Reddit, am I the asshole for an accidental door ding….
I was going to the store today and as I parked and was about to exit my vehicle, a gust of wind blew my door from my hand and my door hit the vehicle next to me. As I was getting out to assess the damage my door caused, the owner happened to be walking back to his vehicle and immediately started becoming irate. He was cursing me out despite me apologizing profusely. After the 2nd or 3rd I’m sorry, he started yelling “well sorry isn’t going to fix this is it, now I’m going to have to fucking fix this”.After about the 4th I’m sorry he started walking to his drivers side and yelled to me to “be more careful next time you dumb fuck” and got into his vehicle. He started screaming for me to “get the fuck out of the way” as I was still processing what was happening and in the middle of closing my car door still. After he told me to get the fuck out of the way, I was too scared to stay by my car so I decided to walk away towards the store I had initially came there for. As I was walking away he was screaming “what the fuck” in his car. I hungout in the store for a small amount of time as I was scared of things escalating. With the way he reacted I wasn’t sure if he was going to follow me in the store or wait by my car to harass me. He must have left before I came back out. I wasn’t able to give him any insurance info as he was completely irate during the incident and left before I came out. Now I’m worried I will get in trouble for a hit and run or what not even though he was the one who technically left and was being unreasonable from the jump. I would’ve offered to pay for the removal of the paint that had transferred onto his vehicle, as that was the only damage my door had caused.
There was not much you could do when the owner went “ape shit”. Best do as you did; that is, put some distance between yourselves. If he wanted to pursue a claim, he should have said so instead of intimidating/threatening you.
Hit and run? No way (probably occurred on private property anyway if you were at a store).
Forget about it.
NTA.
NTA
These things happen. No need to get apoplectic about it.
A sane person would just ask to exchange insurance info and let the companies determine if this was an “accident” that matters (in their terms). If the only “damage” was paint transfer, it likely would meet the definition of a “ding” anyway.
He’ll get a lot more over the life of his car. Don’t worry about him.
That guy clearly has some severe anger management issues.
NTA. Everyone dings a door at some point (or many points!) in their life. Sure, I get pissed when it happens to me, but I don’t get totally bent out of shape over it. Car dealerships and automotive supply stores sell pain pens for this very reason.
NTA. He WAY overreacted.
Most people can shake off a door ding…yeah it sucks, but it happened. I’d be mildly annoyed at most…it’s an object.
When objects are more important than people, you’re an asshole.
You’re good here NTA.
I think ESH applies the most here. I was also irate when this happened to me because my car was less than 2 weeks old, they left paint and a big noticeable dent, which cost me $250 to fix, all because of someone who parked too close to me (common problem in my lot, the one who does this is notorious for it) and didn’t even bother to leave a note. But, if I would’ve seen them do it, I’d have just asked for their insurance and filed a claim without making a big fuss about it like this guy did– he’s definitely an AH.
We’ve all had winds do that to us when opening a car door, but to cause noticeable damage to someone else’s car does leave you some blame, even if it was truly an accident. Accidents can be expensive for others to clean up even if they’re unintentional.
You would go through insurance for $250 damage?
If the person wasn’t willing to pay to fix it without insurance getting involved, yeah, I would. It wasn’t a small ding, it was a dent. I didn’t know how much it’d cost, and got lucky that PDR would fix it and the body shop knew a guy so it was $250 for PDR instead of the $1100 quote to fix it the traditional route. And $250 isn’t pocket change, either.
Yeah, but you would probably have to pay a deductible that’s >$250.
Well, it was your fault, but you’re NTA. You did your best.
I don’t believe you that it was a gust of wind. The accidents happen. This is a common one. That person was either having a really bad day or has some serious anger issues. Nta. Except for the lying part. Yta
ESH.
Yes, you are responsible, irrespective of whether a gust of wind actually blew the door or not. The door ding is on you.
BUT He’s also an asshole for his nuclear reaction, which was entirely uncalled for. I know you felt unsafe, that’s perfectly logical, as was your decision to simply lead to deescalate the situation.
No winners here.
Door dings happen and you would have put it right if they hadn’t over reacted so NTA
Saying that, door dings are really annoying..