Doors at an automatic car was damaged my Fit.
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Frequent FitFreak Poster
Joined: Mar 2007
Posts: 588
From: Lehigh Valley, PA
Doors at an automatic car was damaged my Fit.
Sorry that should be "wash" not "was." - I have a '07 BOM Fit Sport, previously in perfect condition, but there is now paint damage. 
Story: I was at a Sheetz gas station/automatic car wash (north east people may know of them) - it's the kind where you drive into a small garage and the doors close. At the end of the wash there is a dryer which pumps air on the car from above you which is right in front of the exit doors, you park there until it shuts off and then you drive out and the doors close behind you. But this time for whatever reason the doors just closed on the front of the ****ing car while it was still being dryed. There are bits of paint missing on the rocker panels and the fenders are scraped.
What's worse is I had to back up because the doors had closed in front of the side view mirrors, so the doors scraped across the rest of the car.
I even got locked in the damn garage for a few minutes until I got out of the car and found the open door button. I went into the Sheetz and told them what happened, they filled out an incident report and took down my info and said a manager will call tommorow.
My question is, has anyone been in a similar situation at a car wash, and do you think they will actually pay for the damage? There's no real dents or body damage but the paint is pretty scuffed up, and despite what some of you have experienced my paint job was in great shape before tonight. Maybe I can tell them I'd settle for some free gas.
Will post pics of the damage tommorrow if anyone wants to see.
Story: I was at a Sheetz gas station/automatic car wash (north east people may know of them) - it's the kind where you drive into a small garage and the doors close. At the end of the wash there is a dryer which pumps air on the car from above you which is right in front of the exit doors, you park there until it shuts off and then you drive out and the doors close behind you. But this time for whatever reason the doors just closed on the front of the ****ing car while it was still being dryed. There are bits of paint missing on the rocker panels and the fenders are scraped.
What's worse is I had to back up because the doors had closed in front of the side view mirrors, so the doors scraped across the rest of the car.
I even got locked in the damn garage for a few minutes until I got out of the car and found the open door button. I went into the Sheetz and told them what happened, they filled out an incident report and took down my info and said a manager will call tommorow.
My question is, has anyone been in a similar situation at a car wash, and do you think they will actually pay for the damage? There's no real dents or body damage but the paint is pretty scuffed up, and despite what some of you have experienced my paint job was in great shape before tonight. Maybe I can tell them I'd settle for some free gas.
Will post pics of the damage tommorrow if anyone wants to see.
Last edited by storm88000; Sep 12, 2007 at 04:21 AM.
Oh man that sucks!!!!!
Take them out!! They must surely compensate for some of the damage, or are they going to pull the move of, "They are not responsible for any damage or loss, you enter at your own risk"?
We dont have car wash machines like that here, we have the ones with the huge brushes, and I have always said that those things scratch the car. So I thought I would take it to a place that does hand washing and uses a high pressure hose. The guy washing the car is fine but as soon as I took it to the ladies who dry the car off and wipe everything down, then you notice how they damage the car. They dont care - its not theirs!! They use a vacuum cleaner and pull it around the car, not caring that its actually scraping alongside the car. What I also noticed is that someone used some sort of scourer/hard cloth on my instrument binnacles. These now have small circular scratches all over the plastic which I can see at night and which drives me mad!! Now I am the only person who washes my car.
Let us know what happens, and goodluck!! Hope they do the right thing.
Take them out!! They must surely compensate for some of the damage, or are they going to pull the move of, "They are not responsible for any damage or loss, you enter at your own risk"?
We dont have car wash machines like that here, we have the ones with the huge brushes, and I have always said that those things scratch the car. So I thought I would take it to a place that does hand washing and uses a high pressure hose. The guy washing the car is fine but as soon as I took it to the ladies who dry the car off and wipe everything down, then you notice how they damage the car. They dont care - its not theirs!! They use a vacuum cleaner and pull it around the car, not caring that its actually scraping alongside the car. What I also noticed is that someone used some sort of scourer/hard cloth on my instrument binnacles. These now have small circular scratches all over the plastic which I can see at night and which drives me mad!! Now I am the only person who washes my car.
Let us know what happens, and goodluck!! Hope they do the right thing.
aw man that is an awful story, i hope you get money but if it's "enter at your own risk" then you might be in trouble. i stay away from auto washes (because i think they suck), and i don't trust fancy machines and computers.
Thats horrible! I would be absolutly furious! They better give you every penny that they owe you to fix the car, at least!
I dont trust car washes at all(especially with my Fit), they dont do a good job and sh!t like that can happen. I wash my Fit every other saturday and that works pretty well, even with a black car!
I dont trust car washes at all(especially with my Fit), they dont do a good job and sh!t like that can happen. I wash my Fit every other saturday and that works pretty well, even with a black car!
So sorry - that is just bad! Ditto on the car wash bays - stay away from them. If they post any use at your own risk signs they may try to get out of being responsible. If the auto doors are on a motion sensor - I would use the thought that your car is low profile and the sensor may be set too high for the standard size car. The doors may have closed early because they did not detect your car was still in the way. Also those doors should be made to open if they hit an object just like a garage door. They may realize that they will need to adjust the sensor for the car of the future which are lower profile and closer to the ground.
Hope the outcome is to the benefit of your car and it is restored better
than before! Keep us updated.
Cat :x
Hope the outcome is to the benefit of your car and it is restored better
than before! Keep us updated.
Cat :x
New Member
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 23
From: Long Island, NY
I wouldn't try to negotiate anything other than REPAIR for your damage. The first thing to do is get an estimate from a body shop, so that you can at least have a number to work with.
If it was a system malfunction and no fault of your own (right?) then I think the manager would work with you. They have insurance for that kind of stuff.
I would be nice and not freak out, because then you'll look like a crazy customer that is out for something. Just ask for a fair assessment and payment for damages. GET AN ESTIMATE.
Sam
If it was a system malfunction and no fault of your own (right?) then I think the manager would work with you. They have insurance for that kind of stuff.
I would be nice and not freak out, because then you'll look like a crazy customer that is out for something. Just ask for a fair assessment and payment for damages. GET AN ESTIMATE.
Sam
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