Thumbscrews

The husband’s truck accident was in February 2022; his work truck and the dump trailer he was towing were totaled by the insurance company. We received payment for both items from the at-fault driver’s insurance company (Safeco/Liberty Mutual) within about four months. We also had submitted a list of damaged/destroyed tools for compensation. That list got batted around for over a year. We were assigned to claim agent after claim agent—five in total—and each one wanted the list and documentation, sometimes multiple times. Finally, around February, I was told that the claim had been approved and we would be getting a check for $6000.

Then, nothing. I e-mailed the agent, only to be told that we were being assigned to ANOTHER agent. The new one also wanted documentation. (I had all of this scanned into a file on my computer, so re-sending wasn’t a big deal other than the ridiculous repetitive requests.) He hemmed and hawed and delayed, telling me he would follow up on the claim and get back to me.

Around the middle of April, I’d had enough. I e-mailed him back and threatened to report him to the Montana Insurance Commissioner. I got an immediate response via e-mail. Could he call and discuss the claim? I was on my way to Tennessee, so I gave the date when I would be home and said I would expect a call that week.

Did I get a call? No. And when I tried to contact this agent to set up a phone call, I got an out-of-office reply. I noted the date when he was supposed to be back in the office and tried again. I got another out-of-office reply, so yesterday morning, I filed my complaint with the Montana Insurance Commissioner, e-mailed the backup address given in the automatic reply, and attached a copy of the complaint, helpfully provided in PDF format by the insurance commissioner’s office.

And then I went to town.

The Bernina Meet and Greet Event was great fun. I had listened to an interview with Paul Ashworth, CEO of Bernina, on the Sew & So podcast about a year ago, and yesterday, I got to meet him in person. Literally all I got to do was say hello and shake his hand, because he and the district sales rep were only there for an hour and I was busy demo-ing the L890 serger. The store had set up stations with different machines for customers to try, and put together pillowcase kits so that anyone interested in trying the serger could make one on the machine. I would have chosen a smaller and less complicated project, but I made it work. I got people lined up and churned them through, so that by the time we were done, about a dozen customers had made pillowcases on the serger.

[This was despite being told by one attendee that I was “doing it wrong” when I was showing people how to roll up the pillowcase burrito-style to make an enclosed seam. I am not unfamiliar with this woman; she seems to have a need to parade around the store and show off how much she knows. Her method works, yes, but so does mine, and I’ve made probably a hundred of these things.]

I had something of an epiphany yesterday while watching all these customers make their projects on the serger. There seem to be an awful lot of people who were taught by their sewing teachers to hold their fabric in front of and behind the presser foot and guide the fabric through the machine, except “guiding” sometimes morphs into “pulling,” which makes me very nervous, especially on a serger. Pulling the fabric as it’s going through the machine increases the likelihood of deflecting the needle enough that it will hit the throat plate instead of going down into the hook area, and that increases the likelihood of damaging the timing of the machine. (Judging by the number of chewed-up throat plates I have seen on sewing machines, this happens frequently.) I also had a couple of customers who were pulling on the top layer of fabric—a technique I’ve seen used on the sewing machine to keep the layers even when sewing—but that method isn’t necessary on the serger. My preferred method of serging is to hold the layers of fabric loosely with my right hand and support them with my left hand, allowing the serger to feed the fabric through.

After the event, I ran a few errands and came home. Guess what I found in my e-mail inbox? A response from another agent at Liberty Mutual, apologizing profusely for the delay in processing our claim. He attached a copy of the check for $6000 and said that it would be mailed today.

I also checked the tracking info for the sewing machine—the system sometimes recognizes the tracking number and sometimes not—and found a note that the freight company is holding the machine in Missoula, where it has been since the middle of last week, until they find out when I would like it delivered. Has anyone contacted me to ask? No, they have not. I e-mailed the company and said I would be home all week and that I’d be happy to take a phone call to arrange a delivery time.

The level of incompetence out there stuns me anew every single day.

The blog needs a picture, so here is one of yours truly with Jim, one of our dedicated helpers—he is on the fire department with the husband, too—at the plant sale. Those things on my arms are my Farmer’s Defense UPF sleeves for sun protection. The apron is one I made from fabric I bought at Sew Expo.

I will be planting the garden today as we’re supposed to get periodic showers for the next several days.