My truck is sitting at a mechanic shop and was broken into… and $1,500 worth of subs and amps installed in the back was taken. My truck is at the shop because it’s going through insurance for some repairs… and now I have a broken window and lots of money worth of sound system taken. What do I do now? I only have a receipt for the subs. But nothing else. Will insurace cover that because they are in possession of my vehicle? Will the auto shop cover it because they have the keys and it’s on there property with no security? Or cameras??? I reported to the cops so far
Matthew, there is absolutely no way to get accurate legal advice over the internet let alone from a forum of unknown people. You will have to start with your insurance carrier.
Many shops have a “Not responsible for theft or vandalism” sign posted. Does this one?
Many shops also do not carry insurance for events like this. Self-insured at best.
It generally goes back to the vehicle owner’s insurance.
The reason why some shops may get antsy over this (and I’m not saying for one second that you’re one of them) is because of an example like this at a dealer where I worked.
The guy’s truck was fixed and he delayed picking it up. The truck was broken into and according to the truck owner “only a 100 dollar stereo” was missing.
My boss said fine, I’ll over it.
The next day 2 high end speakers were added to the total along with “I forgot. The stereo was 200 dollars…”.
Fine the boss says.
A few days later it was half a dozen high end speakers missing and the stereo was now a 500 dollar unit that “I just bought…”).
At this point the boss said take a hike and the guy went away.
(And the truck never had this stereo equipment in it. I know because I’m the guy who fixed the truck. Just pointing out why some shops are nervous about things like this.)
3 Likes
Well, I’ll disagree. Regardless of what signs are posted, the shop has full control of the vehicle and is responsible for any theft or vandalism. The shop needs to pony up depending on what you can verify the loss is. Too bad how sad if the shop doesn’t have insurance. Around here, vehicles in waiting are put inside the shop at night for security.
1 Like
I agree with @bing on this. The signs are meaningless. OP, contact your insurer and let hem deal with it. They will most likely go after the repair shop, but that’s what you pay them to do.
There’s a lot more to it and it can vary by state. A lot depends upon whether “the shop was negligent in handling or storing the vehicle”.
Some repair orders (mine did…) have a disclaimer about not being responsible, yada, yada, yada.
When the customer signed the repair order they were acknowledging that the shop was not responsible for any hiccups that may develop.
I went through something like this once at my shop. Short story is that someone jumped the fence and stole a stereo out of a Volvo that was sitting there. The owner got huffy and said i was going to pay. Not for a second.
A few weeks later i get a call from an attorney who was trying to extort some cash from me. I told him to take me to court because THEN the (as Paul Harvey would say…) rest of the story would come out. The attorney wanted to know what that story was. I simply said I’d repeat it in court along with the documents to back it up.
That was the last I heard of that. Again, the story behind that Volvo is lengthy. Suffice it to say that not all Air Force instructor pilots are blessed with common sense…