Car body shop trying to force me to pay them?!

[LdiJ]

I didn't misunderstand anything. It is common for there to be a refundable deposit on a rental car that you're going to keep for any length of time, in addition to a daily fee. From what we now understand the OP did not have rental car insurance, did not leave a credit card (granted, he was not asked for one) and disappeared for several weeks without leaving any contact information and leaving his own car, as far as the shop knew, abandoned. The $500 would represent the deposit, the $35 the daily fee. I would expect the deposit for that length of time to be considerably more than $500.

I am confused. They are charging it as a fee, not as a refundable deposit.

 

[cheesyshiba]

I am confused. They are charging it as a fee, not as a refundable deposit.

Correct as a fee- they never mentioned or charged a deposit nor did we authorise it

 

[cbg]

And they never authorized your leaving the car there for a couple of months, but you did it anyway. I still think you are being retroactively charged a deposit,

 

[LdiJ]

And they never authorized your leaving the car there for a couple of months, but you did it anyway. I still think you are being retroactively charged a deposit,

That doesn't make sense though, because a deposit it something that you get back when you return the car. They are charging him the fee when he brings the car back. I think its more likely that its a storage fee for storing their car at the shop, than a deposit.

 

[cbg]

That's a possibility also.

 

[xylene]

So, legally, even though there was no contract, no agreement forus to pay them for the rental car OR to store our car, OR to fix our car with them

If there was no agreement, how can there be a contract.

You received EXTENSIVE services. A rental car and storage of a vehicle. For over 8 weeks. You may not have a contract for a specific, but you owe what that is worth.

 

[cheesyshiba]

If there was no agreement, how can there be a contract.

You received EXTENSIVE services. A rental car and storage of a vehicle. For over 8 weeks. You may not have a contract for a specific, but you owe what that is worth.

Isn’t that like theft though?? If you are told ‘this is free’ and aren’t told the limits how can you be docked by someone for overusing that service in their standards, that seems illegal especially that we were keeping them updated for the first month.

 

[cheesyshiba]

And they never authorized your leaving the car there for a couple of months, but you did it anyway. I still think you are being retroactively charged a deposit,

That seems illegal- if that’s something we did at our business we’d get a complaint to the board.

We didn’t sign anything and no verbal contract was made. Legally I don’t think they have the right to do that as they told us ‘complimentary, you keep your car here
And keep driving the rental’ and they didn’t not specify a timeframe.

 

[cheesyshiba]

That doesn't make sense though, because a deposit it something that you get back when you return the car. They are charging him the fee when he brings the car back. I think its more likely that its a storage fee for storing their car at the shop, than a deposit.

And they are also asking 35 a day for the rental car which we weren’t aware of from the start of driving it when they told us ‘free.’ That seems criminal to me. We were told keeping our car there was also complimentary, so I’m not sure how them charging us for this is okay by legal standards. Maybe morally we should pay them and honestly I’d have no problem paying them if they had approached kindly and asked if we were alright, and let us know gently that starting tomorrow or something instead of ‘effective immediately,’ they would be charging us, but to just drop that on us and lock us into a contract or price we never agreed on when they agreed to let us drive the car and keep the car there for free seems shady

 

[cbg]

And how were they to reach you when you were in Japan?

 

[cheesyshiba]

And how were they to reach you when you were in Japan?

Voicemails were turned on and we didn't have any voicemails when we returned. Nor emails.

 

[xylene]

You don't have a contractual right to keep the car or store your damaged vehicle eeither

The timeframe was the reasonable time for the estimate to be completed.

The damages are the reasonable value of the services received.

There is no other way to understand this situation.

 

[cheesyshiba]

You don't have a contractual right to keep the car or store your damaged vehicle eeither

The timeframe was the reasonable time for the estimate to be completed.

The damages are the reasonable value of the services received.

There is no other way to understand this situation.

So legally if we called the police and told them there was no contract yet they are keeping my car and refusing to return it to me,the police wouldn't do anything? That seems hard to believe.

 

[cbg]

But you didn't check those voice mails while you were gone, did you? I don't always leave a message when it's clear the person won't be there to receive it. If your voice mail said that you were out of town, they may not have left a message.

I really cannot believe that you thought you could leave your car there for months, and keep the rental car for months, without contacting them to let them know that you'd be out of the country, and they'd just store your car for free and charge you nothing for the rental. That is absolutely unreasonable.

No, the police would tell you it's a civil matter and to sue them in small claims court and see what the judge decides.

 

[cheesyshiba]

But you didn't check those voice mails while you were gone, did you? I don't always leave a message when it's clear the person won't be there to receive it. If your voice mail said that you were out of town, they may not have left a message.

I really cannot believe that you thought you could leave your car there for months, and keep the rental car for months, without contacting them to let them know that you'd be out of the country, and they'd just store your car for free and charge you nothing for the rental. That is absolutely unreasonable.

No, the police would tell you it's a civil matter and to sue them in small claims court and see what the judge decides.

My voice mail was not changed, so they really should have left a voicemail. Again I literally left the day I found out- having to purchase tickets out of the country, hotel stays, and arrange transportation etc, the rental car was the last thing on my mind.
As a business owner myself, who is also in charge of collections, we are understanding of situations like this. When my partner and I received the voicemail from the body shop, we immediately made contact and let them know we would be dropping off the car today and went all the way there only for them to refuse to see us and tell us to come back Monday (which seems like they want us to rack up more charges)