Marecki on 2/9/2009 at 23:17

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Well, since everybody else has been asking for advice of this sort in CommChat, why not me... Anyway, I've found myself in a bit of soup and while I've got general ideas on how to proceed, I'd like to hear how in your opinion I should handle this the most efficiently. For the record, neither my wife nor I are US citizens but we are at present located in the States.

The story goes as follows. While I was in Alaska almost exactly a year ago, my rental car was hit by a commercial lorry: the car was legally street-parked and had me inside in the passenger seat, and the lorry backed right into my bonnet in spite of me pressing the horn. Its driver got out, looked at me, got back in and drove away - prompting my wife and I to visit the local police station to report the incident. The police took our statement, photographed the damage and, this being a small town, found the driver in less than an hour and had him come over to the station (he claimed he'd driven away because he though I was okay with what'd happened, or something equally ridiculous). We identified him, then said we would follow up as soon as the rental company tells us what to do (we were about to leave).

The next day or so we took the car back to Anchorage and returned it, leaving information about the case. It was past working hours so we didn't talk to anyone on-site but having called them the next day, we were informed the rental company would for now withhold our deposit of 500 USD, estimate the damage, follow the matter up with the perpetrator or his insurance company and refund us the deposit afterwards. There the matter rested.

Complications began to rise when, having got fed up with waiting for the refund, we contacted the company in April this year. The lady in charge of the situation informed us she couldn't get the perpetrator's insurance company to respond so she would mail us all the paperwork so that we would take care of the matter ourselves. We began waiting for the package.

At the beginning of August we got fed up with waiting and called the company yet again. We then discovered the following:
- the lady in question, who has since been laid off, had apparently made no attempt whatsoever to extract a refund from the perpetrator! She simply made sure the total cost would be exactly 500 USD (according to their information the real total of repairs, an "administrative fee" and a "loss of use" penalty - was just over 512 USD, and the lady waived everything over 500) and marked it off as paid by the customer. Mind you, we were never told about any of this;
- her successor, while all sympathetic, said the company would not be able to follow up with the perpetrator because "the file is now closed" so we do have to do it ourselves. He has forwarded us a copy of the repair bill and said breakdown of total cost (but not an official invoice, despite us having specifically asked for it).

Now, the questions:

1. Is there an efficient way of getting the rental company to move their corporate arse and take care of the matter, or indeed to be responsible in any way for their ex-employee's obvious negligence? Sadly, we haven't got any recordings of conversations with said ex-employee which could show she was deliberately misleading us.

2. Should we begin pestering the perpetrator to pay up (we've got his name and phone number, along with any other information that might be contained in the police report and which will become known to us after requesting a copy of said report)? If so, should we talk specifically about getting his insurance to cover this, just demand money, or do something else?

3. On a subject related to the first two questions: I guess it would make sense for us to record all the phone conversation we may now have with either the rental company or the perpetrator, at which point in a conversation, if at all, should we mention we're recording to be legally in the clear?

4. Should we get anyone else (the insurance company that covered our rental, customer organisations of some sort, ...) involved at this point? In the future?

5. I presume that if nothing else works, the matter should be taken to court. What kind of a case would this qualify for? Small claims? Should we file our suit in Alaska or where we are now? Etc. etc., as I am hardly familiar with how civil cases work in the US.

Thanks in advance for your advice, guys.

Scots Taffer on 2/9/2009 at 23:36

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Heh. I happen to work in Commercial Motor Insurance so I might be able to offer a few pointers here.

What did you rental agreement cover with regards to insurance? If you paid a component of insurance as part of the hire agreement then in the eyes of the law you are an "insured person" for the purposes of the claim and are legally able to make inquiries regarding the claim (whether it's been lodged or not).

Did you find out the truck driver's insurance details? If so then you should be able to contact the insurance company in question and request information regarding a claim lodged by or against their insured driver (his name and details, registration etc, that you have) for the loss or damage in question (the rental car info).

If they say no, then we know that it's all on the rental company and that they haven't pulled their finger out at any stage of the process. To be honest, this sounds most likely and especially given the person involved was laid off.

When they're saying the "file is closed" this says to me that they took your security deposit, fixed the damages with it and wrote the rest off as a working loss.

If they're trying to purport that the "insurance file" is closed (as in they can't lodge a claim) this will be largely bullshit. All states have statutes of limitations on this, which set a time in which one must lodge a valid claim, usually around the two to four year mark.

In the eventuality that the claim has been lodged and is still outstanding with their insurance company, well, that's a totally different matter. Recoveries from losses can be compounded by many factors... the expiration of the client (both financially and physically), liability being disputed by conflicting testimonies (however the police report would cover this off)... or the company in question could just be complete PRICKS to deal with and obfuscate/bureaucratise every stage of the process so that most other insurers just avoid having to recover from them ever except in obviously damning case of at fault liability for significant loss or damage.

Now, obviously there's a principle at stake here (your 500 USD) but recognise that pursuing this legally will more than likely make that 500 look like a bee's dick compared to the costs incurred in trying to get that money back... hence why people hate insurance companies!

Gingerbread Man on 3/9/2009 at 00:20

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I think it's a trick question! There are no "lorries" in Alaska!

fett on 3/9/2009 at 00:28

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See? This is why we can't ever have anything nice.

Rug Burn Junky on 3/9/2009 at 01:13

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Just pointing out the obvious. Private companies are so much more accountable than government programs. It'd be a shame to see a customer like Marecki - who is being treated so well - now have to deal with the horrors of big government bureaucracy.

And look on the bright side, at least I didn't bother wasting my time cutting your first post to shreds. Woulda been too easy.