This is my story: while I was away attending a funeral because of a death in the family, my mother-in-law was in an accident with my son in my husband's and my vehicle (the vehicle and insurance is under my husband’s name). After the police arrived, a towing company came and towed the vehicle to the nearest shop. The next day after finding out the night before that the vehicle was in an accident, I received a phone call from the repair shop begging me to give him our vehicle to fix. At this point, neither my husband nor I have seen the vehicle. I told him I have not spoken to the insurance company or my husband on where we were going to get the vehicle fixed. When I did speak to the ins. co. and found out how to proceed, I let my husband know what the options were. My husband told me he did not want the vehicle left where it was and to get the vehicle out right away because he spoke to the ins. co., and they told him the auto body shop had already contacted them saying that they were going to do the work.
We called the ins. co. and the auto body shop and requested to get them to take it out right away! While we did this, that morning my mother went over to the vehicle to take stuff out; since she lived closer to the auto body shop. While she was there, he told her that her daughter-in-law told him that she wanted him to start repairs on the vehicle. He had her sign papers to start fixing the car. As a business person he should have known that my mother-in-law was not allowed to give permission for work to be done. Unaware of this happening, both my husband and I were shocked to find out from the insurance co. that he had already started to dismantle the vehicle without my husband’s permission. As we tried to get the vehicle out of the shop over the phone nothing was working. We were told that there was a $1000.00 fee to remove the vehicle because the work had been started and that the vehicle holder (my husband) had to remove the vehicle himself. My husband was furious.
He went down to the shop with a police officer and a Geico claims adjuster who before this has never seen the condition of the vehicle and told them he wanted it removed. He was told that my mother-in-law, I and my husband gave permission to have the vehicle fixed by them. This is a lie. Furthermore, the claims adjuster did not asses the damages before anyone could begin to fix the vehicle. From the beginning we wanted our vehicle (my husband and I) to be taken out of their shop and brought to the Geico repair shop. My husband had to pay the fine to remove the vehicle and will be taking this auto body shop to small claims court. I am writing this story to warn others from using this tow/auto body shop and to be careful after getting into an accident. Accidents can be confusing, but be prepared and trust no one!
signed,
Unhappy customer
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