^ Here is my unsolicited advice, so feel free to ignore me. Once you pay to have the bumper fixed, you won't get any support from the dealer. By going to this other body shop, you will give the dealer and corporate the impression you're just trying to get something out of their mistake. If they have offered to fix the problem and you turned it down, you don't have much of a leg to stand on.

I would suggest you take it to them to repair. As you drop it off, take pictures of your car so you can prove any other damage that may occur. Talk to the service person as you drop it off, politely express your concerns, based on what you mentioned above. Then tell them you expect the repair to be perfect and have the service manager acknowledge if there is any further damage, you expect the dealer to pay to have it serviced someplace else.

Again, feel free to ignore me.

 

sounds to me like you want them to fix the issue, but you don't want them fixing the issue. They have already offered to repair the scratch without having you waste your time, but you want to pass due to personal reasons. They have offered to fix the issue. You are refusing their proposal, and wanting to go another route... Compromise will be your friend. Lawsuit (small claims) will not hold up due to their willingness to go the extra mile to fix this. Getting a free part, not gonna happen, mainly because a screw up (scratch) on their part does not constitute free merchandise. It only means the scratch should be repaired.

I would say either bite the bullet and let them fix it on the terms they gave you, get it fixed yourself which means biting the bullet in a different way, or once again, bite the bullet and live with a hideous scratch... Whatever you choose, gl

 

since i'm typing this on my phone i may not explain it well enough...this other shop is a shop from a local toyota dealer. it was suggested by the MD dealership to go local so no one from their dealership whom i do not trust is driving my car. it is still toyota flipping the bill.

 

Going to another shop is risky. I have the gut feeling they'll fix it and the orig dealer will say..." we offered to fix it, you refused, were not paying...". If you were to take it to court they'd argue they offered to fix it and you refused. It blows but that's the real world for ya. :/ when my dealership scratched my door and dash I was ____ed but they fixed it. But it paid off because when my third gear synchro ____ed up and grinded during cold shifts or down shifts the service mgr took care of it. I agree with the other guys. "Guns a-blazing" is not a good way to approach it. Id say bite it and getba friend or two to follow you up and find something to do during the fix. Worst case you drop it off. Spare car? Any remote chance of a beater/loaner?

 

^ Good point! Definitely demand a loaner.

 

Let me clarify since I'm sober, awake, and at my PC instead of typing with big thumbs on a small phone (N900 FTFW but cmon)...

I have a basic principle in life, screw me once, shame on you, screw me twice, shame on me. It's like sending your food back in the restaurant, do you REALLY think it will come back better and fresher with no 'added' bodily fluids on it? I've been back there, it can be ugly.

If you took your car into a mechanic to have the oil changed, and they put in 10w instead of 0w, would you seriously take it back to the same place to have it corrected? Would you believe that this place would not screw the car up again, possibly worse than before?

I'm not blindly running about to find some kind of way to 'win' and get free things. I want the damage repaired. Period. The body shop the original dealership uses has bad reviews on a few websites (google, yahoo, angie's list, etc). The one that the local dealership uses has good reviews and has been in business for 25 years, 20 of those working with the dealership.

I'm taking the car to them for a written estimate, 15m-1h tops next Saturday. I will then be sending the estimate to the GM of the original dealership for him to approve the work or offer another solution if he so chooses. This has already been agreed upon by the GM and confirmed via email.

I don't know where a lawsuit came into this. It's a scratch, an accident. If they refuse to fix it, my only recourse is to _____ and moan and write truthful reviews on the web, and perhaps send my complaint to Scion Corp. just to let them know how this dealership behaved.

I'm not taking the car back to the original dealership for anything, ever. All service, warranty, etc is being done through the same local dealership here, which I trust since they've been working on our 2005 xB enough that I know and have hung out/drank with one of the Toyota Master Mechanics there.

Overall, I just got to the point where I'm like...here's a game, take a guess at what will happen, and whoever is close (let me look at my desk for parts/swag) oh here we go a nice set of white LED T10 bulbs for the tC's dome light.

 

seems to me you should try and let them repair it. I know that trusting them is a big issue for you after they have messed up so far. But really? Take pictures, document before and afters, and see what the Service Manager can do for you. Worst case they try to fix the bumper but can't do it to your satisfaction and have to send it out to a body shop? Then at least when you call Scion, you can tell them that the dealership did have a chance to fix it.

 

my guess: they will probably give you some lie about how you have to do it at their dealsership for x and y reason and say it is ur only choice

basically they will pile the BS on

however Toyota Corp might be a nicer entity to discuses the problem with....they can help out better...but as far as them using their weight to make that dealership change...its about 50/50

 

Body work, not cheap!

To get the scratch repaired, the body shop that works with the local Toyota dealership quoted me $499 and change! Sent it to the original dealership and will be talking to them today about how to proceed.

Makes me rethink buying that Seibon CF hood and getting it color matched to the car!

 

Kid was pretty close on this one. The fail dealership went back on the estimate, now going with 'bring it here, no other choice' but on a good side of it, Scion Corp is agreeable to working with the local dealership.

Either way, my complaint has been logged and a case filed with Scion who is not taking this lightly. The attempt to cover up the damage does not jive with their customer-centric view of things.

 

so i get the LEDs? haha just kidding

what matters most is that you somehow get your tC2 the way it should be, good luck with it and i hope everything works out for the best

 

Good luck! I found Scion Corp to be very helpful when it came to the Alpine HU issue.

 

i'm curious, this failureship who gave you this scratch, was this the place you bought the car? if the local dealership has better reviews online, what prompted you to go to the further dealership to install the fogs? they didn't seem to have what you wanted in terms of accessories to begin with and with pure pricing, it might've be better to go to the more convenient dealership.

 

the failureship that damaged the car was where I bought it, they gave me a great trade-in, better than what I was offered out here, and the salesman I dealt with was/is on SL so we spent a good part of things just hashing it out on PM before buying the car.

Overall the salesman was top notch. Everything else... horrible.

 

I feel your pain man. I just had one of my other cars bumper repainted due to some idiot backing into me and the bumper is a completely different color than the rest of the car...not even close to matching. They've redone it twice and I'm starting think they employ toddlers in their paint department! Its a shame you can't trust anyone to touch your car these days. I hope you get everything fixed!

 

I took my car in for a service and when they were done they sent it to the wash (butcher) bay and proceeded to wash my car with one of those giant bristled brushes. Now I have surface scratches covering my whole car. When the sun hits the paint its just SWIRLS. I'll kill them all.

 

So thankfully the scratch is repaired:

Before:


After:


The shop I used was top notch, the owner of the company went over the repairs and walked the car with me before I closed it up. The shop even completely cleaned the interior. Took 3 days for the work, but they also did a nice job working on my rear bumper too. On the 15th of last month I got rear-ended by some idiot on her cell phone. Left a damn nice impression of her plate in my bumper. A bunch of cosmetic damage, thankfully the repair came out nice as well.





After:


Paperwork has been sent to Scion, and they are cutting a check, should be here in the next 5-10 weeks.

 

awesome news! glad to hear it had a happy ending

 

Same.

Back when I got my ride for its first Free Maintenance, someone must have drove my xD into something, caused streaks on the front-left end. I was able to wipe the minor scrape off of the coat, but there still is a small 2" scratch there. Damn dealers thinking it's FF5.

 

Good News Everyone!

After many, many, many months, and many many many phone calls... I finally got my $500 check from Toyota/Scion. Sadly I've already sold the car, but I'm glad that the company held up its end of the bargain and paid for the damage the dealership did to the car.