Hail damage while at the dealership

I had my car in for warranty service for over a week. While the car was there they got hail and it damaged every panel on the car.

I do not believe that I should be responsible for that since I did not have possesion of the car, the dealership did. If my car is normally garage kept and I believed that they had it in the shop being repaired, how should I b responsible for it?

So far the dealership hasn't told me anything. Once I found it when I got the car home I called them and asked if they had had hail and a lot of damage to cars. They said yes. But They never even said anything to me when I picked the car up from service. Not to mention tha the hail damage had to have happened before they washed the car to return it to me. So they must have been well aware that it was heavily damaged. But they said nothing.

Has anybody had any experience with their car having any find of damage while at the dealership? Do you think that the dealeships insurance will pay for it or am I barking up the wrong tree?

I would hate to have to pay my deductible to have this fixed.

Any insurance agents out there have any ideas?

contact a paintless dent removal guy and get an estimate.

I think that the dealership insurance should cover the damage, but it may be a long fight.

I would imagine the paper you signed authorizing the work will have the details. It should be under something like "acts of God" or the like. If not mentioned, I think their insurance is liable. If its stated on something you signed that "acts of God" are not the dealer's responsibility, then it should fall under your "comprehensive" insurance coverage. My insurace company told me that having a comprehensive claim will not increase my rates. Tell your insurance company what happened and ask them who should pay. You may have a deductable for "comprehensive" coverage, though.

--Nate

mainjet said:

I had my car in for warranty service for over a week. While the car was there they got hail and it damaged every panel on the car.

I do not believe that I should be responsible for that since I did not have possesion of the car, the dealership did. If my car is normally garage kept and I believed that they had it in the shop being repaired, how should I b responsible for it?

So far the dealership hasn't told me anything. Once I found it when I got the car home I called them and asked if they had had hail and a lot of damage to cars. They said yes. But They never even said anything to me when I picked the car up from service. Not to mention tha the hail damage had to have happened before they washed the car to return it to me. So they must have been well aware that it was heavily damaged. But they said nothing.

Has anybody had any experience with their car having any find of damage while at the dealership? Do you think that the dealeships insurance will pay for it or am I barking up the wrong tree?

I would hate to have to pay my deductible to have this fixed.

Any insurance agents out there have any ideas?

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I owned 2 body shops for 25 years. Just go with your company and pay your deductable, it will be the quickest way. You will be treated better by your own company. They will go after the other company for the full amount including car rental, then send you back your deductable. Usually takes 3-4 months in NJ.

Spoke to my insurance today (Allstate) and they said they woudl cover it under comprehensive so it would not go against my record. They said I would have to pay my deductable of $1000.00, however.

I called the manager of the dealership who was very pleasant. He said that he would have the service manager call me back in a few minutes. So the SM called me back and said that they would cover up to $500 of my deductable. He said go get it fixed and bring them the estimate and they will cut me a check for $500.

I think that is pretty fair. I'm still out $500 but at least I'm not out $1000.00. I think that they did a very reasonable thing. The fact is they really did not have to do anything but they stepped up pretty good.

Can you post a photo of the said damage so we can all see how bad it is?

I will try to get some pictures of it and post them.

I went through the Allstate drive through claims today and they estimated it at $2934.00 using paintless dent removal. He said if they actually would have had to do some replacement then it would have been around $5000.00. But the paintless will come out like it never happened and they guarantee the work. But if more needs to be done then the body shop just needs to call in for additional money.

They gave me my check right then minus my $1000.00 deductible. So I went over to the dealer to discuss the remaining amount of my deductible. The service manager was very nice but he nicely explained that $500.00 was all he was authorized to do. So I asked him who was authorizing it. He told me that it was the owner of the dealership. I asked to speak with owner. So we all three sat down and I presented my case. Long story short, he gave me my $1000.00 check.

I have to say that when I spoke with the service manager and the owner they were very polite and professional. They treated me like a customer and they listened to what I had to say. I commend them for that.

When the owner was walkiing away to get my check he turned around and said, "Jim, just let me have a chance next time you buy a new car, because I see you bought it at such and such". I told him that his dealership was the first place I came and I even test drove the Jetta there. However, they didn't have the black automatic and they couldn't get it. Otherwise I would have bought it there.

WOW, from what i hear about stealerships this is a case where the owner is truely all about the customer and the service he receives and is PROUD to do the right thing even if its a few bucks from his own company's pockets. That being said i wish other dealers would step up and try to reclaim a name for the companies other than Stealerships. But until we see more stories like this one the name fits.

That's good to hear that the service manager was decent and actually helped you out. I've heard horror stories of people paying full deductibles and the garage owners screaming at them for suggesting it was the garage's fault.

I think there is a list (albiet short) of good, trustworthy dealers somewhere on this site (or maybe Vortex?).

This dealer should be added to that list. Good conduct should be recognized just as much as bad.

mainjet said:

I went through the Allstate drive through claims today and they estimated it at $2934.00 using paintless dent removal. He said if they actually would have had to do some replacement then it would have been around $5000.00. But the paintless will come out like it never happened and they guarantee the work. But if more needs to be done then the body shop just needs to call in for additional money.

They gave me my check right then minus my $1000.00 deductible.

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This was your next mistake after you decided not to hold the dealer accountable. Your insurance company just wrote you an estimate for your vehicle to be fixed by their contracted hail damage guy based on a discounted labor rate and a discounted book hour rate . This is called steering.

State law should require only one legitimate estimate and 9 out of 10 times an insurance company provided estimate is very low. Why? Because 50% of all insurance claims for auto body work are never repaired...but the check is cashed. If they low ball you and you spend the check on a vacation instead of getting the auto repaired you'll never know you were screwed. If they write an estimate and cut a low-ball check but you take the vehicle to a legit body shop preferably one that isn't an Allstate recommended program shop that shop writes a real estimate at a real labor rate with real book hours. He then calls Allstate for a supplement estimate and another check to cover the difference between the low-ball estimate and the legit estimate.

You need to find a legit higher end shop that is capable of quality all over paint jobs (just in case) and have that guy write you an estimate to repair or replace panels and an all over paint job. Ask him if PDR work is even feasible on your car and if so who would he recommend for an estimate. Nothing says you can't have a legit shop write a legit estimate for $5K, get a check then have $3K of PDR work done either.

Here's another problem...if your car is fubar'd on every panel and needs holes drilled every where to get PDR tool access (how else do you think they do it if they can't get behind it?) or ir needs an body work and all over paint job it will no longer be worth what a car that has never had body/paint work performed. This is called diminished value and it will smack you between the eyes when whoever you try to sell or trade the car to down the road because the odds an allover paint job or million PDR pricks and prods won't be obvious are pretty slim.

FWIW- Never ever take a car to an insurance recommended shop that you don't know personally. That BS warranty they sway you with doesn't transfer when you sell the car and when the average consumer keeps a car a total of 3 years they know its practically worthless other than for bait.

When this is over call State Farm as Allstate ranks right there with Progressive as one of the worst big name insurers for a body shop to deal with.

TooMuchBoost said:

This was your next mistake after you decided not to hold the dealer accountable. Your insurance company just wrote you an estimate for your vehicle to be fixed by their contracted hail damage guy based on a discounted labor rate and a discounted book hour rate . This is called steering.

State law should require only one legitimate estimate and 9 out of 10 times an insurance company provided estimate is very low. Why? Because 50% of all insurance claims for auto body work are never repaired...but the check is cashed. If they low ball you and you spend the check on a vacation instead of getting the auto repaired you'll never know you were screwed. If they write an estimate and cut a low-ball check but you take the vehicle to a legit body shop preferably one that isn't an Allstate recommended program shop that shop writes a real estimate at a real labor rate with real book hours. He then calls Allstate for a supplement estimate and another check to cover the difference between the low-ball estimate and the legit estimate.

You need to find a legit higher end shop that is capable of quality all over paint jobs (just in case) and have that guy write you an estimate to repair or replace panels and an all over paint job. Ask him if PDR work is even feasible on your car and if so who would he recommend for an estimate. Nothing says you can't have a legit shop write a legit estimate for $5K, get a check then have $3K of PDR work done either.

Here's another problem...if your car is fubar'd on every panel and needs holes drilled every where to get PDR tool access (how else do you think they do it if they can't get behind it?) or ir needs an body work and all over paint job it will no longer be worth what a car that has never had body/paint work performed. This is called diminished value and it will smack you between the eyes when whoever you try to sell or trade the car to down the road because the odds an allover paint job or million PDR pricks and prods won't be obvious are pretty slim.

FWIW- Never ever take a car to an insurance recommended shop that you don't know personally. That BS warranty they sway you with doesn't transfer when you sell the car and when the average consumer keeps a car a total of 3 years they know its practically worthless other than for bait.

When this is over call State Farm as Allstate ranks right there with Progressive as one of the worst big name insurers for a body shop to deal with.

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The Check is made out to me and I can take the car to any shop that I want. If the shop says that it is more then they just call Allstate and Allstate pays the additional. I have been throught this before and they do pay. The car was written up as PDR but if there is a problem with it then they pay what it taked to get the car fixed.

As I was told by the adjuster, all shops do the PDR or are in bed with someone that does. So I can take it where ever I want. They are not allowed to give a list of shops but they can suggest some. I have a shop that I know does excellent work and has done it many times for me.

They do not drill holes. They remove things like headlights and moon roofs to gain access to the areas that are damaged. For the areas that can not be accessed, they glue on to the panel and pull it up.

The insurance adjuster said that the only place he was concerned about was the rail running above the doors because they cannot get behind that real easy. So he said if that needs to be done another way then the body shop just needs to call in and Allstate will give them the additional to fix it.

While I was at the dealer they had their PDR guy there fixing their cars and he looked at mine. He said no problem but he will have to glue on to the ones on the rail above the door. By the way, he was there fixing 137 cars that the dealer had hail damaged in the same storm. This includes an Audi A4 which has an aluminum body and he fixed that perfect.

I'm sure that the people in Louisiana and Florida would not agree about the State Farm statement.

Holding the dealer responsible was not an option. Even my insurance company said that they really are not at fault because it was an "act of God". In an instance like this they would not even go back after the dealer to recoup their money. I could argue until I am blue in the face or take them to court. But when my own insurance company says it's not the dealerships fault then it's going to be pretty hard to get a judgement in my favor. So I did get my car covered by insurance and I did get the whole deductable from the dealer. So I don't really see where I made any mistakes.

FWIW - I'm not nearly as dumb as I look.

Hail to the Chief

>FWIW - I'm not nearly as dumb as I look.

You won and good for you! I had $21,000 worth of hail damage last year to my home and two cars totalled. You did all the right things.

This happened to friend of mine with her 2-week old RX7. We were both at work, she got nervous when she saw the dark cloud so drove home. I stayed at work. Result: she ran into golf-ball hail going home (which was appropriate since that's what her car looked like the next day), my car stayed dry.

Her's needed paint, mine needed a wash.

I just had the same thing happen to me, but while at work. Your insurance should be 100% NOT at fault and you will have to pay the deductable, but try to get the dealership to pay it. I got a repaint on my 04 and it was worth the money to get all the stone chips fixed plus I cut a deal to get my GLI kit painted and installed. ( with the bodyshop ) Check out my post on it...

as far as i understand, it should all be paid by the car dealers insurance not yours. were you clear with your insurance company that it was "checked in" and in possession by the dealer when the damage occurred. maybe they know about that already and are paying you, while also chasing down the dealer's insurance independently.
my B5.5 had about $6k of hail damage in 06. i sold it to a pal who appreciated the bargain. if i understand the bottom line aboutthe dimpling of golf-balls correctly, my passat's dimpling should have slightly increased mpg!

mainjet said:

I had my car in for warranty service for over a week. While the car was there they got hail and it damaged every panel on the car.

I do not believe that I should be responsible for that since I did not have possesion of the car, the dealership did. If my car is normally garage kept and I believed that they had it in the shop being repaired, how should I b responsible for it?

So far the dealership hasn't told me anything. Once I found it when I got the car home I called them and asked if they had had hail and a lot of damage to cars. They said yes. But They never even said anything to me when I picked the car up from service. Not to mention tha the hail damage had to have happened before they washed the car to return it to me. So they must have been well aware that it was heavily damaged. But they said nothing.

Has anybody had any experience with their car having any find of damage while at the dealership? Do you think that the dealeships insurance will pay for it or am I barking up the wrong tree?

I would hate to have to pay my deductible to have this fixed.

Any insurance agents out there have any ideas?

Click to expand...

Without reading the thread I will tell you that the issue at hand is something calle "bailment". In short, your property in the hands of others makes them a responsible party for any damage. You can win all day in court with a bailment suit. Just a thought.
here is a link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bailment

the dealer is well aware of this and is required to take reasonable precautions

MalcolmBurke said:

Without reading the thread I will tell you that the issue at hand is something calle "bailment".

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mainjet said:

They gave me my check right then minus my $1000.00 deductible. So I went over to the dealer to discuss the remaining amount of my deductible. The service manager was very nice but he nicely explained that $500.00 was all he was authorized to do. So I asked him who was authorizing it. He told me that it was the owner of the dealership. I asked to speak with owner. So we all three sat down and I presented my case. Long story short, he gave me my $1000.00 check.

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You shoulda read the thread

Why the heck is your deductible $1000? Is that common? My was $500 for the longest time, but just went down to $300 when my policy renewed.

Lower premiums.

MayorDJQ said:

Why the heck is your deductible $1000? Is that common? My was $500 for the longest time, but just went down to $300 when my policy renewed.

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Yes, lower premium costs.

At a $300.00 deductible would you turn in a claim that was $500.00? I would rather pay lower premiums every month and only turn in claims that are substantial.

I could have a lower deductible if I choose to but I just don't see the point.

How low is your annual premium?

Mainjet..............good job, nothing out of your pocket, good post also.

I've had $1000 deductable for years. Saves 20% or more depending on insurance company. If your insurance company just lowered your deductable, check your pockets.

Ron 33 said:

Mainjet..............good job, nothing out of your pocket, good post also.

I've had $1000 deductable for years. Saves 20% or more depending on insurance company. If your insurance company just lowered your deductable, check your pockets.

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Thanks.

I have to say that it was the dealership really stepping up when they didn't have to.

I even talked to a friend of mine that is an insurance adjuster for Country Companies and he said no way would the dealership have to pay.

I keep my deductables low when the car is new, then bump them up over time.

To each his own...