I was rear-ended in December, I was not at fault. The woman who rear-ended me exchanged info, I chose the mechanic shop as they’ve fixed my car’s hail damage before and did great.
A claim was opened with her insurance and there have been issues from day one with communication; the mechanic will allegedly not communicate with insurance, he dodges calls and emails. Mechanic claims that insurance marked my car as foreign built when it is American built, and that insurance refuses to take responsibility for the error. Insurance has called me countless times saying they can’t get ahold of mechanic and that if they messed up, they will take responsibility but he never answers them. I have become the middle man in this situation when I don’t think I ever should’ve been privy to this.
I’ve been in a rental since December and every time I ask about my car, it looks the same as it did 4 months ago. Nothing has been done to it seemingly.
Today it reached a boiling point. Seeking legal action was brought up as a potential avenue, and the mechanic sent a set of texts to me tonight demanding $7,000 in cash from me, not insurance, or else he will be holding the car indefinitely until it is paid. Is this allowed? Is this normal? I did not respond but unsure of what to do from here, if anything. I’ve already let the insurance adjuster know.