his signal on and gets rear ended. This guy thought he could get away with “well he’s 16 and must not know what he’s doing” and the jerk was texting and driving when he rear ended my son. Good news is that his truck was totaled and he only had liability insurance. Again, not very Christian of me, but what you give, you get back threefold.)
ahhh Peggy your comment reminds of of all the times I get cut off only to find myself starring down their Christian license plate holder or fish symbol – that always gets a “HOW CHRISTIAN OF YOU!” outta me. hypocrites.
I think its my biggest peeve, people who won’t take responsibility! Like the guy who tried to pass me as I turned into my drive. His statement to the ins. co. was I didn’t have my signal on far enough ahead. B***s**t!
Came across this blog, read and enjoyed. Especially the “Really?!” part. At least she sent you something to compensate for the damages. I understand the frustration of having something hit your brand new car. An old lady backed into the front of mine a day after I bought it. She claimed fault to the officer, then told her insurance it wasn’t her fault so we had to wait on the police report. Funny thing, if she was a true Christian, she would have been the one going up to your car and apologizing for the cart that she didn’t put up. This is why I don’t go anywhere near Wal-Mart. That is ground zero idiots who can’t drive and too lazy to put carts up.