Laguna, post #7.
You're not going to get anywhere without evidence, and tbh even if the RAC man makes a statement, from what you've said I doubt he will be able to categorically say one way or the other, since it appears the RAC never saw the car with its engine running prior to the mechanic starting it. You're stuffed basically by the sounds of it.
I agree that asking the RAC is a nonstarter in terms of convincing him it wasn’t me that did the damage. It’s purely for my peace of mind.
So you think I did the damage?
Doesn’t it sound reasonable that even if the cam had slipped during the tow to the garage, that he shouldn’t of tried starting it just in case it had indeed slipped?
Ok, so firstly, regardless that he is your father in law... In his shoes I wouldn't be best pleased if you owed me £380 and hadn’t paid it back. Especially if you have the cash to buy gt5.
An agreement was made that I would repay the full amount at the end of the year as I have loads of overtime from work due in Decembers pay.
GT5 was accorded via my work (along with a few other items) that is paid for monthly starting in January.
I can't believe that he would truly have the malice to intentionally start the car to cause more damage.
My take? There are clearly underlying issues with you and this guy. You were crazy to take the car there if you thought he was capable of being a douche, but equally it sounds like you need to sort your priorities out and pay him what you already owe before considering any other expenditure other than the absolute essentials.
I doubt the RAC will get involved once they know your related.
I’m not for one moment suggesting that he did it on purpose. Although we have issues, I wouldn’t believe that he’d do such a thing, regardless of what he thinks of me.
If this was me, I’d take the Moral High Ground and ask him to fix it.
Then start paying everything back.
If it’s got this far down the line without being resolved, it won’t get resolved overnight, and you need your car back.
Its only money at the end of the day, there's plenty more where that came from. Yes it’s a lot that you can't afford right now, but it’s not like you'll never have any ever again, just give him it and you can take the moral high ground and look the better person.
Although my better side likes this approach, If I was going to have the car fixed, it’ll be by someone less and NOT at his garage. (ever again.)
Sod the moral high ground he owes the bloke money already.
Either go in there and offer him 50 quid a week to fix this and add on what you already owe him, or if you can’t face doing that take it somewhere else.
I can’t see what difference it makes who is at fault, he don’t like you so he aint going to fix it free now anyway.
I was never asking for him to do the job for free. I was simply asking him to repair the damage that he had caused. I was quite happy to pay for parts and labour on the aux belt that needed replacing but I feel cheated that I’d have to pay for his mistake. Plus the fact that when I spoke to him it was all ‘when you started it’, ‘you shouldn’t have’ and so on.
The only thing that I can relate this to is that if he had called me and asked me to fix his computer (something I've done many, many times and built them a couple of website all with free hosting all for nothing) which sparked when pressing the power button and he told me 'i've been told that spark might blow the mobo' I wouldn't then go 'oh, ok.' and press the button to see for myself. I'd fix/replace the button and go from there.
