To whom this may concern,
I am an uber driver with an impeccable driving history with uber. I was in an accident back in September 2016, with a vehicle I leased from a company called Bama leasing. This leasing company leases cars for the specific purpose of driving with uber.
They are very strict when it comes to having proper insurance and paying their weekly lease. When I had the accident, I took photos of the car that made an illegal u-turn in front of me from the number 2 lane while I was in the number 1 lane.
The other driver did not admit fault and the case drug on for weeks. In the mean time, I drove my new car to a body shop called boost collision located in Van Nuys California. I gave the owner Jack all of my documents including both insurance agencies and a claim number of the claim I filed.
Jack the owner agreed to do the repair to the car once an insurance agency, mine or the other, agreed to pay for the damages. He told me " I cannot give you a quote for the cost to do the repair until I get an ok from either one of the insurance agencies," then he suggested I leave my car at his location. I did so.
Both insurance agents gave no response for up to a month. Jack the owner called me to tell me that he has not spoken with anyone about my car.
I felt that something was not right. He had the number to both insurance companies.
He also said that he would not be able to release the car back to me because he said Bama leasing told him not to do so due to lack of weekly payments that were required as part of the lease agreement between the leasing company and myself. Bama Leasing leases cars by the week and they have higher standers then your typical monthly leased vehicle.
Now, keep in mind that l leased the car to drive for uber and that I could not pay the weekly payments due to the car that I use to drive for uber is in the body shop with Jack which was due to being in an accident.
And this is just how I explained it to Jack.
On hindsight, I could see that the owner Jack could have simply told me that this ordeal is a bit over the norm and is taking too long. He could have given my car back to me, of which he was not under any legal obligation or legally bound to hold my car just because my leasing company which is in another state told him to do so. He used this as an excuse.
My business with my leasing company was not his business or anyone else's.
Also, my car was drivable with only minimum damage to the front end, so he neither had to store
my car nor hold it for Bama leasing. Jack, from the beginning suggested I leave my car and after about one month, he decided to keep my car when he did not need to do so.
Unexpectedly, Jack offered me a loaner car not a rental, to use as a substitute. Yet about 5 weeks in, I urgently asked jack to let me retrieve my own car, and that I needed to get back to work fast, his response was again, "I was told by your leasing company to hold your car"
I told jack, that was not necessary and I need to drive to pay my lease. He then told me to give it another week to see what the insurance companies do or say about repairing my Toyota, and he assured me that everything was ok and that these things happen all the time.
I agreed. I called him a week later which was about 6 weeks in, to check the status. He told me that up to this point he has not heard from any insurance company about your car. I again suggested to him that I might pick my New car up simply because he, at that time did not give a quote for the damages, make any repairs, neither did he need to store the car because it was drivable. I could have parked my car anywhere, including where I lived.
I explained this to jack.
He now tells me that there are storage fees attached to your car. I asked him why is this so?
I did not need my car stored I needed it repaired...
I then went on to tell him that storage or storage fees were not discussed when I brought my car in.
I then asked why did he wait so long to now begin talking about storage fees?
He then got agitated and aggressive saying
things like, it's been too long someone has to pay , I cannot run a business without getting money.
He then aggressively told me that he offered the loaner car to me for 25 dollars a day and that l would need to pay for that.
I again said to jack, "Jack we never got around to discussing what the loaner car's cost to me would be and that you are just now, 6 weeks in to this ordeal suggesting what I would need to personally pay?"
I also said to jack you didn't give me any contract regarding storage fees or the loaner car.
Now what's going on I said?
I went on to re-itterate and tell jack,
this is totally outside of my knowledge. As a person who is simply trying to get his car fixed and get back to work, I'm not understanding any of this.
I have never been in an accident before. I asked Jack - what would he suggest i do now?
He asked me to call my insurance company again,
I did and I called Jack back the next day. I told Jack they said, because I retained an attorney, they could not speak with me about the accident, I feel they lied because I was told they could actually speak with me about the car itself.
My insurance company never intended to pay for the damages. It is unclear if Jack knew this all along.
But I feel he just may have known and that's why he didn't release my car back to me in time so I could start driving with uber again and to pay down my ever growing lease payment.
Jack held on to my car until my car got repossessed and he never told me.
I also wonder why my leasing company never notified me either.
Bama leasing is very strict on their weekly payments. Their standards for weekly payments differ from your average monthly lease.
I was not allowed to work as an uber driver during this time nor pay the lease on my car due to jack keeping my car for so long.
He allowed me to believe that all was good and normal. He also allowed me to continue driving the loaner car without making me aware that he reported the loaner car stolen. He actually tried to get me arrested!
Jack is a scammer!
Why he didn't ask me about the loaner car or ask for it back or tell me my car got repossessed, I do not know.
My guess is that he did not want to make himself look suspicious. He got in too deep by hanging on to my car for so long without repairing it. And I also think his descission was attached to personal gain or greed. He then realized nothing was going as he planned, yet in the meantime he would be needing his car back but didn't have the courage to tell me, so he just reported it stolen.
Again, I did ask Jack to give my car back to me long before things got so far out of hand. He could have, and he should have done just that.
Now I am an uber driver without a car, a repo on my once perfect record, no money and homeless . The police didn't arrested me over the loaner car because they could see there was no Merit after I explained everything to them and showed all of my documents proving my case.
Boost collision and it's owner Jack are ripoffs.
He took advantage of me being naive to the order and to the procedures that come with body shops.
I hope someone can lend a hand as I truly need one now...