Car Damaged At Work

ianjamie7

I wonder if someone could please help me. I finished work yesterday and when I got to my car which was parked in the car park of the works I noticed that someone had damaged my passenger side wing, basically there was quite a large dent and it would have been impossible not to notice that you had hit it,because of this my passenger door will only open about 6 inches. I went to the security hut and asked to see the cctv cameras which we have everywhere on site, 4 on this particular car park but not one of them covered my car. I only bought the car on 1st December so I have not even had it 8 weeks yet. I was quoted £400 yesterday afternoon to get it repaired and the new part will obviously have to be re-sprayed which is the bulk of the cost. I only changed insurance companies 7 months ago as I had my one and only ever bump and even though I paid the damage to get my car fixed myself at the time, the insurance company at the time wanted an extra £345 when I went to renew it, even though I had been with them for 20 years and never ever claimed before as it was my first ever accident, which was my fault. I am worried if I make a claim from my new insurance company then they will think bad of me and I will get a bad name meaning my next insurance will be sky high. Can I claim from my works company?, should I pay it myself?ask the company to pay as a goodwill nature as I have been with them 17 years. Can someone please advise me what to do, because I haven`t got £400 to splash out just like that. Please help.

Thanks Very Much

anewman

Well make the incident known to the company for certain if they won't cough up CCTV evidence, but I wouldn't expect them to cough up unless you have proof they are somehow responsible. IMO if CCTV was there, pointing at your car and recording, they have no reason to withold it unless they are protecting someone within the company. £400 doesn't sound too bad for the repair cost. If you're fully comp then that's what the insurance is for. If you have £0 excess then it could be worth speaking hypothetically to the insurance company to see how much claiming would add to the cost.

BenL

I would be out in the car park looking around for other damaged cars with the paint colour that is probably also on your car now.

If this draws a blank a intranet post, blog, group wide e-mail asking if anyone knows anything.

Someone who arrived at work after you may remember who was parked where and can assist you.

There are always car geeks like me around who notices cars in car parks and maybe able to assist you.

Ben

seftonsun

I'm not sure where you live, what car you drive or the extent of the damage. Where did you get the quote? There area number of specialist companies who would do this type of repair for a lot less than £400.

For instance a company called Little Knocks would probably do it for £150 - £250 depending upon whether a new wing was required. If the dent could be removed then possibly even less. I have used them and others I know have also used them and I can honestly say that they are as good if not better than a traditional body shop. And normally they only need your car for a day so no problem of losing it for 4 or 5 days like on most traditional body repairs.

Their web site is here. If you are not close to them, then I am sure that there would be something similar close by to where you live.

Of course what you need to consider is whether the car is still under warranty and how this may affect it (it wouldn't worry me to be honest unless I drove a luxury or prestige car), what the impact may be if you claimed on your car insuarance (both at renewal next time and possibly beyond) and whethr you can afford to be without your car for the period of the repair. Even £400 is not a lot nowadays and you would probably end up paying more in premiums over the next 2 - 4 years if you say you have claimed. And if you have an excess (probably at least £50 and probably more), IMO. it certainly is not worth claiming. Remember a claim will stay on your insuarance history for at least 5 years.

Of course if you can catch the b*stard that did it, all much the better.

Good luck

chris147_2

An email around your work place may be enough to spook the other driver.

Wouldn't imagine the boss would be happy to know that an employee has hit another employees car and then driven off without leaving a note or anything.

exel1966

Similar incident at my place of work not long ago.

The driver of the damaged car sent an E-mail to ALL staff within the company requesting they do the decent thing and own up. The e-mail was reasonably polite, but understandbly rather curt. Nobody owned up so he searched the car park for a few days after and lo and behold discovered the other car !

Oh the relevance - The company reprimanded him for misuse of company E-mail !:rolleyes: