‘You didn’t ask!’
Many years ago, before I was as confident as I am now, our camper van broke
down in Germany. The insurers arranged for us to be towed to a local garage. We
were told we could camp on the spare ground behind the garage while repairs
were carried out and use the forecourt facilities during trading hours.
My wife, three young children and I stayed there for three days and nights, with no
running water and no toilets from 6pm to 8am, no privacy, and constant noise from
the busy road.
By the fourth day we were very fed up. Repairs hadn’t even started because they
couldn’t get spare parts, so we telephoned the insurance company in England. ‘This
is intolerable,’ we said. ‘At this rate we could be here for days. What can we do?’
‘Your policy entitles you to bed and breakfast in a three star hotel until your van is
repaired,’ the young woman on the ‘phone informed us. ‘Do you want us to arrange
it for you? We’ll fix it up right away.’
Astonished, we asked why no one had told us this before. ‘You didn’t ask!’ she
replied.
Would you believe it! We’d spent three days and nights living on a mud patch when
we could have been staying in a comfortable hotel! All because we had been reluc-
tant to ask about our entitlement.
48 HOW TO ASK FOR WHAT YOU WANT