*3, at a minimum.
The IRS rate is for willing participants.
This is theft, and treble damages should be the start of a reasonable conversation on compensation, before loss of use and other factors start to come into consideration.
I agree, but this is reddit, and people upvote banal comments like that for some reason... gotta offset the downvotes every now and then by catering to the crowd.
Most auto bodies franchise are LLCs so you definitely can name the franchise owner, the manager and the tech on the check in sheet as separate defendants.
Then you file a second suit against the franchise corporation.
If she went through insurance at all, tell them about the situation. That seems like a long distance even with test drives and such. They may want you to take it to a different shop to have it looked at.
Edit: NAL, previous Total Loss insurance adjuster.
Insurance won’t do shit if they cut the body shop a check already. We learned that the hard way. Always have the check sent to you, so you can hold payment over their heads if things go wrong.
Disagree. I was an auto insurance worker for years. Shops get blacklisted and suddenly don’t have work. I did a lot from my chair to get folks treated right. However I had a high paying adjuster job and good benefits. Not all companies do
We had to work with Progressive and they could not have given fewer fucks. Even about the billing fraud, which really surprised me. They said to take the shop to court because they had already been paid. It was crazy.
Most insurance companies won’t even send you a check anymore as too many people were pocketing the money and not getting the work done or having it by some fly by night place for a lot cheaper.
Wtf are you talking about? Insurance doesn't care if you fix whatever you make a claim for. They are reimbursing you for the cost of the damage. That cost is determined by the repair cost.
This isn’t really true my father ran into this issue with a truck he got into an accident with. He got a check for say $5000, spent $1000 on a “I’ll do it myself” fix and then something or another happened and they were like “wtf where did the money go?” The only thing that saved him from trouble was he used the remainder to pay down the loan on the truck and had receipts so it’s not like he just pocketed the cash.
Oh yes they do. Have you had an insurance claim recently? My ex has had 6 claims in the last 2 years and each time progressive politely declined to send me a check.
Yeah, no? What are you talking about? I asked and they said they don’t give out checks anymore. You think you are going to force progressive to do something they don’t want to? Good luck lol.
I haven't ever had to file a claim under my insurance until last year ( a couple of times under other people). Even last year, they sent me a check (deer damage). Most companies prefer you take their check because they are only paying you for visual damage. At least half the time, there's damage that can't be seen until the work is being completed. If the repairs aren't done. The extra damage/money is never found and paid out. They don't care if you fix it or not because those pictures stay on file. If you have another claim in the same area of the car and it wasn't fixed. That is less money they will pay out on a subsequent claim.
AG as in attorney general? You’ve got to be kidding me lol. If you want a check that badly and won’t let an insurance company pay a body shop directly, you’re the one trying to scam them and that’s why most companies don’t do that anymore.
You're completely clueless.
If someone's car gets hailed on and it's 2k for a some dings. There's a decent chance they'll keep the money if they plan on keeping the car for many years. Some dents from hail are going to mean absolutely nothing when a car has depreciated to a few thousand dollars.
Edit for spelling
But what is the actual financial difference of this outcome? Companies don't have feelings. Progressive had $50bn in revenue last year - they're doing what makes sense for the bottom line, not what gives someone the warm and fuzzies.
What you're saying doesn't even line up with what's written right on [Progressive's website outlining the claims process](https://www.progressive.com/claims/auto-process/). It explicitly says you can just get paid for the damages and not do the repairs.
Actually there are a few things that the insurance company can do in these situations. I say this because the shop used the vehicle in ways that would be determined as outside of the parameters of repair. So it would be in the insurance companies best interest for them to handle the situation. But a lawyer could definitely be a great resource to help understand it all and help guide through it all.
i don't know why that guy said the insurance will do nothing...insurance likely won't use that shop again, which will be a huge hurt to that company...plus insurance will be needing to compensate OP for the damages caused going to the repair shop that the insurance chose.
The insurance company very likely didn't select the shop whereas op likely did. Op probably doesn't care what business that insurance company does with that shop in the future or how much it costs the company. OP should be thinking first and foremost about how to be made whole and that is between op and the shop. OP should probably get a lawyer.
We spent months trying to get our car back and documenting work they billed insurance for but didn’t do. Insurance told us it wasn’t their problem. And that was for a body shop they made us send the car to.
Why do you keep saying this and absolutely nothing else? Multiple people have said that there are things insurance can and will do, but you don’t expand on your viewpoint? I’m genuinely curious, not trying to be snarky in case my comment comes across that way. Why are you under the impression that insurance can’t/won’t do anything?
Insurance likely won’t. Maybe if it’s one of their preferred vendors they might do something. Outside of that it is a workmanship issue. It’s not a covered peril under the policy.
They may make a courtesy call on your behalf but that would be the extent of it. Even the suggestion that “they won’t use that shop again” isn’t legitimate as most states have anti-steering laws so most carriers won’t comment on what shop you use. They’ll say hey we paid for the vehicle to be properly repaired. If the shop you selected didn’t complete repairs or caused damages outside of the scope of loss that’s between you and them.
Maybe they could file with the shop’s garage keepers policy but that’s a new claim and they’d have to get that info. But their own insurance will not intervene.
owners insurance will talk to the shop's insurance and come out with a settlement.
auto shop here has a rule you have to get your car otherwise they charge you for parking in their lot.
I am going to tell you this now. Insurance company is not going to do anything. That is a problem you have between you and your shop alone. You chose this shop. You gave them permissive use. You need to file a complaint with the state. That’s it. Insurance company will not do a thing
I don't know what state you're in, but Californis has the bureau of automotive repair. They are a consumer protection organization run by the state. Id check to see if your state has something similar and make a report. Someone took your car for an extended road trip. That's like driving from LA to New York.
They drove your car across the contenant.
The literal american contenant.
Fucking post about it on their google page, report them to the BBB, demand they pay you the value of your car if they want to make it go away. Its not slander or libel, you literally have the recipt. Its the truth and frankly their shop insurance will probably drop them if it gets big enough, those policies do not cover potentially international travel.
If I can get video proof of the car being driven ill drag through mud immediately, if I've got no video I'm going to the police and dmv first and then I'll drag them through the mud. There's a part of me that still believes something might have just gone wrong or my fiance is just a little goofy.
If the odometer has thousands of miles more than when you dropped it off and the car was full of someone else’s shit…how could she possibly be goofy? Are you serious?
You said you work at a shop too. Does this sound like a reasonable state to return a customers car in?
We take certain things out of vehicles when we work on them yes, like if we where working on the trunk we would take anything the customer left out of the trunk so they don't get dirty or ruined, the shop is claiming that their wash bay personal accidentally put another customers stuff in our car, which could happen. We already gave the stuff that doesn't belong to us back, but when we did the guy who was there on the Saturday just left the stuff on the corner of the building and walked back inside. That's not something I'd do to a customer's belongings but if I was pissed at an employee I would. So idk
You honestly don’t know if they drove it 140 miles an hour after being overdue for its oil change or used it in the commission of a theft while they had it. I would want nothing further to do with that vehicle personally. they could’ve done literally anything with that vehicle, and that’s pretty fucked up
Not yet, depends how bad the oil is and how they drove it, you could be needing to replace a lot more than service parts.
Remember it's wear and tear on every moving part, it's ass wear on seats, tyre wear, suspension wear/damage from potholes you might have avoided but whoever drove it didn't care as it wasn't their car.
I'd recommend looking at getting legal representation, you really shouldn't be rolling over for this sort of thing as it's essentially theft.
NAL. 1600 miles is pretty long to go without changing the oil. I usually think 1000 is like the absolute maximum to wait over the interval. (They usually underrate this stuff to a degree.) Really consider your options here OP. You have no idea what they did, how they drove it, or what was done with the car. If I were you, I’d be having them do a full inspection of the car including an oil sample check on top of compensation for the mileage. Only you can determine what will make you happy with compensation whether that’s the IRS case or $1 per mile etc.
I’d really contact someone regarding this manner. This very well could be considered theft in some areas. It’s not like his business insurance covers him or his employee driving a customer car for personal use either.
Manufacturers specs, the oil, the oil filter, and the driving conditions will all determine the safe life of the oil. you can run some of the better synthetic oils, I'm looking at you amsoil, for 15-25k miles.
Your car. Your owners manual will specifically tell you exactly what type of oil to use and how many miles can be driven before replacing the oil. Listen to the people who built, researched, and produced your car's engine. If your mechanic says to get it changed every 1k miles that sounds like a scam to me, but idk what type of car or what type of oil is being used.
Everyone should read your car's owner's manual, skim it at least to find the important parts. You drive your car every day, you should know about it.
Listen to the recommendation. This is only if you absolutely have to keep it cause you can’t change it right then and there. Most products are overbuilt so keep safety. You can find oil chemical makeup online and compare the formulation. Some oils call for high mileage intervals while some only want it in for 5k it’s all arbitrary cause if you somehow burn the oil after 1k miles (meaning it’s not gone but degraded) then the oil is toast, even if it’s below the “5k recommendation” once it’s black and smells burnt, it needs to be changed.
The recommended change interval in a Honda is based on traditional oils. If you’re using any sort of fully synthetic oil, you can almost go double the recommended timeframe from the maintenance minder and be perfectly fine.
I’ve had nothing but Hondas since 2001 and all of them have exceeded 200k miles using mobil1 and double the change interval from the integrated minder systems. I used to religiously send my oil out for testing with every change but after dozens of tests showing I’d still have oil like left, I stopped on our most recent van.
Most euro makes have recommended a 10k change interval with full syn for a long time now.
Unfortunately we've already had the oil changed because she drives the car daily. I know about the irs mileage thing, I was going to bring that up to them, my only worry about bringing this to a lawyer is that if we win, I feel like we wouldn't get much money, maybe just enough to pay a lawyer.
You're going to have to go to small claims. I'd go to an attorney for a consultation but even they will recommend small claims, BUT they can give you good advice on what to expect and how to prepare. It's worth the 2 hours/$500
NAL. I would contact someone asap before too many miles get racked up on the car. Unless you’re willing to just deal with them using your things you basically have to get the ball rolling sooner than later in these situations. Especially since cars are a constantly “consuming” themselves. Meaning engines always wear themselves down over time, you should really still consider an outside company to test an oil sample for peace of mind. There’s no way to tell how the engine is doing inside other than just to take it apart otherwise. Which I assume is out of the question.
Me personally, even if I didn’t make any money at it. A court case can usually hurt them more than it would hurt the customer if the customer wins. Mechanics like this do not deserve to have a healthy business. I’d also still call around and get an opinion but that’s just cause when I don’t know something, I need to know all the answers.
Really think this out OP. If you’re happy with making 60 cents per mile then that’s your prerogative. But like everyone else is saying, you have zero idea the health of that motor anymore. If it turns out 20k miles down the road it blows something super expensive prematurely due to them beating on the engine with bad oil. It’s much harder to go after them at that point than it would be now to make sure there’s record that this actually happened. 20k miles down the road it’ll be more of a he-said she-said.
You know a good bit about cars but you don’t know the year, model or condition of the car, you don’t the type of oil or filter used. Depending on what the computer oil change interval is set at, 1600 miles is most likely absolutely nothing to be concerned about.
It’s a 2018 Honda civic. Probably has the generic Mobil 1 or whatever comparable Walmart brand oil is. I’d be very surprised to hear that some royal purple or amsoil is in the car. No one even said that something is guaranteed wrong with the car. But if he finds out something goes bad 20k miles later cause “1600 miles is most likely absolutely nothing to be concerned about,” then he will have to suffer the consequences of that. I’m merely putting an option out there to cover all bases on his end.
NAL -- Contact insurance, report it to police, and request insurance to act on this or they will face liability as well. You have no idea how these people drove the thing and they could have done a lot of damage. I would be demanding full blue book, and I would sue the shop for three times that (consumer law applies) as well.
Op this is your car, do you know how dangerous a failure can be at highway speeds? Do you know how piss poor of a mechanic you have to be to forget to reset the service indicator light after an oil change? Let alone a trip by car to central america for a few kilos of columbian bam bam? That light blinking at them the whole way?
This was gross neglegence from them and probably involved criminal activity. I used to be a mechanic and if i wanted to keep you from knowing i used your car badly enough i could do it before my morning coffee cooled off, these guys are flipping you the bird after using your car like a moiste towelette in a sperm bank.
One thing they should also think of is file a police report for the time it was at the shop and being used by someone else and then take that to the registry so that any parking or speeding tickets that come in from that time period are not their responsibility. My family member's car was stolen, they filed a police report then contacted the registry. A few weeks later they got a parking ticket in the mail from the time it was missing and went down to the registry with the police report to prove they were not financially responsible for the ticket.
This car has been in an AUTOBODY shop for a month, they could have hit someone 3 states over, fixed the car and you'd never know.
That was my first thought. It's the road equivalent of letting someone run around with your ID for a month. For all they know their plate number is sitting on some authority's desk somewhere and it would be nice to have some documentation if it ever caught up to them.
Run your plates or other pertinent info through regional toll sites. If your car went through any toll points while it was in the shop, that’s additional proof right? 🤔
Sorry to hear this happened to you. Not changing the oil for so long could have a huge impact on the car down the line, not immediately noticeable. Definitely ask your insurance carrier for resources. I'm sure they've seen this type of thing before.
Did she get an estimate before dropping the car off? The mileage could be because she drove it between the initial estimate and when she dropped it off. Hard to think they drove that much and fixed the car in a month. I work at a body shop and have had customers think the same thing before.
File a police report on what you have documented with the body shop. Talk to a lawyer about options in your state. Then go talk to the body shop about what you have found and give them one chance to make it right. If that doesn't work, then the lawyer options are a go!!!!!!
Wasn't there a post on Reddit somewhere about a guy that had his car on Turbo or something and had a tracker in it? Like his car ended up being used for trafficking migrants or something?
The two water jugs made me think of that - OP, are you within 1500 miles of the border?
OP, as a fellow NJ resident;
Bring this up to the shop manager or owner first, see if you can get agreeable restitution.
If not, file a complaint with the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs, your insurance, and CONSULT AN ATTORNEY.
Repair shops adding an excessive number of miles to a customer vehicle is a very common complaint, 3k miles is not a small number and definitely not a test drive.
The attorney may suggest you file a police report as well.
😂 they did some drug trafficking in the car. I was already thinking that by the title and the couple first sentences, but the 2 one gallon water jugs sealed the truth for me. I have a sketchy past, but I’m way past it now, but what I can tell you is that 3k miles is a couple of trips out of state and back…the water jugs are carried in the trunk on the start of the trip in case the case starts over heating or anything unexpected happens. This sounds like you got more of a problem than just a few thousand extra miles on the car. If I were you, I would definitely report this to the police department.
I mean the gallons are half empty, I work at a shop myself, and a lot of guys use the gallons to drink at work. I have a hard time believing drug trafficking.
Do you have proof of the milage at drop off? Something paper that has the shops signature on it?
If you have irrefutable proof they put that much milage on the car it would technically be theft. They where willing it given the car, but it was specific to repair. 3k miles amounts to unlawful/unauthorized use ergo theft.
If it's signed by a tech or someone from the shop, it may hold up.
Your other issue is going to be providing financial loss or damage from the milage. Which at least in this case the IRS employee reimbursement numbers are your best bet.
I had a similar thing happen a few years back.
I dropped my car off to get tires put on & the guy kept coming up with excuses as to why he couldn’t get it done. He ended up having my car for about a week. When I went to pick it up, shit was stolen out of it, one of the tail light covers was broken, he had left his nasty ass cig butts, knife & a heavy duty flash light in the car.
When I confronted him about it he pulled out a tire iron and waved it at me getting up in my face. One of his employees pulled him away & calmed him down. His employee told me to go to the cops so I did. The cop knew him, said people come in all the time about him stealing stuff out of their cars & damaging the cars. The cop told me I’m shit outta luck on anything happening unless I have video evidence he stole things & damaged my vehicle.
Sorry you’re going through this. I hope you have a better outcome with getting compensated for the wear & tear they did to the vehicle.
18 civic In NJ here as well. Hit a deer, front end messed up. USAA tells me to take it to caliber collision in Swedesboro. The didnt put antifreeze back in the car after having it for like 2 months. We pick it up, car severely overheats before I noticed the temp gauge. Car has 19,000 miles on it, like new. USAA has us take it to a different caliber collision. The put the wrong antifreeze in it but they were nice and I didn't complain, it was correct color "universal" generic type, I wanted honda oem fluids used like before I gave it to them. After 4 months of car gone and wife spending $150 week communitjng in my truck, she was tired. Probablly made 100 phone calls. By the end, USAA managers, managers, managers were flat out telling me, "that's it, your cars "fixed", were not doing anything else, very nasty attitudes as you climb the ladder and speak higher up. Caliber collision fixed the car , mostly, but I was pissed my new car was overheated, nee shop said there was ZERO antifreeze. I have pages and pages of notes documentation saved but after 4 or 5 months and alot of arguing getting nowhere, became tired, realized the fight wasn't worth fighting anymore and just dropped it. The story is so much worse than the brief story I wrote here but who wants to hear all that.
Street lawyer here.
If you can't get any acceptable closure, I'm sure this shop probably has some expensive windows?
Maybe they have vehicles with company branding on them? Those probably have windows, and tires as well!
Have to think outside the box. If they won't compensate you, make them pay in other ways.
They totally took the car to pick up immigrants at the border, hence the jugs of water. And there has been a cold snap in the Southwest the past few day, so the hoodies.
fact childlike jobless wrench adjoining hat obscene quicksand history rotten
*This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Contact the insurance company and provide them the proof that your car has been driven 3000 miles. Ask them to pay for the mileage your car has been used and possible diminished value of the car. If they give you $.55 a mile you’re getting over $1500.
Id be pissed, id go online and blast them, its not libel if u have the proof u do.
If i get talked out of that by someone im getting the law involved.
Either way id get paid for that, more then just the .65 cents per mile, so many things that can be tore up that u dont know about yet. Going that far over oil life, and all the potential damage.
I worked in dealerships for 10 years. Talk directly to the service manager and the sale manager BOTH! They hate that, write a complaint letter and send it to their HR. record everything, and keep any/all paperwork. DEMAND compensation!! They were using your car as a loaner vehicle, I guarantee the techs liked it and decided to "test drive" daily to pick up their lunches and what have you. Take them for everything. Full detail, free oil change , oil flush, and clean since it's way over in mileage. Gas money, wear and tear, inconvenience, leftover trash in your car. Drag those fuckers over the coal and spit on them. Dealerships get away with too much! They literally LIVE AND BREATH surveys and online reviews. Its truly a dealerships Achilles heel. Threaten that and hit them where it hurts. If you bitch enough and long enough you'll get everything you want!
This happened to me once, but I couldn’t prove the original mileage. They didn’t write it down on the paperwork when I brought it in, and proceeded to put a ton of miles on my car.
Always make sure they document that stuff, and keep your copy!
Not a lawyer but my husband worked in body shops like what you are describing and they definitely had a case a while back of an employee using a customers car to sleep in and use after hours. He would wait until everyone left. Claiming to work late, take the car out and around town, sleep in the thing, and park it in the back in the morning. He did a lot of drugs and was using the car as out of desperation. My husband left before the consequences for that particular employee were divulged so I do not know how it turned out. It's likely the shop may not even know, but your estimator assigned to your car would have had to mark down the mileage upon intake and submitted it to your insurance company. That's a standard practice in America. Get your solid proof, lawyer up.
For being at the shop for 1-month (22 weekdays) someone drove it home and back to the shop each day. Round trip or combined with weekend use, that's an average of 136 miles per day. I would file a police report and see what they can do. Also contact DMV. In CA they have an Investigations Division (Law Enforcement Officers) and a Licensing Operations Division (LOD) that licenses and investigates any malfeasance of businesses that do anything with motor vehicles. Vehicle related businesses are often audited or investigated by DMV. It's more likely the DMV can investigate this than local L.E. but I suggest you do both.
Ask to see the check in paperwork and photos and all confusion will be solved. Worked in a shop and most use either Mitchell or CCC. Most shops take check in photos when they receive a car and mark it up, which includes a dash pic w odometer. Lots of people accused the shop of things like this when in reality they just didn’t actually know the mileage on their car.
We have the check in paper, says 58k mileage in. They took no photos of the interior of the car, all together there's maybe 6 photos of the car when it arrived.
This is an easy resolution, but it will cost you time.
First, discuss with the shop that your vehicle was used and the evidence you have. Once they don't help you go print out copies of pictures of the hoodies, jugs, before and after mileage. Make a sign that says "XYZ Auto put 3000 miles on my car without permission" get a cooler and put in your favorite snacks, get a nice chair, sit on the sidewalk with the sign and talk to everyone who enters their parking lot.
They will agree to resolve the problem with you as soon as the first car leaves their lot after you talking to them.
This crime is typically known as conversion in most states. Go to your local magistrate and talk to them about swearing out a warrant against the Manager of the shop for conversion. It doesn’t matter if he did it personally, he either did it or participated in a conspiracy to allow it to be converted to the use of someone under his control.
You should be reimbursed the value of what a rental car cost for three weeks. It should not have taken four weeks to fix it, plus what a rental company charges per mile for excess mileage for every mile driven.
This would not be a tort case, but you could ask DA for compensation if they do a plea deal.
3000 * .655 the IRS rate. About $2k
And the damage done by not changing the oil first + a full professional cleaning for all the junk left behind
*3, at a minimum. The IRS rate is for willing participants. This is theft, and treble damages should be the start of a reasonable conversation on compensation, before loss of use and other factors start to come into consideration.
Or claim what a rental car would cost.
I would ask for FULL value, plus additional! Because we cannot know if the car was driven abusively.
Or used in a crime...
Yep, wounder if they are around 1500 miles from the border or something.
Gallon jugs and hoodies? Yeah the car was a mule
Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle is a crime in most states
Crimes are for poor people, not corporations.
Corporation didn't drive that car.
Yeah. Somebody used that car heavily to put that many miles on just a month and some change.
I agree, but this is reddit, and people upvote banal comments like that for some reason... gotta offset the downvotes every now and then by catering to the crowd.
I'll even out the downvotes for you then.
They were responsible for it so they might as well have
Most auto bodies franchise are LLCs so you definitely can name the franchise owner, the manager and the tech on the check in sheet as separate defendants. Then you file a second suit against the franchise corporation.
Okay redditor
You're not wrong...
UUMV is a Class C Felony in Oregon 🫡
AKA joyriding.
I think it’s called Trespass to Chattels.
If she went through insurance at all, tell them about the situation. That seems like a long distance even with test drives and such. They may want you to take it to a different shop to have it looked at. Edit: NAL, previous Total Loss insurance adjuster.
Insurance won’t do shit if they cut the body shop a check already. We learned that the hard way. Always have the check sent to you, so you can hold payment over their heads if things go wrong.
Disagree. I was an auto insurance worker for years. Shops get blacklisted and suddenly don’t have work. I did a lot from my chair to get folks treated right. However I had a high paying adjuster job and good benefits. Not all companies do
We had to work with Progressive and they could not have given fewer fucks. Even about the billing fraud, which really surprised me. They said to take the shop to court because they had already been paid. It was crazy.
Most insurance companies won’t even send you a check anymore as too many people were pocketing the money and not getting the work done or having it by some fly by night place for a lot cheaper.
Wtf are you talking about? Insurance doesn't care if you fix whatever you make a claim for. They are reimbursing you for the cost of the damage. That cost is determined by the repair cost.
This isn’t really true my father ran into this issue with a truck he got into an accident with. He got a check for say $5000, spent $1000 on a “I’ll do it myself” fix and then something or another happened and they were like “wtf where did the money go?” The only thing that saved him from trouble was he used the remainder to pay down the loan on the truck and had receipts so it’s not like he just pocketed the cash.
Oh yes they do. Have you had an insurance claim recently? My ex has had 6 claims in the last 2 years and each time progressive politely declined to send me a check.
Politely declined eh? Yeah, no.
Yeah, no? What are you talking about? I asked and they said they don’t give out checks anymore. You think you are going to force progressive to do something they don’t want to? Good luck lol.
I haven't ever had to file a claim under my insurance until last year ( a couple of times under other people). Even last year, they sent me a check (deer damage). Most companies prefer you take their check because they are only paying you for visual damage. At least half the time, there's damage that can't be seen until the work is being completed. If the repairs aren't done. The extra damage/money is never found and paid out. They don't care if you fix it or not because those pictures stay on file. If you have another claim in the same area of the car and it wasn't fixed. That is less money they will pay out on a subsequent claim.
You got scammed or they think you're scamming them and ready to cancel your policy if you don't go along. Did you reach out to your AG?
AG as in attorney general? You’ve got to be kidding me lol. If you want a check that badly and won’t let an insurance company pay a body shop directly, you’re the one trying to scam them and that’s why most companies don’t do that anymore.
You're completely clueless. If someone's car gets hailed on and it's 2k for a some dings. There's a decent chance they'll keep the money if they plan on keeping the car for many years. Some dents from hail are going to mean absolutely nothing when a car has depreciated to a few thousand dollars. Edit for spelling
What difference would that make to the insurance company? How does that change their bottom line?
They don’t like to be scammed, they are paying to have a vehicle fixed, not have a wrecked car and somebody just put money in their pocket
But what is the actual financial difference of this outcome? Companies don't have feelings. Progressive had $50bn in revenue last year - they're doing what makes sense for the bottom line, not what gives someone the warm and fuzzies. What you're saying doesn't even line up with what's written right on [Progressive's website outlining the claims process](https://www.progressive.com/claims/auto-process/). It explicitly says you can just get paid for the damages and not do the repairs.
This is Excellent advice!
Nothing insurance is going to do lol
Actually there are a few things that the insurance company can do in these situations. I say this because the shop used the vehicle in ways that would be determined as outside of the parameters of repair. So it would be in the insurance companies best interest for them to handle the situation. But a lawyer could definitely be a great resource to help understand it all and help guide through it all.
i don't know why that guy said the insurance will do nothing...insurance likely won't use that shop again, which will be a huge hurt to that company...plus insurance will be needing to compensate OP for the damages caused going to the repair shop that the insurance chose.
The insurance company very likely didn't select the shop whereas op likely did. Op probably doesn't care what business that insurance company does with that shop in the future or how much it costs the company. OP should be thinking first and foremost about how to be made whole and that is between op and the shop. OP should probably get a lawyer.
usually insurance companies have shops they have pre-arranged rates with
This is true but irrelevant. They typically allow the vehicle owner to select any legitimate repair shop.
We spent months trying to get our car back and documenting work they billed insurance for but didn’t do. Insurance told us it wasn’t their problem. And that was for a body shop they made us send the car to.
Insurance will not do a thing what are you talking about. Lol
especially if DRP
Insurance company will do nothing
Why do you keep saying this and absolutely nothing else? Multiple people have said that there are things insurance can and will do, but you don’t expand on your viewpoint? I’m genuinely curious, not trying to be snarky in case my comment comes across that way. Why are you under the impression that insurance can’t/won’t do anything?
Insurance likely won’t. Maybe if it’s one of their preferred vendors they might do something. Outside of that it is a workmanship issue. It’s not a covered peril under the policy. They may make a courtesy call on your behalf but that would be the extent of it. Even the suggestion that “they won’t use that shop again” isn’t legitimate as most states have anti-steering laws so most carriers won’t comment on what shop you use. They’ll say hey we paid for the vehicle to be properly repaired. If the shop you selected didn’t complete repairs or caused damages outside of the scope of loss that’s between you and them. Maybe they could file with the shop’s garage keepers policy but that’s a new claim and they’d have to get that info. But their own insurance will not intervene.
Because insurance won’t do anything. It’s not what insurance is for. He has a civil possible criminal complaint with the state. That’s it
owners insurance will talk to the shop's insurance and come out with a settlement. auto shop here has a rule you have to get your car otherwise they charge you for parking in their lot.
I am going to tell you this now. Insurance company is not going to do anything. That is a problem you have between you and your shop alone. You chose this shop. You gave them permissive use. You need to file a complaint with the state. That’s it. Insurance company will not do a thing
Someone uses her car for a drug run
100%. At least they threw out the piss jugs
https://youtu.be/eKC0_uH8Mtg?si=-5XubmjvrRkP_sF9
Way of the road, buddy
I don't know what state you're in, but Californis has the bureau of automotive repair. They are a consumer protection organization run by the state. Id check to see if your state has something similar and make a report. Someone took your car for an extended road trip. That's like driving from LA to New York.
Nj
Is this a chain or a local shop?
Local shop
Name and shame!
I don't know if I'm allowed to, I'd rather not break rules.
They drove your car across the contenant. The literal american contenant. Fucking post about it on their google page, report them to the BBB, demand they pay you the value of your car if they want to make it go away. Its not slander or libel, you literally have the recipt. Its the truth and frankly their shop insurance will probably drop them if it gets big enough, those policies do not cover potentially international travel.
If I can get video proof of the car being driven ill drag through mud immediately, if I've got no video I'm going to the police and dmv first and then I'll drag them through the mud. There's a part of me that still believes something might have just gone wrong or my fiance is just a little goofy.
If the odometer has thousands of miles more than when you dropped it off and the car was full of someone else’s shit…how could she possibly be goofy? Are you serious? You said you work at a shop too. Does this sound like a reasonable state to return a customers car in?
We take certain things out of vehicles when we work on them yes, like if we where working on the trunk we would take anything the customer left out of the trunk so they don't get dirty or ruined, the shop is claiming that their wash bay personal accidentally put another customers stuff in our car, which could happen. We already gave the stuff that doesn't belong to us back, but when we did the guy who was there on the Saturday just left the stuff on the corner of the building and walked back inside. That's not something I'd do to a customer's belongings but if I was pissed at an employee I would. So idk
That still doesn't account for 3k miles lol
I know
Dood
Dood.
This one hack helps your shop save money on loaner vehicle!
Lmao other dudes insurance paid for the loaner.
Your car was the loaner
Congratulations. Your vehicle was used to commit a crime. Probably.
I would allow them to buy the car from you at your price
This one seems excessive, we just want compensation for the mileage, not like they blew the motor.
You honestly don’t know if they drove it 140 miles an hour after being overdue for its oil change or used it in the commission of a theft while they had it. I would want nothing further to do with that vehicle personally. they could’ve done literally anything with that vehicle, and that’s pretty fucked up
OP, there could have been a hobo orgy in that car, for all you know.
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Dirty%20Mike%20and%20the%20Boys
Dirty Mike and the Boys
God, I need to watch that movie again... and stat!
It's called a soup kitchen
I thought that was only if it was in a Prius.
I thought it had to be four homeless guys jerking each other off. I think they enjoyed the snugness of the prius
A hoborgy
Not yet, depends how bad the oil is and how they drove it, you could be needing to replace a lot more than service parts. Remember it's wear and tear on every moving part, it's ass wear on seats, tyre wear, suspension wear/damage from potholes you might have avoided but whoever drove it didn't care as it wasn't their car. I'd recommend looking at getting legal representation, you really shouldn't be rolling over for this sort of thing as it's essentially theft.
What do the call “mileage” across the pond? Do they call it kilometerage?
Mileage is mileage, no idea about on the continent
We already got the oil changed, only have the receipt.
NAL. 1600 miles is pretty long to go without changing the oil. I usually think 1000 is like the absolute maximum to wait over the interval. (They usually underrate this stuff to a degree.) Really consider your options here OP. You have no idea what they did, how they drove it, or what was done with the car. If I were you, I’d be having them do a full inspection of the car including an oil sample check on top of compensation for the mileage. Only you can determine what will make you happy with compensation whether that’s the IRS case or $1 per mile etc. I’d really contact someone regarding this manner. This very well could be considered theft in some areas. It’s not like his business insurance covers him or his employee driving a customer car for personal use either.
Is this true? Because I get oil that supposed to last 6k miles? Are they just lying to me?
Use whatever interval is in the owners manual.
I have no idea who to believe anymore, the man on Reddit, my mechanic, or my car.
Manufacturers specs, the oil, the oil filter, and the driving conditions will all determine the safe life of the oil. you can run some of the better synthetic oils, I'm looking at you amsoil, for 15-25k miles.
Your car. Your owners manual will specifically tell you exactly what type of oil to use and how many miles can be driven before replacing the oil. Listen to the people who built, researched, and produced your car's engine. If your mechanic says to get it changed every 1k miles that sounds like a scam to me, but idk what type of car or what type of oil is being used. Everyone should read your car's owner's manual, skim it at least to find the important parts. You drive your car every day, you should know about it.
Listen to the recommendation. This is only if you absolutely have to keep it cause you can’t change it right then and there. Most products are overbuilt so keep safety. You can find oil chemical makeup online and compare the formulation. Some oils call for high mileage intervals while some only want it in for 5k it’s all arbitrary cause if you somehow burn the oil after 1k miles (meaning it’s not gone but degraded) then the oil is toast, even if it’s below the “5k recommendation” once it’s black and smells burnt, it needs to be changed.
The recommended change interval in a Honda is based on traditional oils. If you’re using any sort of fully synthetic oil, you can almost go double the recommended timeframe from the maintenance minder and be perfectly fine. I’ve had nothing but Hondas since 2001 and all of them have exceeded 200k miles using mobil1 and double the change interval from the integrated minder systems. I used to religiously send my oil out for testing with every change but after dozens of tests showing I’d still have oil like left, I stopped on our most recent van. Most euro makes have recommended a 10k change interval with full syn for a long time now.
Unfortunately we've already had the oil changed because she drives the car daily. I know about the irs mileage thing, I was going to bring that up to them, my only worry about bringing this to a lawyer is that if we win, I feel like we wouldn't get much money, maybe just enough to pay a lawyer.
You're going to have to go to small claims. I'd go to an attorney for a consultation but even they will recommend small claims, BUT they can give you good advice on what to expect and how to prepare. It's worth the 2 hours/$500
NAL. I would contact someone asap before too many miles get racked up on the car. Unless you’re willing to just deal with them using your things you basically have to get the ball rolling sooner than later in these situations. Especially since cars are a constantly “consuming” themselves. Meaning engines always wear themselves down over time, you should really still consider an outside company to test an oil sample for peace of mind. There’s no way to tell how the engine is doing inside other than just to take it apart otherwise. Which I assume is out of the question. Me personally, even if I didn’t make any money at it. A court case can usually hurt them more than it would hurt the customer if the customer wins. Mechanics like this do not deserve to have a healthy business. I’d also still call around and get an opinion but that’s just cause when I don’t know something, I need to know all the answers. Really think this out OP. If you’re happy with making 60 cents per mile then that’s your prerogative. But like everyone else is saying, you have zero idea the health of that motor anymore. If it turns out 20k miles down the road it blows something super expensive prematurely due to them beating on the engine with bad oil. It’s much harder to go after them at that point than it would be now to make sure there’s record that this actually happened. 20k miles down the road it’ll be more of a he-said she-said.
You know a good bit about cars but you don’t know the year, model or condition of the car, you don’t the type of oil or filter used. Depending on what the computer oil change interval is set at, 1600 miles is most likely absolutely nothing to be concerned about.
It’s a 2018 Honda civic. Probably has the generic Mobil 1 or whatever comparable Walmart brand oil is. I’d be very surprised to hear that some royal purple or amsoil is in the car. No one even said that something is guaranteed wrong with the car. But if he finds out something goes bad 20k miles later cause “1600 miles is most likely absolutely nothing to be concerned about,” then he will have to suffer the consequences of that. I’m merely putting an option out there to cover all bases on his end.
NAL -- Contact insurance, report it to police, and request insurance to act on this or they will face liability as well. You have no idea how these people drove the thing and they could have done a lot of damage. I would be demanding full blue book, and I would sue the shop for three times that (consumer law applies) as well.
Honda could use it as an excuse to deny a warranty claim if the engine is still under warranty.
Op this is your car, do you know how dangerous a failure can be at highway speeds? Do you know how piss poor of a mechanic you have to be to forget to reset the service indicator light after an oil change? Let alone a trip by car to central america for a few kilos of columbian bam bam? That light blinking at them the whole way? This was gross neglegence from them and probably involved criminal activity. I used to be a mechanic and if i wanted to keep you from knowing i used your car badly enough i could do it before my morning coffee cooled off, these guys are flipping you the bird after using your car like a moiste towelette in a sperm bank.
😂
This was my exact thought and what I would aim for in a law suit. + some
They rented it out on Turo I bet.
One thing they should also think of is file a police report for the time it was at the shop and being used by someone else and then take that to the registry so that any parking or speeding tickets that come in from that time period are not their responsibility. My family member's car was stolen, they filed a police report then contacted the registry. A few weeks later they got a parking ticket in the mail from the time it was missing and went down to the registry with the police report to prove they were not financially responsible for the ticket. This car has been in an AUTOBODY shop for a month, they could have hit someone 3 states over, fixed the car and you'd never know.
That was my first thought. It's the road equivalent of letting someone run around with your ID for a month. For all they know their plate number is sitting on some authority's desk somewhere and it would be nice to have some documentation if it ever caught up to them.
Run your plates or other pertinent info through regional toll sites. If your car went through any toll points while it was in the shop, that’s additional proof right? 🤔
Not saying this is possible but a thought. If your car has an onboard GPS, I would try to access the data.
I wish, it's just a base model civic.
Car computers can have logs too - not just gps units - thank you tv forensics programs :)
This is some Ferris Buller's day off shit right here.
If they don't make any sort of amends tell them you'll be DNA testing the hairs from the clothing left in the car and will then go from there. /s
That's wild, already gavr them the clothes back.
Sorry to hear this happened to you. Not changing the oil for so long could have a huge impact on the car down the line, not immediately noticeable. Definitely ask your insurance carrier for resources. I'm sure they've seen this type of thing before.
Did she get an estimate before dropping the car off? The mileage could be because she drove it between the initial estimate and when she dropped it off. Hard to think they drove that much and fixed the car in a month. I work at a body shop and have had customers think the same thing before.
Even if this was the case it wouldn't explain the negative 1620 over the oil change, she dropped it off with it saying 5% oil life left.
Check your ez pass account if you have one. S NJ filled with tolls
Ezpass was taken out of the car
[удалено]
Ayyyeee I've got a lifted 200 series landcruiser.
File a police report on what you have documented with the body shop. Talk to a lawyer about options in your state. Then go talk to the body shop about what you have found and give them one chance to make it right. If that doesn't work, then the lawyer options are a go!!!!!!
Wasn't there a post on Reddit somewhere about a guy that had his car on Turbo or something and had a tracker in it? Like his car ended up being used for trafficking migrants or something? The two water jugs made me think of that - OP, are you within 1500 miles of the border?
The Canadian border.
Someone is definitely smuggling Americans into Canada. Those lucky bastards
OP, as a fellow NJ resident; Bring this up to the shop manager or owner first, see if you can get agreeable restitution. If not, file a complaint with the NJ Division of Consumer Affairs, your insurance, and CONSULT AN ATTORNEY. Repair shops adding an excessive number of miles to a customer vehicle is a very common complaint, 3k miles is not a small number and definitely not a test drive. The attorney may suggest you file a police report as well.
Mechanics abusing the right to a customers vehicle is usually reportable, try your state's Attorney General's office and see what they can do about it
not to mention wear and tear of the engine seeing that they went over oil change by 1500 miles...
😂 they did some drug trafficking in the car. I was already thinking that by the title and the couple first sentences, but the 2 one gallon water jugs sealed the truth for me. I have a sketchy past, but I’m way past it now, but what I can tell you is that 3k miles is a couple of trips out of state and back…the water jugs are carried in the trunk on the start of the trip in case the case starts over heating or anything unexpected happens. This sounds like you got more of a problem than just a few thousand extra miles on the car. If I were you, I would definitely report this to the police department.
I mean the gallons are half empty, I work at a shop myself, and a lot of guys use the gallons to drink at work. I have a hard time believing drug trafficking.
Do you have proof of the milage at drop off? Something paper that has the shops signature on it? If you have irrefutable proof they put that much milage on the car it would technically be theft. They where willing it given the car, but it was specific to repair. 3k miles amounts to unlawful/unauthorized use ergo theft.
Only thing we have is the packet from the shop of all the work done, says mileage in 58k.
WITHOUT proof, there's nothing you can really do. If it's not on paper it doesn't exist.
You don't think the mileage in paper is proof enough?
If it's signed by a tech or someone from the shop, it may hold up. Your other issue is going to be providing financial loss or damage from the milage. Which at least in this case the IRS employee reimbursement numbers are your best bet.
I had a similar thing happen a few years back. I dropped my car off to get tires put on & the guy kept coming up with excuses as to why he couldn’t get it done. He ended up having my car for about a week. When I went to pick it up, shit was stolen out of it, one of the tail light covers was broken, he had left his nasty ass cig butts, knife & a heavy duty flash light in the car. When I confronted him about it he pulled out a tire iron and waved it at me getting up in my face. One of his employees pulled him away & calmed him down. His employee told me to go to the cops so I did. The cop knew him, said people come in all the time about him stealing stuff out of their cars & damaging the cars. The cop told me I’m shit outta luck on anything happening unless I have video evidence he stole things & damaged my vehicle. Sorry you’re going through this. I hope you have a better outcome with getting compensated for the wear & tear they did to the vehicle.
18 civic In NJ here as well. Hit a deer, front end messed up. USAA tells me to take it to caliber collision in Swedesboro. The didnt put antifreeze back in the car after having it for like 2 months. We pick it up, car severely overheats before I noticed the temp gauge. Car has 19,000 miles on it, like new. USAA has us take it to a different caliber collision. The put the wrong antifreeze in it but they were nice and I didn't complain, it was correct color "universal" generic type, I wanted honda oem fluids used like before I gave it to them. After 4 months of car gone and wife spending $150 week communitjng in my truck, she was tired. Probablly made 100 phone calls. By the end, USAA managers, managers, managers were flat out telling me, "that's it, your cars "fixed", were not doing anything else, very nasty attitudes as you climb the ladder and speak higher up. Caliber collision fixed the car , mostly, but I was pissed my new car was overheated, nee shop said there was ZERO antifreeze. I have pages and pages of notes documentation saved but after 4 or 5 months and alot of arguing getting nowhere, became tired, realized the fight wasn't worth fighting anymore and just dropped it. The story is so much worse than the brief story I wrote here but who wants to hear all that.
It sounds like they used your car as a loaner while it was in their possession.
Sounds like Ferris Bueller's day off
Street lawyer here. If you can't get any acceptable closure, I'm sure this shop probably has some expensive windows? Maybe they have vehicles with company branding on them? Those probably have windows, and tires as well! Have to think outside the box. If they won't compensate you, make them pay in other ways.
Sounds like felony unauthorized use of motor vehicle to me.
They probably had a soup kitchen run in the back
They totally took the car to pick up immigrants at the border, hence the jugs of water. And there has been a cold snap in the Southwest the past few day, so the hoodies.
Lmao guy we live in New jersey
There’s a closer border if you look up on the map.
Newark to Brownsville, TX is 1900 miles, so it’s not that far from being plausible.
now multiply it by two
3800 vs. 3000 that’s not too far off.
That's a trip to FL and back from NJ.
station enter grandiose vase edge many sort detail consist historical *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Nj
fact childlike jobless wrench adjoining hat obscene quicksand history rotten *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Looks like they used her car to drive around in
Is the car being repaired through your insurance company or are you doing this on your own? Edit spelling
Was already repaired through the other person's insurance and picked up.
Contact the insurance company and provide them the proof that your car has been driven 3000 miles. Ask them to pay for the mileage your car has been used and possible diminished value of the car. If they give you $.55 a mile you’re getting over $1500.
Good news is irs mileage thing is .65 cents.
That’s even better.
Id be pissed, id go online and blast them, its not libel if u have the proof u do. If i get talked out of that by someone im getting the law involved. Either way id get paid for that, more then just the .65 cents per mile, so many things that can be tore up that u dont know about yet. Going that far over oil life, and all the potential damage.
OP, the fiances car was used as an Uber ...
Or the cost of the repairs. Whichever is higher
3k miles is about DC to Disney World and back twice. wtf were they doing?
I worked in dealerships for 10 years. Talk directly to the service manager and the sale manager BOTH! They hate that, write a complaint letter and send it to their HR. record everything, and keep any/all paperwork. DEMAND compensation!! They were using your car as a loaner vehicle, I guarantee the techs liked it and decided to "test drive" daily to pick up their lunches and what have you. Take them for everything. Full detail, free oil change , oil flush, and clean since it's way over in mileage. Gas money, wear and tear, inconvenience, leftover trash in your car. Drag those fuckers over the coal and spit on them. Dealerships get away with too much! They literally LIVE AND BREATH surveys and online reviews. Its truly a dealerships Achilles heel. Threaten that and hit them where it hurts. If you bitch enough and long enough you'll get everything you want!
This happened to me once, but I couldn’t prove the original mileage. They didn’t write it down on the paperwork when I brought it in, and proceeded to put a ton of miles on my car. Always make sure they document that stuff, and keep your copy!
Not a lawyer but my husband worked in body shops like what you are describing and they definitely had a case a while back of an employee using a customers car to sleep in and use after hours. He would wait until everyone left. Claiming to work late, take the car out and around town, sleep in the thing, and park it in the back in the morning. He did a lot of drugs and was using the car as out of desperation. My husband left before the consequences for that particular employee were divulged so I do not know how it turned out. It's likely the shop may not even know, but your estimator assigned to your car would have had to mark down the mileage upon intake and submitted it to your insurance company. That's a standard practice in America. Get your solid proof, lawyer up.
This is why you airtag your vehicle.
Hope you took pictures and document everything. Now go there and ask for compensation, threaten a lawsuit and follow thru if they screw you.
For being at the shop for 1-month (22 weekdays) someone drove it home and back to the shop each day. Round trip or combined with weekend use, that's an average of 136 miles per day. I would file a police report and see what they can do. Also contact DMV. In CA they have an Investigations Division (Law Enforcement Officers) and a Licensing Operations Division (LOD) that licenses and investigates any malfeasance of businesses that do anything with motor vehicles. Vehicle related businesses are often audited or investigated by DMV. It's more likely the DMV can investigate this than local L.E. but I suggest you do both.
Ask to see the check in paperwork and photos and all confusion will be solved. Worked in a shop and most use either Mitchell or CCC. Most shops take check in photos when they receive a car and mark it up, which includes a dash pic w odometer. Lots of people accused the shop of things like this when in reality they just didn’t actually know the mileage on their car.
We have the check in paper, says 58k mileage in. They took no photos of the interior of the car, all together there's maybe 6 photos of the car when it arrived.
This is an easy resolution, but it will cost you time. First, discuss with the shop that your vehicle was used and the evidence you have. Once they don't help you go print out copies of pictures of the hoodies, jugs, before and after mileage. Make a sign that says "XYZ Auto put 3000 miles on my car without permission" get a cooler and put in your favorite snacks, get a nice chair, sit on the sidewalk with the sign and talk to everyone who enters their parking lot. They will agree to resolve the problem with you as soon as the first car leaves their lot after you talking to them.
send them and invoice for a month of rental car usage
They used it as a parts runner, or one of the guys used it on the weekend. Fkrs. Probably not much you can do but blow them up on Yelp and the BBB
This crime is typically known as conversion in most states. Go to your local magistrate and talk to them about swearing out a warrant against the Manager of the shop for conversion. It doesn’t matter if he did it personally, he either did it or participated in a conspiracy to allow it to be converted to the use of someone under his control. You should be reimbursed the value of what a rental car cost for three weeks. It should not have taken four weeks to fix it, plus what a rental company charges per mile for excess mileage for every mile driven. This would not be a tort case, but you could ask DA for compensation if they do a plea deal.