Damage from using car wash

[StuTheGrouch]

Evening friends of PH.

I am feeling more grouchy than normal dealing with a well known nation-wide car wash chain. Back in February, against my better judgement, I put my car through a car wash. Later on I noticed the following damage:

Rear bumper


Rear wheel arch


This was 100% from the car wash. The car is unmarked otherwise and I spotted it straight away after arriving home (I was in the car during the wash). I believe that the damage looks rotational, further suggesting the car wash; I can't even think of another cause of the damage.

I emailed the customer services straight away and followed this up the following day with pictures (too dark to get decent pictures before). I was told that I needed to return to the site to complete an incident report, which I did the following weekend. At this time I was told 'we don't accept liability' and so on that occasion went home empty handed. I emailed again only to be told that without the incident form that they couldn't investigate. They spoke to the site and primed them for my re-visit.

Last week (1st July) I managed to attend the site again and this time managed to get the report done. The operator agreed with me that the damage appeared to follow a circular pattern, but obviously wouldn't accept fault there and then. I emailed a copy of this report to customer services and have today received a 'without prejudice' letter stating that they will not be accepting liability (surprise surprise).

Now, I don't accept this. The damage was done by the car wash and I will be paying to repair. In the case of the wheel arch the damage is quite deep (the picture doesn't do it justice) and so I will need to get the repair carried out to prevent the wheel arch rusting (it's an e46 330 which are known to rust, so I keep the arches clean and waxoyled to prevent rust- so far so good).

My planned course of action is to obtain some quotes for the work and send them a letter giving them 14 days to pay the amount quoted.

My questions are:
1. Am I wasting my time?
2. Will I need to get the repairs done before issuing a small claim? I'd rather not be out of pocket to be honest at this time (redecorating house, just done mechanical work to the car and wife about to have another baby)
3. How many chances do I need to given them before going down that route?

So, any views?

[AWRacing]

One question, why has it taken you 4months to revisit the site?

To be honest, and I am in no way qualified to give a legal answer, I would chalk it up to experience. I'm sure there are signs that usually state no liability can be held against the site, whether these have any legal weight behind them I'm sure will be clarified by someone soon.

Good luck

[justanother5tar]

AWRacing said:

One question, why has it taken you 4months to revisit the site?

To be honest, and I am in no way qualified to give a legal answer, I would chalk it up to experience. I'm sure there are signs that usually state no liability can be held against the site, whether these have any legal weight behind them I'm sure will be clarified by someone soon.

Good luck

+1. Everyone I've seen says 'we don't accept responsibility for any damage'.

[StuTheGrouch]

AWRacing said:

One question, why has it taken you 4months to revisit the site?

To be honest, and I am in no way qualified to give a legal answer, I would chalk it up to experience. I'm sure there are signs that usually state no liability can be held against the site, whether these have any legal weight behind them I'm sure will be clarified by someone soon.

Good luck

That's a fair question. The answer is that I have been away most weekends and very busy at work, meaning that I haven't easily found the time. Plus the site isn't that local.

Don't forget that I contacted them immediately and followed up with pictures the very next morning, so it's not like 4 months has passed before first contact. That being the case I wouldn't even bother.

My limited understanding is that these signs have little legal basis. Bit like the 'sold as seen' from a car dealer, they can't dodge their obligations.

[anonymous-user]

Liability for causing damage to property through negligence can in some circumstances be excluded. The issue, when a business deals with a consumer, is one of fairness and reasonableness of the contract terms. There may be a prior issue of whether the exclusion clause was adequately notified to the consumer before the contract was made. This usually involves checking what signs there were, as you don't usually get a bit of paper with terms on it before you use a car wash. I shall not bore you with the legislative and regulatory details unless you want me to (and anyway, someone else will probably cut and paste them later on, but be cautious about assuming that summaries on consumer websites and local authority websites are accurate). Liability for causing death or injury to a person can never be excluded.

What type of car wash was this? Wibbly wobbly mechanical brushes? DIY jet wash? Young Romanian lads with sponges? That matters in determininmg whether there was any negligence here.

Frankly, the damage looks slight, and assuming that you are not this guy

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

(and if you are that guy, then you have my pity for your affliction) can you really be arsed to chase on this?

[anonymous-user]

PS: only read the link to Detailing World if you don't mind having to stab your own eyes out with knitting needles in order to safeguard your sanity. It is unintentional comedy gold, and provides an insight into a strange and scary world in which the denizens really, really, really need to have some sex with an actual person.

[grumpyscot]

justanother5tar said:

+1. Everyone I've seen says 'we don't accept responsibility for any damage'.

+2 - same here - never seen a car wash - not even one of those where a guy uses a pressure wash - where there isn't a notice saying "not liable for damage" etc. One reason why, when my car goes to the local dealers, I have a notice in it saying "DO NOT PUT THIS CAR THOUGH A CAR WASH".

I once refused delivery of a leased car as there were scratches on it - caused, by the delivery guy's own admission, a car wash that he'd put the car through after bringing it up from Basingstoke (to Edinburgh).

[Aldos Army]

Breadvan72 said:

Frankly, the damage looks slight, and assuming that you are not this guy

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

(and if you are that guy, then you have my pity for your affliction) can you really be arsed to chase on this?

wow what an epic read!!!!!!!

[JumboBeef]

muppet said:

This is magnified quite a few times



and after discussion we realised that without looking really hard it was not visible to the eye without knowing it was there so i accepted it as rejecting the car now would be difficult...

A 0.5mm paint bubble, and he wants to reject the car

[Devil2575]

Breadvan72 said:

PS: only read the link to Detailing World if you don't mind having to stab your own eyes out with knitting needles in order to safeguard your sanity. It is unintentional comedy gold, and provides an insight into a strange and scary world in which the denizens really, really, really need to have some sex with an actual person.

I think they have an form of OCD. They must certainly be high on the autistic spectrum!

I have more sympathy for guys that are paid to detail other peoples cars. After all it's a job, but wanting to pay someone else or go to those lengths on your own car is a sign that you have issues

[Baskey]

Is that the same guy who detailed his girlfriends Dyson hoover? It was a while ago but I seem to remember it being fairly funny

[anonymous-user]

He had a girlfriend? Mail order, or blow up doll?

The best bit about the story is that some bloke bought the car, stripped it out and used it as a track day slag.

Sorry for thread highjack, OP!

[WinstonWolf]

51 coats of wax!?!?

[Durzel]

Devil2575 said:

I think they have an form of OCD. They must certainly be high on the autistic spectrum!

I have more sympathy for guys that are paid to detail other peoples cars. After all it's a job, but wanting to pay someone else or go to those lengths on your own car is a sign that you have issues

To be fair to the detailers out there, that guy's story is pretty exceptional I think. If you were never going to drive the car and it was a work of art (e.g. something special) I could sortof understand it, but a Astra VXR that presumably the guy intended to drive on roads in the presence of others throwing up stones, flies hitting various panels, etc. It doesn't bear thinking about really.

[R8Steve]

Baskey said:

Is that the same guy who detailed his girlfriends Dyson hoover? It was a while ago but I seem to remember it being fairly funny

It was funny then and is still funny now. Absolutely bonkers.

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

[Durzel]

The Dyson detail makes me think the guy knows it's bonkers though, which takes the shine off somewhat. I'd prefer it to be totally earnest so I could laugh without reservation.

[R8Steve]

Durzel said:

The Dyson detail makes me think the guy knows it's bonkers though, which takes the shine off somewhat. I'd prefer it to be totally earnest so I could laugh without reservation.

I kind of thought that myself, i prefer to think that it genuinely bothered him that much he had to do it though

Given that he has a valeting company both the VXR and dyson threads must have generated a truly massive exposure to his company over the years so there is most likely method to his madness.

[Sump]

Breadvan72 said:

Frankly, the damage looks slight, and assuming that you are not this guy

http://www.detailingworld.co.uk/forum/showthread.p...

Jesus, and on a ste Vauxhall.

[valiant]

WinstonWolf said:

51 coats of wax!?!?

At what point did he think that 50 coats was not enough and 52 would be too many??

Mental thread full of mentals.

[wolves_wanderer]

valiant said:

WinstonWolf said:

51 coats of wax!?!?

At what point did he think that 50 coats was not enough and 52 would be too many??

Mental thread full of mentals.

More to the point how is 51 an acceptable number for anything if you're a bit OCD inclined?