Complaint Review: Foss Auto Salvage - Greenville North Carolina

What a load of sanitized bullcrap is my response to the comment from a Foss employee, they did not respond until they were threatened by a Police Officer with charges.

Foss Auto Recycling has been working with Mr. Crist to resolve this incident for two weeks. Our business operates within the same state guidelines and laws as any like business does in North Carolina. We pride ourselves on being good stewards with our customers, vendors, in our environment, and with any other person or business who happens across our path. The issue with Mr. Crist has been resolved, unfortunately, not before incomplete information and erroneous accusations were stated. It takes time to follow up and make sure of the facts before settling things of this nature. Thank you for your concern in this matter.

Thanks for the responses. Oddly enough, even before I had received those responses I had filed a claim with the NC DOT, the Federal Motor Carrier, the Better Business Bureau and the Raleigh PD (I've just been waiting for a response). Thankfully, the officer agreed that the damage I showed him was consistent with what I said happened. He tried to contact Foss Auto from his cell phone - which was not answered - and left a message. He blatantly told them if they kept ducking my calls and didn't take care of this situation he would file hit and run charges against the company. (A little severe if you ask me as all I want is my windshield repaired but hey, I'm sick and tired of dealing with these arrogant and ignorant people... and like I told Nate Pipkin before... the company will pay for the damage... I will not stop until this is taken care of.) Finally after repeated calls I got in touch with good old Nate yet again... thats right, he did not return my calls - I had to call him again and again until he answered. This time his attitude was very different. He said that he had just gotten the numerous messages from the officer and myself as he had been out of town for the past few days. It's possible, sure... but he used that same excuse on me two weeks ago so I think it was just that... an excuse. Then he said "I've been trying to get in touch with the officer all day" (yeah right) to assess the seriousness and likelihood "of these charges, and we will go from there." A very different attitude indeed. Yes we will see where it goes from here! Unfortunately the officer is off for the next couple of days so I probably will not hear anything until he returns to duty next week. I honestly just wanted my car repaired for Foss Auto Salvage's blatant negligence, but I'm starting to feel a little vengeful. I've been dealing with this for weeks and I'm quite annoyed. Thanks again for your responses. I hope I never have to deal with this again, but if I do, I now know the proper procedure that should be followed in order to get it taken care of with the fewest headaches and the least amount of grief possible. Much appreciated!

Thanks for the responses. Oddly enough, even before I had received those responses I had filed a claim with the NC DOT, the Federal Motor Carrier, the Better Business Bureau and the Raleigh PD (I've just been waiting for a response). Thankfully, the officer agreed that the damage I showed him was consistent with what I said happened. He tried to contact Foss Auto from his cell phone - which was not answered - and left a message. He blatantly told them if they kept ducking my calls and didn't take care of this situation he would file hit and run charges against the company. (A little severe if you ask me as all I want is my windshield repaired but hey, I'm sick and tired of dealing with these arrogant and ignorant people... and like I told Nate Pipkin before... the company will pay for the damage... I will not stop until this is taken care of.) Finally after repeated calls I got in touch with good old Nate yet again... thats right, he did not return my calls - I had to call him again and again until he answered. This time his attitude was very different. He said that he had just gotten the numerous messages from the officer and myself as he had been out of town for the past few days. It's possible, sure... but he used that same excuse on me two weeks ago so I think it was just that... an excuse. Then he said "I've been trying to get in touch with the officer all day" (yeah right) to assess the seriousness and likelihood "of these charges, and we will go from there." A very different attitude indeed. Yes we will see where it goes from here! Unfortunately the officer is off for the next couple of days so I probably will not hear anything until he returns to duty next week. I honestly just wanted my car repaired for Foss Auto Salvage's blatant negligence, but I'm starting to feel a little vengeful. I've been dealing with this for weeks and I'm quite annoyed. Thanks again for your responses. I hope I never have to deal with this again, but if I do, I now know the proper procedure that should be followed in order to get it taken care of with the fewest headaches and the least amount of grief possible. Much appreciated!

Thanks for the responses. Oddly enough, even before I had received those responses I had filed a claim with the NC DOT, the Federal Motor Carrier, the Better Business Bureau and the Raleigh PD (I've just been waiting for a response). Thankfully, the officer agreed that the damage I showed him was consistent with what I said happened. He tried to contact Foss Auto from his cell phone - which was not answered - and left a message. He blatantly told them if they kept ducking my calls and didn't take care of this situation he would file hit and run charges against the company. (A little severe if you ask me as all I want is my windshield repaired but hey, I'm sick and tired of dealing with these arrogant and ignorant people... and like I told Nate Pipkin before... the company will pay for the damage... I will not stop until this is taken care of.) Finally after repeated calls I got in touch with good old Nate yet again... thats right, he did not return my calls - I had to call him again and again until he answered. This time his attitude was very different. He said that he had just gotten the numerous messages from the officer and myself as he had been out of town for the past few days. It's possible, sure... but he used that same excuse on me two weeks ago so I think it was just that... an excuse. Then he said "I've been trying to get in touch with the officer all day" (yeah right) to assess the seriousness and likelihood "of these charges, and we will go from there." A very different attitude indeed. Yes we will see where it goes from here! Unfortunately the officer is off for the next couple of days so I probably will not hear anything until he returns to duty next week. I honestly just wanted my car repaired for Foss Auto Salvage's blatant negligence, but I'm starting to feel a little vengeful. I've been dealing with this for weeks and I'm quite annoyed. Thanks again for your responses. I hope I never have to deal with this again, but if I do, I now know the proper procedure that should be followed in order to get it taken care of with the fewest headaches and the least amount of grief possible. Much appreciated!

Brad, I am a truck driver and can tell you how to get paid. First, go to the FMCSA website and get all of the operating authority and insurance info for the company. Second, file a complaint against the company for improperly secured load. Be very specific on the nature of the load and the securement, and also the date and time, color of truck, etc. Third, file a claim with the insurance co for your damages. Send this by certified mail, return reciept requested. Be sure to put the certified# on the letter itself and keep a copy for your records. The FMCSA can subpoena the driver's log and manifest which will substantiate your story. Also, you can go after the driver as well, as under federal law, the DRIVER is PRIMARILY responsible for load securement, NOT the company. And, the company is legally responsible for it's employees. You have to be persistent, but you will prevail. Send the company copies of your complaints. Good luck.

I sympathize with what happened to you, but you're not going to be able to recover on your broken windshield this time. When things like this occur, hopefully you have a cell phone handy, and you need to contact the local police, at a non-emergency number of course, to hopefully get the truck stopped by the police, where a police report can be written on the incident. With that, you can file a claim against their insurance company, which will also be required to be on the police report in most cases. You can then bypass the company and go straight to their insurance company to file a claim for damages. Without a report, you have virtually no chance of recovering claims for damage, and unfortunately, most trucking companies know this too. They can deny responsibility as long as there is no proof or record that anything occurred. Another piece of advice would be to give any truck with a load of this nature, wide room when passing them, or to stay well behind them, because you now know the risks of being near one with what can be a possibility of having loose debris. Something you may not know, is that companies that haul loads of this nature, and those who haul loads like rocks, dirt, or any other open loads, are often targeted by those who merely want something fixed on their cars, and will claim that their "truck did it" when in fact it's fraud. Thus, it might explain the reason why your attempts to contact them were initially ignored. Chances are though, that you are right, in that they just are not willing to cough up the dough for a legitimate claim, because they know that you will not be able to prove a thing. It's one of the risks we take for sharing the roads with those who are a little less than responsible in taking steps to stop things like this from happening. If you feel strongly enough about this, and feel that this may be something that may be happening repeatedly, you might contact the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division, and file a complaint. The very least that will occur, is that they will advise Officers be on the lookout for that company's trucks, to verify that they are doing all that they are supposed to do, to keep things like this from happening.