No, it's not just you; some people are @ssholes, plain and simple.
Here's my recent sad and long story (as you read this keep in mind that I'm one of those guys who parks out in the north 40, my Z is over 5 years old, and that up until the following happened it was in pristine condition):
I came out of the grocery store one day and there was a deep scratch 3"-4" through the paint at the bottom of my rear bumper - it looked like a shopping cart had slammed into the bumper. The damage was definitely noticeable and impossible to buff out.
Then a month or so later, before I had the chance to get the rear bumper repaired, someone backed up into my front bumper while I was reverse-parked in a parking slot. Nice deep scratches through the clear bra and paint across the bumper, and my Stillen license plate holder was bent. The @sshole that did it just took off. A good Samaritan left a note on my windshield with a description of the car that hit mine and their license plate number; unfortunately, the license plate didn't match the description of the car that hit me (so it was a stolen plate or car or both) and that meant I couldn't go after him to pay for the damages. To further piss me off, I think that was the only time I've ever reverse-parked my Z, and if I hadn't the guy would have hit my already-damaged rear bumper and I would have only had to pay one $500 deductible; but no, now
both bumpers were damaged in two
separate incidents so I had to pay $1000 in deductibles.
So I got both bumpers repaired, paid my $1000 deductible and then needed to wait at least 3 weeks for the paint to cure before I could take the car in and have the clear bra re-installed. So I waited a bit longer than 3 weeks and then took the car in. The installer and a couple of his helpers went out to look at the car while I waited inside his shop. They came back inside and the installer asks "Did they finish all of the repairs?" I said "Yeah, everything was done. Why?" Then he says "Oh
dude, someone hit your front bumper again!" Sure enough, sometime in the last 48 hours someone had smacked my front bumper again and cracked the brand new clear coat in two different places.
At this point I'm more than a little pissed, to say the least. Little did I know that the nightmare was far from over...
So I called the insurance company and filed another claim. And I'm on the hook for
another $500 deductible. I took the car back to the same shop and had them repair the front bumper again. A week later the shop guy calls and tells me the car is done, so the next morning I had them pick me up and take me to the shop to get the car. I walked towards the car and was about 20 feet from it when I noticed three scratches (really they were small rips) about 2 inches long each in the clear bra across the bottom lip of the hood. I looked at the shop guy and basically said "WTF? Those weren't there before!". It was pretty clear that whoever put the front bumper back on scratched the hood in the process. The shop guy says "Oh, well, ummm, we must have missed that when we originally assessed the damage. I'll call the insurance company, send them pictures, and get them to authorize fixing the hood damage too." So I looked at him thinking "OK, if that's how you want to play it, that's between you and the insurance company - I'm sure not paying for it."
So 4-5 days go by and the shop guy calls around 1:30pm and says "Your car is done - you can pick it up tomorrow morning!" Around 4:30pm the shop guy leaves me a message on my cell phone saying "Oh man, I can't believe this. I'm so sorry, but we were washing your car and when our guy was driving your car back into our garage he scraped the bottom of your front bumper on our driveway. The bumper is scratched and we'll have to remove and repaint it again." At that point I wasn't sure if I should start swearing or start laughing hysterically. But at least the shop took full responsibility for the damage (with no argument), and they even offered to pay for a rental car if I needed one...
Three days later I finally got my Z back. That was about three weeks ago, and now that the paint has fully cured I'm about ready to schedule an appointment to finally get the clear bra re-installed (although now the hood will have to have its clear bra re-installed too), assuming that nothing else happens to the car in the meantime.
So if anyone wants a referral to a repair shop that has a lot of experience in removing, repairing, repainting, and re-installing 370Z front bumpers, just PM me...
