The accident from HELL

I have really bad luck. My car was in the auto body shop for a month. A FREAKING MONTH. The damage to my car was pretty extensive, but I never thought it would take 29 whole days to fix it. I am lucky that the insurance company paid for my rental, otherwise, we would have been screwed. There is no way we could afford to pay for a rental van for an entire month.

Last Thursday, the body shop called to let me know that my van would FINALLY be ready for pick-up on Friday. I honestly felt relieved. Although I love driving the new minivan, I just wanted to get my life back to normal, and have this whole accident fiasco behind me. On Friday, I waited and waited and waited for the shop to call. They never did. Finally, at 5:30pm I called them. No-one answered, so I left a message for them to call me back. About an hour later, the manager of the shop called to tell me that my van's exterior was completely fixed, but for some unknown reason, it wouldn't start.

Honestly, I felt like crying. WHY? Why can't anything ever be easy? He went on to tell me that it sounds like my van's "smart box" went bad, which is apparently the van's computer system. The auto body guy told me that he would call be back in the morning with more information.

On Saturday morning, the auto body guy called again. He wanted to let me know that my van still wouldn't start, but that it might just be my battery. They wanted to unplug it for a full 24 hours, because apparently that would solve the problem? Honestly, I had no idea what the dude was talking about. He told me he would call me back on Monday.

Monday rolled around, and once again I waited and waited and waited for a call. Finally, at almost 5pm, the manager called to tell me that my van was up and running again. AWESOME. I went over to pick up my van (it was pitch black outside, so I couldn't inspect the work that was performed) and returned the rental. When I got home, I parked under the security lights on the side of our house and looked at the finished product. Something caught my eye. The paint was scratched on the back (near where you fill the car with gas). I went inside and got John. We were both pretty pissed. I took the van back to the body shop. The manager was baffled. He kept trying to blame it on the gas attendant who had filled up my tank right after I left the shop. I assured him that there was no way in hell that the gas guy fucked up my van.

They took the van back and then happily called me back to look at the damage. It was gone! WHAT THE FUCK? It turns out that is wasn't a scratch after all. It was just a large portion of wax that had frozen while I was driving it home. Apparently it wiped right off. I felt like an ass, but was glad that it could be so easily fixed.

I am eager to see my van in the daylight tomorrow. Hopefully it will look fabulous. Keep your fingers crossed for me.