I will try to keep this short...sorry if I get winded.

So, my car has been to the dealership twice in the last month for "we owe" items. The first time to replace the lip spoiler w/ a pedestal. The second time to repair chipped paint from the install. When I picked up the car last Fri. everything looked fine at a quick glance. On Tues. I noticed a dent in the front fender and paint where it looked like it had been hit. I tried calling the salesman to let him know I found damage (again), but never received a return phone call. There was no way, seriously no way this could have happened since I got it back. I was only at home and work and I couldn't have been hit by anything in either place. I knew something had happened while they had my car.

Last night while we were changing some bulbs my husband happened to shine his flashlight in the right spot. Under the hood right above where I saw the damage we found 4 or 5 holes from a dent puller! This was not there when I bought the car, I checked everything out since it was used. I mean these are fresh weld marks and you can see some of the filler oozing out. So, we look at everything a little closer. The bumper and headlight aren't aligned right; the bumper is loose only on that side and you can see where the screw had beed moved; the red paint and chipped areas I saw first; and a nice crease in above the tire. Oh yeah, and if you look really close you can see where some paint has ran. Some a$$ hat decided to try and cover up thier accident, and did a really bad job! I couldn't be more ____ed right now!!!

I took the car back to the dealership this morning and talked to a sales realations mgr. or something. At first he was trying to tell me a dent may have been pulled prior to the trade. Of course I tell him no way, my car was perfectly fine a week ago. I gave him photos I took right before I brought it in and magnified the areas that are now damaged. Showed him the car and he *seemed* to be on the same page as me. He is investigating as we speak.

My main problem is that this dealer doesn't do body work and takes it somewhere local. I wasn't pleased when I found this out, but my car was already there. So follow me.....car was there to fix chipped paint....someone hit it....."hey, we already have paint mixed and all the tools, lets fix and not tell anyone!!"

The dealership has already lied to me twice about the spoiler (thats a whole other issue!) and I have already brought the car back to fix half-a$$ed work from these guys. I told the mgr. I expected it to be fixed and that shop would never so much as look at my car again. 2 options; contact another dealer and have the work done there, or cut me a check so my body guy can fix it right.

Do you all think I have a good shot at getting this taken care of or will I get the shaft? Anyone have any similar experiences with a good outcome? I apoligize for the length of my post....I needed to vent. TIA guys!

 

Man that would ____ me off so much..prob like start throwing staplers at those SOB over there...if they don't want to fix it, sue them..
and ask for new parts..like new fender, new bumper and whatever else has been touched..

 

If the local management does nothing then I would file a complaint with the attorney generals office and look up the number to the regional manager for toyota or scion. It's been my experience that dealers DONT like attorney general complaints. Another route would be to look for which local news channel deals with consumer complaints. Nothing like getting the dirtbags on local tv.

 

Contact scion corp. They are big on settling issues.

 

these are all good suggestions. i think yours is a unique case. i think many people, myself included, have gotten their tCs back from the dealership with minor dings, but they don't usually have damage as extensive as yours or evidence of shoddy attempts to hide said damage. i'm not sure of the law, but it seems to me that the dealership should be responsible for who they hire as a subcontractor. i would demand that they replace all affected parts to repair it to the condition it was in when you dropped it off. if they refuse, then take it up with corporate, as was suggested. if that doesn't work, take them to small claims court. it's a good thing you took photos.

 

+1 for calling scion directly. they usually hate shady dealers and are quite concerned with customer service in cases like this, i have a feeling your dealer will be singing a way different tune after hearing from them. thankfully you own a toyota

 

i went through this about a month ago. got the car back with a dent in the rear passenger quarter panel. raised a little bit of hell, and had to bring it back a couple of times, but they didnt give me any trouble in terms of fixing it at no charge. it helped that i noticed it the same day and brought it back the same day. and my dealer subcontracts, as well, on body work. i even got a loaner while they took a week to fix it.

good luck.

 

wow, thats awful....I would cry if I saw dent pull marks and weld goop.

 

Damn, sorry to hear that .

 

wow, i hope everything gets resolved... i also hope the if it gets to the point of involving the corporate arm of scion, that dealership gets seriously penalized by the big boys

 

Threaten to contact the "Consumer Protection" arm of the Attorney General's office.

They have people in place to ensure that people who try things like this are documented, and have complaints filed against them. Enough complaints and they can pull their business permit.

Worked for me when a car dealership tried to commit fraud.

 

my car was crashed at the dealer and caused $2000 worth of damage..dealer did a great job of taking care of their mess up...

 

my car was dented when bringing it to the dealer. Had to walk into the general managers office with a lawyer before they would pay for it...

scion corp tried to use diplomacy to help, but didn't do anything. They have a PR contact at the dealer who can't do jack.

 

@ thinking Scion can or will do anything to help you. They might pretend to care, but they can't and won't force the dealer to do anything.

Unless you have a good lawyer or can orchestrate some kind of national PR blitz, any "help" to you is purely at the whims of the dealer and what kind of mood they are in. Even if they offer to make you whole, they will probably lowball you and try to buy you off with a minimum of fuss to them.

 

^^^ especially since this is the service dept which we are dealing with. the service dept and scion corporate have nothing to do with one another.

 

My dealer left a nice small door ding on my driver's side of my old xA...never realized until week after. Reason why I know it's not caused by another car cause I always park far, far away from anyone and it was too high for a typical car to do.

I agree it does suck for us that dealer service shops to do this crap to people's hard earn money. I've seen what these techs drive (well at my dealer)...brand new Lexus'. How would they like it if we park our cars so close to their Lexus and swing our doors onto their doors. Leave a very beautiful door ding for every time they scrached, ding, and wrongful doing to our cars

 

they scratchd my wheels when rotating, i met up with service manager and bam, 4 new wheels. no issue from manager though you do gotta flex some muscle to get things rollng.

 

do this

 

Well today we just so happened to receive a vehicle survice survey from Scion. I ran out of room online filling it out so I decided to go ahead and call them. Told the chick everything from start to finish and let her know that the SRM was working on everything right now. She gave me a ref# and told me to call back w/ an update, good or bad. According to her if my dealer refuses to fix my car or if they make me go w/ their shop I call up corporate and they will take over form there. So far I'm pretty optimistic....we'll see what happens on Monday. Now if I could only stop looking over my car. Every time I check it out I see something new!

 

I know Im in the tC Owners area, and I have an xB, but here is a few words of advice, I speak from experience.
Go around your car, and take pictures of it. Everything, from front to back, lights, interior, engine, wheels, tires, even knicks and dings you know are there. Pictures do wonders when u have to go to court. Its also a great way of backin a big company down.