The Unreasonable Man

..I took pictures. Like, yesterday. Note to self: never again travel without several backup lenses and bodies.

Desjardins Insurance (Certas direct) is refusing to pay me any more of the claim - my stolen camera and bag.

The reason? The official claim form “was not completed completely or properly”, they say, so they “are unable to proceed with this claim”. They just sent me a registered letter to tell me this.

Mr Pino Maida, the claims adjuster, knows very well that I have filled out exactly what I lost. I am organised. Spreadsheets with all details were attached.The form has 5 lines for lost items; I have 20+ lost items so I attached an attachment. That is not allowed, apparently. And no, indeed I do not have a receipt for a few lost items including a 4-year old flash. But I owned them, paid for them, and lost them due to theft that was not my fault. Mr Maida refuses to say he does not believe me: instead, I get involved in truly Kafkaesque conversations like:

• “Mr Willems, if you had that flash you would have a receipt.”
• “So you are saying you do not believe me? If so, I will sue.”
• “Mr Willems. Mr Willems. You are not listening. What I said was that if you had that flash you would have a receipt.”
• “So you are saying you do not believe me? If so, I will sue.”
• “Mr Willems. Mr Willems. You are not listening. I did not say that. What I said was that if you had that flash you would have a receipt.”

And so on. Kafka could not have done better himself.

Of course they could have paid for the bits that are not in dispute. But oh no. Instead, they wait many weeks (over a month?) and then send me this letter. The letter also says a new claim form is enclosed. It is not.

This is looking to me like deliberate obstruction. We have now had dozens of conversations, faxes, and forms, and I see no progress.

Desjardins is doing a big PR push in Ontario. Right. My advice: avoid them.

I shall now contact the Insurance Ombudsman and lodge a formal complaint. I will also see if I can take legal action and I will ask my lawyer if I can call these people “crooks”. To me, based on my personal experiences over the past two months, it seems that the way this is being handled is not merely due to incompetence: it seems to me to be a deliberate attempt to not pay out.

…that is, “Desjardins Insurance Co arranged by Certas Direct”, or some such waffly phrase, is taking more time. Now the company is slowly going through snail-paced process.

I make five calls (to the usual voicemail) this week, and received no retrun calls. Finally, I got hold of the adjuster at 4:25 Friday (they go home 4:30).

This week, an adjuster interviewed me. The adjuster is now on holiday. When he returns and his report reaches the insurance company’s adjuster, he can then prepare a claim for his managers. There is a maximum amount as well as a $1,000 deductive, but he thinks I may be under that maximum amount - how come “thinks? How about read up on this in the policy? Why is there any question?

I have to be grateful that this adjuster visited me so quickly, the other adjuster tells me. It’s cost for them. So I get interviewed to check out my trustworthiness, and I have to be grateful that they do this within a week?

Meanwhile I am sans camera, memory cards, wide angle lens, Blackberry, Flash, and so on, and have no choice but to wait some more. Maybe next week they’ll tell me if the adjuster thought I was trustworthy and the adjuster’s adjuster’s manager has approved some or all of my $6,500 claim.

Preposterous. I am being treated like the suspect instead of the victim. All this while they could have interviewed dozens of witnesses to validate my claim, and they could have caught the criminals. But that. apparently, is not interesting.

Remember the name, Desjardins/Certas.

Having left here:

I am now back here:

Turning final for YYZ. It is always to get back home, but I preferred the Las Vegas weather.

At work, to evaluate people I am going to use a scale I call the “Effort - Results - Ownership” System - abbreviated (jokingly) to “EROS”. How hard do you work (effort); what results do you achieve (meeting your objectives is a good thing); and what ownership do you take.

Scoring high on any two out of three can be acceptable; one out of three is never OK. Three out of three is, of course, where the winners live.

Groan. Once again, my investments are down. Way down. I have lost money however far I look back.

I have never made money in investments - mutual funds, money market, the stock market, whatever. I leave it to the experts - the financial advisers who get paid whether I lose or gain, and I always lose. For thirty years, all I have heard is “invest for the long term”; “it will rise as well as fall”. Yes, right. It will rise - after I am dead, perhaps. The long term is how long, exactly? I am almost 50 and am waiting with bated breath.

The first financial adviser who gets paid if I get paid, gets my money to invest.

My camera has two hours to go - and it is presently being bid up by someone with zero history on eBay. No sales, no address, no buys: nothing. So what may well happen (I speak with some experience) is that this person will not pay; I will lose the sale; and I will be out almost $20 on eBay in any case.

The risk is all mine. eBay does not allow restricting sales to people with good history. It does not refund my money if the winning buyer will not pay. It no longer has a live contact application, so you cannot talk to anyone.

eBay is evil. Enough already: whatever happens here, even if this works out my next sales will be on Craigslist.

Am I missing something here? The whole Ebay/Paypal thing seems to me to be at a service level that we would not accept from any real store. As in:

• Being nickled and dimed to death by small cuts (how is that for inappropriately mixing metaphors). Like $0.75 to upload a tiny picture, $5 for a shaded listing, $3 for a border - nonsense like that. It is “Quartering and dollaring”, not nickling and diming. Selling my just listed camera costs $10 PLUS commission.
• Support: forget it.
• Bugs (I cannot add to my just listed camera - “unknown field not filled out” or something).
• Did I say “$10 PLUS commission”? Sure - and then on top of that I pay PalPal for receiving the money; and then I pay PayPal for sending the money - an electronic transfer that “takes 5-7 days”.

Right. And I have “stupid” written on my forehead.

Tonight, I am watching Jesus Christ Superstar, the movie. A great musical, great music, a great movie.

Unlike the last time I watched it, I have now been to most of the places it was filmed - like Beit Guvrin, the bell caves - I am watching a place where I was just a few months ago. I also know more about life, philosophy, and about the Bible (which is odd for an atheist). This movie is great - 1970 hippies in Israel. The Jesus I learned about as a child was a hippie. It all fits.

So I was going to drop Carl Anderson a note - he is the black actor who played Judas Iscariot. Alas - he died of leukemia just three years ago.

Damn.