Exactly my point muffin man. Bearing in mind when some little tea leaves broke into my car to try and nick it and got caught i had to pay £250 excess and they got a caution!

How much damage did the car take? A fair bit more than a scratched bumper to get up to £450… perhaps now I’m a bit glad my reverse parallel parking is so slow and awkward!

Cracked rear light cover , but dent on the rear quarter and rear bumper. so thats two pannels that near work. Made even worse by the fact that i am about to sell the car and have just spent £400 earlier this month.

I hope you informed the skip company of any damage caused 🙂

I watched someone reverse into a parked motorcycle in a similar situation last week.

The same applies. YOU ARE AT FAULT*

*and a muppet

On the off chance you don’t get the insurance, my top tip would be to check ebay for the parts you need.

Having quite ridiculously scraped both sides of my car in the same stupid incident (who knew a 406 was that wide?), sourced all the bits I needed to make car good as new for £35. Then last night someone keyed the side of it. Bonus.

c) Admit I’m a numpty and amire the latest in the collection of scratches, bumps and knocks. I drive a shed for a reason 8)

When i was doing driving lessons a long while ago, in the dark, i decided to do the 3 point turn under a lampost, and reversed into the lampost, the light cover fell off just as the instructor got out to look at the damage,he seemed to be in a state of shock ,being just missed by a large plastic cover on the light almost hitting him and a damaged bumper.

If insurance companies weren’t so quick to take your money and so reluctant to give it back, I’d have more sympathy.

The reason they are reluctant to give it back is because of people trying it on all the time. Catch 22. Take the moral high ground mate, it’s better in the end. In other words, stop making up excuses for your behaviour.

b) Admit you’re a numpty, but try not to hand over hundreds of pounds from your own pocket and at least have a stab recovering some of your expenses.

So use someone else’s money instead of your own? Lovely.

I’d choose a) without a second thought.

It definatly needs lights, but no cones iirc.
if its on the highway it needs permission too!

however, 3 ft high caterhams dont need extra lights, nor do children, bins, mopeds… etc

parking fail
you lose, your car is now “more parisian”

(poor/lazy parking is my biggest pet hate)

is the skip ok? – have you checked?

y’know those little trolleys in a busy ASDA carpark? you know those poor blokes pushing them round the car park? are you one of the **** that reverses into them, just cos they didn’t see the little trolleys a coming? ooh! I didn’t see you, the trolleys are so low! etc. Most people look, you are the odd one that doesn’t!

So lets all be honest here, would you?…

a) Admit you’re a numpty and cover all repair costs yourself.

Yup. By claiming on *my* insurance if necessary or cash out of pocket if affordable.

Your lucky that skips cant get whiplash. 😉

I’ve reversed in to hundreds of skips and never tried to make a claim.
But then, I was driving a skip lorry at the time.

Ermmm, if you reversed into it does that mean you drove past it first, and missed it? I hope that isn’t the case, because that would be really, really unfortunate, but if it is the case, I hope you get to a point where you can’t afford drive really soon. For all our sakes!

Has anyone ever seen a skip with a light on it?

(No c1980’s skoda jokes please)

Skip with light on? Yes, usually in a very battered holder hooked onto one of the lifting points.
Hardly ever though, and not sure I ever saw one at night, lit up.

there is a skip plonked on the side of the road in a totally unlit, narrowish 40mph road near me, with the tiniest light on it. It’s scary! but I use my eyes, so I avoid it!

By all means try and exploit the situation to save yourself some cash (I’m sure we’re all fine with ever increasing insurance premiums…) but don’t look for sympathy

Classic bit of blame culture, you should have seen it / taken more care but are now trying to find a legal loophole to worm your way out of the resulting financial downside of your stupidity.

If the OP didn’t notice a great big yellow metal skip, how would he have ever noticed a few chevrons or small flashing lights around it?

We all make mistakes, you have to put it down to experience and move on. I know we all want to save money but trying to pass some of the blame of this onto a skip company seems a bit harsh to me. Accept you’ve cocked up and that it’s going to cost you and move on. Hopefully this will now mean you won’t ever do the same thing in your new car……

If I wasn’t at work right now, I’d definitely be making a B-movie style “ATTACK OF THE STEALTH SKIPS!” poster.

I agree that on the surface it was you fault. But you pay insurance precisely to cover such numptiness on your part. If the insuarance company refuse to pay out because it is ‘legally’ someone else’s fault then that is their decision. Ultimately you bought a policy to save having to pay out in such circumstances, so you shouldn’t have to pay. Whether it is your insurance company or that of the skip company (or their insurance company) doesn’t really matter. Good luck with it.

If I wasn’t at work right now, I’d definitely be making a B-movie style “ATTACK OF THE STEALTH SKIPS!” poster.

I for one want to see that. Please make in happen 🙂

Also, this is the risk you took when you opted to gamble with a £450 excess.

I’m sure it lowed your premium at the time, but you always knew you would have to pay it if you had an accident.

You work in insurance, you know all this already! 😉

If I wasn’t at work right now, I’d definitely be making a B-movie style “ATTACK OF THE STEALTH SKIPS!” poster.

Do it and “Attack of the Killer High Rolllers!”

The excess is just the start of it tho. Premiums will sky-rocket.

was it this?

seems to have lights… 😆

I’d get a quote for trading the car in without it being fixed.

I traded my Golf in and it had a few dents and scrapes, but the dealer offered a decent price anyway saying that Golfs were easy to sell. I guess they can fix it up a lot cheaper than i can.