Monthly Archives: February 2015

Travelling? Leaving Your Home Unattended Could Cost You

Whether you live alone or with your family, you should never leave your home unattended for extended periods of time, and not for the reasons you are probably thinking of.

A couple of years ago, 2 days into my vacation in Grenada, I received a panicked phone call from my father who was checking in on my cats while I was away.image

It sounded as though he was in the shower and I could barely make out what he was saying.

I jokingly asked him if he was calling me from the shower and the words he spoke just made my stomach sink, “No I’m not in the shower! I’m in your basement!! There is water spraying all over the place and it’s flowing out of your window! What do I do?”

I immediately wanted to cry. I felt so hopeless. My first home that I so proudly purchased just the year before was under water! And flowing out of my windows??? How much water was in there?? Fortunately I was able to gather my thoughts and tell him where he could find my plumber’s business card and my home insurance card. I keep these on my fridge for easy access in case of an emergency such as this.

I later found out that there was only 2 feet of water in the basement (pfewf!) and it was flowing out of the window because a pipe near a window broke and that force of the water flowing out of the broken pipe was so powerful that it broke my basement window and hence why the water was flowing out of it.

Fortunately, my father was able to contact all of the right people and the insurance company brought in a site restoration company and removed all of the water by the time I returned home from vacation. What a miracle! And my house was still standing?!? Although this was somewhat of a relief, it still completely ruined the rest of my holiday.

It turns out it was a good thing that my window did break because according to my hydro bill, I went through 95,000L of water that month. That’s 2 average sized swimming pools of water! Fortunately, most of that water flowed OUT of the house!

So you’re probably reading this thinking this damage is the point of my story. Nope!

When I returned home, the insurance adjuster interviewed me. She asked me very specific questions regarding the sequence of events which I only had to state second hand since I was not home. For instance:

“What time did you leave the house exactly to go to the airport?”
“Was there anyone still at the house after you departed?”
“What date and time did your father call you to inform you the house was flooded? Do you have record of this on your cell phone?”

Unbeknownst to me, she was trying to ascertain if my house had been unattended for longer than 48 hours (precisely!).

Why would she care about this? Because it is a little known fact that most insurance companies have a clause in their policy requiring that the insured property not be vacant for longer than 48 hours otherwise whatever damages occur beyond that time frame may not be covered.

So if you are away and you don’t have anyone checking in on your house every 48 hours or less, if anything happens (flood, fire, burglary etc.), you may not be covered by your insurance company.

I was never aware of this until a friend of mine brought it to my attention, so I checked my policy and low and behold, there it was in my policy!!!!!

Fortunately, in my case, my cat’s can’t go longer than 2 days without being checked in on so I was OK!

So the next time you travel for business or pleasure, if your home will be vacant, make sure it isn’t so for more than 48 hours. And for your own peace of mind, read that small print in your insurance policy.

Safe travels.

The Travelling Saleswoman on SalesBabble.com

Travel and Sales Advice from the Travelling Saleswoman      (a SalesBabble.com Podcast)

h - Jaclyn Goldman-0021

Yours truly, The Travelling Saleswoman is honoured to have been a guest on SalesBabble.com, hosted by Patrick Helmers. In this interview I give travel and sales advice from a savvy travelling saleswoman’s perspective.  This website is an excellent resource for anyone starting out in sales or who is a small business owner.  I would highly recommend you take a moment to check it out.

In this interview, I offer tips on:

  • Selecting the best transportation to and from the airport
  • Getting the best value from your travel rewards program
  • Sales scenarios-What to do and what not to do
  • Challenges on the road and how to overcome them

To listen to the full interview and to learn how you can win an Air Canada Maple Leaf Lounge Guest Pass, listen here or go to SalesBabble.com/46

 

 A Podcast by:

If you have any questions, comments or would like personalized advice, please either leave your comments below or email me directly at thetravellingsaleswoman@gmail.com

Happy sales and safe travels my friends!

Yours Truly,

TSW

Part 2: The Early Bird Meets the Boogeyman

darkmanIn my previous article, “The Early Bird Gets the Sale”, I mentioned that I occasionally have to leave very, very early in the morning in order to make it to my breakfast meetings.

Regardless of the time of day, I caution anyone travelling alone to always be on alert and I’m not just referring to paying attention to the road, but also to your surroundings.   I have to admit, this can be quite difficult in the middle of the night.

To all of my fellow salesmen  and women who hit the road dark and early, this story will serve as a reminder to keep your eyes and ears peeled at all times, because you just never know what sort of shady characters might be lurking in the darkness around you.

One morning I had a 7am breakfast meeting which was a 2.5h drive from home. It was 4:25am, quiet and pitch black outside.  I got into my car, and began to organize my “mobile office” for the day.  As my car was warming up, I placed my laptop on the passenger seat and booted it up.  I normally boot up my computer fully in the morning and then put it to sleep or in hibernation mode throughout the day so that I can easily open and close it before and after meetings rather than have to start it up and shut it down every time.  As I was opening up all of the computer programs that I would use throughout my day, I organized my sales reports, notes and my agenda on the passenger seat.  This whole process usually takes me about 5 minutes.

Once I had everything organized, I glanced at the dashboard clock, smiled and thought to myself “This is great! I feel awake and I’m on time!”. As I closed my laptop and sat back upright in the driver’s seat, I noticed something out of the corner of my left eye.  Before turning my head, I glanced slightly to my left thinking maybe it was just my hair and there it was, the most terrifying thing I had ever seen…

There was a man whose face was covered in bandages pressed up against the window of the driver side of my car!!!  I was so distracted looking at the passenger side of my car that I never saw him approach my vehicle.

I completely panicked!  All I could do was start screaming and flail my hands in the air. As I was doing that, I was thinking to myself how disappointed I was in myself that I was that girl. You know, that girl in the horror movies that just gets paralyzed with fear, screams and then gets brutally murdered?  I am an avid horror movie buff and I really thought that all of those years of watching horror movies would better prepare me for when I would encounter a real life boogeyman; I would be better than that and certainly not be that girl.  But this guy looked just like Darkman! And it was the middle of the night!

Ok,Time to suck it up Princess!” I told myself.  I had to take action, so I immediately threw my car into reverse and backed out of my driveway at top speed.  Just as I was about to back right out into the street without regard for oncoming traffic, I stopped the car abruptly and thought to myself, Wait, he is trespassing on MY property!”. 

I put the car into drive and drove back up to the boogeyman, lowered my window just one inch and screamed at him at the top of my lungs “Get the #%*$ off my property!!!!!!”

He then proceeded to calmly ask me for directions to a street that was on the complete opposite side of town and not at all within walking distance.  He spoke as if there was nothing odd at all about his appearance or the fact that he just leaned up into my car window while I was parked in my driveway in the middle of the night!

I was so distraught that for the life of me, I couldn’t tell him if he had to go left or right so I just told him to Get the #$&* off my property or I’m calling the police!”.

He walked away and I sped off.  Pfewf!!!

As I sped off, I saw my neighbors lights go on.  I found out later that apparently I screamed so loud from inside my car, I woke up my neighbors on the opposite side of my vehicle!

To this day, I’m not sure where the boogeyman came from: The local psychiatric institution? The hospital after a bar fight? Who knows! Regardless, I am lucky that he intended to do me no harm.   Since then, I have installed motion activated lights in my driveway, a monitoring system and I have made it a habit to lock my car as soon as I enter it.

So fellow travelers, the take home message of this story is please be safe and aware of your surroundings.  You never know if the boogeyman will come for you.

Safe Travels.