Woman's new Lexus wrecked by valet

Updated: Wednesday, 23 Nov 2011, 7:14 PM CST
Published : Wednesday, 23 Nov 2011, 3:17 PM CST

• David Scott

AUSTIN (KXAN) - When you place your car in the hands of a valet, you expect to get it back in one piece.

That isn't always the case, as one frustrated Austin woman found out.

Rosa Rivera went to an event at the Bass Concert Hall in October and let Central Texas Valet park her car. But her pleasant night turned into a nightmare.

"They took us to the parking garage to find our car and it was crashed against a utility pole," Rivera said told the KXAN Tipline. "Everythiing was splattered all over."

Her car was a new Lexus with only 2,000 miles on it.

Valet parking companies are required by law to carry full insurance, but Rivera's dealings with Central Texas Valet owner Corey Evers went downhill quickly.

"You'd expect like any other car accident their insurance calls you, provides you a rental car, they fix your car, you get your car back," Rivera said. "It didn't work out that way."

Rivera said Evers never even paid for her to get a loaner. "He said he would but he never showed up with his credit card."

Rosa then called him back, saying, "He said to talk to his lawyer, I wasn't able to talk to him anymore. I had to get a lawyer once he brought in his lawyers and we were given the runaround."Evers told KXAN that the his company did everything that was required of it and that the rentail car company mishandled the loaner-car arrangement.

Central Texas Valet says on its website: "Our insurance coverage is the most up-to-date and all-inclusive available to the industry."

Self-insured for the first $10,000 in repairs, Evers sent Rosa's Lexus to Big Boys Collision, a shop he used, where they wrote her a repair estimate of $7,000.

But she had the car moved to a shop her dealer recommended, Berli's Auto, where they said the damage was much more severe, possibly totaled.

Berli's General Manager Chad Kiffe said, "Unfortunately. It's a good car, 2011, but with the extent of the damage it's borderline." He adds, "Sometimes when you get into structural components, depending on the insurance company's guidelines, they may decide to total it."

Finally Evers' primary underwriter, Firemen's Insurance stepped up and did declare Rosa's car a total loss. She's expecting a settlement check from them, saying she learned a lesson, "I'm going to research whoever is doing the valet services at an event, and more than likely we'll self park."