Karina Lynn (karinalynn) wrote in bad_service,
Karina Lynn
karinalynn
bad_service

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Two weeks ago (Tuesday, Sept. 27th) I was out of town and my (50-60 year old) neighbor decided to drink a little too much and go for a joyride. She backed out of her driveway, hit the wall AND her mailbox, then turned to face straight and ran right into the back of my Chevy S-10 Blazer (this comes into play later.) Then she backed up and swiped the back left corner. My other neighbors saw her do this and they tried to stop her. She stopped her car, got out, stumbled around, then got back in. They tried to get her to stop, but she almost ran them over and they had to jump out of the way. The next day they saw her come out of the liquor store with a big bottle of Tequila and a BIG smile on her face.

So that night my roommate calls me and tells me what happened. She tried to call the police but since it wasn't her car they wouldn't come out. I get back late the next night and I check out my car the following day and take pictures.

EDIT: My host is down, but the pictures are here: http://www.livejournal.com/community/bad_service/438079.html?thread=7521343#t7521343

She hit my truck so hard that my front right tire was wedged against the curb. Now, my dad has been a mechanic (auto and jet engine) since before I was born. I KNOW not to park with my tires against the curb, especially for long periods of time (I knew it was going to be parked for a few days.) I know for a fact that I didn't leave it like that. Also, I live on a hill, so I had my parking brake on. Later that day I went to the neigbor who hit my truck to get their insurance info. I decided to be nice about it at first. No one was hurt and I just wanted my truck fixed. Her husband answers the door and won't let me talk to her. I tell him that she hit my car and that I need to get it fixed. He calls me a liar and I tell him that I have witnesses. He starts yelling at me and screaming that I'm a liar at this point. He says that her Lexus is not tall enough to have hit my truck. I drive an S-10, not a monster truck. I told him that if she didn't hit my truck, then he wouldn't mind if I looked at her car. If there was no damage, then I'd have no proof and have to drop it. He refused and told me to leave. I told him I would be calling the police and filing hit and run charges. He told me that if I did this, he would file harrassment charges against me. I told him to go ahead.

I called the cops, they came out and took my statement and the statement of the neighbors who saw it happen. They took a ton of pictures of my truck. They were really nice and helpful. We asked them what they would do if the neighbor who hit my truck didn't answer the door. They said they'd bust out the tear gas and break down the door. Unfortunately, the husband answered. I wanted the show. The cops made him back the car out of the driveway and they took A TON of photos. Then they made him get his wife (he said she was sick, turns out she was just drunk, but alcoholism IS a disease.) They came back to me and said that her car had a ton of damage and that she had hit my car. I got a police report and decided not to press charges since I got their insurance information and assumed it would be taken care of in a timely manner. I assumed wrong.

Here is where the bad service begins:

I contact her insurance and give my statement. They can't get the inspector to come look at my car until this past Friday (Oct. 7th.) He comes out to my cousin's house where I was babysitting for her. He was very nice and did his thing and told me he'd be turning it in that day. I call my claims adjuster later that day and leave a message. I barely got a call back this afternoon. She automatically starts treating me like I'm at fault. She is rude and condescending to me. She acts like I'm inconveniencing her and keeps sighing loud enough for me to hear over the phone. I explained that I am pretty sure my alignment is now off. I tell her that I need to get the alignment and my axel (sp?) checked out to make sure there is no other damage (since she hit my trailer hitch too) that is not just cosmetic. This is when she starts arguing with me about it. She tells me that the other car didn't have enough damage to have hit me that hard to mess up my alignment. I tell her that I disagree and that they need to pay for that get checked. I then tell her that I was planning on taking my truck up north this weekend to visit my parents (I live in Los Angeles, and they live in the Bay Area about 350 miles away.) I told her that if my alignment is messed up that I am not driving it up there until it's fixed because it's going to cause a lot of damage to my tires. She says it should take 3 days to fix my truck. That would be fine but I'm leaving Thursday and it was late in the day today and I wouldn't have it back by the time I was leaving. I told her I needed them to pay for my rental car until we (my roommate and I) get back Monday. She starts yelling at me and I explain that it's not my fault that my truck was hit and this is a huge inconvenience to me. I shouldn't have to pay for a rental car to take up there. I was 350 miles away from my truck when it was hit. I also told her that I had been laid off and I'm currently looking for a job. I don't feel comfortable driving my truck more than 5 miles from my house until it's checked out. I tell her that if I get a call for an interview, unless it's really close, I don't want to drive my truck far and that this is really inconveniencing me. She said it wasn't her problem. I ask for her supervisor. She puts me on hold for 5 minutes then transfers me to her voicemail. I left a 3 minute long message explaining what was happening.

So her supervisor calls me back and we got INTO IT. She kept tellng me to file a claim with my insurance company. I told her that I shouldn't have to pay a $500 deductible and have my rates go up because my neighbor decided to have a little drinky and drivy action. I told her that it's a hit and run. She explains to me that she can't do anything yet because her insured refuses to give a statement over the phone and hasn't sent in the written one yet. I don't see why this should hold up fixing my truck since I have a police report stating what happened and that she was 100% at fault. She tells me that what she'll do is send me a check to cover my rental car and fixing my truck (which they only estimated at $457.79 worth of damage) and that if there is anymore damage then they will cover that too, and work that out between the shop and the insurance company. It looks to me (and my dad looked at it too when he was in town last weelend) like a lot more than $457 worth of damage, since the bumper isn't straight anymore. It's going to need more than just paint. She is also sending me money to cover four days of a rental car too @ $50/day since I drive an "SUV". It's not really an SUV, it's considered a truck, but whatever. She was very nice towards the end of the call and told me that I held my ground well. She told me that she understood where I was coming from.

I called the police and told them that I would now like to press charges against her since she is not cooperating and I'm waiting for a call back. Also, I've given it a lot of thought and I don't want her to think she can get away with the drinking and driving and the hitting and running. We have a lot of kids on our street and if she keeps it up, it's only a matter of time before she hits one of them. So I'm going to find a shop tomorrow and take it in Thursday before I leave. We have the rental car in place. I won't get the check until I get back. I know that cashing it means I'm "settling" with them, so I'm not going to do it until I'm 100% satisfied with the results. Do any of you guys have any advice that you can offer me? Should I go to corporate with the way I was treated?
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