Used Car Donations Made By Car Repair Shop

From the time I was a little boy, I had always wanted to work on cars.

As I got older, that dream grew and I wanted to have my own service shop some day. Well, here I am as an adult, making a decent living and fulfilling my life long dream.

Owing my own car repair business has been a wonderful experience overall. I know that not everyone can say that he truly enjoys waking up each morning and going to work, but I can.

But like every success story, mine also had a few bumps in the road, especially in the early days of the business.

One of these bumps was learning how to deal with clients who won’t pay for the repairs that were done to their vehicles. Now I know there will be times when a client simply can’t pay but on the odd occasion there are some people who just down right refuse to pay for the repairs that were done fairly and honestly.

The very first time this happened, I couldn’t believe it. I am an honest mechanic and I was very up front with this guy about the amount of work that needed to be done and what it would cost to properly repair his vehicle.

He gave me the green light to do the repairs and so I thought we were on the same page. I was still learning the business and went ahead and completed the repairs on a verbal agreement. I now know to put all scheduled repairs in writing first, but I can’t tell you how shocked I was when he came back the next day to pick up the vehicle and refused to pay. He accused me of trying to rip him off.

The car was an older vehicle but I got it working again. However, since the guy wouldn’t pay for the repairs I made to his car, I had no other choice but to keep the vehicle.

I am good at repairing cars, it’s what I do, but I had no desire to start a used car lot. My lot space was limited and so the car was just in the way. To me getting rid of that old car was just far too time consuming and too much hassle. When I finally did get rid of the car months later, I thought there must be a better way.

I was motivated to look into alternative ways to get rid of unwanted cars and before long I learned about car donation to charity programs. I knew I didn’t want to go through all the hassles I did the last time, so from now on whenever I encounter a customer that won’t pay or is unable to pay for their vehicle repairs and I end up with the vehicle as compensation, I simple donate the car to charity. I chose the National Veterans Services Fund (NVSF) as the recipient for all my subsequent car donations.

There’s no hassle, the car donation processing center arranges to pick up the car donation, they handle all the paperwork, the towing costs if necessary and, I can write off the value of the car donation on my business taxes.

I like that fact that my car donations are contributing to the efforts of the National Veterans Services Fund and that everything is handled for me. All I have to do is make a simple phone call.

To me it’s a win-win situation. I get rid of vehicles that I never wanted in the first place, I don’t lose because it becomes a tax credit and someone in needs gets some much needed help.

I no longer worry if a client refuses to pay for their repairs. I look at it as their contribution to a very worthwhile cause, the National Veterans Services Fund.

James L.