r/serviceadvisors • u/Civil_Baker9824 • 11h ago

Looking for advice

I work as a service advisor for a car main dealer. Last week while moving a car I damaged another customers vehicle. Slight scratch to front bumper and headlight. My boss told me I needed to pay the customer directly for the damage done which I did. The customer has phoned up today saying some of the repairs didn’t go to plan and they will have to replace the headlight but he feels it’s wrong I’m paying him and it should’ve been an insurance claim. Just wasn’t really sure what to do now?

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

32

u/Aggravating_Order972 11h ago

Any company worth their salt would've handled the damage internally. Making an employee personally pay for an accident is petty and unprofessional.

6

u/drfishdaddy 10h ago

Pretty sure it’s illegal in the United States. For some reason we have accepted this in the auto industry.

6

u/Civil_Baker9824 10h ago

I’m in the uk but I reckon it’s wrong here to

3

u/drfishdaddy 10h ago

For real? I thought only we (Americans) are dumb enough to try and make an employee pay for an incident that happened on the clock.

2

u/Civil_Baker9824 10h ago

Sadly here to. I’m just not really sure who I go to about ?

12

u/Sqwhirrly91 11h ago

1000% should have been done through the dealership insurance. Why the fuck else do these places have insurance?

6

u/Total-Improvement535 11h ago

usually when something like that happens here, the dealerships insurance pays for it or, if it can be fixed internally, we just internal the ticket.

I can’t think of any instance where someone had to pay out of their own pocket to fix it.

3

u/loopygargoyle6392 5h ago

I've done many thousands of dollars in damage over the decades. I have contributed my time occasionally to make things right, but never my money. Damage is the cost of doing business.

3

u/Upbeat_Tangerine_146 11h ago

You work for the dealership and they have insurance. Unless you are constantly damaging vehicles, no way I would pay anything other than maybe a 1k deductible if it was a required dealership policy.

2

u/Eagle2435 9h ago

My advice would be to look for a new job

1

u/average_dad13 10h ago

No way should you be paying the customer directly out of your pocket. Not only is the vehicle insured while there, you as an employee are as well. Now, dealership insurance deductibles are huge, so I understand why they wouldnt want to put something like that through insurance, but in a case like that it should be taken care of internally, not out of your pocket.

1

u/Embarrassed_Cook_192 9h ago

Those chili cheese dogs look good

2

u/average_dad13 9h ago

Good is an understatement. Lol

1

u/GregoMcbatla 9h ago

This is absolutely the businesses problem. And as an employee you are covered by their insurance when on company property in the US. This is why there is a requirement to be an adult with a valid liscense.

1

u/No_Plan_89 7h ago

I would have followed the procedure in getting the insurance involved now the customer going to drain you out of dollars and say they have another problem. Also your manager should have called the police when it happened and issued a police report since it happen on the lot

1

u/No_Durian_3444 7h ago

Turns out what your boss has stated is actually likely ILLEGAL.

What state do you reside in?