So I got into following situation. Any suggestions are welcome.
There was an accident with the car in Aug 2022. Brought the car to official garage, they inspected, made a quote and sent out to car insurance. Insurance company confirmed they would pay it by email (I was in CC) and that was the last communication I saw between garage and insurance:
"Our expert has confirmed the cost estimate.
Please send us the invoice after the repair is completed.
For the payment we need the IBAN number. Please note that we do not accept QR IBAN."
Fast forward to Dec 2022 and I am getting demand for payment for said quote directly from the garage. I send them an email explaining that last communication I have is that insurance company promised to pay and you have to contact them instead. Garage replied:
"Hello,
Thank you for your request, if you have received the reminder it is because the insurance company has still not made the payment.
We are returning the invoice to them today.
"
Now I received second reminder for payment from the garage.
Insurance call center doesn't work today, but first thing in the morning I am calling them to get confirmation regarding the payment status.
Funny thing is that this garage was recently sold and I think it is no longer working. I am thinking if they are trying to double-charge? I am wondering if garage missed some deadline and can't get insurance money anymore and trying to pull fast one on me?
In your opinion, who is ultimately responsible for the bill? I never confirmed I would pay the bill, insurance company did. The most frustrating part is that I am involved in this and have to mediate between those two and spend my time to see who did what
Thank you. I am going to do this first thing tomorrow morning, but what if garage never claimed it? Insurance company won't chase them to take their money, that's for sure.
I am worried there is some kind of deadline and garage by mistake missed it.
Also, this probably doesn't change much, but the car was sold and of course insurance contract no longer active.
No, I did not forward it. I contacted the garage instead and they promised to check with insurance directly, therefore I was very surprised getting 2nd reminder. As frustrating as it is, I guess I am getting into registered letter level now
Sorry if I wasn't clear from the beginning, this is not random invoice. Claim was registered initially by me with supporting documents, photos etc and then further communication was taken over by garage and insurance - quote was sent out by the garage and insurance confirmed it is OK to proceed with the repair work. I copied their reply in my initial message.
Belt and braces is my approach to things in Switzerland.
I would have contacted both the garage and the insurance company and forwarded a copy of the bill to the insurance company.
You have a contract with the garage for the repairs and a contract for with the insurance company who agreed to cover the repairs so ultimately it is up to you to make sure that the garage receives payment for the job done. It’s not really the garage’s responsibility to chase your insurance company for payment.
1) cost estimate by the garage, to be Ok'ed by the insurance's expert
2) repairs done
3) garage bills the insurance, insurance pays
4) insurance sends you a recap. Case finalised and closed 30 days later.
You placed your claim as required, it's far too recent for any other kind of deadline to apply. It looks like 3) didn't happen because you don't mention receiving the recap. But yes, contact the insurance about that making sure that it's Ok for you to pay the garage directly and then bill the insurance for it, and then talk to the garage.
The recap will include the amount paid, and by how much your bonus is affected. And that you have 30 days to reimburse the insurance if you decide to shoulder the cost yourself.
As for a Betreibung, a single successful one is far less relevant than it's made out to be on this forum, and one that didn't lead to a court verdict against you is basically immaterial. Especially if it's started by any John Doe like your garage, having one or multiple by the authorities is an entirely different animal though it's legally the same.
Thank you for the hint! Indeed I received an email from insurance company back in Sep 2022 regarding bonus affected etc, but I did not pay too much attention, maybe because of my English or strange wording in the email.
So we pass point 4 according to your list. I also contacted insurance company and received a pdf with proof of payment to the garage which is dated 2022 Sep. I printed it and sent by post to the garage asking to cancel the payment request in writing.
So hopefully in few days time, incompetent garage would go off my back.