help someone - frustration

okay, maybe someone could help me out with this one. just thought i would toss it out there, perhaps different ppl have different ideas on this matter, which may be of greater help than you could imagine.

so, it's another car accident/insurance issue.

this bastard, and i say bastard for many reasons, which i will elaborate on later. he calls me up claiming his truck has been hit by someone in my family. so i asked the dayam guy to come over so i can assess the damage. the damage is a small dent and a scratch about half and inch long on his bumper. it obviously does not impair the vehicle from being driven; it's a minor look issue.

well, this guy comes here without information on my vehicle or insurance. he asks me for my car's license plate, so i provided to be fair. i gave him my insurance policy number, however, it has already expired just before the accident took place. so i'm figuring we would settle this between two parties.

the goal is to get the dayam thing looking like "new" i guess since we can't determine how it originally looked like before the accident. he takes it to 2 expensive ass body shops totalling to over $1,100 for the dinky ass scratch. well, i was like i don't think so. i then find 2 body shops that says, the bumper doesn't need to be completely replaced for that scratch, it can be refinished, and that would cost about $600. big dayam difference.

plus i will be renting out a car for this asshole for the days his car is in repair.

at this point, he keeps telling me, i'm not after your money, i just want the damaged area looking like it originally did. well fine. here's a place that's offering to do just that. she guarantees you it would look originally like it did and in cases like this, ppl would take ur dayam old bumper, refinish it anyways, and claim that it was a new bumper; because it's such a minor scratch it's fixable. plus it's a fuckin' painted bumper not a chrome bumper.

so what does this guy say: "hmm, i'm not sure about this, let's get a third estimate"; why? perhaps so that it would cost less than the $600 estimate or do u any need to outnumber the experts i've provided, who said that you didn't need to replace the dayam bumper to get it to look like new. now, isn't this growing to be kinda fishy. it does seem like he's after the over $1,100 estimate.

then he asks if i would make the money out to him or what? hell no. if the objective is to fix ur dayam car, and not to reap me of my money, then wouldn't i make the money out to the auto shop.

then he goes on to tell me, we'll settle for a middle range price right?. why? if you can get the same kinda work done at a lower cost, why would u go for a middle range price? the middle range price is used to settle between two extremes that can't offer you the same thing. it doesn't make logical sense to me at all.

it's starting to seem like this guy just wants the money from me and he wants the most that he can get out of me.

honestly, i don't understand why this guy did not gather all the information from whomever hit him in the first place (i prefer to not put any names to incriminate any party on my part, as u know how widespread the web is) at the scene of the accident. in any case, it's just strange that he would settle to work this out between two parties rather than involve insurance in the first place. secondly, it's so small of a scratch that i figure that's why he's settling it between party.

other than that, he has no proof that this car was hit by who he claimed hit him. the car that he claimed hit his, is no longer here, but somewhere in the north bay because the kid moved.

the cost of this entire thing is ridiculous if you guys were to see the scratch; it's utterly frustrating for me right now.

but i still have to settle the scores with this bastard nonetheless. so do u guys have any suggestions? do i really have to take responsibility of this beyond a moral standpoint (this is just so i can make a point to him)? in other words, he has no way of legally binding me to this repair or does he? i have never admitted to the damage or has there ever been anything recorded of me to claim the guilt.

so in order to settle the scores with this asshole, i'm hoping to say, you can either fix it at this $600 place or don't. because it really isn't my responsibility to fix it, i didn't hit you. you can call the police, file whatever motion u want. but that's ur call. and the thing is, if he was to do that? is there any way that he can really trace this back to me or get me into trouble or a legal bind, simply based on all that i've told u guys?

if anyone has a suggestion, please please let me know. i'm desperate and really frustrated right now. i have soo many other important things to get on with, then to deal with this sex-offender-looking-creepy-white-guy all dayam day long.

please.