Dispute with the dealer regarding damage to car. Advice?

Amuse370z

Heres the story, my windows have always had this problem where if I held on to the unlock button, the passenger side window would roll down half a second slower than the drivers side. The drivers side windows also started to squeak so I brought my car back to the dealer for the warranty.

Long story short. I washed my car the day before, did a walk around when I dropped my car, I made sure there was absolutely no damages.

I then told the service adviser to tell his guys to be extra careful of my car because it is lowered and has aftermarket side skirts (Amuse). Especially of the hoists that they have.

30 Minutes later the mechanic spoke to the adviser who told me there was nothing wrong with the windows when rolling down, I told him it was because he didn't hold down the key fob. At this point I was not notified of any damages.

When I got my car back I did a walk around and saw a paint chip the size of my thumb finger nail. I brought up the issue and the advisor showed me a sheet of paper with a diagram of a car and it marked the damage on the side skirts. I was told that this sheet was filled out by the mechanic the moment he brought the car in and saw the chip.

Now from what I know, this sheet needs to be signed or initialed by me at the very start to show that I acknowledged this so this sheet is complete bs.

I had to speak to the manager and went back and forth for several meetings, every single time he deflected to the owner of the place telling me he was going to get back to me after discussing with him.

He made me bring the car in to get it assessed by his body shop guy. I was quoted $300 and they would only pay half. This is a complete joke to me because they can double whatever is the cost of repair and essentially pay nothing.

I gave them 2 options. Either write me a cheque for $300 or I'm going to bring them the bill from my shop after the work is done for $300. (The manager said "I'm not going to give you $300 to get other stuff done to your car")

They declined both options, what should my next steps be?

TLDR: Dealer damaged my side skirts despite my warnings, refusing to own up to actions. What do I do?

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Firebase99

Ever see "Liar Liar" with Jim Carrey, the scene when his car was towed and scratched?

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'14 3.8 Genesis Coupe, '13 Volvo S60, '04 Honda Accord, '13 370Z-sold, '05 350Z Touring-sold, '92 300Z Twin Turbo-sold, '82 280ZX-gone, '79 260Z-gone

Nixin

Amuse370Z, I would go into the dealership and ask to speak to the service manager and the general manager. Explain you predicament in detail and give them the option to settle things amicably and professionally. Tell them that you are a member of a popular 370Z forum that has a large following in the GTA and across North America and that you will post just how they treated your vehicle and you, good or bad. Follow it up with an additional discussion regarding poor vs. positive publicity on social media and see where it goes from there. BTW, which dealership was this? Good luck.

kenchan

move out of canada.



dealers are pretty much all the same. they dont care about your car especially if modified.
another reason why my Z has NEVER seen the dealer since i took her home 6yrs ago.

jshare1

I feel it's hard to fight unless you have legitimate proof the chip wasn't there

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"only acceptable trades are turtles or beer"

TerribleONE

Sorry for your troubles. Good luck...

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birdman71

ditto lol... The only reason of it going back to the dealer is if my engine, transmission, or chassis goes out. lol, and that is only within the next 1 year and 4 months and also another 16k miles lol.

Other than that is goes to my shop lol... 168 Motoring.

As for the issues with the dealership, that is why when I do my walk arounds and see about any damage I video tape it too and do 3 sweeps. A low, mid, and high sweep. As of right now, I'd try and reason with some managers on duty there that you have not talked to yet to see if you can get them to say anything that will give you leverage in the situation.
If the dealership is really not willing to compromise, I'd go to my shop and get it fixed and take them a receipt and all the paperwork filled out to taken them to small claims court to get your money back. If they still don't give. File the paperwork. you'll eventually get your money that way. You will have to find some sort of evidence showing there was no damage before to have a strong case though.

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Birdman's Build:
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DPE G

Good luck with paint damage, as it's hard to prove and you're kind of at the dealerships mercy on what they want to repair. Keep in mind how many people who already have damage try to screw them over every time they touch a vehicle. Trust me I have been on both sides of that fence at my job, and it sucks when you honestly did not do it, but end up paying for it anyway (no i don't work at a dealer)

on a good note, your windows are perfectly normal aside from the squeak. For whatever reason they always start with the drivers side window first. This comes from owning 2 G35 coupes, G37 sedan, G37 Coupe, FX35 and 370Z. They all acted the same way. If the squeak is the window on the seal, try spraying just a tiny bit of aerosol silicone on it, works wonders and lasts quite a while.

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Jordo!

Always do a walk around with them.

They've already admitted negligence by offering to pay anything. Call the GM and threaten to call Better Business Bureau (or equivalent), leave negative reviews on FB, Yelp, etc.

They know they screwed up -- why offer any compensation otherwise?

Plus, they must have a body shop -- in the end they can fix this for free or next to it and keep their customer happy.

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Enjoy it. Destroy it.

Amuse370z

They admitted to pay half out of "goodwill". I said many times before that it was NOT there when I brought in the car.

At first they told me they were going to review the tape, the next day they told me they didn't see anything. I asked who reviewed it and was told it was the owner of the store. I said there is a conflict of interest here.

The only proof I have is that their video camera caught me doing the walk around.

They outsource their body work to an outside body shop and funny enough, it is very close to the one I go to.

I am not willing to pay half ($150) because thats literally what my shop would charge me. I might as well go get it fixed myself. (Which is why they gave me the quote of $300 in the first place)

I also did not insist the damage was caused by the hoist, but I am willing to bet it was. Maybe they dropped a wrench on it while working on the windows, who knows. They took a measuring tape to my car, then walked to the hoist inside the shop, then lied to my face saying it did not match. When I did the same last week using my phone as a measurement stick, it did match up.

My car was literally mint when I brought it in cause I washed it the day before, I cleaned every panel one by one by hand. I know for a fact it was them that did it.

The person who dealt with me was the Service manager, I think there is the slight possibility that the Owner that he referred to does not know about this case and he is lying through his teeth. I told him to set me up with an appointment with the owner earlier today cause I am done with him. Of course his response was to get back to me tomorrow cause he is not sure if he would be in tomorrow. Looking at the list of employees I don't think there is a GM to talk to? They have a General SALES manager. I am not sure if thats the right person.

This guy is full of lies. He straight up said the mechanic only saw it when he jacked the car up. I told him I was watching the whole thing through the glass in the waiting area, my car was never jacked up nor would they be able to with the side skirts being so low.

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Nixin

Which dealership was it?

zefaulter

Oh man that sucks ... It's really hard getting anything from those guys. You don't really have a solid proof unfortunately. You could take them to court but again, I'm gonna bet you won't get anything from them and court fees are gonna add up. Best case they'll try mediation before court and give you $300 but you're out the application fees and all so I dunno...

37zeroZ

My advice:

You have no right blaming others for their mistakes as it was with out doubt your mistake. You need to pay for others' mistakes. Suck it up because you can afford to pay for it.



My first Liberal post.