The point is fair that if this goes to court for any reason, this thread will be used as evidence, so post as if an insurance attorney will read it some day.
Therefore, best is to be quiet on Internet. Posting here yields you no material benefits at all while bearing potential issue during deposition. Talk to your lawyer friend. One lawyer here actually already answered your question.
I'm so sorry to hear this. I argue with the valet companies all the time. I bought a key on ebay that's not programmed to the car and hand them that after I self park. I'll park it in a public parking garage if there's no other choice before I hand the key to a child who daily drives a 200 hp car. I get really sick of hearing, "we drive these all the time."
+1 I hate valet parking. The mirage valet wrecked my Audi A8 once and I didn’t see the damage until morning - it was obvious from the grill and bumper damage they hit a bollard or pole.
This is so upsetting. I feel like there should be more serious repercussions for valets that are parking cars like this. I'm not too knowledgeable about how insurance works for something like this, but I am a mechanic for these cars. I'd imagine a fender would be close to $7000-8000 before labor. OP I hope all goes well with insurance.
One of the malls nearby has big cement balls around the valet area, like the ones at Target. With lawyer friend in his brand new Grand Cherokee and after we got out, the valet rushing ran the front corner of his Jeep into one of the balls as he tried to pull away. Right in front of us. Probably $2k damage but on an SUV that barely got plates. My friend kept mostly cool but was upset, and surprisingly the valet gets all indignant and postures as if he is going to fight us. WTF? My friend is like "WTF is wrong, you're the one who just ran my new truck into the ****ing block, don't get like that with me." Friend gets the claim information done, valet is all attitude as if we are the problem. Valet was still there for another two years after that. We always joke, "How many trucks do you have to crash to get fired around here?"
Sounds like a stand-up company, if you do end up taking a car there have a tracker and a two-way camera installed. That way you can have video proof along with the claim. Most of our clientele uses the NavTrack kits that come standard with the cars, but from what I know about it that system can only track where the car is at. Still, really ****ty situation to be in and I hope you can get that beautiful car of yours back on the road soon.
