They bent my car

[kbruz]

I need your opinion on this one. I had the oil changed last Thursday (you can tell me how stupid I was not to do this myself). I went a german car specialist that has worked on my 86 targa before. Anyway, this weekend while cleaning the car out I see that the floorboards in the backseat are buckled up. Kind of strange I say to myself.... so I look beneath the car and sure enough there are two large indents in the floor plan where they lifted the car.

You can imagine my surprise to see this. So I call them this morning to complain and Fritz the german mechanic (no kidding) tells me that it's normal.

What do you think? Can anything be done to fix this? DO I just try and pound them back in place?

[ken_xman]

Take it to a body shop for an eval.
I'd be ticked.

[john walker's workshop]

a rubber hammer sorts them out easy enough.

[911mot]

a rubber hammer sorts them out easy enough

That's all very well, but what should he do about the dents in his floor?

[chrisp]

Frustrating to say the least. It is what it is though. I would just pound them back into place (like I did but mine were there from the previous owner) and move on to a new shop. A body shop isn't going to be able to do anything else to return it to normal and you run the risk of having something else happen at the body shop. Likely it's a cosmetic thing and they didn't really "hurt" the car. 2 minutes with a dead blow hammer and they be roughly the shape as before.

Now if they crushed the oil lines that's a whole new ball game requiring repairs and compensation.

[ianc]

What gets me is that anyone would actually have the gall to tell you that two large dents in your floorpan which weren't previously there are 'normal'. He would have heard me without the phone if I got that line from him...

ianc

[Steve87-911]

I'd be pissed. When my car has been put on a lift I watched them do it just in case they have a brain fart. I figure if my car has lasted 18 yrs already without dents, I'm going to babysit her to make sure she stays that way.
Signed,
Paranoid Pcar owner.

[pwd72s]

Originally posted by john walker's workshop
a rubber hammer sorts them out easy enough.

True...as I learned decades ago. But you know, I never went back to the shop that put them there! Anybody have a pic of a 911 on a lift with the lifting points properly placed?

[Wil Ferch]

I believe my thinking would be more toward pounding HIM back into place !!

The audacity for him to damage your car..and to essentially say.."don't worry about it !". ....That would be for YOU to say...IF you were so inclined....

Harrumph....get it fixed and bill him !

- Wil

[911SCfanatic]

I can barely read posts like this. They make me so angry--like it was my own car.

[kbruz]

Thanks for all of your responses. I normally am pretty particular about the car and usually inquire and ask questions about who (what mechanic) will be working on the car. Just not this time.

I plan to stop by there on my way to work tomorrow to have a little chat with them.

[Kurt B]

It's not a matter of who you take it to, it's a matter of their attitude. I had tires put on last week at Firestone, and hell, I had them change the oil too, and needed the engine drain plug replaced, so I gave them a nice new one and said the old one's stripped, carefully replace it.

They weren't too comfortable with that one bit. I basically said, the head's stripped, I had to use a little vice grip action to finish my oil change last time, but otherwise, it's fine, so slap on this new one.

Gently try to loosen it and if it doesn't come right out, I'll take care of it. The point is, they were willing to listen. They didn't just "Yeah yea ok ok..whatever dude." me.

I told them everything: about the oil lines--don't crush em please, they wanted to see where they were, I showed em, and that was that. Overall, I'm happy with it.

[geof33]

One more reason to buy Wayne's book...

But in the big scheme of things, I agree with John. Just rubber hammer them AFTER you get your money back. There is no reason for that to happen, although I'm sure it happens a ton. Tell "Fritz" he's an idiot... and get some sort of $$$ return.

[krauthead]

A tire shop did this to a 735 of mine one time. It was a lift that was just two long slabs with rubber on top that was supposed to fit all cars. Wrong! When I told them no problem that I would just have BMW replace the floor section of the car the price of the four tires suddenly went to $0. I even warned them that the car had to be lifted correctly, but they wouldn't let me in the shop. Idiots.

[Steve87-911]

Y'know, I find it interesting that the two indy Porsche shops I've taken my car to have both allowed me to enter the garage and they let me watch, walk under the car, everything. I just ask real nicely that I'd like to watch and they said no prob.
They must get a lot of paranoid owners like me.

[Cory M]

The shop should have insurance, the damage to your car was accidental and should be covered. I worked at an autobody shop years ago and we fixed 2 cars for Discount Tires that had damaged floorboards from improper jacking.

[rdane]

I love it. Couple of months ago a buddy takes his rig in for some brake work. While we watched the wrench whips open a door and smacks it into the hoist. You can see the paint chips fly. Big enough to pick up off the floor later and a good size piece of paint out of the door.

Hey stuff happens from neglect and mistakes. But then a good shop takes care of things like that to the customer's satisfaction.

When it comes time to pay the bill my buddy asks what they are going to do about the paint. Answer is a $20 credit. BS. Next stop is a body shop. Estimate to fix the damage correctly $500. A $50 discount on the spot would have solved the problem. Instead the wrench ate the entire repair bill last I heard. Lucky he didn't have to cough up the $500 in body shop repairs.

I happen to mention this to another shop where I have had a few mishaps as well. Their shop manager's comment was "that happens, no way to avoid it".

Of course no answer from him on how the'd fix it.
Won't be going back there either.

Good business practices are good busness. You break it, you fix it...better than new if possible. Hacks don't do either and want you to pay for their mistakes.

The two shops I work with now have pride in their workmanship and value their customers.

[speeder]

Originally posted by rdane
I love it. Couple of months ago a buddy takes his rig in for some brake work. While we watched the wrench whips open a door and smacks it into the hoist. You can see the paint chips fly. Big enough to pick up off the floor later and a good size piece of paint out of the door.

Hey stuff happens from neglect and mistakes. But then a good shop takes care of things like that to the customer's satisfaction.

When it comes time to pay the bill my buddy asks what they are going to do about the paint. Answer is a $20 credit. BS. Next stop is a body shop. Estimate to fix the damage correctly $500. A $50 discount on the spot would have solved the problem. Instead the wrench ate the entire repair bill last I heard. Lucky he didn't have to cough up the $500 in body shop repairs.

I happen to mention this to another shop where I have had a few mishaps as well. Their shop manager's comment was "that happens, no way to avoid it".

Jesus, the veins in my forehead are throbbing just reading this crap!

I would have said, "No way to avoid it, huh? Wow, that must get real expensive at the Ferrari dealership. Assclown."

The point of course is that this kind of stuff is 100% avoidable, just depends how much you care. Good shops don't fuch up people's cars, though. Can you imagine what a greasy bootmark would cost in a new $300k Bentley w/ mohair/pussy fur carpets?

[speeder]

Originally posted by john walker's workshop
a rubber hammer sorts them out easy enough.

Actually, a work boot w/ your foot in it can fix that as well if you are careful. Don't stomp too hard or you'll dent it the other way. Torture the piss out of Fritz first before you fix it, though.

[rexav8r]

Hey, John W. just said "a rubber hammer sorts them out easy enough."

He didn't say the hammer was for pounding the DENTS !!!!




Hope you get it resolved (at Fritz's expense, I'd be hacked !)

I was p'd enough when a mechanic's employee put a ding in my thin aluminum engine lid !