Came back from lunch today to find someone parked a few mm from my front bumper. Had a look and sure enough they had made contact with my car and left a small flat spot on the edge of my grill.
While I am looking at it the guy who backed into me came over and starts getting all pushy and telling me the mark is not from his car. Clearly it is as there is a matching mark in the dust on his car, although no actual damage to his car. He even admitted making contact and pulling forward again.
His wife comes along and says "does he know who you are" (in the kind of tone to infer hes some sort of celebrity something). After abusing me some more and going on about my car having some other small marks in completely different panels, and even taking photo's of those unrelated panels I gave up with them and drove to my appointment.
Just deciding whether to claim insurance or not, I have photos of both cars and a picture of his number plate. He said he wasn't going to give me his details but I didn't push the matter.
Silly thing is if he was polite and actually appologised for hitting my car I may have just let it go.
What do you think!
I don't want to get caught with paying my excess if he carry's on to my insurance and talks them into believing the mark was not his doing. The mark is very minor but none the less the vehicle is indeed marked from the incident and it is my quite nice 2004 Alfa 156.
Keen for your thoughts.
curlcrown,
Jul 6, 4:47am
Is it worth the cost of the excess on the insurance!
thejazzpianoma,
Jul 6, 4:48am
Absolutely not. However, technically as he has done the damage I should not pay an excess or lose my no claims bonus. However I don't want to get into a situation where he talks the insurance into believing its not his fault and then I have to pay. While I am not one for revenge part of me wants to claim insurance on principle partly because he was so rude and partly because I get the feeling he will continue to "touch park" against other peoples cars in future. This might perhaps send a message that there are consequences.
friendly_prawn,
Jul 6, 4:49am
only you can decide whether you can live with the mark. If you cant then chase him up to get it sorted. Make a claim through insurance. The hard part jazz is getting over him being a dick. Try not to let that rule your decision. If you think it needs sorting then chase it up. If you can live with it, then just ignore it ever happend. A-holes are every where. Best not to let them ruin your day if you can help it. My 2 cents worth mate.
tazcsv,
Jul 6, 4:50am
Sounds like alot of hassle for all you will get back from it. Pisses you off but somtimes you have to just walk away.
friendly_prawn,
Jul 6, 4:50am
Take it to the disupts tribunal with a quote from the painters to get it sorted. Problemo solved. dont need to involve your insurance. And there is a good chance he will caveand just pay up when he realises he has to appear in court. You also could threaten him with leaving the scene of an accident with out giving details. Minor so called accident I know but I do believe it is illegal to leave the scene with out passing over details. Probably an offence.
thejazzpianoma,
Jul 6, 4:52am
Good advice, it certainly hasn't ruined my day. I didn't even get mad at him when he was being rude to me. I am just deciding with a cool and calm head whether to do it mostly as a matter of principle but also to remove the blemish from my car. I do need to have a more thorough check to make sure nothing behind the grill is broken though. You guys are both right, no point in letting idiots get to me.
thejazzpianoma,
Jul 6, 4:54am
More good advice! Thanks for that, part of me feels silly doing this for such a minor ding but then why should I not only have to put up with a marked car but cop abuse from the person as well.
I will chew this over, realistically I have better things to do with my time but perhaps if I still feel strongly about this in the next couple of days I will take action.
Thanks again to both of you for your thoughts.
bellky,
Jul 6, 4:54am
This is good advice I think.
I saw someone scratch my car when they were parking. I knew insurance was a waste of time so I got 60 dollars out of him on the spot and fixed it myself.
thejazzpianoma,
Jul 6, 4:57am
Thats sometimes a good practical way of dealing with things that helps both party's. No chance of that with this guy though, silly thing is I might just have let it go all together if he had simply appologised or at least been civil.
lookoutas,
Jul 6, 5:07am
Tell your Insurance Co give them his details get a quote and wait to see what happens
Other than that - it's as you say. Not worth wasting any more of your time over it other than going through this process.
Just because you file a claim, doesn't mean your Insurance Co will hold you to it.
loonee-dial-111,
Jul 6, 5:08am
If you didn't want to do anything about it you wouldn't have taken the time to come on here and moan about it. So get on with it and sue his ass.
mugenb20b,
Jul 6, 5:08am
Show us the photos.
jaybee38,
Jul 6, 5:09am
I would ring the insurance company and tell them the whole story, including his attitude, and that you dont want to claim if you will lose your no claims status/have to pay excess, and that he didnt admit fault, even though it was obvious that he had hit the car. Mine has always been pretty understanding about that kind of thing, and they may be able to advise you. You wont be any worse off for asking. And if they do chase him, by the time they get to him, he may have calmed down anyway. I got rear-ended by a guy who was horrible and tried to blame me (for stopping at a red light!), but he paid up like a lamb for the insurance company.
louweez1,
Jul 6, 5:13am
i hear ya. i had one car in the shop after someone tried to steal it, the next day this young girl backed into my van, all i kept thinking is urgh not another claim, but im sure she didnt have insurance as she didnt want to swap details etc. i was sweet as my bumper is pretty munted from stone chips anyway. but then a few months ago this lady backed into my new car, there was no need for her to back at all, i came out of the shop and she was packing herself lol. i said not to worry as she was so terrified id yell at her!! I think that guy who hit your car is a pr!ck and needs a wake up! your insurance should claim the excess of him. were there cameras near where you were!
robotnik,
Jul 6, 5:16am
Maybe this guy was a celebrity of some sort. Sounds like he had a big ego and a sense of entitlement, so he could well have been. My guess is a radio DJ, otherwise if he was on the telly you'd have recognised him I guess.
Forget it, why is your story more believable than his. Can you really put the blame on him if he denies everythinh. Suck it up thats life.
sw20,
Jul 6, 5:35am
Make his life difficult for him. I would even if it cost a few bucks. Pricks like that want to go through life pushing people around and not accepting consequences.
curlcrown,
Jul 6, 5:39am
Unfortatly based on what you have said it seems unlikely he will be able to be able to be made to pay because he wasn't seen doing it.
robbo36,
Jul 6, 5:50am
Jazz, inform your insurance company, put in a claim, get a claim number, even if you don't claim, give them all of the other guys details and details of the entire incident how you see it. I had the misfortune of this happening to me when I was a boy in dads pants. My story was when I stopped suddenly in a carpark as I just found a park and started to swing into it. The lady behind me was following too close and her right front headlight connected with my right rear guard. It was a low speed knock which put a slight ding in my guard and just broke the glass on her headlight. Anyone, she said it was only her old car and I said well my mate can fix the small ding, so we left it at that. Approximately a week later, my insurance co said there was a claim against me and as I had not informed them of my accident, they declined her claim against me and she took me to the small claims court, (now disputes tribunal). Anyway, it cost me a bit of coin as the JP believed this mother of 3 small children against a young pimply faced boy racer. Learnt a good lesson from that experience, so inform your insurance co, before HE decides to lodge a claim against YOU!
richardmayes,
Jul 6, 5:50am
There are few things in life quite as unforgiveable as utter blimmin rudeness.
It sounds like you have all the ammunition.
Do it.
But note post #14.
sifty,
Jul 6, 6:19am
As soon as I hear something like "does he know who you are!"or worse "don't you know who I am!" I think it is worth making a fuss. if only to annoy them.
bitsy_boffin,
Jul 6, 6:26am
I'd do it just to find out who he was.
twink19,
Jul 6, 6:30am
and you let him walk away, efted I would have
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