Scratch during Car Wash

[ragee]

Friends,

I don't know if this is the right thread to share this incident. Sorry if it is not.

Last Sunday I took my car to a local car wash (first time to this store). I originally thought it was a manual wash but upon paying I realized it is an automatic wash but controlled by the person in charge. I opted the top most package.
After the wash, I noticed the wheels were not cleaned properly (it was part of the package). When I spoke to the store guy, he asked me to go for another round of wash. Upon inspection this time, there was a 2 foot length thin scratch on the passenger door. I showed this to the person in charge and he took some pictures and said his owner will contact me. Today I met the store owner and he said there is no way the scratch could have happened during wash 'coz the brushes in his car wash system spin continuously and can not make a straight 2 foot length scratch. But I am very sure that scratch happened during the second wash (as after the first wash when I dried out the car, definitely there was no scratch). But the store owner said the scratch should have already been there and he can not do anything about it!

Has anyone of you gone through this? What do you do in this case?
Also do you think this scratch can be buffed off easily?

 

[jsmit86]

I had this happen to my Azera. In my case multiple scratches most likely due to the brushes picking up gravel from a mud encrusted truck that proceeded me in the wash.

I got the run-around for a month, and the owner never did contact me. I ended up with over $3K in damage. I turned it in as a comp claim, and paid the $500 deductible out of pocket.

That looks too deep to buff out. Take it to a body shop and get an estimate. If the car wash owner won't budge, you could try small claims court. I've heard that while you have a low chance of prevailing, the owner might split the loss to avoid having to show up.

 

[ragee]

Thank you for your suggestion! I will get an estimate asap and go from there.

 

[427435]

The owner's response is BS. The long bristle brushes in a car wash will stay in contact for a couple of feet. Remember that the bristle first contacts the car, then flexes backward until the rotation of the brush finally takes the bristle away.

He has insurance----------------------press him some more, and then small claims court with lots of pictures. Maybe even take another trip through the car wash with a camera and take pictures of how long a single bristle can be in contact with a car.

 

[ragee]

Thanks Mark. I will try that.

I checked with a local bodyshop & they say we have no other option but to paint the whole door Apart from it being expensive, I don't know if painting the door would have any impact on my lease

 

[renojim]

Try other body shops. I think it can be touched up so no need to paint the whole door.