Yes, but who's going to pay for my THERAPY?

Words can not express how much I have hated dealing with the City of Kennewick's insurance "administrators" Canfield Associates. Seriously, if I really thought voodoo dolls had a smidgen of power, there would be some hurtin' cowpokes in Ephrata right now.

After everything I went through with them to settle my claim last summer, I have no idea why I thought closing out the final details would be easy, but silly me, I did. I thought we'd settled everything back then and was actually feeling kind of bad that I'd taken so long to get the last receipts in.

I think subconsciously though, I knew it was going to be just as teeth-grindingly aggravating this go-around, so I just kept procrastinating. But with the year anniversary approaching fast, I knew I had to wrap it up.

So when I finally got off the pot and submitted it on March 19, I hoped - ha ha on me - that I'd have a check by the end of March and I'd never have to think about them again.

Foolish, foolish me.

On April 2, having heard NOTHING for 2 weeks, I inquired as to whether they'd received it. Oh, yes, they replied. (Apparently they just don't bother to let you know until you start asking questions.)

Of course, they also hadn't let me know they'd returned my claim to the original adjuster - the one I had so many problems with that they had finally transferred my case to his boss. And of course, he had no knowledge of the settlement we'd reached and promptly depreciated my already-depreciated carpet and paneling, reducing my claim by about $1500.

When I asked them to explain it and provide detailed dollar amounts line by line, they declined and seemed to have no documentation on their end of our previous settlement.

So when I started providing said documentation of said previously settled amounts, they needed a breakdown of one of the line items ... despite it having been included at least twice before, including approximately 45 minutes earlier.

It's crazy-making. This is their JOB, and they can't get back to me sometime over the course of 2 weeks? Last time it took almost FOUR weeks before they even looked at the claim. Meanwhile I have another full-time job that I have to squeeze in between dealing with these "people."

One of the reductions of my claim was the $625 difference between the original contractor estimate and the final invoice. What do you want to bet if the final invoice had been $625 less than the estimate, they would not have still given me the full amount "allowed" yet since it's more, I'm expected to make up the difference?

I don't usually wish bad things on people, but like the "mother's curse" I have to hope that someday they have a similar experience and the results are exactly as satisfying as mine with them has been.

That would be better than a voodoo doll any day.