Baronjutter posted:

My wife worked auto-claims in an insurance company. It's extremely stressful because you have people calling you immediately or shortly after accidents. Sure it generated a ton of entertaining stories but mostly it's just a high-stress call-centre type environment

My favourite stories were:
-Guy is at a party with a bunch of his friends, his friends are all drunk but he IS NOT DRUNK. He, being not at all drunk decides to take everyone for a joy ride in his truck. He drives very safely and soberly but somehow managed to flip his truck off the road. Because he was sober and his friends were not he was worried they would react irrationally towards him so he fled into the woods. Some of his drunk friends were lightly injured and the police ended up sending a full search party and dogs into the woods to try to find him but he claims he fell asleep because he was so tired from all his sober driving and partying. The next day he woke up, spent all day hiding in the woods, then finally called his boss and begged for a ride into town. His boss fired him for missing work that day and for injuring a bunch of his co-workers and hiding from the police all night. He also lost most of his friends, who decided to lie and say he was extremely drunk too. Things didn't go well for this guy.

-Guy is driving home from the oil fields in his huge truck and decides to take a more off the beat route. He takes a corner too sharp and slides off the snowy road into a field. Because of this he notices a fire out in a clearing and drives over to investigate. He finds that another guy drove off the road in the exact same spot, tried to get out of the snow bank/trees by heading to the clearing but realized it was a lake and his truck broke through the ice. While this story is being told, the new guy's truck also falls through the ice. They spend the night trying to stay warm by the fire while getting their trucks out, both end up being total losses and only by chance being rescued by a 3rd person who spotted their fire.

-Old guy gets out of prison. He has no license and has strict parole terms that forbid him from driving or associating with other ex-cons. Another guy he knows from prison gets out later and asks him if he can borrow his truck to drive to another city since old guy can't drive it anymore. Old guy agrees but wants to come with him apparently so he can drive the truck home, which he isn't allowed to do. The moment their road trip starts the con drives the truck to a walmart and robs the place and uses the truck as a getaway vehicle. Eventually they go their separate ways and old guy files a stolen vehicle claim. The story is full of holes, drastically changes every time a new statement is given, and eventually old guy's lovely daughter takes over communication and drastically changes the story again. From what people could piece together these two were basically just planning on going right back into crime after prison, had a falling out over the outcome of a robbery and old guy's truck got stolen. Because of the criminal aspects the claim and very obvious lies it ended up being denied.

-Two dudes live together as roommates and are hosting a party. Roomate 1 owns a truck and says he went to bed early and did not give permission for anyone to borrow his truck. Roommate 2 says suddenly when his friend went to bed a guy showed up at the party that no one knew and suggested everyone go for a joy ride in the first roommate's truck. Everyone decided this was a good idea and went with him. Because everyone was drunk this mystery man ended up hitting like 10 cars during the joyride and ending up in a police chase with a helicopter. They finally ditched the truck in a field and scattered, the cops easily catching everyone except for this mystery person. The number of people they caught was the exact passenger capacity of the truck. No one could describe the mystery driver, no physical description or name but all had the same story of "a guy showed up at the party and stole the truck and we all just went along to make sure the truck was safe". It's important to note that if roommate 2 had driven the truck, it would not have been covered by roommate 1's insurance as a theft since someone you live with or regularly allow use of your vehicle can't steal your truck according to the insurance policy. Obviously everyone fabricated this mystery person to help commit insurance fraud and criminal charges from the police chase. I believe this one was denied and roommate 1 had to go to court to try to get any money for his lost truck.

-Suburban teen gets dumped and is really mad so takes his little teen boy sports car and does rage laps around his neighbourhood. Loses control and manages to destroy 3 neighbour's sheds and fences. One neighbour had a bunch of expensive ATV's and camping poo poo and was leaving for vacation with them the next day, another house had JUST gone on the market and they had just built a fancy fence and shed to help sell the house, which had a full day of viewings scheduled for the next day. The kid was 100% humble and admitted to his stupidity, his parents didn't try to protect him and handled all the insurance stuff correctly, and his official insurance statement describing the reason for the accident was just giant "I hosed UP" taking up the whole bottom of the page. It was cute, lessons were learned.

-Tons and tons of stories of upper middle class to rich 20-somethings getting into major expensive accidents that gently caress over other people, crying on the phone and then pushing the whole thing off on their mom or dad to handle for them because doing an insurance claim is just too scary and adult for them. Then the parents being ridiculously uncooperative and doing everything to lie or threaten lawyers to get their precious babies out of any responsibility. There was one where a 20 year old girl blew a red light because she was texting, hit a woman legally crossing the street, and the mom and daughter both just went on and on about how that "stupid woman" should have looked before she crossed the street, our society doesn't care about personal responsibility anymore, doesn't this bitch understand this is going to ruin my daughter's driving record and reputation?? Why should we have to pay for her physiotherapy just because she doesn't look when she crosses the street?! MY HUSBAND IS A LAWYER and we are very well connected locally!!!! Tons of people like that, I'm not at all exagerating.

-Rich people thinking extremely fussy european supercars are at all appropriate for driving on northern Canadian roads.

-A lot of really sad poo poo involving first-nations communities. Like drunk driving 14 year olds running over younger siblings then driving off and wrapping it around a tree and everyone circling the wagons and not talking about it. Or people just not understanding how insurance works and thinking they are covered for something when they are not and lives being ruined. Not really "favourite" stories here, just deeply tragic and depressing windows into the horrible conditions on Canadian reserves.

LifeSunDeath posted:

your wife needs to start a thread, these are great

Say Nothing posted:

Baronjutter posted:

He also lost most of his friends, who decided to lie and say he was extremely drunk too. Things didn't go well for this guy.

Baronjutter posted:

It's important to note that if roommate 2 had driven the truck, it would not have been covered by roommate 1's insurance as a theft since someone you live with or regularly allow use of your vehicle can't steal your truck according to the insurance policy. Obviously everyone fabricated this mystery person to help commit insurance fraud and criminal charges from the police chase. I believe this one was denied and roommate 1 had to go to court to try to get any money for his lost truck.

Platystemon posted:

You can trust their testimony.

They were drunk.

Baronjutter posted:

his official insurance statement describing the reason for the accident was just giant "I hosed UP" taking up the whole bottom of the page. It was cute, lessons were learned.

Baronjutter posted:

I really want her to go more into commercial insurance because that's where you get all the awesome industrial accident stories. Most of her stories were more just typical call centre stuff, it's not the claim that's awful it's just rude or weird or stupid people.

A lovely home insurance story was a guy who had a claim about 5 years ago due to flooding in his basement. It was approved and they paid to have his finished basement basically gutted and rebuilt. A couple years later there was another case of flooding, not as bad, but another big claim. Then there was another huge flood claim. Then, once again, another flood claim and it finally came into her lap to approve it. A co-worker had blindly told the guy it would be approved but she actually did her job and looked into the file and the previous claims and moved to deny it. Why?

The first flood was caused by the guy installing a washing machine himself in his basement. He didn't hook the pipe up right and it flooded his basement. The next claim was apparently caused by his washing machine again, this time a faulty part and he was advised to get it fixed. The 3rd flood was again caused by the same washing machine, the same faulty part that had still not been fixed, but the notes said that this time he had actually hired someone to fix it rather than fix it himself. And this 4th flood? The same problem from the same washing machine. And he still hadn't gotten it professional fixed as instructed, he said "oh I called a professional and he said it was probably this part so I did it myself to save $50" Why? Why with the tens of thousands of dollars spent on remediation did this guy not just get a new washing machine or get it properly fixed?????

Platystemon posted:

That’s a bullshit policy. It’s like “a person can’t be raped by their spouse”.

Obviously the level of harm is vastly different, but it’s the same broke logic.

Baronjutter posted:

-Guy is driving home from the oil fields in his huge truck and decides to take a more off the beat route. He takes a corner too sharp and slides off the snowy road into a field. Because of this he notices a fire out in a clearing and drives over to investigate. He finds that another guy drove off the road in the exact same spot, tried to get out of the snow bank/trees by heading to the clearing but realized it was a lake and his truck broke through the ice. While this story is being told, the new guy's truck also falls through the ice. They spend the night trying to stay warm by the fire while getting their trucks out, both end up being total losses and only by chance being rescued by a 3rd person who spotted their fire.

Baronjutter posted:

Yeah I was pretty surprised when she was telling me. I sort of see the logic from the insurance angle though. A theft is a specific sort of claim and assumed specific sort of risks. But if your teenage son who sometimes drives the family car smashes it up you can't just declare it stolen because on that particular night you didn't give him permission. I forget all the specific terms, but if you live with someone and they gently caress up your car there's still absolutely insurance coverage for that, but it's not treated specifically as "theft" when a member of the household took it.

Facebook Aunt posted:

What a couple of hosiers. There was a road within sight that got at least occasional traffic where they could flag down the first vehicle that happens by, but these two einsteins stay next to broken ice instead?

starkebn posted:

pretty shady to consider a housemate "a member of the household" in that sort of circumstance

Baronjutter posted:

Not to accuse anyone of anything, but these were both oil workers driving home at like 4am after a night on the town after payday using a bypass off the main road that had drunk driving checkpoints set up.

Baronjutter posted:

Yeah I was pretty surprised when she was telling me. I sort of see the logic from the insurance angle though. A theft is a specific sort of claim and assumed specific sort of risks. But if your teenage son who sometimes drives the family car smashes it up you can't just declare it stolen because on that particular night you didn't give him permission. I forget all the specific terms, but if you live with someone and they gently caress up your car there's still absolutely insurance coverage for that, but it's not treated specifically as "theft" when a member of the household took it.

ExecuDork posted:

Do you work emergency dispatch? I can't think of any other job that would involve frequently speaking with people seconds after a worst-day-of-your-life situation like a major car accident.

On that note, care to do a thread? Or point me at one about a job like yours? "I have an interesting job" threads are why I gave Lowtax my money in the first place.

Baronjutter posted:

I forget all the specific terms, but if you live with someone and they gently caress up your car there's still absolutely insurance coverage for that, but it's not treated specifically as "theft" when a member of the household took it.

Synthbuttrange posted:

Applesnots posted:

Its gonna fall no mater what you do, why not just let it?

Applesnots posted:

Its gonna fall no mater what you do, why not just let it?

Applesnots posted:

Its gonna fall no mater what you do, why not just let it?

thatbastardken posted:

there's people still inside and rescue work is ongoing

Arrhythmia posted:

similarly: death will come for us all no matter what you do, so why not just let it?

thatbastardken posted:

there's people still inside and rescue work is ongoing

LifeSunDeath posted:

your wife needs to start a thread, these are great

Baronjutter posted:

Yeah I was pretty surprised when she was telling me. I sort of see the logic from the insurance angle though. A theft is a specific sort of claim and assumed specific sort of risks. But if your teenage son who sometimes drives the family car smashes it up you can't just declare it stolen because on that particular night you didn't give him permission. I forget all the specific terms, but if you live with someone and they gently caress up your car there's still absolutely insurance coverage for that, but it's not treated specifically as "theft" when a member of the household took it.

PainterofCrap posted:

It’s very difficult to demonstrate that a resident relative does not have permissive use of a vehicle.

In the ‘roommate’ scenario: if the roommates have both driven the car, there’s a level of implied permissive use that can be difficult to prove off as theft.

Typically, the theft is fraudulently claimed because a) the actual operator may lose their license and have their rates jacked up or b) if there was a great swath of carnage cut and the liability limits are low, the vehicle owner is facing the balance of the damage costs after the limits are exhausted. If your vehicle is used during the commission of a crime (such as cutting a swath of carnage after having been stolen), neither the owner nor the insurer are legally liable remedying said carnage.

Applesnots posted:

Its gonna fall no mater what you do, why not just let it?

Shinmera posted:

https://twitter.com/bdbosley/status/951204875899232258

Prav posted:

huh i wonder what kind of a substance pentaborane is



oh

Vargatron posted:

Seems volatile.

The Bloop posted:

Mistle posted:

The only problem is that people have been conditioned to think that the yellow is part of the green light and not the red light--instead of "okay traffic stops" people think "buzzer beater time before the red".

Driving definitely needs a competency test to participate, is what I'm getting at.