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Okay, now that I've had a tiny amount of sleep...
Last night after midnight, while sitting in the parking lot at Gilette waiting for the cars to start moving so we can leave (after sitting for an hour by then) a passenger in the back seat of the car to the right of me opens the door and bangs it into Orca. So hard that the whole car shakes. I jump out and run around and a bit of paint from that car is on Orca and when I run my finger along the spot, there is a distinct indentation.
So, in a normal situation, it's exchange insurance and deal with it in the morning.
However, the people in the car are from Montreal and it's a rental car from Quebec. And after some rubbing, the paint from their car rubs off Orca but there's still the indentation. And it's around 12:30 and it's dark and hard to see. They're trying to tell me in mostly okay English that it's not that bad, that it just needs to be buffed out and it will be okay. But they're also having wild conversations in French (which I can sort of make out). I counter that it's gonna take a lot more than it looks to make it perfect again. That it's a new car and that something like this is going to hurt the value significantly.
The driver is rational and is trying to do the right thing, offering information - passport info, contact info, we'll take care of this. It should only be a couple hundred $$. The passengers: another woman who I think was the one who did it and seems pretty apologetic and rational as well; a guy who obviously thinks we're making a big deal out of nothing, takes pictures, and keeps stalking around the car, probably trying to look for other small damage that I don't care about; and a completely irrational woman who keeps saying (in French) "it's just a car, it's not a big deal" and keeps getting shut back in the car by the other two women.
I'm fuming and shaking. There's a lot of conversations in French. This goes on for most of an hour and in the end, I get the contact info for the driver and the plate number of the car and a promise to pay for it when I send them an estimate for the damage. I have a bad feeling that once they cross the border, that's the last I'll hear of them. My only consolation is that at no time does any of them say in French anything along the lines of "just give her a fake address and this will go away once we leave". I know enough French to know that the conversations were genuine and not about trying to screw me.
When I got home, under my porch light, I got a better look. It's small but it's not pretty. I would probably have this fixed on my own if it had randomly happened when I wasn't there and no one owned up to it. But I'm not sure that it can be fixed without repainting the panel after filling in the dent.
In the light of day, I realize I don't actually have the rental car company's info. I do have the Quebec plate number. I should maybe have called the police, but it was late and I was tired and not thinking clearly, just very worried that I'm gonna have to fix this and won't ever see any money out of it. I'm not sure whether the police would have laughed at me about this or not.
On the ride home, I remember that people here have mentioned Dick's in Somerville before and I looked at their website in the middle of the night and saw they were endorsed both by my dealer and BMW CCA, so as soon as I shower, I'm heading over to see if they'll give me an estimate.
I'm soooo exhausted and never want to go to Gilette again. I was already annoyed with the place long before they hurt Orca. Time for a shower and to go see this in the sunlight. *sigh*
amy
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