A little bit of routine maintenance turned into a huge headache for a North Carolina couple who simply wanted new tires and brakes installed on their BMW.
According to ABC 11, Nickki Harris and her husband had the work performed at a Firestone Complete Auto Car in Raleigh. After the job was finished, one of the shop’s employees took the car out for a test drive.
During the test drive, the employee was involved in an accident which totaled the car. That’s a nightmare scenario and one that was made worse by the shop’s actions. They demanded the couple pay nearly $1,400 (£1,085 / €1,239) to release the car, which is a pretty bold move considering one of their employees was behind the wheel when it was totaled.
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The shop reportedly didn’t want to get involved in the issue and told Harris she’d have to sort things out with the other driver’s insurance company. Harris told the station that the other driver’s insurance company wasn’t responding, so she tired to get Firestone to take responsibility.
After getting nowhere, she called the station which reached out to Bridgestone Americas which stated “Local authorities investigated the accident and determined that the Bridgestone Retail Operations employee who was driving the vehicle was not at fault.” The company went on to say there are fully cooperating with Harris’ insurance company and have offered her a refund as a “goodwill gesture.”
That’s a nice move, but Harris hasn’t taken them up on the offer as she is considering other options which presumably include suing the shop. Regardless of what happens next, Harris is out a lot of money as she apparently owed more on the car than what it was worth.