Dealership damaged my car while they had it for service....

Jazen · #1 01-09-2005, 09:58 AM

What is the name of your state? IL

I thought this would be the best place to see if this has happened to anyone else. I brought my car to the dealership I bought it from (it was used, a 2001 A4) to have a wheel bearing replaced. This was last Mon. (1/4), they had it for a whole week because they couldn't do it themselves and had to farm the work out to another service shop for Euro cars. Well, I went to pick it up yesterday Fri (1/7) and foolishly didn't walk around it before I paid, because after I paid for it, I noticed it had been hit in the right rear bumper along with a dent up higher on the quarter panel. As soon as I brought this to the dealerships attention, they had the manager come out and talk to me. He stated, they were not responsible. Claiming if you were hit in a Jewel parking lot, Jewel wouldn't be responsible. Obviously I know the circumstances are different. He does too, he is just trying to cover his ass. He told me I needed to talk to the service department guy. Anyway, I left the car there, but took my keys with me. This was fine with the Manager. The next day I went to the dealership, contacted my insurance company (not around on sat!!!) and tried to file a police report. As it stands the dealership is accepting no responsibility for the damage and the police couldn't file a report as the dealership is claiming that it could have happened at the other service place they sent the car to to have the work done. All in all, it's BS, but I do have State Farm insurance and was able to talk to an agent that was open on Sat. and they said to let my agent duke it out with the dealership to pay for the repairs. I took a bunch of photos and a video tape of the dealership of where the car was and the damage. Now, the steering wheel is crooked on the car and it seems where it was damaged it may be seriously out of aligment. What more can I do to strengthen my case? I have yet to talk to my insurance agent (tomorrow), so I am hoping they will do the majority of the fighting for me. Also, the dealership manager mentioned that the damage could have happened before the car was even there. I know this isn't the case and have my wife only as a witness, plus other family members. Are these witnesses enough?
Any advice? Opinions?

teflon_jones · #2 01-10-2005, 08:41 AM

You did the right thing by contacting your insurance company. I'd let them handle this for you.

Jazen · #3 01-11-2005, 07:22 PM

IL
Yes, my insurance seems to be dealing with it completely. I just don't want them to get away with doing this to someone else. As it turns out, while I was filing my complaint with the BBB, I noticed that they had 5 other complaints filed against them.
Extreme Jeep and Suzuki.
Caveat emptor!