AAA Tow damaged my vehicle. What to do?

[99ishVR-4]

Tonight I ran into some bad luck and some dumb people. My girlfriend and I were on the way home and decided to stop at Checkers(fast food place). They messed up our order so they asked us to pull around to the side to wait for the correct order(since when does a plain bacon cheeseburger mean 2 buns and a meat patty). We got our food and I went to my dd ford expedition into reverse to back out of the spot and gear selector would not budge. I stupidly shut the engine off not realizing that it would not start in any of those gears. I got on the floorboard with a flashlight and I see one of the torx bolts is loose in the shifter linkage under the dash. I couldn't turn it with my fingers and had nothing in the car to improvise with.

I have had issues like this before with different vehicles that I managed to fix on the side of the road and always managed to get home on my own but "luckily" I just signed up for a year of AAA 3 days ago. I Call them and the tow truck driver shows up an hour later. I release the e-brake and the car rolls back into the middle of the parking lot so he can load it up. I explain to him that the car is stuck in drive and unable to go in neutral or park. He confirms that he heard and understood this by saying "probably just the shift linkage" so he loads the truck up on his flatbed, my girlfriend and I hop in the tow truck and we proceed to the first red light. He stops at the light and here comes my 6,000lb ramming into the back of the tow truck cab. I see the pieces of my bumper hanging off in the mirrors. He pulls into the next parking lot and my trucks bumper is wedged under a bar on the flatbed. He has to shake it out by raising and lowering it and I see the grill, grill bezel, bumper, and bumper trim is all damaged. Apparently he thought the e-brake and chains in the front that winched it up there were enough to keep my truck on his flatbed. There were no wheel-straps on the rear wheels at all. He says its just the plastic piece on top of the bumper and he'll replace it and asks if "that's alright with me?" I tell him no, I would like to get it repaired by a collision center and he says fine, I'll be covered through AAA and taken out of his paycheck. At this point he decides to take the extra safety-measure and strap the rear wheels down. We get to my home, he unloads it and gives me his information and says to call him tomorrow. I called AAA and they said the tow company would have to repair the damage and to call back on Monday.

I would just like to know what other steps I should be taking. I will be calling the tow company tomorrow and AAA again on Monday, should I contact my insurance even though I have liability only? Has anyone had a tow truck driver damage their vehicle and how did you get it resolved? I appreciate any help at all. The expedition was never in an accident and damage free before this

I priced the replacement parts from ebay to be $300 + paint + labor
The price for ford replacement parts is $654.55 + shipping + paint + labor

[green-lantern]

That sucks, tow truck driver sounds like an idiot. You got any lawyer friends you can talk to?

[RealMcCoy]

That idiot should be thanking his lucky stars he didn't lose it off the bed into someones windshield.... Usually when you have it tied down on only one end, and it shifts toward that end, the one and only tie-down falls off...

You're doing the right thing.... They have insurance for these things. just keep on them, make sure you have a say in who fixes it, and that there is a warranty on the repairs.