nardeezy

This mainly pertains to personal property damage (particularly you car) when it is 100% certain that it is not your fault (hit while parked).

I had some contractors arrive yesterday and today to install a "hybrid-polymer" floor coating (similar to epoxy) in my garage. My Integra and Lexus were parked on the driveway when they arrived. Prior to working on the floor the driver asked if I can move one of my cars so he could reverse his truck on the driveway, I said "fine, i'll move the Acura, would you like me to move the black car?". He said "no, that'll be fine". After I moved my Acura across the street I told the other technician (his reversing spotter) that I have no problem moving the Lexus. They replied with "no problem". Before I could walk across the street I heard his truck hit my car. I was pissed because I could've moved my car but it was too late, I even asked the guy if he wanted me to move it prior to reversing the truck. I guess he thought his truck was easy to backup into my driveway next to the Lexus. I caused the biggest scene on the block, I thought I was going to get into a fight. In the future, regardless of any vendor/conmtractors response, I will move anything of value to me to avoid damage.

I spoke with the co-owners of the franchise and they decided to have their insurance take care of it. They told me to go ahead and get it fixed asap, which is what I wanted to do. That same morning, I took it to EMC Collision in Fremont, CA. EMC is not a direct repair facility for most insurance companies. The body shop is contracted with the local Porsche, BMW, Mercedes, Toyota and Honda Dealerships. The shop has a very good reputation and works on other high end cars such as Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, Bentley's, etc.

The thing about dealing with insurance companies is that the body shop will not start work on the vehicle until an insurance representative (adjuster) visits the body shop to estimate the damage (which can take anywhere from 1-2 days). Most of the time the insurance adjusters estimate does not match the body shops estimate. When this occurs a third party adjuster has to come into play if the insurance company does not agree with the body shop estimate (add another day or so). Sometimes, this is how you can tell a good quality body shop versus a lesser quality body shop. The lesser quality shop that needs the business will sometimes perform the work per the insurance companies estimate. This can be a bad situation because the quality of the repair may not be up to standard, they may purchase generic parts, use lots of bondo, have lesser experienced technicians etc. Unless the body shop has a very good reputation and is a direct repair center for those particular insurance companies than it is okay.

If I was going to go that route my car would sit at the body shop for up to a week before any work would start. My wife and I were very persistent and we communicated directly with the body shop, owners of the flooring company and the insurance company at the same time. We demanded a deal in which the body shop faxed a document to the garage flooring owner indicating that if the insurance company does not pay the estimate EMC Collision has setup than the owner of the garage flooring company will pay or front the difference to the body shop. The owner of the flooring company immediately signed it and faxed it back to EMC. That document allowed the body shop to immedately start working on my car to expedite the repair process faster, which made my wife and I very happy.

I also compiled an "Inconvenience Fee" on Excel detailing everything that it costed us (vacation time, mileage, car payment/day, etc.) to get the car fixed and I plan to deduct that amount from the quote to do the floors. This would be the most I would pay for the job once it's complete. Also, I cancelled my credit card so the flooring company cannot charge the remainder of the balance due after the work is complete. I put down a 10% deposit to start the job.

Let me know about your situations or if you can give me some advice. I think this is a good topic because these type of accidents can happen to anytime and it's nice to know how to expedite the process, unless you don't mind having it take long.

nardeezy

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nardeezy

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tripleGS

Ouch!!! As President Clinton would say..."I feel your pain!"

Did the body shop do the job right? Post some post paint pics if you can. I have the same color and would like to know if mine could look good as new if the same happens to me.

Thanks for the advice on expediting the repair and payment process.

nardeezy

The car should be ready by mid next week. I'll post pic's by then. FYI, the adjuster from the contractors insurance company called me to say that they were not going to pay the full estimate of the body shop. There is a $300-$400 difference among estimates. This is the type of crap that sucks! The good thing is that we binded the contractor to pay for the difference, that is very important!