A series of unfortunate events

You know what I feel like right now? I feel like going back to my childhood and smacking myself every time I played house or anything resembling being an adult. I don’t know why we were in such a rush to grow up because being an adult actually comes with this big and nasty incurable disease called “RESPONIBILITY” and ever since I started working it seems to be growing like a big fat wart on my face that won’t go away! I’ve had a couple of incidents in the past couple of months that are constant reminders, painful lessons if you must, that teach me to up my responsibility game…

Rewind to December 2011, I had barely stayed a week in my pretty two bedroom apartment in Cape Town northern suburbs when I came home from work to find that my place had got broken into and my laptop and professional camera were gone. I called the police, who came promptly after an hour at most, no finger prints were detected and I did not know the serial numbers of either of the stolen goods. Neither of the two were insured.

Lesson 1:

·         Always make sure all windows and doors are closed when leaving the house.

·         Insure all valuable items.

·         Thieves don’t care how long it took you to save up, so you can buy yourself these luxury wants.

I cried and got over it and one of the policemen who had come to take the statement asked for my friend’s BBM pin. A month later I replaced my stolen camera with a big and better one…

June 2012, exactly 6 months after my thieving incident, I’m driving out of a hotel parking lot, talking and laughing with my friend and in the process bump a tree. My bumper and spotlight came off. Did I freak out? No. Insurance was going to pay for it! Surely after paying R1250 a month for the past eight months meant everything was covered…or so I thought. After going to the police station to fill in an incident form, I called my insurance broker, Alexander Forbes at the time and sent in all other necessary documents. Everything went well, I took my car to a dealership approved panel beater and got quoted a hefty amount of R7500, but I didn’t freak out because my insurance had me covered. I joyfully sent in the quote and a rental was delivered to me. I was sorted. And then, while diligently completing my daily tasks at work, I get a call from Alexander Forbes demanding me to return the rental and notifying me that I would be covering the repairs myself because I had breached some part of the contract (one vital sentence I had overlooked). By this time my car had already been fixed. They waited a whole four days to tell me this? On top of it all the lady who spoke to me was unbelievingly rude about it. I was fuming and was not going to go down without a fight, so I went onto Hello Peter and lodged a complaint. Ultimately, A.Forbes paid 40% of the cost and I covered the rest.

Lesson 2:

·         Be vigilant when moving out of tight parking spots, especially if they are in close proximity to stationary objects.

·         Read every line of your insurance contract before signing

August 2012, excited to start practising on my camera after an insightful photography class at Vega, I made a quick stop by Chicken Licken to get some hot wings. When I got home, I opened my boot and my camera was gone! I did the usual; made an incident report and called my insurance. You see, after my first camera being stolen, I made sure that this one got insured. All was good until I got a call back from my insurance broker, now Budget Insurance (I was so angry with Alexander Forbes, I changed) telling me that they would not be covering my loss as there was no forced sign of break in. See what had happened is that the thieves sent ‘signals’ to my car that blocked the lock, so when I thought I had locked, I actually hadn’t (this is the simplest way I can explain it). Anyway, because I had been through my contract thoroughly, I caught them out and they ended up paying 50% for a mistake they had made. Based on this I should’ve stayed with Budget Insurance, they’re a decent bunch, but I have since moved to Outsurance.

Lesson 3:

Always double check your doors after locking your car

October 2012, just over a month after moving back to Jhb, I wake up and the cap of my review mirror on the passenger’s side is gone. There are no other signs of damage. Till this day I have no idea how this came about but suspect it may have been stolen while I was at Fourways Mall the previous day. Next day I take the car to a dealership, I mean, it’s just the cover, it can’t cost me that much! When I get there I’m quoted an estimate of R2600. I nearly fainted, told them I would go home and think about it. After several phone calls to panel beaters all over Jhb, my only option was the dealership as the panel beaters don’t have this part. I decided to go back to the dealership, this time I was quoted a whooping R4800! Now I am driving around with a review mirror that has wires sticking out, looking like a reckless driver (or possibly even a thief)! It shall remain like this till I sum up the courage to cough up that amount.

The mystery of the missing mirror cap

Lesson 4:

 I have learnt no lesson here but that cars are such an expense and that if I was born in another era, it probably would have been cheaper to repair a donkey (plus donkeys don’t need petrol to keep going)!

Honestly, I’m tired of this growing up business! I’m tired of being taught lessons and I’m tired of Responsibility! Seriously, I want out, where’s the Suggestion Box???