Issue with carwash

hawker

I was washing my car last weekend in one of those automatic carwashes. As the metal part was coming back towards the front of the car from the back it caught the wing mirror and smashed the mirror out of the casing. It also took a panel off the underside of the mirror casing.

Should I have pulled in the wing mirrors? I have used this same washer several times with no issues whatsoever. I spoke to the manager of the forecourt and I was under the impression from him that they would pay for the dameage. However on speaking to a few people they state that I should have pulled in my mirrors.

Where do I stand?

TestTransmission

They accept no liability,they usually have a big sign saying this.

Your'e better off with a mitt,2 buckets and decent car shampoo/conditioner

NLane

any of these automatic washes that i've seen have instructions telling you to fold in the mirrors.... is there a sign at this one? if there is then the garage could prob get away with not paying for the damage i'd say.

EPM

I never fold mine in to be honest in any wash

hawker

NLane wrote: »

any of these automatic washes that i've seen have instructions telling you to fold in the mirrors.... is there a sign at this one? if there is then the garage could prob get away with not paying for the damage i'd say.

I didn't see any sign to say that they don't accept responsibility. Nor did I see one to say that you had to pull in my wing mirrors. The reason I'm 90% sure of these, is that I was looking at the car on front of me and I thought the metal part came close to their mirrors and it's then I had a quick look around. However having said that I cannot be 100% sure.

Upon saying it to the manager he said he'd report it to head office and they would deal with it. He also mentioned that when I produce a receipt they would refund me.

hawker

jackncoke wrote: »

They accept no liability,they usually have a big sign saying this.

Your'e better off with a mitt,2 buckets and decent car shampoo/conditioner

Generally I do wash it myself. However I was still feeling the effects of my Christmas party two days before.

NLane

hawker wrote: »

I didn't see any sign to say that they don't accept responsibility. Nor did I see one to say that you had to pull in my wing mirrors. The reason I'm 90% sure of these, is that I was looking at the car on front of me and I thought the metal part came close to their mirrors and it's then I had a quick look around. However having said that I cannot be 100% sure.

Upon saying it to the manager he said he'd report it to head office and they would deal with it. He also mentioned that when I produce a receipt they would refund me.

"head office" can often have different opinions to the manager! see how it goes anyway, they might be decent enough to pay for the repair, particularly if they don't tell customers to fold in the mirrors, remover aerial etc.

Bandara

I'd be very very surprised if the garage do pay for the damage.

I've been in the business many years and I've never seen a wash take off a wing mirror (or indeed damage any part of a car) except when the machine was used incorrectly by the customer or the mirror etc was already damaged.

Any of the issues I've seen with mirrors are when the customer parks incorrectly between the guide rails and as a result the metal columns of the wash will obviously hit the wing mirrors.

You have to consider this from the point of view of the mechanics of the machine, it is a fixed machine that travels the exact same tracks for every single wash it does. It never deviates from this, ever. As a result if a wash was faulty every single car it washed would have its mirror removed, not just one persons car. The machine isn't going to damage yours and then go back to behaving itself. Its also entirely possible your mirroir got a clip from a car in a car park and was loose. Its very common for people to come in shouting about the carwash denting their car (which is utterly impossible) usually the passanger side , the fact that their car was filthy before they came in, and they never look at the passenger side and they never noticed the days old dent before.

I would get at LEAST one of these a week, most common is the "carwash took off my aerial, what are you going to do about it", I had one of these today.

If you go back to the garage I would be really surprised if they do not have a disclaimer in the shop or beside the till or around the Wash bay. All garages have these in order to protect themselves against such claims.

The fact of it is if we were to pay out on all these user error claims then there would be no carwashes, as it would be impossible to make money from them.

IMO the manager was just being a coward and fobbing you off with the old "I'll send it to headoffice line", he's the manager, headoffice would be expecting him to deal with this as a day to day item. I would guess that you'll hear nothing from him in the hope you go away, and when you do go back you'll be told 'sorry but headoffice said there is nothing they can do'.

If you are really convinced that you parked directly between the center of the rails etc etc then if you go back there you might find that they have a camera directly recording the car wash (most garages do), you can ask to see the footage to see if indeed you are correct, if the footage shows your straight then you have a case.

I had a good one few years back, bloke came in and bought a carwash, while in the middle of the wash he open his passenger window and dropped his already removed wing mirror out of the window and onto the ground. He came in screaming and shouting and demanding money for the mirror, I walked out and pointed to the mirror and said 'lets call the guards on this one'

He left rather quickly. :rolleyes:

Big Nasty

hawker wrote: »

Upon saying it to the manager he said he'd report it to head office and they would deal with it. He also mentioned that when I produce a receipt they would refund me.

Even by the way you said that what I would expect he meant was a refund for the price of your car wash but if it was me in the shop I wouldn't even do that as it would be an admission of guilt to some extent. TBH if it was my shop and I had all the correct 'at your own risk signs' up I would offer a refund on the price of the car wash but only as a sign of goodwill to a regular customer and properly explained as so with a witness.

corktina

i dont think the "at your own risk" signs have any legal force BUT you would have to prove the machine was faulty and damaged your car.

Bridan

hawker wrote: »

I was washing my car last weekend in one of those automatic carwashes. As the metal part was coming back towards the front of the car from the back it caught the wing mirror and smashed the mirror out of the casing. It also took a panel off the underside of the mirror casing.

Should I have pulled in the wing mirrors? I have used this same washer several times with no issues whatsoever. I spoke to the manager of the forecourt and I was under the impression from him that they would pay for the dameage. However on speaking to a few people they state that I should have pulled in my mirrors.

Where do I stand?

I just wanted to find out the outcome on this hawker please, as my wife had s similar experience this week, the vertical brush pushed back and broke wing mirror in her car, not sure whether garage are liable ? would appreciate your advice,
thanks.

biko

Did the wife use the same place?