Chaps,

My housemate noticed that my drivers side wingmirror has been damaged, and im 100% sure it wasnt this way before it went in for a service on Monday night.

I've mailed the dealership, but had no joy in respect of a reply yet, I sent the following -

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Dear Sir/Madam,

I had my S2000 serviced at ****** Honda today. For your reference the registration no. is W*** MBN.

Unfortunately upon arriving home today when I had a look around the car (impressed with the free interior and exterior clean incidentally !) I noticed that the drivers wingmirror has been damaged. There is a long scratch along the back of the mirror and a chip of paint off the edge of the mirror. I'm unsure as to how this could have happened, but I am certain that this was not damaged prior to leaving the car at the dealership. The chip of paint missing is clearly fresh damage with no dirt or marks on it as you would expect with something which had been exposed for a period of time.

I hope that someone at the dealership is aware of this damage and is willing to come forward to make good. I am sure that it was an innocent mistake, and obviously just want the damage repaired.

I have always been incredibly impressed by the service at your dealership, and regularly recommend your services on the S2000 Owners Club forum.

Yours Faithfully

Gareth Amison

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Ive spent quite literally thousands on my s2000 at this garage, and the service team know me when I call up and I believe(d) we had a decent relationship. I'm sure its just happened accidentally, but I'm wondering where I stand here?

Desperate not to cause issues with the dealership as they have been absolutely spot on so far to date. Starred out their name as I dont want to have something that could be seen in negative light on the boards.

Appreciate any advice you can give

 

Leave it and move on.

 

Are you 100% sure it could only have happened at the dealership? If not, and you get on well with the garage I'd just leave it.

 

I'm 100% certain it happened since the car was at the dealership else I wouldn't have even entertained the thought of emailing them about it.

 

Go in and talk to the manager face to face. Tell him that you find this a really difficult situation as you have always found them to be excellent in the past and want to continue having such a good relationship. Explain that you are totally sure it happened when the car was with them but concede that you understand that they may be dubious that you are just trying it on. So, you would like to meet them halfway in the interest of your continued relationship - offer to pay half each or you pay parts/materials and they give you their labour for free (I would be surprised if he doesn't go for the latter seeing as that is, effectively, a way to keep a customer happy for no real cash outlay).

I had a similar situation on a Pug 306GTI I sold a few years ago...the buyer phoned me later that day from the side of the motorway to tell me the sump plug had come out and the car had dropped its oil all over the M1! I hadn't been near the sump plug and I had to bargain with the garage who had done my pre-sale service for me and myself and the new buyer ended up going halves on the new engine whilst the garage fitted it for free...as you say, a nightmare. I still expect a call the day I sell a car to this day!

Good luck.

 

I love the way people see labour at dealerships as being no real outlay.

Unless they are very quiet and have nothing to do, that labour will cost them money.

 

My advice would be to talk to the manager face to face and request they put right the damage at no cost to yourself. Judge his/her reaction and negotiate from there.
My sister had an almost identical situation when she took her 58 plate Fiesta for its 1st service - apart from it was a scuff on the rear bumper. They fixed it at no cost to her immediately (also provided a courtesy car).

 

i had a car scratched at a dealer a few years ago - reported it before driving away.. they still denied it was them, say the manager did everything i could to get it sorted... then a week later my car was broken in to while at home ( i had told the dealer i was going on holiday ) and it was also vandalised.... the place i got the alarm fitted from reconed someone at the dealership had cut off the siren when it went in for a service as it never went off....

 

Hence the all important word 'real'. There will be no real outlay as their mechs are salaried employees. Hence it will not cost them anything other than time. They will be able to find a bit of time in their day/s that would otherwise be wasted in order to carry out such a job. You are assuming that every minute of every day is spent productively earning money and that such a job would cause other work to be lost.

If you were the manager of a dealership, you would hope you would be able to convince your employees to squeeze a small job in without it eating into the rest of their money earning work...

 

I can virtually guarantee that the mechanics will not be doing a paint repair. And few dealers have their own onsite paint shop.

In reality, they will probably pay a chipsaway guy to do it when he's in doing other stock.