Rabbit, Returned

Well, the car stuff has been all wrapped up and thankfully, there is a happy ending. Here's the rundown:

I did get to pick up my car on Monday. The work looked great (Team Toyota body shop) and they armor-all'd my tires - shiny. The small amount of crap that I had left in my car was crammed behind the driver's seat, but it had to go somewhere, right? The inside smelled (still smells a bit) of primer and grease and assorted garage stinks, but that will go away.

The first not so great thing I noticed was the haze on the windows. The front is the least bad, but the rear window is more translucent than transparent at the moment. Good think I have a large quantity of Windex at my disposal.

The second not so great thing I noticed was the metal shavings on the floor in the backseat. I understand that my car wasn't in there for detailing, but clean up your mess for pete's sake. Not only were there the shavings, but my entire interior is coated in a fine layer of dust. I didn't notice how bad it was until I crawled in the backseat to look for an item that was missing. Which brings me to...

Roger. Roger was missing. The 3-inch tall vinyl Roger Rabbit figure that JR had found for me. The one that was velcro'd to the back deck. Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. I went through my car's nooks and crannies (mmmm, english muffin craving), kicking up dust and avoiding slicing myself on random metal shavings, but he was nowhere to be found. This is unacceptable. Time to take action.

I sent a message to the body shop via their website. A few minutes later, I get a call. I had to let it go to voicemail but was giddy with anticipation. I finally go on break and check my messages. An exceptionally fast talking girl, Jacqueline, said that Roger had been located and he was waiting at the front desk for me! Huzzah! Now I just need to figure out when I'm going to fetch him because I work until 7 and the shop closes at 7. OK, I checked the shop's hours, and they open early enough that I could fetch him before work tomorrow.

Summation of experience:

1. The people at Geico are too nice. Apparently they have a rating system (1-10) where anything below an 8 is considered failing. Poor souls. The one guy I talked to thanked me for every tiny piece of information I gave him. While I'm partial to the polite and efficient way of doing things, some people must really like being fawned over. If I get a survey, I'll give them high marks.
2. The body shop at Team Toyota is crazy huge. It's a collision center, parts department, and a service center. There is a theater room (which I didn't go in), a kids' playroom (got to watch Animaniacs when I dropped of my car), a cafe, and )I'm assuming here) wireless. I did see people on laptops.
3. While the work on the outside of my car was flawless; I have serious issues with the detritus left inside. As I said, I know my car wasn't in for deatiling, but Clean. Up. Your. Mess. Now I have to spend a couple hours this weekend making the interior sparkly again. I have a feeling that I'm going to be finding random metal shavings for a while.
4. People aren't automatically thieves and I"m a little ashamed of myself of jumping to that conclusion right off. I mean really, who is going to steal a 3-inch vinyl Roger Rabbit? Perhaps another Rabbit owner, but I have this odd feeling that most body shop dudes don't drive Rabbits. Maybe a Golf, which is the same damn car, but doesn't have the cutesy name. But what do I know?

All in all, this wasn't a terrible experience. Obviously, I would have preferred that none of it had happened, but it mostly went smoothly. I don't know if I would send people to Team Toyota - hard to get past the mess - but the work was solid. And guaranteed for the life of the car. Still, if I find the person who hit my car, I'm gonna take a sledgehammer to their kneecaps. Don't fuck with my Rabbit.