Dealer damaged my car, not admitting responsibility
05-18-2009, 04:53 PM
#1
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Stevens Point, WI
Posts: 883
Dealer damaged my car, not admitting responsibility
2 weeks ago I bought a 2003 Protege5 for my wife. It had rust in the wheelwells, so part of the deal was that the dealership would fix the rust by sanding and respraying the panels. We'd pay $600 for all four panels to be repainted.
They ended up only spraying 3 panels, and after a bit of complaining, I got them to agree on a $150 refund. However, there were some other problems:
* They painted the rear wheelwells completely...plastic, springs, struts...everything.
* There's overspray on the door and rear bumper
* They scratched the hatch several times, right through the paint.
* They left a ~10" scuff on the rear bumper, which also goes through the paint.
I took photos of the car before the work was done, which clearly show no damage to the hatch or bumper. Tomorrow I go into the dealership again to argue my case. I took the car to a different body shop today for an estimate to fix the new damage, and it came out to $360 for the hatch and $475 for the bumper.
In your honest opinion, what should I argue for? How do you think the dealership will respond? Would the case hold up in small claims court?
I'll add a few pics into this thread in a few minutes...
They ended up only spraying 3 panels, and after a bit of complaining, I got them to agree on a $150 refund. However, there were some other problems:
* They painted the rear wheelwells completely...plastic, springs, struts...everything.
* There's overspray on the door and rear bumper
* They scratched the hatch several times, right through the paint.
* They left a ~10" scuff on the rear bumper, which also goes through the paint.
I took photos of the car before the work was done, which clearly show no damage to the hatch or bumper. Tomorrow I go into the dealership again to argue my case. I took the car to a different body shop today for an estimate to fix the new damage, and it came out to $360 for the hatch and $475 for the bumper.
In your honest opinion, what should I argue for? How do you think the dealership will respond? Would the case hold up in small claims court?
I'll add a few pics into this thread in a few minutes...
05-18-2009, 06:05 PM
#2
2 weeks ago I bought a 2003 Protege5 for my wife. It had rust in the wheelwells, so part of the deal was that the dealership would fix the rust by sanding and respraying the panels. We'd pay $600 for all four panels to be repainted.
They ended up only spraying 3 panels, and after a bit of complaining, I got them to agree on a $150 refund. However, there were some other problems:
* They painted the rear wheelwells completely...plastic, springs, struts...everything.
* There's overspray on the door and rear bumper
* They scratched the hatch several times, right through the paint.
* They left a ~10" scuff on the rear bumper, which also goes through the paint.
I took photos of the car before the work was done, which clearly show no damage to the hatch or bumper. Tomorrow I go into the dealership again to argue my case. I took the car to a different body shop today for an estimate to fix the new damage, and it came out to $360 for the hatch and $475 for the bumper.
In your honest opinion, what should I argue for? How do you think the dealership will respond? Would the case hold up in small claims court?
I'll add a few pics into this thread in a few minutes...
They ended up only spraying 3 panels, and after a bit of complaining, I got them to agree on a $150 refund. However, there were some other problems:
* They painted the rear wheelwells completely...plastic, springs, struts...everything.
* There's overspray on the door and rear bumper
* They scratched the hatch several times, right through the paint.
* They left a ~10" scuff on the rear bumper, which also goes through the paint.
I took photos of the car before the work was done, which clearly show no damage to the hatch or bumper. Tomorrow I go into the dealership again to argue my case. I took the car to a different body shop today for an estimate to fix the new damage, and it came out to $360 for the hatch and $475 for the bumper.
In your honest opinion, what should I argue for? How do you think the dealership will respond? Would the case hold up in small claims court?
I'll add a few pics into this thread in a few minutes...
the overspray IMO shows the carelessness of the person who worked on your car. that enough should be enough to have them admit their mistakes..
and good job on your part for before pictures...now they wouldn't happen to have dates for when they were taken do they? if they do, present that, the bill for when it was done and the after shots then you should be set...if they still refuse and you have to take it to court, then that's where it's going to be a hassle..court fees...if you go through a lawyer..then lawyer fees...
sorry to hear about this though...definitely fight it...with your photos, you should get this settled...i would be hella pissed if i were you...
05-18-2009, 07:08 PM
#3
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Stevens Point, WI
Posts: 883
The photos don't have a date stamp, but I can get the date off of the EXIF data for each photo. I don't know if I can put a date stamp on after the fact. My camera can do it, but I have that feature turned off.
05-19-2009, 08:55 PM
#5
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Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Stevens Point, WI
Posts: 883
Well they refunded me $150, and offered to redo the work. I declined their offer and told them "I brought my car in for $600 worth of work and came out with $800 in new damage! Why the hell would I want your body shop to do more work on my car??? What's going to happen this time???"
The general manager would not give me the amount shown on my estimates, and would not even give me the net cost that the dealership would pay to fix the damage. All he would offer was to fix the bumper and hatch at no cost.
I was very hesitant, but agreed to this. The majority of the scratches on the car are on the tailgate and rear bumper, so they will all be fixed with this repair.
I felt that my only options were to have this fixed at no cost, or sit on my new $800 worth of damage with no compensation, and have to attempt fixing it myself. I was skeptical that my photos would hold up in court, since it's entirely possible to edit digital photos to remove a scratch or something.
Wish me luck with the repair. I'll be taking a lot more photos before it goes in this time.
The general manager would not give me the amount shown on my estimates, and would not even give me the net cost that the dealership would pay to fix the damage. All he would offer was to fix the bumper and hatch at no cost.
I was very hesitant, but agreed to this. The majority of the scratches on the car are on the tailgate and rear bumper, so they will all be fixed with this repair.
I felt that my only options were to have this fixed at no cost, or sit on my new $800 worth of damage with no compensation, and have to attempt fixing it myself. I was skeptical that my photos would hold up in court, since it's entirely possible to edit digital photos to remove a scratch or something.
Wish me luck with the repair. I'll be taking a lot more photos before it goes in this time.
08-21-2009, 10:55 AM
#6
Well they refunded me $150, and offered to redo the work. I declined their offer and told them "I brought my car in for $600 worth of work and came out with $800 in new damage! Why the hell would I want your body shop to do more work on my car??? What's going to happen this time???"
The general manager would not give me the amount shown on my estimates, and would not even give me the net cost that the dealership would pay to fix the damage. All he would offer was to fix the bumper and hatch at no cost.
I was very hesitant, but agreed to this. The majority of the scratches on the car are on the tailgate and rear bumper, so they will all be fixed with this repair.
I felt that my only options were to have this fixed at no cost, or sit on my new $800 worth of damage with no compensation, and have to attempt fixing it myself. I was skeptical that my photos would hold up in court, since it's entirely possible to edit digital photos to remove a scratch or something.
Wish me luck with the repair. I'll be taking a lot more photos before it goes in this time.
The general manager would not give me the amount shown on my estimates, and would not even give me the net cost that the dealership would pay to fix the damage. All he would offer was to fix the bumper and hatch at no cost.
I was very hesitant, but agreed to this. The majority of the scratches on the car are on the tailgate and rear bumper, so they will all be fixed with this repair.
I felt that my only options were to have this fixed at no cost, or sit on my new $800 worth of damage with no compensation, and have to attempt fixing it myself. I was skeptical that my photos would hold up in court, since it's entirely possible to edit digital photos to remove a scratch or something.
Wish me luck with the repair. I'll be taking a lot more photos before it goes in this time.
08-21-2009, 03:11 PM
#7
Senior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Stevens Point, WI
Posts: 883
They repainted the hatch and rear bumper at no cost. The paint job still sucks though, if you look hard enough. It was good enough to the point that I wasn't willing to keep dealing with those idiots, so I took it and left.
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