mikep2002

iTrader: (10)

(I copied this from corvette forum....) This is not me!!!!


I really don't know where to begin on this, I did offer to make everything right, and my offer was unacceptable to her.

This is the greatest nightmare of everyone involved, the shop owner, the car owner, everyone. My mailbox is full of hate mail from CF members, and I understand that. My side of the story is that I tried to make everything right, and Melissa chose to go through her insurance company and take me out of the picture of being a part of the solution.

My offer to Melissa, which was declined, was that she take the approximately $40k settlement for the vehicle from my insurance company, and release the vehicle to me so that I could remove the modifications to the car and those that were salvagable could be reinstalled by us on another car, those that were not I could repair or replace to as new condition. If she had cooperated this could have all had a better ending.

Instead she demanded that she file with her insurance company (I've never heard how much they offered) and that NO parts be reused, and that she choose another shop to do all the work and some of the parts (like the sound system for example) be upgraded at the same time. Carolina Auto Masters would pay for all parts and labor. I'm just not going to pay another shop to do the work on the car, and provide all new parts when the original car had much that was reusable.

When we were in constant contact in December, Melissa assured me that her insurance company had not evaluated the car, while in fact, she had already released the car to them and it had been moved somewhere else. I have not spoken with Melissa since that time. I would have to assume that the car has long since been sold as salvage and the reusable parts gone with it.

If the car is still impounded somewhere, I'd still be more than happy to take the parts off it, transfer those to a car that Melissa provides (from the settlement from her insurance company) that are in reuseable condition, repair or replace those that are not and make everything right. But Melissa chose another route, and that was her choice. I'd hoped her insurance company would settle for enough money for her build the car back just like it was. I assume that didn't happen, but have no way to know. Melissa has not contacted me since saying she would let me know when her insurance company got in touch with her, so I've been given no chances since my last offer to do anything more for her.

From the mail I've recieved she has gotten way more than the value of the vehicle and modifications out of CAM already via lost business. And that total will continue to grow, and her nightmare and my nightmare will continue with neither of us finding a way to wake up and it all just be a bad dream.

I've been sick about what happened, I hate that it happened, and I really hoped that my offer to make everything right had been accepted by Melissa.

I do wish her the best of luck dealing with her insurance company,
-jeff

Rob

iTrader: (6)

Jeff has also said the accident took place on a Thursday. Not the weekend of joy riding that has been going around. Also said, she didn't seem to like the offer and now the car is gone and nothing can be taken off of it. Always two sides and she seems to have left out some details.

I guess she settled through her insurance and they now have the car?

Either way, sucks all the way around. Hopefully CAM can survive the lynch mob mentality as his shop has earned a pretty decent reputation over the years. As well as Jeff.

mikep2002

iTrader: (10)

I dont know. Wrecking a customer car thirty miles from the shop when the shop is closed. Driving somebody to school? And to boot it wasn`t the shop owner driving and the owner was out of town? I would have a serious problem with that. Not to mention there was also a ticket given by the police? I dont think I would want them to fix the car or remod another if it was mine IMO... Looks like poor judgement by the shop owner and its employee not people I want to deal with... I dont think his post made it right it looks likes he is trying to get out as cheap as possible. If they did what has been claimed the new car would have to go somewhere else to be modded reguardless of cost!!!
(I wouldn`t have a problem if they made a phone call and left a message saying they had the intention of road testing the car. Atleast the owner understands what is going on.)

StangAddict

I understand! I was just curious!

AlohaC5

iTrader: (2)

You'd think that would have been a key factor that Jeff should have considered up front two months ago. I believe if CAM had taken responsibility and settled with the customer within a reasonable amount of time with a reasonable offer to purchase a replacement C6 Corvette of similar or better value (comparable year/mileage/condition, etc.) and offered to transfer the mods over to the replacement C6 at his cost (and purchase those mods that were damaged/beyond repair) - this incident would have been a non-issue and never made it to the forums; a relatively small cost (approx. $65K) for what could have been a successful business. Both insurance companies agreed the car was totalled. Bad management and business decisions...

Post #93 on this thread was interesting: http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show...1924211&page=5

Zger

iTrader: (18)

I don't think that CAMs initial offer was unacceptable. If a shop had one of my cars and it got wrecked, I'd expect it to either get fixed or replace it and transfer over any mods on their own dime. I wouldn't worry about them joyriding in that car again while being worked on. I'd think they'd be on their best behavior at that point. It's kinda bullshit that the car was wrecked by a joy riding mechanic, but they don't call them accidents for no reason. Also, the reason that the mechanic was in possession of the car has not been addressed, not that I've seen anyway. He very well could have been out joyriding in it, but it's also possible that he was doing legitimate work on the car as well. Maybe an intermittent tuning issues, cold start problem, over heating... There are always two sides to every story and people are extremely quick to blame a shop, or dealer or whoever... Business insurance is not cheap, nor is the deductible and if the shops or tuners don't have a decent insurance policy (people working out of their garage with no overhead expenses) then find another shop. It could turn out much worse than this story if something happened to the car.

Slowhawk

iTrader: (12)

If we ate $65k we would be out of bussiness. Why do people on this board think we make a **** ton of $$??????

LS2/LS3

Very well written. One thing people do not understand is a car`s value is not the value of the car + the cost of all the a/m parts installed on it ie...
car 40k
supercharger 8k
head and cam package 4k
does not make the car worth 52k

I`m not sure but I think its possible that is what she was looking for ,complete cost of the car plus all of the mods. Insurance only pays the market value of the car w/ said mods installed. Most likely w/ the example above it would be worth around 45k not 52k. Here`s an example: you own a car worth 2k and put a 4k paint job on it. Its not now worth 6k but may go for like 3.2k or something in that neighborhood. No one in the marketplace is going to pay 6k car for a 2k car w/ a nice paint job on it.

I`m not sure as we don`t know all of the facts. I`m just guessing. That would cause a big problem between the shop and the customer if she felt entitled to that.

I agree 100% that they could be working on driveability issues. It was after all the mechanic who installed her parts. If not then just letting someone take the car for for a joyride is totally unacceptable and poor judgement.

I`m not sure we will ever know exactly what happened and will have to base our own opinions on his shop from our own experiences and those of our peers.

mnypitZ

iTrader: (19)

I didnt want to say anything in the beginning, but now hearing some of both sides, I think the store owner made an acceptable offer. We still do not know why the mechanic was driving the car, and the fact that he had his kid in there would sort of indicate that he wasnt driving too crazy. When I worked at various regular shops, not even speed shops, we would regularly drive customer's cars home, especially when driveability issues were concerned. We ALWAYS got permission first though(this could be the key here). If we damaged a car, which did happen on occasion, although not this bad, we kept it in house, gave the costumer a rental, and handled it all.

I have also run my own business. Sometimes we just got customer that could not be satisfied no matter what I did. I had a dealership. I bought back several cars, just because. I didnt have to, and ultimately being a "nice guy" when I didnt have to ended up putting me out of business. If you think people are getting rich doing this type of work you are sadly mistaken. And something like this would put most shops under, even if insurance footed most of the bill.

Ultimately it was an accident. WHether he was supposed to be driving the car or not, nobody knows, but it was poor judgement on the shops part. Does it constitute him losing everything over a car? I dont think so. If he just threw up his hands and said screw you, then yes, but it sounds like he tried and the owner didnt like his offer. And that is their option, but dont go slamming someone's name without giving all the facts.

Frans96SS

iTrader: (15)

haha i know i saw the one guy said he should have went and bought him a brand new car....most people think just b/c we own a business means we have money.

AlohaC5

iTrader: (2)

Who said anything about taking $65K out of pocket (cash)? The company's insurance should cover this expense with the customer's insurance. Isn't that what corporate liability insurance is for? $40K may replace the C6, but Jeff said she would need to purchase the replacement performance parts. Would you trust the supercharger and other misc. parts removed from the damaged car given it was totalled? Would you trust the judgement of CAM to determine which parts from the totalled car were "ok" to install in her new car given they would have to buy the remaining performance parts? Come on!

This isn't a matter of a customer being "unreasonable" - the fact is CAM totalled a customer's car while "joy riding" and bringing his daughter to school before business hours and 30 miles away from the shop. This wasn't an accident, it was negligence. An accident would be if the car was actually going through a street tune (or other business/customer related activity) and a mishap occurred while in traffic.

I agree, there's a lot of "he said, she said" - but the NC State Police report and photos speak for themselves. CAM and their insurance company should place Melissa (her car) in the same (or better) situation/condition as she was in when she first arrived at the shop for service. Why should she accept anything less? Are you defending CAM and his "offer"? What would you do if this was your car that you paid significant dollars to upgrade?

She lost her car. Do we really think $40K covers C6 Corvette replacement (used) and associated performance mod parts costs? If yes, then I guess its reasonable - IF the customer wants that shop to do the work on her "new" car after this negligent act. Would you want this shop to now work on your replacement car? The situation stinks now matter how we look at it. I hope they both can reach a mutually acceptable resolution soon.

TTPMatt

iTrader: (18)

This is terrible what happened here. We don't know nor will we ever know all of the details in it's full 100% truth. That is why we take every step to avoid this and make sure everyone is up to date on the insurance.

I agree with Don. I have customers that make it seem like it's my fault that their car isn't ready when they haven't come close to covering my initial costs on deposit. Apparently I have the money tree in the back of the shop...

WJ SOM SS

iTrader: (11)

IMO, a shop owner/employee driving on a 30 mi. jaunt on personal business (driving the daughter to school) was totally un-ethical. The shop owner (or their insurance, or a combo of both) should be totally responsible for the car and it's total worth, while it's in the shop's possession. That's what liability insurance is for....if the shop owner wasn't fully covered, he should've had the car owner sign a release form when he/she dropped the car off for service. (What car owner would like that?) A personal business trip w/a customer's car is surely a no-no, especially before/after hours. This case should be a easy lawsuit win for the car owner, if it comes to that, but really, no one wins here... WJ

R1urDone

iTrader: (2)

In one of the pictures it shows what looks to be a spoke of the rim being broke! He must have hit something awfully hard to do that! I hear what you guys that own/work in shops are saying about having to be out $65k, that's a lot of money. But I must say the owner of that particular shop put himself in that place by doing what he did. Hopefully in the future he uses better judgment. It would have been one thing if they crashed the car taking it on the test drive I mean accidents happen, but 30 miles away from the place of business is inexcusable. I wonder how he was planning on making the car ‘right’ as he put it after it had been demolished. Really the only way to make it right is to get a car of the equivalent to what she had.

Cobra4B

iTrader: (9)

This is on pretty much every car forum... Creech is screwed.

smokin_powerstroke

I side with car's owner on this one. What Jeff offered is not acceptable at all. After what his employee did he offered to do the work?? HAHAHAHA that would be the day I would let them work on another vehicle for me. And he wanted to reuse parts? Fine you buy the car from me and you can put the parts on ANYTHING you want, but NOT on my new vehicle. The parts that are on my vehicle were not involved in a major accident and the parts going on my new vehicle wouldn't be either. Honestly, I wouldn't stop until my attorney was smiling from the amount that was on the check.

mikep2002

iTrader: (10)

I would never drop my car off and sign a release because the shop was gonna be doing stupid drivng and did not have coverage!!!! That alone would put a shop out of business.. If the shop called me and told me they needed to check something (alignment/clear a code for inspection) that I wouldn`t have a problem with.
That shop would never see a car of mine again.

Replace the car and pay the another shop to mod it that has respect for ones property!!! That would make it as close to right as your gonna get it. Shees that women for waited a month or so before posting that was kind enough...

4get gto

Business owners / operator's sticking up for this Jeff guy and the others siding with the fucked one........
Imagine that...............................

smoke20

iTrader: (2)

for all the shop owners taking sides with this creech creep. if the insurance would have payed 40k for the car , couldnt creech have come up with 15k out of pocket to save face and keep the customer happy. as a shop owner your looking out for your lively hood. would the cost of 15-20k be worth keeping your good name and business out of the forums? you all act like she should have taken the shaft of 20k just because some grease monkey had an accident in the car. regardless of why he was driving the car , the shop had possession of the vehicle and an employee totaled the car. put yourself in the shoes of the person owning the car. we give our vehicles that most of us have spent thousands to buy and modify, we are your CUSTOMERS. i would seriously reconsider using any shop that posted in here that they back creech and CAM.

4get gto

Well said.............