my $600 dilemma

so here's the deal. last fall i had 2 people hit my car at different times, one on the side and one on the rear bumper / trunk. the one on the rear bumper was covered by the other driver's insurance, the side was "nobody's fault".

i cashed the insurance check for the bumper and trunk work and took it to a body shop to get everything fixed. in the end, the bodyshop made an error and only charged me for the trunk and bumper work (which was covered), leaving me $600 in the clear for the work they did on the side.

of course i didn't say anything at the time, its $600! so now, over 3 months later, i get a voicemail on my phone saying they realize they didn't charge me the $600, and i can kindly send them a check or give them my credit card over the phone. yeah right.

so what should i do? obviously i am not going to make it especially easy for them. is there some time limit? i really don't want to pay $600 if i don't have to. any legal things here i should know??

Tell them to come pry the money out of your cold, dead hands and they should leave you alone without incident.

Fuck that its their fault. Your money broski.

i guess i am wondering if they could take legal action against me if i don't pay.

i think they could def. hold you legally responsible dude --- but im not a lawyer.

i would bet my next pay on it.

  Franklin said:

i think they could def. hold you legally responsible dude --- but im not a lawyer.

unfortunately, thats what i thought too.

sure, i had $600 at the time, but "in these tough economic times..."

just tell them you payed them what they asked for.

  ward said:

just tell them you payed them what they asked for.

if i have to talk to them i am going to say "i thought i paid for everything, i have the quote, the receipt, i thought i was all set"

yeah, and then explain how you don't see it's your fault, blah blah blah. are you currently working?

you'd easily get away with this in england. of course, we don't tend to sue each other for not laughing at a joke.

If you got the recipt/quote, show that to them. That should be enough.

should

  ward said:

are you currently working?

yeah i got a good paying job, but i am saving every penny right now for a wedding in September. fuck, weddings are expensive!

  Capsaicin said:

If you got the recipt/quote, show that to them. That should be enough.

 

should

but the thing is, i got two separate quotes for the work, the first quote was for the side work which i would have had to pay for. i didnt get it done right away because i am lazy. a month later, the other idiot hits me and then i take it in, they take a new quote for just the trunk / bumper and i tell them i want the side fixed too and that they should have the old quote in the system.

what i think happened is that they only looked at the newest quote when they charged me. although i still have the new quote and receipt.

although they did fuck it up a bit, the insurance paid for a rental car but the body shop told them my car was done when it wasnt, i had to give the rental back, take my unfinished car home, bring it back to the body shop the next day, have them finish it, pick it up that night. i was a good sport about that.

For some reason I was under the impression that you got hit by two cars simultaneously

happened about a month apart. the first one was "nobody's fault".

funny thing is, i thought "wouldn't it be great if someone else hit me in the meantime and i could get this one fixed for free"

lol

  Charles Nelson Reilly said:

happened about a month apart. the first one was "nobody's fault".

 

funny thing is, i thought "wouldn't it be great if someone else hit me in the meantime and i could get this one fixed for free"

Careful what you wish for.

It's been more than ninety days.  I don't think they can hold you responsible, but if they can, tell them you can do installments.

tell them to suck your cock

i'm guessing they are contacting you because they heard from the insurance company and that reminded them that they under charged you... so perhaps they could contact the ins company and get you busted for fraud?

to sum up: get a job, hippie.

how is this in any way your fault? they undercharged you, thats their problem. my advice is to tell them to fuck off, although i was recently verbally assaulted by an auto mechanic and my partner had a truck battery thrown at his head. so i dunno.

  blicero said:

i'm guessing they are contacting you because they heard from the insurance company and that reminded them that they under charged you... so perhaps they could contact the ins company and get you busted for fraud?

there were no insurance companies involved in this one, i had to pay for the 600 on the side myself, and the insurance company sent me the check before i even chose an auto body place, so they were completely out of the picture. they charged me exactly what the insurance company quoted for the work that they covered.

  blicero said:

to sum up: get a job, hippie.

i have a very good job thanks

maryland statue of limitations

i think this is a statute of limitations thing... maybe a verbal contract to pay for services rendered?

wow, thanks.

so basically it looks like my only hope is that they forget about it. it would be easy for them to prove that they did the work but only charged me for part of it.

send them a bill for $600

  Charles Nelson Reilly said:

wow, thanks.

 

so basically it looks like my only hope is that they forget about it. it would be easy for them to prove that they did the work but only charged me for part of it.

no problem!

ya i would keep putting the payment off in hopes that they forget. i dont think that there's any harm in that.

or do what bcm suggests to lighten the mood!

  BCM said:

send them a bill for $600

lol

bastards called today threatening legal action blah blah blah...

called them back, told them i would send it to them in a couple installments even though i could probably swing it all in one shot. i don't think it is worth the possible bad credit rating to keep fighting it.

You should give them their 600 dollars, and restore the damage to your car.

Then find a newspaper dated whenever you originally had the car fixed and take pictures.

Now get your hands on some of their stationary and build up a whole bunch of fake correspondence about how you paid them upfront, waited for weeks to get your car back from them and ended up being forced to pick it up without it being repaired and them not giving you back your money.

Just make up both sides of the story.

Now find a lawyer that will sue the bastards for taking your money and not fixing your car and how you suffered enormous emotional damage from the whole ordeal and spent months trying to just at least get your money back from them.

If you do this right it could pay for your entire wedding plus honeymoon.

When you return from your honeymoon sugar the repairshop's owner's gastank.