In reply to Datsun1500:
That guy sounds like a real shiny happy person. Glad he got towed. What was your response to his 'car like that' comment? What was he driving? I didn't recognize it from the pic but what's showing is pretty fugly.
In reply to Datsun1500:
That guy sounds like a real shiny happy person. Glad he got towed. What was your response to his 'car like that' comment? What was he driving? I didn't recognize it from the pic but what's showing is pretty fugly.
Talked with my insurance company today (and WOW what a difference USAA is!!!). The other party's insurance company found ours via the license plates. It's a claim against our property damage coverage and there's no deductible. The other company has supposedly already paid out and is coming after ours in subrogation. We don't know the amount yet.
We have photos of the damage and the scene. There is no damage to our vehicle.
Datsun1500, that guy was a jerk! Unbelievable. Funny he's driving a $50,000 car and acting like you're a snot for "showing off" with your car that's available for not much more than that used. I'm glad you got him towed.
I hate towing people from our lot but it sure puts a smile on my face if they park there after I told them not to.
Zombie thread!
In short, here's my problem. The insurance company has totaled my BMW (2007 335i) and they are only willing to pay the body shop $1,700 for their exploratory surgery and storage fees. Body shop wants $4,500. I retain ownership of the car, and while there's a lot of salvage value there, I need another project like a hole in the head. I mentioned to the shop owner that I might be willing to pay him the $1,700 and sign the car over to him. He was not enthused.
What are my options? If I just abandon the car, I imagine that it could hurt me in small claims court or my credit line. But I'll be damned if I want to give him $4,500 for parking and a couple of hours labor.
I own the car outright btw.
$4500 for a tear down and storage sounds like highway robbery. What's the breakdown of the charges?
Full disclosure, I'm a manager at a large insurance company (that doesn't have annoying commercials) in the auto liability division.
I made a big mistake after the accident. The car was still running but leaking coolant. Instead of having it towed to a shop I trusted, I had my son drive it to the closest shop to where the accident occurred. They came out with an unrealistically low quote. I was pretty sure that it was totalled, but they played a game where they raised the estimate several times, then entered into a running arguement with the insurance company over the amounts, as well as their $200/day storage fee. Now it's been a month.
As an aside, My past experiences with Allstate were pretty stellar. They really took care of me. Not this time. I've had the adjuster ghosting me, forgetting to send forms and such. I don't know if the change is an incompetent adjuster, but I suspect that there's been a fundamental change in their approach.
Is there a sign, or did you sign anything agreeing to the $200 a day storage? If not leave it there and keep the $1700.
In reply to Steve_Jones :
That's at the heart of things, isn't it? I don't think that I agreed to that, but it could be in the fine print.
$200/day storage is extortion.
What is probably the case is the insurance company offered to pay them a reasonable storage rate (like, what most everyone else around there is charging) and these clowns are one of those militant shops that hate insurers, even though they pay most of their bills.
Why are you retaining ownership of the car? You said you don't want it? If you give it up to the insurance company the storage should be their problem to negotiate/not pay/take them to court over.
In our fair city, the police do not respond to parking lot collisions.
As far as painted lines indicating parking spaces, snow and/or ice cover them several months during winter months. Drivers just abandon their vehicles where ever they choose.
ddavidv said:Why are you retaining ownership of the car? You said you don't want it? If you give it up to the insurance company the storage should be their problem to negotiate/not pay/take them to court over.
Good point. Come to think of it, don't insurance companies usually give you two settlement options - with retention and without? I was never offered that.
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