Dealership damaged my car. Am I going about this the right way?

[terrible one]

Well today I went to the local Ford dealership to pick up my '01 Lincoln LS. I had it up there for some work as the slave cylinder was leaking again. Anyways, I picked the car up, and headed out. I drove immediately to my girlfriend's house, after which I got out, and walked to her porch to meet her. Then, as I looked back at my car, I noticed something by the gas door. "Is that a f***ing dent?!," I exclaimed. As I walked up, my heart sunk. It was. And not only that, there were random scratches along the bodyline, as well as grease marks.

Immediately, I knew the damage had occured at the dealership. I always look my car over as I get out of it. I'm very meticulous about it, and try to take as good of care of it as I can. The sad thing is, every bit of damage that has occured thus far has been other people keying it, running into it, etc.

Anyways, I went back to the dealership, and talked to the guy at the service desk, whom I've become pretty good friends with. He came out and looked at my car, etc. I asked if they had put it up on the lift, etc. and he said they had put it on the drive-on lift, and I pointed out to him the grease marks, etc. He told me to come back Monday, which was when the service manager would be there and told me that he would talk to him about it.

With that said, and me having taken pictures immediately after finding the damage, I plan to go to my preferred local auto body shop and have them give me a quote for the damage. I then plan to show up at the dealership with the pictures and the quote for the repair and simply ask for the amount of money that the quote states.

Does this sound like the right way to go about things to you guys? I realize that with this type of situation they can claim that it happened afterwards, etc. but I think I might have a chance if I go about things right. Suggestions and opinions?

Here are some pictures of the damage. 

[69bronzeT5]

My parents had a 1990 Pontiac Bonneville SSE and they said back in the 90's, they took it to a detailing place. They dropped it off and they went down the road to the store. They came back 2 hrs later and the front bumper, hood and grille were sorta crunched. They asked what the hell happened and the guy at the desk said that one of the new guys was moving it from the shop to the parking lot and it was a narrow passage way, anyways....the guy accidentley gave it too much gas and drove into the wooden fence. Anyways, long story short, my parents got a quote from a body shop and the detailing company paid to have it fixed and repainted.

[Todd Wilson]

That kind of stuff happens sometimes. I was at a dealership one time running a delivery years ago. GM/Caddy dealer.   A really nice shiny black Suburban was in the service area entrance off to the side. A little old lady pulls up in a nice big new caddy . She could hardly see over the steering wheel and pulls in and folds her mirror back on the Suburban. Hearing the noise she stops and everyone inside the service bay stops and looks and comes running waving and yelling. She puts the caddy in reverse and backs up and dragged that folded up mirror down the length of the Suburban and you can guess what it did. I jsut stood there and laughed.


Your situation is probably gonna have to get nasty before anything gets done  if it gets done at all. I havent ever been impressed with any dealership service areas.  The sale of the car is over so they arent gonna want to kiss your ass for anything. You left the property and they will use that line first thing.


Todd

[dads_69]

I work for a dealership, accidents happen everyday. With the lot porters being young an inexperienced and service techs who don't show a lot of respect, they are job security for us in the body shop. They should take care of with no issues. Did they not do a walk around before you gave them your car for service repair to inspect for prior damage? You normally have a sign in sheet that shows your car/truck in out line and they write down what it has or hasn't for damage. Being a Ford dealership or any dealer for that matter, they don't want or need a law suit, I'm 99% sure they'll take care of it and you. Remember, bad news travels faster than good news and the customer is always right.
Mark

[no318]

I work for a dealership, accidents happen everyday. With the lot porters being young an inexperienced and service techs who don't show a lot of respect, they are job security for us in the body shop. They should take care of with no issues. Did they not do a walk around before you gave them your car for service repair to inspect for prior damage? You normally have a sign in sheet that shows your car/truck in out line and they write down what it has or hasn't for damage. Being a Ford dealership or any dealer for that matter, they don't want or need a law suit, I'm 99% sure they'll take care of it and you. Remember, bad news travels faster than good news and the customer is always right.
Mark

I agree and have worked in dealer service departments.  That is a MINOR fix.  They may just pay the shop instead of giving you the cash, but they will make it right.  They don't want bad PR or all the hassle with a lawsuit over something that minor.  I am assuming that they don't have their own body shop there.  If they did, obviously they will want to fix it themselves rather than pay someone else. 

[andy74]

i agree,we had a customers truck get a dent here in our shop last week due to a careless tech-we told the customer,and made arangements to fix it,easier to do the right thing the first time is my motto.most dealerships will probably want to fix it at their own shop,but if you prefer a different shop just be cool about it  !

[Mean 318]

I had that happen with my truck right after I got it painted. They gave me a name of a good PDR guy and told me to go over there no questions asked. I am sure they will fix it no prob.

[dkn1997]

I would not be shocked if they try to deny all responsibility for it, espcially since you did not notice it until you got somewhere else.  Not saying they are right, of course they are not. 

With so many people out to get a free lunch (NOT YOU, please don't think I am saying that) businesses tend to be very defensive when confronted with claiims of negligence or damage.  Very bad mix:  businesses who don't want to do the right thing versus a general public with a victim mentality and a lawyer on speed dial.  I hope they do the right thing for you.

The last time I took one of our work vans to ford, they had a guy who won't even let you in the parking lot without doing a walk around and marking any existing damage.

[pettyfan43]

Let me tell you about when I worked at a Dodge Dealer!

We had a guy that started as a tech there. He lasted about 5-6 months. In that time he backed a Customer's new Neon (FIRST oil change) off the oil change rack apparently trying to win a race and backed the thing into a brand new Ram 4X4. Ram wasn't even scratched, the Neon was killed!

He backed a Customers Diesel 2500 4X4 into a brand new Infiniti Q45! 1500 dollar rear bumper cover got a trailer hitch through it!

The straw that broke the camel's back, was we had a Viper R/T 10 roadster come in (about 3600 miles on the car) I order the guy a new seat back because the seat stitching is coming loose.
The IDIOT service writer gave this 80 thousand dollar car to WHO? YEP Mr Neon/Q45 himself! He puts the seat back in the car and decided he needed to ROAD TEST the car. Got just out of sight around a bend, and decided to find out what 488 cubic inches and 450 Horsepower felt like! Apparently, not being real bright, he couldn't figure out that....

A) Vipers have a VERY distinctive sound, NOT easy to confuse with anything else!
B) the important part, SOUND TRAVELS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  3rd grade science and life experience just weren't prudent!

Well he got to the stop sign at the end of the road, started through the intersection and decided that he needed to check out the Characteristics of a Viper under full acceleration. This lasted about 40 feet before the car got really sideways REALLY fast and proceeded to climb a 20 foot embankment and by the time it was done, the estimate was around 48K! YEAH 48 THOUSAND DOLLARS! I'm talking new front bumper cover, the WHOLE tail was shifted, the frame was TWISTED at the right rear wheel. There wasn't one body panel on the car without SOME kind of broken, cracked paint!

The car was DARK blue and the guy wanted another one that color, They had to pay a premium because of the color (How many 2001 DARK BLUE ones have you seen? ) Because that was the rarest color on them. The insurance company paid for a new car, it cost the dealer an undetermined amount to find and secure THAT particular car, PLUS a premium for the higher line interior versus what was in the car the moron crashed. THAT was like 1600 bucks!

The moral of the story? It can always be worse, be careful who you let touch your car, Make sure your service writer is brighter than a light bulb, and NEVER EVER TRUST AN IDIOT WITH YOUR VIPER!

YES this is a true story, you can't make this stuff up!

[moparguy01]

Petty fan, im assuming he got canned. you didnt mention that in your thread. thats horrible.

[pettyfan43]

Petty fan, im assuming he got canned. you didnt mention that in your thread. thats horrible.

Yeah, killing the big blue snake was his last official act for the dealership.

All this guy had to do was install the seat back and take the car back around and park it. Instead he trashes an 80 thousand dollar car inside of a minute.

[terrible one]

Pettyfan, that's insane!

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I hope that the dealership will cover it, but if not I think I'm going to save some of my job money this summer and put it towards getting the front bumper of the car repainted (Lots of paint chips, etc. from highway driving with previous owner), that dent pulled, the places where people have keyed it, and other random chips, etc. repaired.

[Charger-Bodie]

Pettyfan, that's insane!

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I hope that the dealership will cover it, but if not I think I'm going to save some of my job money this summer and put it towards getting the front bumper of the car repainted (Lots of paint chips, etc. from highway driving with previous owner), that dent pulled, the places where people have keyed it, and other random chips, etc. repaired.

try to get them to cover it, but if not id spend the money on youre charger.

[6670charger]

It could go either way, but, they'll probably take care of you.  Especially if they ever want to see any of your business again.

[JimShine]

A buddy of mine had a car at the dealership having some warranty work done to it. They parked it outside of the garage that night and their inhouse plow truck driver ran the plow blade across the entire passenger side of the car. They repaired the car, but took their sweet time doing it.

[terrible one]

Well, I am happily surprised. . .

Went to the dealership today and talked to the service manager, who was pretty cool about it and simply gave me his business card and told me to go to whatever body shop I wanted and get them to fax him a quote.

I then immediately took the car to the best place in town, which does a lot of restoration work, etc. . . more so than just insurance work like others. They are definitely the best around here. That being said, the guy looked my car over and got me a quote, which ended up as a grand total of $307.62, which included 4.8 hours in labor and $89 in paint, plus them re-doing the pin-stripe, etc. That sounded pretty extreme to me, but I know nothing about bodywork. I know the dealership is going to be a bit upset about me going to these guys and them taking such a loss, but I know that I'll get the best work done possible, instead of someone simply filling the dent with body filler and doing a shitty paint-over, etc.

Anyways, as I said before, I'm pretty surprised that they took such good care of me, but I'm definitely satisfied. I'll let you guys know how it goes from here . . .

[moparguy01]

The thing is TO that they know that all it would take is you telling 5 friends to hurt their reputation, and its obvious that their reputation is worth more to them than a under 400 dollar repair job. they probably wont bat an eye in paying that amount. its petty cash for a stealership.

[terrible one]

Ah yeah I guess I didn't think of it that way. $307 is a lot to me though! Haha. Anyways, I'm just glad that they're going to take care of me like they should.

[Charger-Bodie]

thats very cheap to fix a dent and paint a 1/4 panel!!!

[moparguy01]

They're probably going to try to PDR that dent, and then blend the area around it. so it probably wont take a good paint guy more than a couple hours to do it.

[terrible one]

PDR?

[moparguy01]

paintless dent repair. sorry, im used to bodyshop lingo. my bad.

[terrible one]

Haha it's cool.

[Charger-Bodie]

there is no way i would accept a in panel clear blend no matter who does it it will evenually break down and show back up