Customer damage claim and their insurance

[sudsurfer]

So I had a customer come around and say we knocked her tail light out of her 11 year old Lexus. Agreed that the tail light was out. So we fill out an alleged incident report. We call Lexus and buy the tail light. We talk to Lexus service person who says 2 screws and about 1.2 hours work. Tell the customer and she throws a fit. Says she took it to her ford dealer 40 minutes away and they need to replace carpet and repaint the trunk etc... Next day her insurnace calls with a claim for $900 they want me to reimburse. That is less than our deductible. The original damage was a tail light. Do I have to give up my insurance info? Can I take an insurance company to small claims or do I chalk this up to experience?? Does any one have good luck with their disclaimer on cars older than 10 years? Does that hold up in court??

 

[Washmee]

Was the re damage to the trunk lid and carpet when you inspected her car? If not I would tell her tough luck. I would have looked for a usèd taillight also. She is entitled to a replacement of like kind and quality not better than what she had which was an 11 year old taillight.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

Did you take a picture of the damage at the time?
I would take a picture of your disclaimer sign.
Send (both) to her insurance company with a letter explaining that you showed the disclaimer sign and explained to your customer that you aren't responsible for this since the car is over 10 years old and the parts are old and worn.
You are not going to pay for anything else.

 

[sudsurfer]

Washmee at the time of the incident report she was only concerned with her tail light. Later after she went to "her service guy" they were going to have to remove carpet to get to the light and they might scratch the trunk making the repair so they have to paint it. We questioned why she would let a ford dealer do the work when we offered to have the lexus dealer do it right. We have on camera her only pointing at the tail light and nothing else which we shared with her insurance. They paid the claim anyway and now they want to come after us for it. We told them we had offered to make the repair to the tail light, too. I feel like we are getting bamboozled by insurance and some unscrupulous car repair/customer.

We take care of customers if we believe we are responsible but this one is just way over the top.

 

[sudsurfer]

JMMUSTANG thanks for your reply. I was not clear in my post. We do not currently have a sign disclaiming responsiblity for damage to cars over ten years old. We have a traditional disclaimer.

I just wondered if the ten year sign would hold up...I guess you are right... if it is prominently posted, it should be admissable in small claims court or in conversations with insurance agents.

 

[rph9168]

What did the alleged damage report say? Did it indicate any damage beside the taillight? Did she sign the report? Do you have any cameras? Did anyone see the car before it went into the tunnel? If you did not indicate any damage other than the taillight and she signed it I would refuse to pay anything. I would not give her any insurance information. She needs to deal with her insurance company if she wants more than the tail light. I would even question how you could have knocked the tail light out if it was in properly. To me that sounds like something that was either missing when she got there or was already damaged and loose. If there is a issue with the documentation you might have a problem but I would still fight it.

I doubt there is any way you damaged it enough to have any repainting done and at worst the carpet in the trunk got wet and shouldn't need to be replaced. I would probably even go to court on this one if I had to. You could use the defense that you wash many different types of vehicles and have never knocked out a tail light so there must have been a problem with it when she came in. It would be nice if you had a picture of the vehicle as well which would show the general condition of the vehicle which was old to start with.

I think she is trying to take advantage of you. I am sure you thought you were trying to do the right thing by offering a replacement instead of questioning the damage to begin with but I think that may have left you open for this by doing so. I think it is a good general rule to dispute any damage claim unless you are sure you are responsible for it.

 

[sudsurfer]

Thanks rph9168 - You are right our wash probably did not cause the damage. But I have not perfected the art of moving the customer along when their taillight is lying in my tunnel. I have cameras coming and going. There is no obvious damage coming in. There is a tail light missing going out. There is nothing unusual about their wash and neither the car bewfore or after experience anything out of the ordinary.

 

[rph9168]

I think there had to be something wrong with that tail light before it came to the wash and suspect she knew it. I have seen many instances where this has occurred. I think you went above and beyond by offering to replace it when it was obviously a pre-existing condition on an old vehicle. As I said before, if you obviously have caused damage you should offer repair. In this case I think the problem was there before the vehicle entered the wash. Since you offered to replace the tail light you should honor that but I would refuse to do anything further and not give her my insurance information. Let her work out the remainder with her insurance company.

I am not totally familiar with how all insurance companies handle damages like this but from personal experience I would guess she has at least a $500 deductible if not higher and cannot understand why they would be coming after you for $900 when it is unlikely they have paid that amount out. Taking a Lexus to a Ford dealer - claiming paint damage - replacing wet carpet? Frankly this whole thing smells of a set up. Good luck but I would not do any more than you already promised.

 

[washnvac]

I would not give them ANY OF YOUR INSURANCE INFO. I have had a similar request before on three occassions. I never gave anyone my info. They sent letter after letter; which I trashed. It eventually went away.

Until they have a constable or sheriff serve you with court papers, I would ignore it. My 2 cents, for what its worth.

 

[Earl Weiss]

1. I have the 10 year old disclaimer. It has not been tested in court. Did this after an annual review of 40 repair receipts from 4 locations in a year and saw 38 of them were for vehicles more than 10 years old. Now, unless I have a major equipment failure, cars over 10 years old who make an alleged insident report simply get a letter explainging how all vehicles are washed the same and out of tens of thousands of the same or similar vehicles theirs was the only such incident.
2. Since light takes "2 screws" and wash equip does not contain screwdrivers it also falls under the "Loose" body part disclaimer.
3. Customer signs "Alleged Incident Report" which specificaly says is not an admission of liability. If customer signs such a report, not mentioning anything else would help. (Report also contains disclaimers).
4. Since you were willing to pay what Lexus would charge issue a check for that amount, Mark it "Full and Final Settlement- Goodwill basis only, not as an admission of liability." (Recently had one and the Customer's ins. Aksked for more. A copy of the Check put an end to that.
5. Do not give out ins info.

 

[Washmee]

I usually carefully examine the part that fell off and take pictures. Often it is possible to see evidence of pre-existing damage. Wrong screws, evidence of glue, rust or dark dirty cracks. Fill out the form and have the customer sign.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

" Later after she went to "her service guy" they were going to have to remove carpet to get to the light and they might scratch the trunk making the repair so they have to paint it."

It seems to me her "service guy" already admitted he might damage the paint.
Therefore by his admission he should pay for the paint damage.

 

[Washmee]

Had a customer try to get an extra $200 from me once because he wasn't sure he would be happy with the repair "a couple of years from now" after his antenna broke going through the wash. There was no question we broke it and I asked him to get an estimate. When he showed up to get the check for the repair, he informed me of his request and I told him no way. He refused to take the check and a few weeks later I was served with a lawsuit. Not a small claims suit, but a suit in Common Pleas court. I contacted my attorney and he called the customers. Turns out he never told his attorney that I had already made a settlement offer. 2 days later he withdrew his suit and accepted the original offer.