Sticker damage to paint - liability?

[Voguely]

Hi all,

On removing my decals today, most came off fine with some hot water to loosen them up a bit. One, however, has pulled off almost all the paint underneath it, leaving me with a 8x8cm circle of bumper with no paint on!! Argh! This is on my Aston and as you can imagine I'm fairly distraught!

Has anyone had this happen to them before and managed to successfully get the sticker company to accept some liability? If they are selling something which is designed to be stuck on cars and is advertised as being removable then surely, regardless of what legal disclaimer they put on their website, should do so without damage? I'm have emailed the company in question asking nicely what they advise, hoping they will offer to at least partially cover a respray, but if they refuse where do I stand legally with this?

Thanks in advance

[ecsrobin]

Voguely said:

Hi all,

On removing my decals today, most came off fine with some hot water to loosen them up a bit. One, however, has pulled off almost all the paint underneath it, leaving me with a 8x8cm circle of bumper with no paint on!! Argh! This is on my Aston and as you can imagine I'm fairly distraught!

Has anyone had this happen to them before and managed to successfully get the sticker company to accept some liability? If they are selling something which is designed to be stuck on cars and is advertised as being removable then surely, regardless of what legal disclaimer they put on their website, should do so without damage? I'm have emailed the company in question asking nicely what they advise, hoping they will offer to at least partially cover a respray, but if they refuse where do I stand legally with this?

Thanks in advance

Is this for real??

[CoolC]

If a sticker can pull off paint, then the paint is the issue.

[HoHoHo]

I own a large format printing company and I would never ever apply vinyl to my own car, you never know if your bodywork is up to it.

Buyer beware and the paint is the issue, not the vinyl.

[NickNJ]

Good luck with that. It'll be your paintwork at fault.

[anonymous-user]

Voguely said:

This is on my Aston and as you can imagine I'm fairly distraught!

1: Grow Up.

2: Accept that you've only yourself to blame for making your nice car look like a five year olds bike.

3: Learn a lesson and make friends with your local body shop.

[t400ble]

In a word,no

[Gixer]

Suspect the Aston had a smart repair at some point. Either way its the paint not the sticker. As you said, the others came off fine

[haggy]

Never had any problems with stickers coming off before. Like others have said, possible your car has had previous paint repair and not been baked on properly

[Dickie Dastardly]

I know a couple of people who have had similar issues, there will be definitely no come back on the vinyl provider I'm afraid. Though I guess you're unlikely to apply decals again a good method of removal is to gently soften them with a hair drier first.

As regards the comment about making your car look like a five year old's bike; a bit harsh surely - it's simply a bit of fun which thousands who travel to Le Mans partake in.

[CoolHands]

I'd sue the tt that applied it!

[kinabalu]

Tip...... next year the week before application, wax the car. Makes putting them on & more importantly removal a breeze.

[fatboy18]

You must use a hair dryer to heat and remove stickers, otherwise your paint or lacquer could become detached.

[Robatr0n]

Sadly this is something that you're going to have to chalk up to experience.

There are so many factors to consider but it could be down to a defect in the paint/lacquer, a poor repair, the adhesive and/or how long the vinyl has been applied. Even though some vinyls are marketed as removable, eventually they will really key on to the surface they're applied to if left on long enough and that makes them a royal pain in the backside to remove. If that does happen, gently heating the vinyl with a hair dryer will get it nice and pliable enough to remove.

As someone else previously mentioned, we too run a print company but I certainly wouldn't apply vinyls to my car unless they were ultra removable (that's actually the product name). The only downside is that they may be too easy to remove...

[marshalla]

I'd sue the water company and the electricity company, and the kettle manufacturer. Clearly their products fail to achieve the correct conditions for safe sticker removal.

[GregorFuk]

And THIS is why I only applied stickers to my glass work.

Hard cheese I'm afraid.

[JamesBryan88]

There's no chance in any compensation really.

The stickers will be sold on the basis of your car having perfect paint condition.

The company are not to know that a certain car will have soft or repaired paint.

A heat gun and pulling the vinyl back on itself when removing is the preferred method.

[Voguely]

I did heat the stickers up to remove them (with very hot water) which did work to make the others much more easily removable. I guess the paint on the plastic bumper as opposed to metal panels wasn't on as firmly or, as suggested, had been resprayed at some point (not in my ownership, but could be that someone did it previously to remove stone chips etc I suppose) and wasn't done as well as it could be. Either way, it's rather annoying and has put a bit of a downer on what was a great trip to Le Mans.

[ukcobra]

Seen this before with a friends TVR, removal of the roundels, caused a circular impact to the paint.
So he gets the same decals each year and overlays them.

For my new paint, I only put them on glass.

[SEE YA]

Its that reasons, why I never think about stickers on my car for LeMans trips. Just in case this happens to me.

Better play safe use the glass for stickers.