Regular readers will recall the tragic tale of Vic Tysoe’s sat-nav smash-and-grab debacle, as featured in last week’s Bankstone News.
You will no doubt recollect that, following a visit to his local multiplex, Mr T returned to his vehicle to find the passenger window smashed and the aforementioned navigational equipment ripped untimely from its walnut veneered dash facia.
You may further remember that the Volkswagen dealers to whose premises said vehicle was delivered for repairs refused to have anything to do with what they sniffily termed an ‘insurance job’ on the doubtless entirely spurious grounds that insurers quibble a lot and are more than a little backward in coming forward with the requisite readies.
No? Seriously? Well, then you’d better catch up here. Anyway…
This refusal left VT in a bit of a pickle. What should he do with his unrepaired sat-nav?, we asked at the close of the story. A number of readers sent in some very interesting replies, though a significant proportion were compromised by the anatomical impossibility of the solutions they proposed.
One suggested dispensing with the unit altogether and getting an aquatics specialist to fit a dashboard tropical marine environment in which to keep small but colourful fish such as neon tetras and dwarf chichlids. Another recommended installing a mini bar. Yet another, reproduced below, suggested Mr T avoid Leeds at all costs and stick to more salubrious neighbourhoods.
Dear Victor, whilst I sympathise with your recent loss and the attendant fuss and bother vis a vis insurer-hating dealers, you really have no one to blame but yourself. What on earth were you thinking? Leeds is most certainly not the kind of place to leave an executive saloon unattended for any length of time. I myself had the pleasure with my good lady wife just earlier this week to visit the Alhambra Theatrehouse in Bradford to see a first rate production of To Sir with Love and returned to my very nice car to find my very nice sat-nav (probably a bit nicer than yours, if I’m honest) and indeed all other parts of my vehicle completely unscathed and where I had left them. Which proves, I would suggest, beyond doubt, that Bradford is a nice place and Leeds very much rather less so. Yours etc.
In the meantime Mr Tysoe had entered into a course of correspondence with his insurers, highlights from which included the following.
Tysoe: After the first dealership refused to carry out insurance work I visited a second, but was quite literally flabberghasted by the amount they wanted to charge. Both dealerships, incidentally, reported having sat-nav units stolen from vehicles on their forecourts recently, four from one and seven from the other, which must rate as something of an epidemic. Is there anything I could do to prevent or reduce the chance of this recurring such as to fit an alternative less attractive unit?
Insurer: Thank you for your recent correspondence. In respect of what you can do to prevent this, there is not much we can advise. If you have any queries or are unsure about any aspect of this claim, please telephone, or write quoting the reference shown on this letter. We will be pleased to answer any questions which you may have. Please note that when telephoning the claims department your call may be recorded for training or quality purposes.
So there you have it!
Bradford: actually not that bad
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