Honda Dealership Scratched My Car While Servicing It

[Burn]

Not sure really if there is much advice anyone can offer on this but yesterday I left my FN2 in for a service. I brought it to a Honda dealership as I thought that would be best. No complaints with the quality of work done on the service but they also washed my car... I didn't ask for this to be done as I always hand wash my car at least every three weeks and also polish it every 2 months. I never let anyone else wash the car and never use automatic car washes or public jet washes due to fear of picking up scrathes and swirl marks from the brushes.

When I picked the car up I could see that it was washed poorly there were some swirl marks I could see in the sunlight and water spots all over it especially on the windows. Not a huge problem I thought as I will wash it and polish it properly when I get home... When I got out of the car in my driveway I had a closer look however and to my horror I noticed multiple scratches some quite deep along the edge of the roof on the drivers side and a few other scratches near the centre of the roof and also to the front right of the car. To me it looks like somoene used a brush to wash the car down really quickly and reached over from the left side to clean the roof using a back and forth motion but scratched the paint on the far side due to letting the edge of the brush head run along the roof?

I called the garage this morning to let them know and I am going over to them to show the damage later on today. Of course the Service manager was asking me if I was sure the scratches weren't already there as they hand wash lots of cars every day without issue. I am not sure what they will do about it but I have a feeling that since I can't prove they damaged it I am not going to get anywhere with them getting it fixed free of charge. I don't like the thought of leaving the car with them to fix the scratches either now

I took lots of pictures with my mobile phone some taken yesterday evening and some today. It is difficult to see quite how bad the scratching is by looking at photos but here are the best ones I managed to get.

Some pics of damage to the roof

Scratches to the front right side of car

Marks left on the bonnet from their brush

 

[Fire_2]

should allways ask your car not to be washed!

 

[Riflez]

wtf did they wash it with a scouring pad?

 

[slag]

Take it to your local detailer for correction, send the bill to your Honda dealership.

Always avoid 'courtesy' washes and don't let them offer to buff it, they will only make it worse!

 

[Allen_]

Best advice I can offer when complaining is not to go in ranting and raving. When I worked in retail, anyone doing this I just wasn't interested in helping. It really gets you no where.

Tell them what you've said above. You care about your car, wash it regularly and you would of noticed the marks.

Did you call them as soon as you got home?

 

[eurorob]

as allen said, i think thats the best advice and ive also worked in retail and shouting realy gets you nowhere. the brush marks on the bonnet will buff out in my professional opinion but im a bit duebious about the other marks, some timely paint correction may work but it may end up having to be painted, if that turns out to be the case then id ask to see the quality of there bodywork, just because its a main dealer doesnt mean your getting the best job and ive seen some shocking stuff come from the main dealers, good luck with it and keep us posted

 

[sweetpea]

Dealerships are notorious in my experience for wheedling out of things. Specifics are important for complaints - is it stated that a wash is a usual complimentary part of a service, names of the staff you dealt with when booking, who washed it etc.

I think others advice is the best way to approach it calm, to the point and know what you would like in compensation for damage, whether that be them footing the bill for you having it sorted yourself or them taking care of it.

I would personally put your complaint into writing, along with the photos. It always helps to have a record of all phonecalls, responses, names etc.

Good luck, I hope they're better at customer service than valeting.

 

[Burn]

Best advice I can offer when complaining is not to go in ranting and raving. When I worked in retail, anyone doing this I just wasn't interested in helping. It really gets you no where.

Tell them what you've said above. You care about your car, wash it regularly and you would of noticed the marks.

Did you call them as soon as you got home?

Yeah I have worked in customer service so I agree about keeping yourself calm when making a complaint.

I picked the car up about 30 minutes before the dealership shut on Tuesday so by the time I got home and noticed it was too late to call them immediately so I called them first thing next morning.

Anyway an update on the situation regarding the scratches... I brought the car back to them yesterday afternoon and talked to the mechanic and the Service Manager. Both were adamant that they do not use brushes of any kind when washing the cars and that they hand wash cars carefully... I don't believe that for a minute anyway the manager did seem taken aback a little when I showed him the damage and said they will take it in for a while to try and buff the scratches out but he was thinking that a specialist detailer would need to work on it which was something he would have to get cleared from his boss as there would be quite a cost involved. His boss wasn't available so they took the car in to see what they could do while I waited in reception. After about 45 minutes they brought the car out and showed it to me and hey presto... all the scratches were gone! I was surprised they got them out so well. I just hope they did it professionally and not using some sort of quick fix scratch remover. I suppose only time will tell.

A couple of pics showing the scratches now gone!

 

[eurorob]

wow, cant believe youve managed to get it sorted so quickly and easly, things like this only happens in fairytales ha ha, very glad to see youve got your car back to how it should be