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Motors Oh the irony.. (my car damaged by a moron again)

Discussion in 'General' started by Will, 24 Aug 2007.

  1. Will

    Will Beware the judderman...

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    Yesterday I was working at Halfords in Wolverhampton (for those outside the UK, Halfords is a motoring supplies shop, we sell in-car audio, sat-navs, oil and the like), just another working day for me. I was helping put stock out when this young asian woman came up to me and asked me what car cleaning products I would recommend - I recommended a range of meguiars products, helped her carry them all to the till (as she was happy to buy a lot) and put them through the till for her.

    She was very chatty, telling me how proud her dad and brothers were of their car (BMW new M5 and M3 apparently), how her dad wouldn't let his cousin into the car unless he took his shoes off and put them in the boot and all this. She told me her car was a grey BMW mini, silver roof, alloy wheels etc....seemed to be gushing with pride over the thing, but then some people are like that.

    I gave her her things and she left whilst I served the next person at the till. I heard a bang, and a car driving off quickly. Oh, guess what....this car-proud girl who I had just served and seemed so pleasant only went and reversed straight into *my* car, cracking and scraping the rear bumper (which is now pushed up/in slightly) and smashing the rear left light cluster and proceded to drive off without stopping :miffed:

    Two of my colleagues were in the car park at the time and both saw the incident, and one of them was able to get a partial (but largely complete) registration plate. We also have CCTV footage of the incident (but sadly the camera is out of focus so you can't see the numberplate :(). Had a brainwave this morning - the girl paid by card, so the merchant receipt will have a surname on.

    From these details the insurance guy I spoke to via telephone when reporting the incident reckoned they'd almost definitely be able to trace the car so I could claim off her insurance. Went straight down the police station after work to get a form to report the person for driving away from the scene of an accident - I expect they'll not want to know, but still worth it to try and teach someone a lesson. The bloody cheek of it!

    In the meantime I have a guy from the insurance company coming to assess the car this afternoon, and a courtesy car is being arranged for when it is in for repair (the repairs needed should be very minor, but the point to me is that I shouldn't be inconvenience - besides, the car isn'tstrictly road legal owing to the lights being visible as white rather than red/orange like they should).

    Just can't believe how selfish people are sometimes though - for someone so outwardly proud of their own car to damage someone elses and drive off without stopping just does my head in :wallbash:
     
  2. RTT

    RTT #parp

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    Hah nice thinking with the receipt dude. I hope she gets done for leaving the scene... :miffed:
     
  3. Will

    Will Beware the judderman...

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    Just rang work, apparently the receipts only store account numbers now, no names :(. If insurance company struggle to trace the car on everything else, may pass it onto them if it'll help, but getting slightly worried the car wil be untraceable..
     
  4. 3dHeli

    3dHeli What's a Dremel?

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    I would hope either the police or the insurers have some authority to request the information . . . your store, even though you work their and colleagues saw the incident, might not legally be allowed to pass the information you want on to you - sounds crazy I know, but is worth you talking to bosses, mechant handler etc, just to see if they have the info, and noting time store etc, then getting insurer/police to gain access to the details, such as card number and/or name . . . . but luck seems against you . . . with two colleagues seeing it, and cctv, yet number plate not made.
     
  5. capnPedro

    capnPedro Hacker. Maker. Engineer.

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    That sucks big time.

    But now you have an excuse to go carbon fiber :naughty:
     
  6. Will

    Will Beware the judderman...

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    Would be somewhat wasted on a Fiat Seicento I feel :p
     
  7. Brooxy

    Brooxy Loser of the Game

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    I hate to be the first to say this but..

    ...pics?

    I would have thought, that if you had most of the number plate, they'd be able to trace it with what part you have, and the location and car type. Fingers crossed eh?
     
  8. fwalm

    fwalm Minimodder

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    If its a new BMW the cop shop can track all local cars, I think, happened to us, well the reversed into us at a shop and tracked back the make and colour with a part of the number plate, find where she lives get an old car and ram inot it, and they could also check local garages since she most likely would have dmaaged her own car.
     
  9. Will

    Will Beware the judderman...

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    Insurance company said they couldn't find a match from the details I gave them, and the police most likely disinterested (damage is slight, nobody injured, occured on private property) even though technically they could get details from the merchant receipt we hold which gives the womans credit/debit card details....

    To me its just the principle of it, rather than the actual damage to my car which is pretty damn minor.

    Anyway, going to pop down to the BMW MINI garage a bit later on and try and find a car in for a rear bumper/paint repair that matches the car that hit me - it was (in typical mini fashion) pretty distinctive with a combination of alloys, bonnet stripes, colour of roof and so on that means if I see it again, I'll known. Fingers crossed :thumb:
     
  10. WireFrame

    WireFrame <b>PermaBanned</b>

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    Call the credit card provider, tell them you're invesitgating a serious road traffic accident, and you require the postcode and house number of the account number for the creditcard number xxxxxxxx as it was used minutes before the accident. DO NOT state you are a police officer, but make it very clear that you have suffered at the hands of this useless driver. You may not officially get the address, but someone may feel pity and help out.
     
  11. Bungle

    Bungle Rainbow Warrior

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    Unlucky dude. I had a similar incident at work recently. Parked my car up at work as usual, came out of work (work a late shift) and drove home. Next morning my neighbour knocked on the door and told me there was damage along my passengers side door. From the impact it looks like the car to my left had tried to swing out and slammed right into the passenger wheel rim and scraped the door. Yep you guessed it, they didn't leave a note or a message with security and just drove off. Next day I go into work thinking i'll have a look around and see if a car has damage on the drivers side front panel (paint marks look to be a white car). To my horror there are dozens of white cars with scrapes and dents on them, so is impossible to narrow it down. I went to security, but the CCTV cannot make out the vehicle as it's in a blind spot (typical).
    The thing that really pissed me off was that this more than likely happened during the shift change over, so there must have been lots of people about that would have heard and seen this happen. No one has come forward to offer help. I'm now left with a £150 repair bill. What's happened to all the good citizens? :wallbash: Nobody can give a damn anymore.:sigh:
     
  12. Krikkit

    Krikkit All glory to the hypnotoad! Super Moderator

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    The exact same happened to me in a Sainsbury's car park 1 week after I got my car. I was so annoyed as well, because up to that point the bodywork was brilliant. Must've been really quite a scrape too, because it was all the way down the passenger door from the mirror back, AND dented the rear wheel arch.
     
  13. MystChic

    MystChic Geology Rocks!

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    Oh that sucks :|
    Here you have to sign when you pay by a credit card.. can you make out her name from the signature?

    I knew there was a good reason I didn't drive.. usually the only one to damage my motorbike is me.. well, besides the tram.. that is...
     
  14. atanum141

    atanum141 I fapped to your post!

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    Its similar here, but not with European cards as we have the chip and pin system now(im sure you have noticed during ur hols here), anyways its the same for my store as well, all there is on the receipt is a partial card number with expiry and few other authorization details. there is a full back up of the details including the card number on our machines as all transactions are logged and then sent to the in store server.
     
  15. teamtd11

    teamtd11 *Custom User Title*

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    Youch thats bad :(

    Find anything at the garage?

    Hope you fine her, and give her what she deserves :D
     
  16. chrisb2e9

    chrisb2e9 Dont do that...

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    dont let her get away with this, do whatever it takes to find her. if that happened to me I would not stop until I had run her through a meat grinder! (or made her pay for the damage, which ever works).
     
  17. MystChic

    MystChic Geology Rocks!

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  18. Guest-23315

    Guest-23315 Guest

    Bad luck.
     
  19. ComputerKing

    ComputerKing <img src="http://forums.bit-tech.net/images/smilie

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    DAM, Sorry to Hear that :( Hope you do some thing :( Good luck brother.
     
  20. Amon

    Amon inch-perfect

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    Stay away from Toronto if you want to avoid incidents such as this. Sorry to hear about your car, mate.

    Good Luck, Brothers!~
     
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