Taking a Ghost to Court

This was the absolute worst service I had received from any company ever, not just an auto insurance company. And yes, I understood quite well that it was a temporary auto insurance company, and that I definitely should not expect the same level of service that I would get from a reputable firm with domestic employees and an actual street address.

You would think that I would have caught on when I got my bill in the mail (not online) on torn, crumpled paper with visible perforations, like they had printed it on one of those SUPER old computer printers with the holes in the sides. If that wasn't enough, the fact that payment was to be sent to a PO Box should have warned me that something wasn't quite right in Oz. The wizard lost his clothes. Or the emperor is nothing but smoke and mirrors behind a big screen. I think I mixed up my fables, but you get the idea.

No, THIS genius didn't find out something was wrong until I actually got in a wreck and had to exchange insurance information. And actually not even then. It wasn't until the other guy called me saying that he had yet to receive payment or even hear from my insurance company (the accident was definitely my fault), which prompted enough question marks, finally, for me to call the number listed on the archaic looking bill.

No answer. Of course.

After a whole lot of other detective work, which because I am not a detective obviously ended up fruitless and would be quite boring to detail here, I finally decided to seek my reparations in the court system. By now I had paid for the other guy's expenses out of my own pocket and I was steaming. I couldn't wait to see the proprietors of this sham insurance company in court, to have them face their accusers as is their unfortunate right, and finally see these scammers get what for.

The day came. I show up early with all kinds of papers from the company, pictures of the accident, and every email and other correspondence that I could find all neatly organized in a leather binder. I was ready to go. Let justice be served!

The judge gets there. We're now only missing the people from the insurance company. We wait another hour and no one from their side shows. The judge awards me all back payments and a small amount of money as punitive damages. Victory! Justice prevails.

Little did I know that justice only works on people who are honest in the first place.

Life lesson for people in general: Just because you are awarded a judgment in court does not mean that you will be paid. Most people are so afraid of judges that they will just pay up, but you must remember that these guys didn't even show up. So technically, they didn't even know that they had to pay me.

I went back to the courthouse and after a month, finally got a date to see a judge so he could tell me what to do. He went out of his way and ordered a couple of officers to investigate. They found that every single bit of information that I had been given was a scam. The phone numbers, the addresses, the email addresses - all fake. My insurers had simply disappeared without a trace.

Next time I'm sticking to companies that are too big to hide.

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