We went to stay with relatives over Christmas and left the car parked outside their house. They live in a close, there is no through traffic and loads of space for parking in this way. When I went out to load the car on the 27th I found a note on the windscreen apologising for the damage to one of my front lights, offering just a first name, Dan, and a phone number. The plastic visor was smashed and the front bumper was. very slightly misaligned. My BIL looked at the damage and worked out that it was likely to have been done by someone reversing out of one of two drives belonging to their neighbours.
I phoned the number on the note and Dan turned out to be a youngish, polite guy who said he wanted to pay for the repair work to be done privately. After nearly 30 years without an insurance claim I was hit in a car park last year by an unknown driver and despite it not being my fault my insurance has increased by 50%, so I agreed to that. I asked him to send me a What's App message stating what we'd agreed and that that once I had that I'd get a couple of quotes for repairs.
The light was still fully functional, just missing the glass, so I set off and all was well. The car was due to for MOT on 4 January and I couldn't find anyone to fix the lamp before then, so it failed its MOT, meaning that I couldn't drive it in the meantime because I wouldn't be insured. I kept Dan updated of all this on WA and had a few thumbs-up responses but nothing more. No 'I'm sorry this is turning out to be so complicated' or anything. My local garage gave me a price that undercut the main dealer by £150. They gave me a written estimate on 7 Jan which I sent to Dan, asking him to confirm and pay me before I had the work done. He didn't respond for three days: apparently he was on holiday in Portugal. He said he couldn't transfer the money while he was away.
That response came through on 10 January, which was the day I got my car back, fixed, having decided to pay the bill myself rather than hang around any longer. I took a photo of the repair and sent it to him with the final invoice and a message saying 'Please let me know when you'll be back and when you'll pay.' I heard nothing until a message came in at 2.30am this morning with a single word: 'Paid'. I've checked and yes, he's paid. But nothing to thank me for my understanding or regret at the fact that my car was out of action for more than a week, or that he did nothing to speed things up.
AIBU to think that when you've had an accident like this, and the person on the other end has been totally reasonable about it and saved you hours of hassle and expense, you treat them with a little more courtesy?