Damage to Courtesy Car :(

TS7 · 23 Mar 2011 at 22:30

Bennie-Mac said:
I said i did sign the document, but i had signed it at the service managers desk before id even seen the courtesy car, and was not aware it even contained any details about any existing damage as the service manager just mentioned it was for changing the insurance.

Invalid incorporation of an exclusion clause comes to mind. I haven't looked at this stuff for a while but the following case:

Curtis v Chemical Cleaning Co [1951] 1 KB 805

The plaintiff took a wedding dress to be cleaned by the defendants. She signed a piece of paper headed 'Receipt' after being told by the assistant that it exempted the cleaners from liability for damage to beads and sequins. The receipt in fact contained a clause excluding liability "for any damage howsoever arising". When the dress was returned it was badly stained. It was held that the cleaners could not escape liability for damage to the material of the dress by relying on the exemption clause because its scope had been misrepresented by the defendant's assistant.

If what you were signing was misrepresented it's not valid.

Though from the sound of that phonecall I think they've already acknowledged what they've done.

Randomface74 · 23 Mar 2011 at 22:35

Refuse to pay unless he can prove you did it.

Dave M · 23 Mar 2011 at 22:36

lordrobs said:
That seems strange. The very limited amount of customer service training that I had (for an old part time job years ago) was based around not admitting fault / liability / not following procedure EVER!

Would you want a part timer accepting liability for your company? No I didn't think so.

A manager with the companies best interests in mind (i.e. reputation and repeat business) is perfectly positioned to make those sorts of decisions.

Bennie-Mac · 23 Mar 2011 at 22:42

Telescopi said:
Would you want a part timer accepting liability for your company? No I didn't think so.

A manager with the companies best interests in mind (i.e. reputation and repeat business) is perfectly positioned to make those sorts of decisions.

Exactly, my dad owns a business which has a small fleet of company cars, during the past 6 years 5 Audis have been purchased from them, and he has been in contact with the dealership regarding the whole matter as well. Its probably the only reason the customer service manager rang me in the first place to be honest.

jackthezipper said:
I always go round with my phone and snap any scratches/scuffswhen picking up. You should have been taken round the whole car by the salesman, but you should have checked it yourself..

Yep lesson definitely learned for me, ill be sure to do this in future.

jfp said:
Sorry to hear this, hope things turn out all right. Did you mention to the service managed that you wanted to have a look at the cctv footage when he phoned you?

Thanks

And yes i mentioned i would like to see the footage and he said that was not a problem, didnt sound like he had anything to hide.

billysielu said:
Refuse to pay unless he can prove you did it.

Thats the plan

TS7 said:
Invalid incorporation of an exclusion clause comes to mind. I haven't looked at this stuff for a while but the following case:

Though from the sound of that phonecall I think they've already acknowledged what they've done.

Thanks for that, ill keep that in mind incase things take a nasty turn

Myshra · 24 Mar 2011 at 08:41

How good is the footage? Good enough to see the mark? If so ask for a tape of the previous window when it was in the carpark and see if it was already done when you picked it up?

lordrobs · 24 Mar 2011 at 11:09

Telescopi said:
Would you want a part timer accepting liability for your company? No I didn't think so.

A manager with the companies best interests in mind (i.e. reputation and repeat business) is perfectly positioned to make those sorts of decisions.

The training was generic customer service training but I take your point. The thing is though they now don't have a leg to stand on as they have admitted that normal courtesy car procedures haven't been followed which seems... odd.

The have tooled up the OP with a full arsenal of weapons just before the fight?! Unless they have no intention of fighting it in which case why not just say so. Only other scenario I can see is that they are using the OP to put a case together against a member of their staff for not playing by the rules.

Whatever the case if I was the OP I'd be fairly confident now that I wasn't going to be held accountable.

Morba · 24 Mar 2011 at 11:17

Myshra said:
How good is the footage? Good enough to see the mark? If so ask for a tape of the previous window when it was in the carpark and see if it was already done when you picked it up?

This. If the footage shows the damage now there might be footage to show when you picked the car up or some time previous to it.

IAmATeaf · 24 Mar 2011 at 11:36

Myshra said:
How good is the footage? Good enough to see the mark? If so ask for a tape of the previous window when it was in the carpark and see if it was already done when you picked it up?

Sounds like the car may have been parked nose first but the same tape should show you leaving and if the quality is good you might be able to see the scuff/damage.

I always go round with a fine tooth comb after hearing about people getting stung. For my last hire car I specifically asked the guy to drive the car outside so I could check the car myself in natural light and came up with half a dozen further issues than those already listed.

happy_2008 · 24 Mar 2011 at 11:50

I would never sign anything until i have fully inspected the vehicle. Last time we picked up a courtesy vehicle for my mum we made sure we fully inspected every single panel to avoid problems like this.

Burnsy2023 · 24 Mar 2011 at 12:04

billysielu said:
Refuse to pay unless he can prove you did it.

If it goes to court, they only need to prove that in the balance of probabilities the OP was responsible. That's not a particularly high burden of proof.