midwestCali

Usually, I never ever allow valet parking to touch my car. Unfortunately, this past weekend, I drove it up to the Embassy Suites in Lake Tahoe where they only have valet.

When I checked out of the hotel and asked for my car to be pulled up, I noticed the extreme smell of burnt clutch. Worse than I've ever smelled in my life. I talked to the valet parking supervisor about it and he gave me a claim form to fill out.

I managed to drive back to SF, but when I arrived, the clutch eventually gave out. I couldn't shift at all, had to push my car to a side street, and then have it towed to Euro Motor Cars the next day.

They've taken the transmission out and by their assessment, it looks like abuse. Definitely not wear and tear.

I'm still in the process of filing the claim with the valet parking's insurance company. I've already talked to Progressive, but it looks like they can't cover this type of damage.

I plan to have the shop take pictures and write up a statement that I can submit along with the claim. I hope that may provide solid evidence, but I'm not very optimistic that this will work.

I know the next step would be to go to small claims court. Can anyone recommend an attorney or advise me on what to do if my claim doesn't go through? I'm looking at a minimum of $2200 in repairs to replace the clutch, flywheel, and other parts that were damaged...

Thanks in advance for your replies.

freakness

Once you leave the premises they gain the upper hand. I would have at the very least identified who "drove" your car and obtained their driver license number, etc. I would have also called the local police to fill out my own personal "claim form."

Good luck with this. I hope it doesn't turn into a nightmare for you.






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Audi-Sav

Although my kid was not malicious and very careful here's a story.

I had a friend who was service manager at the Jeep Dealership here and my son in high school was looking for his first job. I took my son over and introduced him to my friend who was desperately seeking help driving customers cars to and from the service area to parking lots. Since the dealership was old and in the city they had to have parking lots scattered around the area and it required lots of moving cars to and fro and parking in very small spaces.

So during the introduction process I mentioned that my son had never driven a manual before and you can imagine how many of the jeeps that came in were stick. My friend said, "Well, there's nothing like having a customer watch you drive away to teach you how to drive a stick real quick"
And that was that. Don't think he ever screwed up any transmissions but I hear there were quite a few stalls early on.

midwestCali

The claim form states that the valet employees are not authorized to admit fault, they can only present and accept the claim form.

Sadly, I'm not very optimistic about this situation at all.

freakness

I hate to use a dirty word but, time for a lawyer ?













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