Hi Gabby,
What you should do is reimburse your insurance company. The guy who hit you has paid an honest debt. If he was not only honest, but forthcoming, he would refer the matter to his insurance company. Since he has chosen not to, but has paid for the repair himself, your insurance company (and all the people whose premiums are based on what the company has to pay out) is entitled to be paid back.
Regards,
Rick Weiland
Dear Rick,
Do you work in the insurance industry? Because of all the options in this situation, this one would never have occurred to me in a million years. So, thank you for taking the time to write in and suggest it!
Quite honestly, I prefer to donate it to anybody in the world but an insurance company. But A+ for originality!
Gabby,
Honor the original intent. Don’t make it about you and how wonderfully honorable you can be. Or overthink it in the Evanston way. Simply, anonymously, pay it forward.
Susan Lloyd, Ph.D.
Dear Susan,
Ouch!
I hear you about honoring the original intent. Fair point. My thought was not to “make it about me and how wonderfully honorable I can be.” But I see how it might have come off that way. Not sure what the Evanston way is, as I am not the mayor, but it sounds like you are referring to some kind of liberal guilt or “more-social-justicey-than-thou” attitude that you think runs rampant in Evanston.
You may be right, but I’m not sure. I will say that I heard a similar sentiment from a good friend (who didn’t write in), so I am here to say, I HEAR YOU!
Though, I will say, she was a bit more polite.
Dear Gabby,
Allow the driver who hit your car to be happy that they were able to pay for the damage caused to your car. Refusing the offer diminishes his action. Let them be proud of himself/herself. (I know I am having trouble with pronouns, but I think you know what I mean). Let it go!
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
I am hereby letting it go! Thanks for voicing a very valid point. I will take it to heart and put this issue to bed.
Dear Gabby,
I might ask a friend who is a delivery driver if there is a community Facebook page that they frequent? Or just post it on Facebook, make it public and ask people to share until it finds its way to the right person virally?
Katherine
Dear Katherine,
Those are great suggestions, and I thank you for sending them. However, readers have spoken and I have heard them. The search for the anonymous donor will end here, and the money will be donated forthwith.
Dear Gabby appears in the RoundTable every Monday. Yes, Gabby is an advice columnist – but not just any advice columnist. Because that would be boring! Gabby combines wisdom with wit. And a pinch of snark. She is not a trained therapist by any means, but has seen and loved many in her day. Her aim is to make you think while she makes you laugh. Gabby welcomes all questions and queries and is only too happy to hear your opinion, no matter how much it may diverge from hers. Write to Gabby at news@evanstonroundtable.com.
Hi Gabby,
I’m a computer geek, not an insurance guy, but I pay premiums and I know how to do arithmetic. If the guy who hit you had paid you back promptly, you wouldn’t have filed with your insurance company at all, right? Why should this timing make a difference? Help keep premiums down by not ripping off insurance companies. (And I like my insurance company, on the whole, pretty well–I wouldn’t cheat them.)