Patty Neves thought she avoided serious damage when she hit a pothole on Eagle Road in March 2016.
The impact blew out both tires on her car’s passenger side. She had no idea at the time that the fallout from that single incident would create nearly a year of frustration.
"It was kind of like, my god why'd this happen? You know, this shouldn't happen," Neves said.
When Neves called for a tow truck, the mechanic advised her to call police so there would be a record of the incident if she filed a claim with the city.
When she did, her claim was ultimately denied because the section of Eagle Road where she hit the pothole is private property. Neves accepted the decision and didn’t think about it again until she decided to trade in her 2011 Hyundai Sonata a few months later.
A car dealership employee told Neves her car was worth $3,000. He cited the Carfax report that listed an accident with “disabling damage.”
It came as a shock to Neves, who was expecting a quote between $7,000 and $8,000 based on information from Kelley Blue Book.
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“My car is fine. Nothing happened to my car. It was just the flat tires,” Neves said.
Neves tried to call Carfax to get the report changed, but said she had a hard time getting through.
NBC Connecticut Responds got in touch with Carfax and asked them to review Neves’ case. Once the company received copies of the police report and an invoice from the repair shop, Neves’ Carfax report was amended to reflect that the body of her vehicle did not sustain any damage.
And when Neves went back to the dealership to see about that trade-in, she received an estimate of $7,200.
“I was so happy,” she said.
Carfax told NBC Connecticut Responds it receives data from more than 100,000 sources. If you think there is an error on your Carfax report, you can fill out the Online Data Research Request on the company’s website.
