Beware of West Orange Scammer

I don't usually bother posting bad experiences unless i think could potentially impact the community. But this was just over the top.

Meet your friendly neighborhood West Orange Auto Body & Repair Shop on Main Street (to be known as WOAB because its too much to type).....My husband was in a head on collision in July (thank God no one badly hurt). We called WOAB and the guy was super nice and offered to come take a look at the car to see if it could be fixed. He offered to tow it to his shop to see. Next day he announced that the car could be fixed for about $3k and that we should leave it with him until the adjustor came out. In the meantime we said we'd probably fix the car but it depends on the adjustor.

The adjustor came 20 days later and totaled the vehicle. We told WOAB that we decided not to fix the car since the adjustor didnt think it could be fixed and that we just wanted to get the car and put it back in our driveway. We were then told they would not release the car until we paid the storage fees. Storage fees? We didnt agree to that. We didnt need storage....the shop isnt far from our house....we could have "stored" our car for free in our driveway!

But it gets better....A week or two later WOAB submitted an invoice for about $3,100 for storage and towing and adminstrative fees!!!! We told him it was ridiculous but that we'd submit it to the insurance company and good luck. Naturally it was rejected and all they agreed to pay was 30 days storage at $15 a day. I was livid that this scammer was actually going to make money off this but we were already exhausted.

Meanwhile our car is still being held hostage. Emails are flying back and forth and finally WOAB says ok they will accept $450. How nice of them. Anyway to try to make a Super long story shorter: WOAB contacted the insurance company on 3 separate occasions to get my private claim information and had the nerve to send me emails telling me what my claim settlement was going to be, when the check was going to be mailed etc. I have no idea how he was able to get my personal info but as soon as they found out my settlement was increased they sent us a note saying they wanted more money for storage fees now that I'm getting more money and that they called the insurance company and worked out all out. WHATT?!!!! I can't even tell you how stressful this has been. Hard to believe a community business would be so tenacious about trying to cheat and scam their own. Thank you West Orange Auto Body & Repair Shop....you are a credit to the community.

From your account, WOAB does sound sleazy, but at the same time it sounds like you did not protect yourself adequately.

The main question is, why did you turn your car over to this place before the insurance company even saw it? You gotta go through insurance first and do what they say to expedite your claim.

Secondly, what kind of insurance company doesn't send an adjustor for 20 days? My experience has always been they're out within a few business days at most.

Thirdly, didn't you think, at any time over the 20 days, that they might be charging you storage?

Caveat emptor.

i would assume there would be a charge for the tow....but I wouldn't assume there would be a storage fee...and administrative fees? who would have guessed that.

20 days for an adjuster is ridiculous...except of course if there is a natural disaster and many claims.

if the insurance company is totaling the car...isn't it their responsibility now?

at least you have the email saying they would accept 450.

you could check into state laws about required fee disclosures...

I am guessing that if you had gone through with the work the storage fee might have been written off, but since it sat on their lot for so long and then you didn't give them the business I am not surprised about the storage fee.

Trust me, this was the most bizarre experience we've ever had. Since we didn't have collision on our car we had to go through the faulty driver's insurance company, American Transit. Awful. In fact when we called our own insurance company, progressive, they warned us that we would have a hard time because this insurance company was slow and never answers their phones. They weren't kidding!

We were all shaken up I guess and maybe not thinking clearly, but the guy from WOAB said it would be easier to convince the adjustor that the car was fixable if it was already at the shop. And we really did want the car fixed at first. I loved that car. The guy said he knew how to work the insurance system and to leave it to him...he would convince the adjustor not to total the vehicle. In the meantime, we had no CLUE it wld take 20 friggin days to get an adjustor out to see the car!

It never occurred to me that this guy wld charge storage since we never asked him to store it....it wasn't necessary. We were going to take the car back but WOAB said it wld be better if he had the car when the adjustor came out. To be quite honest we were flying blind on so many levels. We've always had well known insurance companies and up until this vehicle, we always had maximum coverage because we leased our cars. The car in the accident was the first used car we ever had and everyone said you don't put collision on a car that old. Hmph! Bottom line is that we were not used to having to rely on this other guy's insurance and it just so happens he ends up having the worst insurance ever!!

Perhaps we were naive, but this guy from WOAB really seemed to know what to do and seemed so nice. We didn't sign anything and he offered to hold on to the car. He said it's just better that way...he knows how the system works etc....and Not to put too much of a dramatic spin on things but the week before I had just been diagnosed with cancer. We have 2 special needs kids and was down to one car. You seriously cannot make this sh** up. I mean we just had a ruin of super bad luck for lack of a stronger word. Our heads were reeling!!!! Not sure if we would have recognized that this guy was a wolf in sheep's clothing even if we weren't dealing with all of this stress at once.

You live and learn. The truth is that WOAB talked us into giving our car over to them because it would be in our best interest. From what everyone is saying I guess we should have known better but I don't see how. Guy comes to our driveway, offers to bring our car to his shop to take a closer look at it. That doesn't sound like, hey I'm going to charge you for towing the what, like 2 miles from our house to his shop.

Regardless of all of that, this maniac continued contacting the insurance company about MY claim. According to the insurance company they wouldn't have given out my information unless the person said they were my husband. Not saying he did, just saying.

All in all, we are neighbors of the same community and business thrive on weird if mouth referrals. I just found it shocking that someone in our "own back yard" would do this....

It all does sound like a nightmare, sorry you've had to go through with it.

One last question - are you sure you didn't sign anything, when you first turned over the car to WOAB, that disclosed the storage fees? If you didn't, I don't see how they have a leg to stand WRT collecting the fees. I'm not a lawyer but I know places can't make charges up out of thin air, ex post facto.

Did you pay them? If so, file online complaint to N.J. Department of Community Affairs, consumer protection.

Also file a complaint to the N.J. Department of Insurance about the 20 day delay.

If you didn't pay them, they will need to file a small claims case against you.

Do you need to get the car back? If it is totaled, doesn't that mean you get a new car? If so, tell them they can have it. Maybe that will stop them I their tracks.

No, I don't really think that would work, but it's tempting.

If it is totaled, you get a check for an amount that would enable you to replace the car with a car of similar vintage. The insurance company then collects the damaged car for salvage parts

On a different note, if you have not already done so I suggest that you remove your license plates from the vehicle (I would check with your insurance co. about that). Turn in plates at Dept. of Motor Vehicles.

Sorry you have had this awful experience. Thank goodness there were no serious injuries.

Formerlyjerseyjack said:
If it is totaled, you get a check for an amount that would enable you to replace the car with a car of similar vintage. The insurance company then collects the damaged car for salvage parts

This.

Agree with removing the plates (and any personal belongings).

When my car was totaled I was given the option of keeping it. Since the majority of the work needed that made it too expensive to fix was cosmetic, and my mechanic confirmed that the car was sound to drive, I kept the car

spontaneous said:
When my car was totaled I was given the option of keeping it. Since the majority of the work needed that made it too expensive to fix was cosmetic, and my mechanic confirmed that the car was sound to drive, I kept the car

They call that a buy back and they reduce your settlement if you decide to keep the totaled car.

I've had nothing but positive experiences with WOAB

I googled both WOAB and American Transit. Both had google reviews that essentially said AVOID, Worst Experience Ever.

So sorry you had to go through this.

I do plan on reporting both companies. I have copies of all of the bizarre and threatening emails he sent to me. Yesterday i sent a note to WOAB stating that as per his email of 2 weeks ago saying that he'd accept $450 that we'd pay him that because the insurance company agreed to pay him that. He responded by saying the check we got was more so he should get paid for towing too. I told him plainly that he cannot arbitrarily choose numbers out of the air and say we owe him that. First it was $3100, then $450, then $729! I also told him that refusing to provide a copy of anything signed by a customer is a violation of the NJS deceptive practices law ( We had asked him several times to provide a copy of what he said my husband signed and he refused to produce it) That calling the insurance company and getting confidential information about MY claim is a violation of the privacy act and that submitting over exaggerated Bill's to an insurance company ( like the one he doctored up for $3100 for storage and administrative fees) for your own personal gain is a violation of the NJSA.

His response back was: "Oh so you wanna play games?!? Give me my $450 IN CASH today and take your car today our I'll start charging you more storage fees!"

To be honest this guy was already making me nervous and the tone of his email made it clear he was not wrapped too tight, so we skipped taking our son to his therapy that day and instead hauled ass to the bank and called AAA to tow the car back to our house, which was free since its less than 2 miles away. The guy didn't want to give a receipt for the cash payment but my husband insisted so finally he did.

I just wanted to be done with this because its been really stressing our family out and this guy seems to know no bounds and had zero scruples so who knows what he's capable of?

Behind all of this lying and deceit, all of this nastiness and spitefullness, all of this rudeness and aggressive behavior is pure and simple greed. Pathetic...not to mention frightening.