My car got messed up

[Turbo92PGT]

Long story short. I took my car in for an alignment.

My strut towers got whaled on with a hammer. Tons of hammer marks and paint chipped off, strut tower has a small dent in it, paint is chipping off. My MM c/c plates are pretty beat up and the paint is chipping on them too. Overall I'm pretty pissed off.

How do I go about getting this business to pay for the damages? The "tech" should have used a rubber mallet or some non maring hammer to hit the c/c plates if they wouldn't move, not just beat the hell out of them. I'm afraid now that their condition is going to void their lifetime warranty.

I will post pics if anyone is interested. I know my car isn't as nice as alot of peoples car on the forums but its still mine and I like it most of the time.

I'm not one of those people that always tries to make a big deal out of something or try to rip people off by blaming them for something being wrong, but considering I do ALL the work to my car except alignments, I know the condition of parts on my car and my car itself.

Thanks for your help!

 

[Mustang78]

pics? and talk to the manager directly, bring your car and any before pictures you might have..then find the technician that did your alignment and have him talk to the manager WITH you.... that sucks man i don't think i'd leave without some compensation if they did that to my car..

 

[fastang2k1]

WOW! I'd be raisin' hell if I were you. What kind of moron bangs on CC plates and struts? Did you check the work before you drove it away from the shop? I'd definitely talk to the manager. If you don't get your money back or parts replaced and fixed, I'd be making calls to an attorney.

 

[SMOKEDYA]

like everyonelse said talk to the shop,they probably wont be intrested in what you have to say tho! if not then go corporate! if no luck there well small claims! no attorneys are allowd in small claims just so you know. you are your attorney so build your case and build it good! DATED pics would be best! good luck peace



john

 

[wythors]

If it's a chain, move up the ladder if the store personnel won't help. Things like this are why if I can't do it myself, I have a very small group of shops I trust, with Brad's at the top of the list. I know that if something goes wrong, they make it right with no questions asked.

 

[Turbo92PGT]

Well I left without checking under the hood. I dont normally see any reason to look under the hood after a simple alignment is done, but I guess I was wrong. Well I wrote a letter to corporate, I haven't mailed it yet. I want to get an estimate from my body shop to fix the paint chips and dents in my strut towers. Then I want to get an estimate from either brads custom auto or the mustang shop, for the c/c plate price and include all of that in my letter. Seems like any time people are upset at my shop, they leave with alot more work done for free. Again I'm not one of those people that tries to make a big deal out of stuff, but this isn't cool. Do you think its better to get go straight to corporate? The guy at the front counter at this particular shop is a complete dueche. He always has to argue with me when I come in to drop my car off for alignment because I'll bring in maximum motorsports specs or whatever, and after noticing that after the first alignment the camber was never adjusted so I drove around without noticing that the front tires were angled in, causing alot of inner tire wear.

I am also going to include pictures of my engine bay before the damage and after.

 

[cobradvm]

Sorry to hear about that - that sucks. Did you watch them do the alignment - it sounds like you didn't. I'm pretty anal when other folks touch my car - I usually ask if I can drive it on to the lift, and am always right there when they work on it - usually just for alignment stuff like this. They probably get pissed off with me standing over them, but nobody's gonna work on my car without me watching them do it.

 

[MTMMAN]

Most of the chain stores have no idea what their doing when it comes to stuff like this.
Even some thing as simple as a performance alignment should be left to an experienced performance shop. Sorry to hear some one didn't take the care to treat your car like it was their own. We'll maybe they did and thats the problem.

 

[WANNA_BE_GT]

Hey Andy, that sucks! I actually stand behind the car when they do my alignments. I have had great luck with the Sears downtown Seattle. Man, that is just flat out retarded. I am guessing you don't want to disclose the name of the shop...

 

[86turbo]

I took my car for an alignment at a shop here in hillsboro which I shouldnt say the name.... (F O R D S A N D M O R E) They did the same thing though, I go in to get a drink of water and I come out and he's hitting the cc plate with a hammer. I was like holy ****!!

 

[TheRedBlur]

That sucks man! hitting the strut sideways could damage the strut valving too! Sounds like Firestone. Talk to the manager, talk to the district manager, then go to court.

 

[Turbo92PGT]

Its funny. Your nailed it right on the head. It was firestone. I have estimates from the mustang shop and thoroughbred and the damages are almost 800. I'm going to try to go there today.

Any chance since you used to work there you would know how to get in touch with the district manager?

Thanks

 

[TheRedBlur]

well, the district manager that I know of is in bellevue, near that fancy car dealer, I forgot its name, has all the lotus' and superformance cobras.