I booked this car on QEEQ for a business trip and I really thought it would just be a simple rental. Nothing special. I arrived in Alice Springs in the middle of March and went to the Avis counter in the late afternoon around the fourteenth to pick up the car. They gave me a Toyota Corolla hatchback, automatic, four doors. It looked quite new and clean. When I booked it I chose AXA Full Coverage, because I travel for work a lot and I felt better if I had full cover. I did not expect I would really need it. The first couple of days were fine. I drove to see clients in the day and parked the car near my accommodation at night. There were not many street lights and sometimes there was strong wind and dust. On the morning of the accident, the sky was just getting bright. I walked to the car with my laptop bag, thinking about my meetings. When I got close, I felt something was wrong. The front bumper looked strange. I walked around the car and my heart just dropped. There were clear impact marks on the front and back. There were scratches on the side. Near the wheel I could see some broken pieces. It looked like another car or something had hit it and then left. I remember just standing there for a few seconds, totally stunned. My first thought was that this would cost a lot of money. My head was full of numbers. I kept thinking this car is not cheap and if I had to pay everything myself I would be in real trouble. I forced myself to calm down. I took my phone out and started to take photos. I took close photos of each damaged area and also a few wider ones with the plate and the surroundings. Then I contacted Avis. Driving the damaged car to them was a very strange feeling. Inside the car it was very quiet and I held the steering wheel very tight. At the counter I explained what I found. Staff went out to check the car. Their faces were serious when they came back. They told me they needed to make an assessment and that the fee could be high and I had to wait for the amount. I was already ready in my head for a scary number. When they finally told me the damage amount, I almost could not believe my ears. It was 5831.77 AUD and they said this was the excess that they charged. They also said the damage was very serious. In that moment I was really thankful that I had bought AXA Full Coverage. Without it this money would hit me very hard. For a business traveler like me this is not some small cost I can just forget. After that my days were full of two things. My work and this claim. I spent my breaks sorting all the photos of the damage. I took clear photos of the papers from Avis. I was also checking with them if I could pay with my husband’s credit card and then have the refund go to his bank account. I did not want to make any mistake with who pays and who gets the money back. My phone and email were always in my hand. Every time I had a free second I refreshed my inbox to see if there was a new message. I sent in all the documents I had and thought it was almost done. Then I was told that some detailed damage papers were still missing. At that time it felt like the car was still under inspection or repair and the full repair report was not there yet. On my side I could only keep asking Avis and wait for more documents. Later I got an email that said the repair was finished but the real situation was that the car was declared a total loss. So the final charge stayed as that 5831.77 AUD. Reading the words total loss gave me a strange feeling. I could imagine the car in a workshop, opened up and taken apart, and it made me feel a bit cold inside. Once the rental company had confirmed the amount and their final decision, all I could really feel myself doing was waiting. I remember the customer service explained to me that the amount was not small and they had to check my evidence and the charge from the rental company. Every day I went to my meetings and at the same time I kept thinking about this bill. I kept doing the math in my head. If the claim failed, I would have to accept this big loss. At night when I came back to my room I would sit on the bed with my laptop and think about how the car was totally fine when I picked it up and now it was written off. It felt a bit unfair and also just tiring. During those days I opened my inbox many times. When I saw a new email from them I opened it right away. I could feel that they were also waiting for answers from Avis and checking details. From my side it felt like the case was moving forward but not very fast. I kept reminding myself to be patient and give it a bit more time. Then one day I finally got the email that changed everything for me. It said my claim was approved and they would pay according to the confirmed amount. I read it twice to make sure I was not imagining it. They showed the numbers and I saw that from the 5831.77 AUD charged by the rental company they would pay out 3840.76 AUD under the policy. I felt a big weight lift off my shoulders. In that moment I really understood what this insurance meant. Looking back at the whole story, it started with a normal pick up in Alice Springs around mid March, then that morning when I found the damage, then hearing that the car was a total loss, then all the photos and papers I had to send, and finally the approval. For me this was not just some small rental story. It was a lesson about risk and protection. If I had tried to save money and skipped the extra cover, I would still be worrying about that bill now. Even though there were times when I was nervous and wished everything could move a bit faster, the most important thing is that the claim was settled and most of the cost was taken care of. Now when people ask me if they should add insurance when they rent a car, the first picture in my mind is that damaged Corolla in Alice Springs and that number 5831.77 written on the paper. That is when I remember the extra box I ticked for AXA Full Coverage and how it stopped that heavy stone from landing on me.
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