Mr. Mike Goes to Washington

Kinda moot since i'm already here. But really, this is the story of the little guy beating the big corporate machines. The story of where i've been for the last month. And, it's a happy ending too.

Ah, where to begin.

A lot of people have been asking me where i've been all this time, as i usually post quite well. Thanks to all of you, and please, no need to worry about lil' old me anymore. Firstly, I quit my old job at OfficeMax, and the reasons are obvious to anyone whos read my previous posts. I now work at "the enemy", Office depot, but now, i'm being paid for what i did at OfficeMax. I am now the stockroom manager, instead of doing the work of the same and not getting paid for it!

And, I finaly like going to work! I love the people I work with, and I'm quite content. Right now I don't have my 3 man stocking team (it's just me right now doing 3 jobs), and I'm exhausted...but it's still good. And, this all happed in conjunction with the REAL good stuff!

Y'see, remember waaaay back when my car was sideswiped by a dumptruck (a previous post)? I got screwed about by the trucking company, the insurance company, the auto collision company... And I ending up paying out so much that I was broke with bills going into default collection. I couldn't pay rent, and all I could do was get my car back and buy new tires. I payed away my life and my car was actually fine. They tried to crush my soul...

I don't crush easily.

I did my research. Even though I didn't have a leg to stand on with the property damage payout of the accident, I had found out that the "pain and suffering" portion required me to accept some settlement. Like I was gonna settle easily! Even as energy was threatening to shut off my power and I was getting nastygrams from collectors and the landlord, I wouldn't accept the first offer the gave me 5 months later. I knew they wanted to clear the books, as it were. I wouldn't let them untill they bow down... to... me!

KNEEL before ZoD!!! It's my turn, ya bastards.

I kept my notes and spent time at the library in lawbooks. I noted the facts that the trucking company didn't want to report the accident (illegal). That they didn't report it till weeks later and kept being "unavailable" (illegal). that they didn't offer to come to my house to access the damage and instead had me tow the car to portland (illegal). that the accessment took weeks, tying up myn car in storage fees (illegal). They offered a bribe to make me go away...and so on.

That the auto collision place told me the washingfton law says the insurance HAS to pay for my rental and tow (they don't). How they charge for weekend storage at twice the rate...and they aren't open those days. How the Insurance company came to a very very low amount for my car by ignoring the going price of the same cars sold locally.

I kept notes, names and recordings. I called state attorneys. I contacted the state insurance regulatory commission. I got a public lawyer pro bono (he likes U2)...and I didn't accept any piddly offer from anyone. They were going to pay, and pay dearly. I don't scream and stomp. I get quiet, plan and observe like a chess game.

The court costs were killing me, but I knew that was their "game". Sold and hawked everything I had to stay in the game. Went days without being able to buy food or gas (the cat always ate though), and i laughed at the various increasing offers given to settle from each of the parties. Like Mr. Banker in "Deal or No Deal", if they're offering me this much, I must have a good hand. I knew they wanted to make this go away before the next fiscal quarter to make the books look clean, and I was playing the only card I had, but it was a powerful one...the big wait. This was principle (Like Victoria Principal when she was hot, and not the current version of the leatherty silicone faced makeup peddler seen in late night infomercials).

Then in late September...checkmate...Royal flush

I won all three cases, and then some. The judge even made them pay for court costs.

I not only got payed a humungous amount for Pain and Suffering, all the fees i paid to the collision center and rental was refunded. And the trucking company faired the worst...

Thanks to their ineptatude, I now have a new car:



More on that later. It's almost too geeky to mention...