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What Would Monkeys Do?

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rideit

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
24,703
12,492
In the cleavage of the Tetons
So, I recently had my windshield replaced by a local (mobile) guy. He is one of my wife’s clients, and also a casual acquaintance.
Apparently when he pried the old windshield off, he gouged the paint in 4 or 5 places, and now the paint is starting to peel off, emanating from those gouges.
I left a polite message outlining the issue, and asked whether he might have insurance for such eventuality. I am waiting for him to get back to me.
So, if he tells me to pound sand, how would y’all proceed?
Cool story, eh?
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,827
27,043
media blackout
rideit said:
So, I recently had my windshield replaced by a local (mobile) guy. He is one of my wife’s clients, and also a casual acquaintance.
Apparently when he pried the old windshield off, he gouged the paint in 4 or 5 places, and now the paint is starting to peel off, emanating from those gouges.
I left a polite message outlining the issue, and asked whether he might have insurance for such eventuality. I am waiting for him to get back to me.
So, if he tells me to pound sand, how would y’all proceed?
Cool story, eh?
Click to expand...
are you anticipating him telling you to pound sand?
 
OGRipper

OGRipper

back alley ripper
Feb 3, 2004
10,735
1,247
NORCAL is the hizzle
That sucks. How old is the car/what's it worth?

I wouldn't even wait for his response to get a written quote from a good body shop to fix it. From there, if he tells you to fvck off, file a claim in small claims court.
 
rideit

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
24,703
12,492
In the cleavage of the Tetons
Truck is a 13’ Silverado with 100k, so lots of life left (hopefully). I don’t actually anticipate him being hostile, but from what I can see, there would be no cheap fix. If the paint keeps coming off, though, I will take a few k hit on resale value, that is my biggest concern. That said, I am kinda planning to drive this into the ground (or when the first 500 mile +) EV pickup is available.
 
Nick

Nick

My name is Nick
Sep 21, 2001
24,916
16,501
where the trails are
My first boss taught me ... "friends are friends, but business is business".
He damaged your truck, he should compensate you for the repair or repair at his cost. If you treat him with kid gloves he may not take it seriously. Treat it like he was an unknown contractor, with a 'go-easy' option, and maybe fix the damage yourself before winter sets in.
 
rideit

rideit

Bob the Builder
Aug 24, 2004
24,703
12,492
In the cleavage of the Tetons
Well, he was cool, he said he thought he didn’t do it (he has a technique that uses suction cups), but asked me to take it to a body shop or two and have them assess how it happened. He said he is relatively new to the technique, so he doesn’t know everything.
 
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
56,016
22,047
Sleazattle
rideit said:
Well, he was cool, he said he thought he didn’t do it (he has a technique that uses suction cups), but asked me to take it to a body shop or two and have them assess how it happened. He said he is relatively new to the technique, so he doesn’t know everything.
Click to expand...

split the difference. Bang him.
 
cecil

cecil

Turbo Monkey
Jun 3, 2008
2,064
2,345
with the voices in my head
It's a little late for this but always take detailed pictures with a time and date stamp before anyone does work for you and let them know you have documented the condition it is in before the work started

I'm developing a whole city block downtown buffalo I have video documentation of all the streets sidewalks curbs fire hydrants and all houses in a 2 block radius that way when someone claims we caused damage I have back up it was not

As @Nick said buisness is buisness always cover your self trust no one when it comes to money
 
Jm_

Jm_

sled dog's bollocks
Jan 14, 2002
20,164
10,706
AK
rideit said:
So, I recently had my windshield replaced by a local (mobile) guy. He is one of my wife’s clients, and also a casual acquaintance.
Apparently when he pried the old windshield off, he gouged the paint in 4 or 5 places, and now the paint is starting to peel off, emanating from those gouges.
I left a polite message outlining the issue, and asked whether he might have insurance for such eventuality. I am waiting for him to get back to me.
So, if he tells me to pound sand, how would y’all proceed?
Cool story, eh?
Click to expand...
I had something similar happen, had a windshield replaced, gouged my BMW instrument cluster. I've actually had a lot of stuff happen along these lines, but specifically the windshield in this case.

1. Never accept the car without doing a decent inspection. Yes, you aren't going to catch everything, but you should be able to catch anything obvious. Was having a dent fixed the other week and they had dripped a bit of epoxy near the door handle. Not only that, but as soon as you find something like this, you take pictures of it right there on the spot with your phone or whatever. Do it as soon as possible if you haven't. Always do a good walk-around. This also goes for dropping off the car, take 4 or 8 point photos of the car and an interior picture of the dash and odometer, that way anything obviously screwed up can be shown.

So I immediately brought this to their attention and took pictures of it and so on.

2. You document who you talk to and who is there, you ask them what they will do about it and write down the responses. This may be necessary when you take them to small claims court. It's unlikely that you will have to do this, but if you follow these steps, you'll creme them in court, so most decently smart businesses and contract-lawyers will never let it get to that point. You write a statement every time you speak with someone from the company/regarding this from this moment on, and sign the statement. If you have witnesses, you get them to do the same thing if they can, name them in your statements, etc.

These guys were jerking me around a bit at the beginning, but when you submit your signed statement/summary they straightened up pretty fast. I remember the people in the shop wouldnt tell me their last names. Fine, I’ll document that I asked and they refused to provide it. The cluster was something like $1500 in parts alone, maybe more, and then there was install.

Of course, when I got the car back from BMW, the dipshit attendant at BMW drove the bumper into the curb...so the process started all over again. Frustrating, but if you are protecting yourself, they have no choice but to do the right thing.

3. If they are not doing the right thing, you send them a letter where you state what the issue is, provide the evidence attached/copies of your statements, and that they have 10 business days to respond to you how they will fix this. In court, this is when you officially "served" the company. You HAVE to do this if they aren't doing the right thing, even if they are "saying" that they will, because up until you do this, they can just say that you didn't ever bring this to their attention. So sometimes you have to break this to them "nicely" as in, "I'm going to send a letter, just to make sure this is documented"...or something. Again, having done this, you'll creme them in court and it will be quick and cheap in small claims court, but most savvy businessmen and lawyers can sniff out that you have your **** together and will do the right thing immediately upon receiving this. Still, if it comes to court, they'll look like a horses ass when you hand the copy of the letter to the judge. One pro-tip, you send a registered mail certified/return receipt copy and a regular-mail copy. In the unlikely situation where they are trying to avoid you, they won't sign for the certified letter, but will take the non-certified one. In civil court, there is still a presumption of service if you don't get the non-certified letter returned. Either way, you win. It looks better of course if someone at the company signed for the registered letter though, which usually happens.

4. In my experience, you need to take these steps a lot earlier than later. Not doing this just sets you up to get burned every time. You may not have to go through with all of this, but IME, it's a lot better to plan for this and start down the road, rather than fight it out with "he said/she said". Don't F-around, start a document trail. Saves time and frustration later on.

I was recently able to help my Brother out with this very same method, as he was being jerked around by the university he is attending. By helping him put together a letter and state the issues, they agreed to fund him for several more semesters to make up for the screw-ups they caused and to fix the test-scores they messed up due to crazy make-no-sense questions/grading. You start the document trail as early as you can and after a point, you stop talking to people and just use correspondence via letter. If they aren't playing ball, you take that trail to small claims court and if you were keeping your stuff half-ass in order, you'll have an easy win.

I'm not a lawyer, but I work with them and I've been to court before. My theory is that the average joe citizen can do 95% of what a lawyer does to be successful in cases like these. So far, I've proved myself right 100% of the time. This is 95% of what a lawyer would do, except go to court if you had to go to actual civil (and not small claims) court. But if you did, you've already done 95% of the work for the lawyer, so you would basically be dropping the case on their desk, rather than dropping the claim and having them run around and build the case.
 
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6thElement

6thElement

Schrodinger's Immigrant
Jul 29, 2008
17,244
14,718
Have you gone Keyser Soze on his friends, family and business associates yet?
 
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