Happy five

Well Saturday was Gracie's fifth birthday and we had a party at a place called "Pump it Up".

They had huge inflatable toys for the kids (and the adults) to play on. Huge slides, bouncy things, a rock wall to climb, the whole deal. The kids got to play in two different warehouse size rooms for a while and then we went into a party room where Gracie got to sit on a huge inflatable throne. She had a ball, as did everyone. One of Angie's cousins even asked if she could have her thirty first birthday party there. I suppose so. The pictures are not that great because my camera doesnt do too well with moving targets but I got what I could.

Ed.

Sent:
Mon 9/29/08 6:28 AM


To whom it may concern, You have a person in your employ by the name of Edworth ******. I requested your email addresses so that I might drop you a line concerning this gentleman. I have a short story to tell you concerning a claim that was filed as a result of the strong winds that came through southern Ohio on the heals of hurricane Ike. A storm came through southern Ohio and put 680 thousand people out of power and removed the better part of the shingles on my roof. The damage was done on a Sunday afternoon. Early monday morning I called the toll free claim line for my Nationwide insurance and filed a claim. I was told that an adjuster would call me and come out to take a look in the next five days. I waited until Friday late afternoon before being concerned since I was told five days. On day five and I had not heard from anyone, I decided I needed to be a little more pro-active and make some phone calls to see if Nationwide was just running a little behind or if maybe my phone number was recorded in err, as this sort of thing does happen. The first problem I encounter is that none of the toll free lines I had the numbers for were being manned by humans, only computers, unless I had an extension number. I was not given an extension number, but I found a way around this and left messages for Amanda, Angie, and Bob at one of the numbers. None of them returned my call. As I remember, they work in an office in Centerville Ohio. I got a little more creative and found my way to an office in Canton Ohio and spoke with a man named Joe. Joe was less than helpful. He informed me that I didnt have a claim, or an adjuster, but I should just wait and both would appear sometime in the future. We discussed this in some detail, but his answer was always the same, "I am told to just tell you we are busy and doing the best we can, we will help you as soon as possible" He repeated this line so frequently that it was obvious he wasnt going to be of any help. Though the help of my local agent I also was put in contact with a live person in Des Moine Iowa. This person was a little more helpful, but not a great deal. By now this is becoming very frustrating as I am not even sure if my claim has really been filed, and if it has, when I might be hearing something. The difficulty is that in my area almost all the homes suffered roof damage and all the reputable roofers were taking names for a waiting list that was growing everyday, so I needed to know if I could at least get on a list. Finally I come in contact with your office, and a gentleman named Edworth. Edworth was the most professional person I had come into contact with so far. He was the 9th person I had spoken to and the 4th office (I think) that I had made contact with. Ed called me back after my local agent left him a message on his phone with literally minutes. He gave me a number and extension to reach him directly, I also was given his email and cell phone numbers. Ed provided me with information that I deemed more trustworthy and explanations of the situation that were honest and believable. Ed also provided me with options. He told me that I could wait for an adjuster and he would do what was possible to get one to me quickly but could make no promises, but if I wanted to send him the pictures of the damage and maybe get an estimate on my own, that he 'might' be able to take care of things without an adjuster coming out. I had the pictures to him that night and he called me the next day to confirm receipt of them. (also a more professional behavior than what I had seen so far) I let Ed know that I had a guy doing an estimate that day and would have it to him the next day. From all of this he was able to process my claim and get a check out to me in a matter of days. I received my check, less the deductable, on Saturday and am now on a waiting list to get the repairs done. Ed is my hero. I say Ed is my hero, a little bit jokingly, but Ed is really your hero (you being Nationwide). I was already having some problems with the car insurance before this happened and the overall poor performance of Nationwide in this case had me feeling the need to look for a new company. Ed's consistent professionalism and honestly concerned effort to take care of one individual customer has convinced me to stay on with Nationwide. I am still not happy with the cost of my car insurance but I will give it a year and then start pushing for cost reductions. By the way, I have been with Nationwide for 25 years for all my insurance needs. Please do what you can to recognize Ed and his superior performance. He is truly well ahead of his peers.


The check arrived on Saturday. Above is the letter I sent to the bosses of Ed. Good luck Ed, and may the force be with you.

the saga continues

My biggest problem so far is that every person I speak with from Nationwide tells me a different tale. Today I spoke with a nice lady in Des Moine Iowa. This is the sixth city, the forth state, and I believe the eight phone number. Today I RECEIVED a call from Edworth from Westerville who is still not my adjuster but works in the office that assigns adjusters so I am one step closer. I like Edworth so far, he is honest and unapologetic for his companies failures, he simply said we goofed and are understaffed for what hit us. Okay, lame but logical. I will keep you updated on Edworth who has told me that nobody might ever need to come to my house if I do the leg work for them and use email and fax. Yeah, I have new numbers to play with, emails, faxes, the cell phone number for Edworth etc. Below are the pictures I just sent him.

So I didnt really send him the Princess picture, thats just for you, but if it will help move things along I can send it in his next email.

Nationwide par Deux

What we've got here is a failure to communicate.

I received my call back from Sue. She informed me that she finally got through to a human being who assured her that I would be getting a call from a 'contractor' later tonight or at the latest tomorrow afternoon. Now, I don't wish to become a smurf by holding my breath until then (although I would make a good grumpy smurf about now) but I did notice something. The other myriad of good diligent hard working folk I spoke with all said an 'adjuster' would be contacting me and coming to the house. Now I have a contractor? Yes, I had to ask, and supposedly this mystery person who may call (at this point it would be Saturday as it is already 9 PM Friday night) is the person who will actually perform the work. They cannot yet tell me what company they have chosen because they are using so many different ones, buy yeah "help is on the way" as John Kerry said a few years ago. Yeah, it fills me to the gills now just as well as it did when John spewed it forth.

I think we have had, and still have a communication breakdown.

Nationwide Cont............

Help is on the way, no worries, help is on the way. Yawn, man, help is slower than molasses running up hill in a Vermont winter. That break neck glacial speed is just breath taking. I have dead relatives with more speed and better organized lives than these people. I could expect this response if I bought insurance from Alli Baba's Pakistani Discount Boutique and Insurance Emporium, but Nationwide is on my side! I am just grateful this isn't a true crisis, just a large annoyance. By the way, its 9AM on Saturday morning, guess I am not the first call of the day, or somebody burned the midnight oil last night and is late to rise.

I have been thinking more about the possibility of a 'contractor' showing up as apposed to an adjuster. The more I think about this idea, the less I am liking it. At first I though, cool, that way I don't have to get into the fray of trying to find somebody to do the work, or wait forever (again) for a big company to have time for me. But the more I reflect on what this might mean, the more I am concerned by it. First off, if a contractor just shows up, who do they work for, me or Nationwide. I know this may come as a shock, but I bet I am a little more picky about my house than Nationwide would be, I want the job done right, not just finished. If Nationwide cant or wont tell me (they wont) who the contractor is because they are using so many of them, what are the odds that Chico and the Man show up with a bucket full of duct tape and a cooler full of Pabst Blue Ribbon. With the exemplary service perfomance of Nationwide thus far, I am not inclined to trust them to check quality referances, I envision more a scenario where Wile E. starts looking in the yellow pages for ACME roofing and calling all the listings and searching for anybodies free time.

More to follow I am certain.........................................................


(somehow this post got out of sequence, the date of this post is Sept 20)

Nationwide

"Nationwide is on your side, Nationwide"

NOT

Nationwide, for those who may not know, is an all purpose insurance company, and above is their key line from their commercials. As you might guess, I am having some difficulty with them at the moment. Here is the story:

On Sunday, September 14th, two notable things occurred. First, I officially turned forty, yippee. My present, in case you missed it, was 76 mph winds riping the shingles off my roof, and pretty much every roof in the neighborhood. Yes, hurricane force winds, brought all the way up the Ohio river valley by what was Hurricane Ike. First thing Monday morning I called my insurance claim center and filed my wind damage claim. I was told that my claim would be filed and someone from the claim center would be calling shortly to confirm receipt of claim and let me know when the adjuster would be coming out. A few hours later (not too bad service so far) someone called me and informed me that:

:: Your claim has been received and filed and an adjuster will be calling you in the next 5 days to let you know when they will be arriving::

I asked them, specifically, if the adjuster would just be calling or would be arriving in 5 days.

:: They will call in 5 days, and they usually call the same day they come out, sometimes they call and let you know they will be out the next morning, but it should only be 5 days::

Now, its Friday and I haven't heard a peep from them, so, being diligent but not nagging it is time to call and make certain they will be calling, and arriving, sometime today.

Call number one is to the Nationwide claims office in Centerville Ohio, the folks who called me. I get the obligatory answering machine, but this one requires I type in the 4 digit extension number of the party I need to speak too. Naturally, the lovely human who called me did not give me such a number, (accidentally no doubt) and they didn't even give me a name, just my claim number. I figure, okay, just hit zero for the operator, nope, that sends you to the general voice mail box which no doubt is a dust covered rotary phone on a closet floor someplace. So, being the stubborn sort I push number 3 which gives me an alphabetical listing of the people there. I write down the name and extension number of 3 people who have friendly sounding names, Amanda, Angie, and Bob. I type in there extension numbers one at a time. Amanda is busy or away from her phone and I could leave a message, but, if she is busy right now, who am I to bother her. Angie cant come to the phone right now, and I could leave her a message and she will get right back with me, but again, if she cant come to the phone she must be occupied with more important things that little ol' me, so I try Bob. Bob apparently has no arms and no legs and is in the pool cooling off so I give up this line of attack for now.

Call number two is to the Nationwide call center, the place I called to file the claim initially. A nice 'English as a second language' person is who I am directed to after 'saying' things to a computer for a while first. This lovely lady who I can hardly understand offers to transfer me to the claims office, but this phone number is different than the one I called. I told her the story from above and she said she would obtain a person in that office and connect me directly. Wonderful, now, enter Joe.(oh marvelous Joe)

I am transferred to Joe, who asks for my claim number. I supply it and then Joe informs me that an adjuster has not yet been assigned to my case, and in fact he doesn't even see a claim as being filed.

:: Give it a few more days and I am sure an adjuster will be assigned and then call you, we are doing the best we can and someone will get with you soon:: (just a few more days fo to tote the weary load)

Joe, now I am worried that you don't even see my claim, if I give them a few more days to call, when do you figure they will arrive.

::I have no idea, usually sometime after that, could be some time after that, we are very busy right now::

(okay, now I have a genius, of course it will be after, couldn't be before now could it, no, I don't expect a call saying I was coming to your house yesterday see you then)

Joe, I realize your busy, but all insurance companies are, but somehow all my neighbors have people on their roofs fixing the damage or adjusters writing things up and taking pictures, but I have only you on the phone. (and your giving me the impression you cant pour piss out of a boot with the directions on the heel)

::All I can tell you is we are doing our best and we will get to you as quickly as possible. We have a lot of claims right now::

Well, that's not news, all the people have lots of claims right now but your best doesn't seem to be holding up to the average, could you pass me up to a supervisor who might be able to put me in contact with someone who has more answers? ( I don't think he even listened to this question)

::I cant do that, we are told to just let you know we are doing what we can and we will be with you as soon as possible::

Joe, where are you? (and do you need both hands to find your behind?)

::Canton Ohio, up near Akron::

Joe, that's not near Centerville is it? The call I got came from Centerville, not Canton.

:: I don't know where Centerville is, or if we even have a Centerville office, I know there have been people calling our customers saying they are from Nationwide and they are not, and they have been telling people that we will be there in a few days and we wont, but we are doing the best that we can.::

(conspiracy theorist professional at work, kids don't try this at home. I wonder if he has Roswell posters in his room, and if he says 'best we can' one more time I am going to pluck out his adams apple through his nose holes and perform and alien autopsy on it.)

Joe, are you sure you don't have a supervisor? Never mind, Joe, thanks for your help.

Call number three. Now I call my local agent and tell Sue the short version of what I have shared with you. I express my concerns about not having a claim, and she puts me at ease on that one because she says it shows on her file as active claim with the Ohio Storm Center. (oh goodie) Sue gives me another phone number to call, but alas, its the number I have for the claims office operated by ghosts and of course Bob who is still in the pool. She tells me that there are real people working there and she will call the direct line and find a person for us to talk to and call me right back. I have met Sue in person so I know she isn't jerking me around like Joe the wonder dork was. Sue calls me back about 10 minutes later and tells me she only gets a busy signal on the direct line and had the same result as me going through the public number. (wonder if Bob is getting pruny yet, maybe I should have looked for his friend Matt)

Sue says she will keep calling until she reaches a person. Maybe Debbie, the operator at this center, will finish her make up and answer the phone at some point. Good luck Sue. If this progresses into tomorrow I may spend the weekend looking into Progressive, Geico, and All State. I will keep you updated and post pictures of the roof shortly.

Nationwide says they are on my side, but I feel like they are standing behind me, waiting for me to bend over.

Mustard.

This is actually yet another post about the mind of Gracie. Let me lay out a few quick things you need to know.

1. Gracie learned a new phase the other day from a cartoon, "put some mustard on it" was used in reference to throwing a ball faster.


2. Gracie likes A1 steak sauce on her beef, and her pork. She likes it because daddy uses it and she calls A1 daddy's sauce.


3. Gracie also likes Barbecue sauce on some things. She likes it because mommy uses it and she calls Barbecue mommy's sauce.


4. Gracie loves to have fun while shopping at Kroger's.

Gracie and I went to Kroger's after supper on Wednesday. We needed to get a few quick things and then pick up Wendy's to take home to momma who avoids kids night at skyline as much as she can. That's cool with me and Gracie because we get to have fun on our own. While I am pushing the cart through Kroger's and Gracie is riding on the front, she starts telling me all about Franklin (the cartoon) and the new phrase she learned today, "put some mustard on it" Well this starts off innocent enough, she keeps saying the phrase (over and over again) trying to get me to move the cart faster, particularly around the corners. After a while of this, and people giggling at her (or us) the whole time, she changes the game a little. Now the game is about food, and mustard is something that goes on or in food. So, "put some mustard on it" gets added to "put some onions on it" and "put some berries on it" and "put some olives (pronounced ol - libs) on it" and then she says, "stir it all up and taste it." I of course don't want to taste it so she goes first.

"yummie yummie there is a party in my tummy" (also from a cartoon) is what Gracie says next, but daddy needs to take a bite.

So I try the make believe casserole, "eeeuuuu, yuuckkie, uuhgh, nasty stuff, olives dont go with berries, I dont like it"

Well we have found a new game, she concocts 2 or 3 more nasty messes of stuff for us to try. She of course loves each one and I of course make loud icky noises because its imaginarily awful. The problem, or the humor depending on your viewpoint comes with the last casserole. Read the next dialog carefully, remember she is almost 5 and loud besides, and try to allow a little of that middle school humor that lives deep inside of you to surface for just a second, (not to long, but just for a minute)

Gracie: "Put some mustard on it"

Daddy:" Okay, mustard's on it"

Gracie:" Put some cabbage on it, I love cabbage"

Daddy:" In with the cabbage"

Gracie:" Put some beans on it, I love beans, more beans more beans"

Daddy: "more beans? is this enough beans yet"

Gracie:"Put some daddy sauce on it, lots of daddy sauce"

(daddy to a second to process this, oh no,)

Daddy: "no, lets just stick with mustard" (start walking faster)

Gracie:" no, lets use mommy sauce instead"

Daddy:"no, lets stick with mustard"

Gracie:" whats wrong dont you like mommy sauce?"

Daddy:"uh, I like mustard with my cabbage, would you like some skittles or maybe some ice cream, how bout some chocolate cake?"

Gracie:" can I have mustard on my cake?"

Daddy:" Yes, of course you can, lots of mustard is good on chocolate"

(whew, moving on)