This question may be hard to answer given that we live all over the country, and jobs vary region by region....city by city...

With that said, Who is your Go To MSC, Job Site, or method to pick up last minute fill-in work.

Yes, I took a last minute shop based on the notation that I can pick up a few more shops while I'm there. This particular high end shop is in a PITA area
( high traffic, no direct route, expensive valet/street parking).

Of course today is the only day out of the year where I can't find a single shop in the entire area.
It's a 2 mile area; mostly high-end apparel, jewelry, and of course restaurants (which I don't want.)
A large upscale mall is the anchor to the area, and is not far away -- has all the usual mall stuff.

So, am I missing any tricks?
Helpful hints happily accepted-- I'm leaving as soon as the traffic dies down.


S.

It's late in the month to have much luck. You're looking for fee shops, which narrows it more. When stuck with an orphan in the city, maybe Bare, Mystery Shoppers for parking garages, MSPs who have bank and cell shops. Apartments, but they can be time consuming, and I didn't see many posted in December. All the mall shops here were snagged earlier in the month.

Looks pretty dry here, no one is working tomorrow, so, do what you have and call it a day!!

Thanks for the advice -- wish I didn't even take this one.

Someone Hit and Ran while I was inside the mall -- my fairly new car without a prior scratch has its passenger side and quarter panel bashed in.

What a horrible night.

Anyone do the auto body shop, shop?

DaSuba, sorry, I haven't heard of body shops being done, but find out if anyone saw this, must have been someone there witnessing. So sorrry!!!!

I hate that. Within the past month my truck has been keyed twice. The truck is now about a dozen years old and in excellent condition with minor door dings, a light dent in the front bumper inflicted by a ball hitch from a truck who backed into the space ahead and another light dent I don't know where it came from. On a Bed Bath and Beyond shop early this month someone put a 2' key scratch across the hood and on a shop where I was parked in the Target lot I got a 3' gouge all along the passenger side. I do NOT like mall parking lots.

Oh boy Flash -- that's awful. Worse, since it's willful -- not an accident, which is what I'm assuming this was.

Just what would make someone go out of their way to key a car??? Sorry, can't get over that.


In my case, I got to the mall on the late side, so instead of parking a mile a way like I usually do ( I have a really nice car with only 39K miles), I saw a front row space -- it was the 1st space before the handicapped parking. In this mall, the handicapped parking is usually the Jag / Porsche / $150K custom Mercedes owning non - handicapped person who knows the right person, or has a handicapped relative. If you're really handicapped, you would use the Valet, since the spots are not that handicapped friendly.


Since I was only going to be there for the hour before they close, the likelihood of anyone parking to the right of me was nil. The guy to the left had pulled in just after me. After quickly assessing the ding risk ( yes, I do that), I parked and shopped.

9pm came with a huge surprise.

No note, No nothing.

The security was worthless - they said the camera was in a great angle and they would find the driver.
The cop, who was TERRIFIC, said they're full of it. The few cameras they have are pointed toward the door to catch shop-lifters.

They don't care about the parking deck -- it's park at your own risk -- signs posted everywhere.

I'm waiting to find out if this State has Non Insured Motorist clause, which will save me from the deductible.

We do have body shop- shops in this area; in fact, I looked into it for another car in the family, but it didn't meet the criteria.
This one will, when my head stops pounding, I'll post and see if anyone has done one.

Well, time to enter last night's shop. Luckily it was a 24 hour MSC -- gotta love them !!

Happy New Year,

Y'all

PS.

Did I mention that I came from the Dealer, where I got my 40K Rape Service -- one thing about that Dealer...that car looked like it just rolled off the showroom floor. If there was a scratch before this happened -- they buffed it out.

Sniff.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 12/30/2010 08:35PM by DaScubaLady.

Yes, I can much more readily see someone crashing and running than deliberately just keying vehicles. Maybe it gives them some sense of power. I can perhaps understand it better if I had jockeyed somebody out of a parking space they had assumed was theirs or parked so poorly that it was a PITA to try to get into their own vehicle, but neither was the case in either situation.

Good luck with the uninsured vehicle. I've never had an accident that merited vehicle repair so am not sure quite how that works. But keep in mind that if your loss is more than $100 uninsured (I think that is still the amount) it becomes a tax deduction. Small comfort.

There used to be an auto paint shop where a tech would come to your residence and repair all of the scratches on your car. I don't know if it exists anymore and the company that had them is now on the non-responsive/non-paying list.

I was lucky enough to get one a few years back and had $600 worth of paint repair done, and got paid.

It lasted about 2 weeks before someone re-keyed my car. I've given up on having a perfect paint job. I'd take the shop again if I saw it listed with a trusted company, though.

Flash -- Good advice on the loss.

From memory, total losses have be X % of your AJI to be deductable -- not that I have to worry about that.