WWYD - Door Paint Stripped during Car Dealer "Complementary Wash"

Lmilobob on 16/02/2025 - 14:00
Last edited 16/02/2025 - 15:08 by 1 other user

What would you do?

Long story short:

  • Car received a door dent at parking lot (assuming someone opened their door pretty hard on ours) back in 2021.
  • Car has been serviced at a Dealership with complementary washing thus far - no issues.
  • Old Dealership closed down, so brought our car in for its regular service at another Dealer (shall be left unnamed for now).
  • Paint stripped where the dent was from the "complementary wash"
  • Dealership admitted fault however informed us "they cannot accept liability for the damage" and offered touch-up paint for us to paint the door (this is in writing).
  • Since it's not entirely their fault, I offered to pay for the dent repair and 50% of the repaint of the door. Dealership declined and again only offered touch-up paint. Offered to ask their repairer for "trade pricing".
  • Sent a nicely worded email Car Brand Complaints (no reply - been 2 weeks).

What to do now? Take it further with the ACCC? I doubt anything would come of this.

Would rather not leave a 1-star review (yet) until this is sorted.

Automotive

Comments

  • Stewardo on 16/02/2025 - 14:04
    +24

    Sounds like 4 year old existing damage, now paint has failed during pressure wash. I think it’s repair should be paid by you.

  • JimmyF on 16/02/2025 - 14:07
    +2

    Photos

  • MS Paint on 16/02/2025 - 14:12

    How have you washed your car since the damaged door?

    By garden hose or pressure washer?

    • milobob on 16/02/2025 - 14:15
      -1

      Snow foam + pressure wash (at a distance).

      Reviewing the dashcam footage, this dealership has a tiny wash bay, so their pressure washer would have been very close to the paint.

  • apsilon on 16/02/2025 - 14:26
    -4

    Fair trading or solicitor.

  • Drakesy on 16/02/2025 - 14:46
    +11

    I'd say exacerbating already existing damage is a tough one to argue.

    The paint had already been compromised so was weakened. They'd argue a pressure washer is a standard piece of equipment and a car's surface should be able to withstand it.

    The question is were they negligent? My thoughts would be no.

    • milobob on 16/02/2025 - 15:27
      -5

      I share your thoughts, though I'm probably more pissed about the way they handled it more than anything else.

      Hence why I thought a shared cost would be fairer. I'm in no way expecting them to pay for everything.

      • May4th on 16/02/2025 - 15:33
        +4

        if you scraped it yourself would you have done a touch up or would you have resprayed the whole door? if not the latter why would you expect them to? I personally would have been happy with a touch up entirely at their cost if there was existing damage

        • milobob on 16/02/2025 - 17:58

          Good question. I don't expect them to respray the whole door however every touch-up person and body shop I am speaking to has said to spray the entire door! This is where the problem is I guess, noone wants to touch it up

          • May4th on 16/02/2025 - 18:52
            +2

            @milobob: I mean it'd give you the best cosmetic outcome, but a touch up is usually "good enough" in experienced hands. Of course a bodyshop would recommend a respray it's a thousand dollar job vs a 2-300 dollar job

      • Drakesy on 16/02/2025 - 15:37
        +4

        Honestly touch up at their cost would be a fair compromise. If its done properly you can barely tell it was there (unless you knew it)

        • milobob on 16/02/2025 - 16:28

          To clarify, they offered the touch up paint can, not the actual service to touch it up.

      • JimmyF on 16/02/2025 - 18:12

        NM

      • p1 ama on 16/02/2025 - 22:43

        I share your thoughts, though I'm probably more pissed about the way they handled it more than anything else.

        In other words, you wanted them to pay for it. Not sure why you're trying to skirt around it by saying things like "the way they handled it".

        To be honest, the fact that you're being a bit obtuse your wording shows that you (deep down) know that you're trying to extract more pennies than you know you're due.

        FWIW, I'm no fan of dealerships, and many scam customers through many channels, including overpriced add-ons, additional unnecessary work performed during services…etc., so hope you can wrangle this one out of them. But at least admit you're being a bit cheeky mate.

        • milobob on 17/02/2025 - 22:53

          You are correct, I did want them to contribute to the repair as I felt they were partly liable. It went in with a pin point dent, came out the size of the 10-20c coin (so from barely visible to very visible). Looks like I will just have to accept their touch-up paint can.

          Perhaps it's just Karma I told them NO to wipers (replaced 9 months ago), air-con sanitising, and front+rear brake pads+discs replacement. I was always destined to spend $2k on the car regardless…..

  • JIMB0 on 16/02/2025 - 14:59

    How big a dent are we talking?

    • milobob on 16/02/2025 - 15:31
      +1

      The size of the "O" on your keyboard, but it was enough to ding down into the metal.

      • apsilon on 16/02/2025 - 16:06
        +4

        That changes things. If it was just a dent it should be OK but if the paint is already chipped then it provides an avenue for the water to get under the remaining paint and lift it. Still somewhat negligent but more understandable how it happened.

      • tenpercent on 16/02/2025 - 16:09

        Is that also the extent of the paint stripping?

        • milobob on 16/02/2025 - 16:26

          I'll post some photos soon. No the paint strip is the side of a 10c to 20c coin.

        • tenpercent on 16/02/2025 - 17:00
          +5

          people in this world are being killed daily and here you here commenting on an online forum thread where some guy is being precious over a small O the size of the O on my keyboard.

        • gummibear on 17/02/2025 - 00:54

          What kinds of problems are first world people allowed to be upset with?

  • GordonD on 16/02/2025 - 15:48

    About all you are entitled to is a full refund for the cost of the complimentary wash. Not the dealer's fault that the repair was done so poorly that the repaint didn't survive a pressure wash. Would have been the same if someone else had replaced a seal so poorly that when they washed the car water got in and did damage.

    Talk to the people who did the repair.

    • original15 on 16/02/2025 - 17:38
      +3

      Na it was never repaired
      Pressure wash four years later has stripped some of the paint
      Feel for OP
      Yes it’s annoying but dealer shouldn’t be up for splitting cost of a door respray- sorry

      • milobob on 17/02/2025 - 22:57

        GordonD is right, it was resprayed from a previous dent

        • original15 on 18/02/2025 - 07:02

          👍🏻 this wasn’t mentioned in your original long story short version

  • Psdsoft on 17/02/2025 - 07:49
    +2

    Complementary to what?

    • PeterSnoot on 17/02/2025 - 08:33

      It's OzB - good luck finding someone who understands your question ;-)

      • May4th on 17/02/2025 - 09:56
        +1

        it's the principal that matters ;-)

  • mattmel96 on 17/02/2025 - 09:42

    Other things to consider; did OP ask the dealership to wash the vehicle? If not, they have taken the decision to perform additional work other than what was requested and as such could (repeat: could) be considered liable for any damage that occurs as a result of performing this work.

    That aside, if you cared about you car, why would you not have gotten a paint repair pen/jar and touched up the bare metal four (4) years ago. If you took them to court on the above, the judge would almost definitely say that your actions met the case for contributory negligence, and likely find in their favour.

    Take the can of paint and fix it as best you can, or pay the monies to get it resprayed.

  • nswnotill on 17/02/2025 - 12:48
    +1

    I consider you have been partly negligent as this dent has been on your vehicle for 4 years, and you did not take steps to arrange a repair during that time.

  • milobob on 17/02/2025 - 22:44

    Thanks Everyone for your comments. Appreciate the time taken to reply.

    It looks like I'll just have to suck it up and pay for the repair, getting some quotes this week.

    Some of you have asked why it wasn't repaired previously. It was repaired a number of year ago (prior to this dent), but with my luck someone dented it in the same area again 1 week later. Frustrated I just spent $$$ painting the door, I left it.

    It's a small eyesore but got used to it (always believed it would be hit again). Previously tried to order touch-up paint from the dealerships - was given the "call me back when its in stock". Never did. Again, I left it. I see now I probably shouldn't have left it.

    Lesson learnt: Cheaper to get PPF on the car. Always repair it and don't leave it dented!

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join