Got wife's car back from dealership with a door ding...

So my wife's car had a recall for the fuel pump so we scheduled the service for Saturday at 3pm.  We get there and were going to get a loaner car to drive around and do some shopping while we wait but the service guy said that it was not going to be done today since it was such a long repair and they close at 5pm.  We live an hour and a half away from the dealership so we ended up taking the loaner car home with us and I had to drive back down yesterday after work and pick it up.  I got there around 4:30pm and got the car and drove home and pulled in the garage and noticed a door ding with fresh white paint on the driver's side door.  I sent the service guy an email with a pic of the damage but haven't gotten a response yet.  Needless to say I'm not happy

Prepare to remain unhappy.

Man that sucks.  My New Elantra has a ding in the passenger rear door that I don't want to get fixed and it drives me insane.  It's not that I expect the car to remain perfect but it's just frustrating when people damage your stuff and just slink away.  I've accidentally had doors get away from me but always look over the car and make sure there is no damage at all.  I've lucked out and never caused even a scrape or smudge (We are talking super light contact). 

I Agree though prepare to remain unhappy.  Given that the service agreement says "We are not responsible for loss or damage while your vehicle is in our possession" I'm fairly sure you won't get what you want.   If the dent only required a Paintless Dent repair I could see them maybe agreeing to do that, but I suspect they will just deny that it was them.

Remember though, Anything less than a 10 on the survey is a failure for them, so be sure to fill it out with 10's accross the board.  

I'm not sure I've ever been actually fully satisfied with a dealer service experience that isn't simply an oil change.  Even when the work is done completely under warantee and I have no financial liability in the transaction I always leave feeling like I was somehow taken advantage of. 

Duke said:

Prepare to remain unhappy.

 

Unfortunately, I came here to say the same. 

call coproate...  complain.. you will get something.

Is the car parked in a secure compound when it's in for service? If so, you might stand a chance of getting something out of them.  If it's in a customer parking lot, you are probably screwed, and there is a good chance it was not an employee that did it.

PDR is your friend.

Problem is that it wasn't inspected and discovered on the dealer lot.  Once you left, you may be honest but so many people wouldn't be.  They would come back two weeks later and claim damage.  I would take the upbeat route and see if you can get some goodwill help, like a reduced dent removal fee when the guy will be on the lot for other work.

In reply to Streetwiseguy :

I would assume it was inside or around back where customers cannot go. When I dropped it off in their service bay the advisor said they were going to start on it and finish it up on Monday since they were closed on Sunday.  This is a Lexus dealership

At the dealerships I worked at they would have a paintless debt repair guy come in every so often to fix that kind of stuff on the trade ins. It would be around once a month and they do a bunch of cars in one day. Maybe you ask them to throw it in with that? It would reduce their cost and make them a little more open to taking care of you. 

Hoping at least someone gets back with me

Placemotorsports said:

Hoping at least someone gets back with me

You'll probably need to try again.  I'm not sure I would call back someone I knew was unhappy when my response is going to be "can't help you."  Maybe call and ask for finance and when they answer say "oh, I may have been connected to the wrong place, here's what I'm trying to find out..."

call manager

The Audi dealer I take my wife's car to takes pictures when the car is checked in with an iPad. Any chance they did something like that?

In reply to PMRacing :

Not sure, I was in and out of there picking up our car in like 10 min.  Drove in the service bay with the loaner, gave them my keys and they pulled around our car and I left.  Didn't even have to sign anything

If you left the lot, you're out of luck.

In their eyes, this is no different from taking the car from them, driving home and hitting it with a hammer a few times and then trying to get them to pay for it.

Just got a response back from our service writer:

"Sorry to hear about that it wasn't something that we noticed when we pulled it up.  Let me partner with the guys here to see what could've happened and I'll reach out to you in a little while."

Any video cameras inside/outside there??

In reply to NOT A TA :

I'm sure they have, maybe they are checking them before they contact me again.

Sorry to see that. Hope dealer takes care of it.

Our local Toyota/Lexus dealers, as you park your car in "service" area, before the advisor meets you, the "greeter" comes around and does a full IPAD video of your car. THEN the service advisor meets you. 

From waiting area, you see the whole work bay in glass. You see them working. If you refuse car wash (like I do), then from that bay, they bring it right to you. Essentially car doesn't get "parked," if you are a "waiter"

In reply to Placemotorsports :

If you caught it at the dealership you might have recourse. If not, Well go find a paint less dent remover. Don't bother filing a insurance claim it will probably cost inside your deductible. 
 

Orange car got an estimated $1100 damage. Private shop, not a dealer, homefire friend I autocross with.

My wife picked it up and drove it home, this is what I saw when I parked my car after coming home from work a few hours later.

They owned up to nothing.

Edit: it doesn't show up real well, the hit was just to the right of the license plate. It cracked the paint on the bumper, dented the trunk and bent the hinges, and knocked a chunk out of the spoiler.

I cleared most of the pictures out when I sold the car. 

Found my post on my favorite forum.

Balise lexus in west Springfield mass programmed a key for my rx330 and it came back with a broken headlight, a broken active/hid headlight (price one of them out, they're crazy expensive, I think I paid 1450). They told me to pound sand, I made a huge stink, still nothing. Wish I had gone to corporate. 

The local lexus dealer shoots a video of every car that comes into service. They zoom in on the wheels and slowly go over every body panel. They shoot another video as the car is leaving the serivce bay.

I absolutely love it. It covers them from customers making bogus claims, but it also gives me video evidence if something did get damaged while the car was in their posession. 

Carbon - the dealer I go to is Lexus of Northborough in case you're done with Balise. It's an hour east of springfield, but they've always been great to work with.

Here's the issue, there is no way to prove it happened on the lot (same with the Miata posted above). There is a chance it did not happen there, but you happened to notice it after.  It's tough to hold someone responsible without being 100% certain they are.  I was at a car wash where someone was claiming they damaged the side of the car, when they pulled up the cameras and you could see the damage was there when she pulled on the lot.  She honestly thought it happened in the wash bay and had no clue it was existing damage.

Recently we took my wife's fusion to the ford dealer to have the steering wheel nut recall done.  when i went to pick it up, the seatbelt acted like the lockup was always halfway engaged, sometimes it would lock up and you couldn't even get it buckled, other times it worked ok.  obviously everything was perfectly fine when we dropped it off.  Ford dealer said "gee, that sucks, that'll be 450 bucks."  

I ended up talking to the service manager and said basically its all too convenient that this happens in the four hours your guys had the car.  He would admit nothing, but did take a couple of hundred off the bill.