snobrdrdan
former GTI owner
- Location
- Southeast Michigan
Bear with me on this story/ramble....
So we picked up our new '20 Chevy Traverse on 10/21/19, for kid hauling duty (wife's car).
~3 weeks later, on 11/13/19, a young girl ran a red light & hit it while the wife was on her way to work (she was fine).
It went to the local Chevy dealer's body shop ~3 weeks later (they were waiting on parts for a while) and it was repaired. Completed date was 12/27/19, but there were a few little things they missed.
So it went back to them at end of January '20 and they were supposed to fix those little things, but they didn't & we picked up the car 2/24/20. He said to bring it back in a few weeks.
Well, then COVID happened and then the dealership was shut down for 3 months.
During that time, I was finally able to wash the car (it's my wifes) and found some damage from when they removed the lower rocker panels. (pics below)
So once the dealer opened, I went up there June 5th & I went to the General Manager of the dealer (the body shop manager wasn't gonna care) and showed him. He said he'd "run interference" instead of me talking to the body shop manager.
So I hadn't heard anything and went up there the other day (July 15th) and I went to the body shop manager, who had handled our repair from the beginning.
I asked if he had spoke with the GM about the damage and he said he hadn't heard back about anything about it. Then I asked if I could show him.
We walk out to the car and the first thing he said was "we didn't touch or remove those."
I open the passenger door and he denies they touched them right away. He goes to the driver's side, where it's clearly worse (dented/plastic messed up) and denies it again.
He states that the trim comes off "easily with your hands, with no force whatsoever."
I ask him, "did you remove them then?"
He says, "Did we?"
I try explaining that they are one way push clips and they don't "easily" remove.
He begs to differ and tries showing me the clips and now he says "there's a tool that slides in there and easily removes them" (I thought they could be removed by hand though, he said?)
So then I'm back to the....okay, so the tool left the marks then & he denies it still.
During this time, he is sweating profusely and clearly flustered. He kept trying to end the conversation with "I'm done, have a good day" and trying to walk away with me as his answer. He kept saying I was "trying to talk over him" while I was trying to discredit all his wrong statements instead of him trying to derail the conversation.
He even asked where I bought the car from...eluding that the damage may have been there already on a factory fresh NEW car....umm, no buddy.
Anyways....he ask me for the repair order & I don't have it on me. He goes inside and prints it off.
He says the repairs were done in December and it's now July and I just noticed this damage. He clearly forgot that they've been closed for 3 months & there's nothing I could've done anyways.
So he looks over the repair order & THEN he finally mumbles....yeah, the trim was removed & then throws the repair order at me.
Okay...so you guys removed it & you did the damage. He denies it still and says he'll take a picture and send it to the GM but they probably won't do anything.
THEN he accuses me of trying to get "non accident related damage" fixed. He's failing to see the point that THEY caused that damage during removal.
i.e.....if they remove glass from a car & they accidentally break it, are they just not going to replace that glass? Common sense
He's getting mad/flustered again and saying that I was being "too picky" and that it's back to "factory condition" now and that I combed the car over when we took it and now it's my fault that I missed the rocker panel damage at the time.
MIND YOU: it was like 10 degrees & the middle of winter when the wife picked the car up. The damage was all in the front. I would've never have guessed to look at the lower rocker panel, which is unrelated, but for some reason had to be removed.
PLUS, it's my wife's car....I hardly drive it.
So after that he slammed the (my) car door a few times out of anger & then the hood, said he was done with the conversation and walked off into the office to avoid me.
That all said....now what do I do?
You can clearly see that the plastic trim is marred up from the/a trim tool during removal, as well as the lower rocker metal being scratched deep in the clip locations & the dents on the driver's side too.
Okay...I'm pretty anal about my stuff, not gonna lie. This is/was a brand new car though & I feel like this is totally unacceptable and should fall on them.
Any advice???
Pics...original damage:
Driver's side rocker panel:
Rear driver's door:
Rear passenger door:
Passenger door:
So we picked up our new '20 Chevy Traverse on 10/21/19, for kid hauling duty (wife's car).
~3 weeks later, on 11/13/19, a young girl ran a red light & hit it while the wife was on her way to work (she was fine).
It went to the local Chevy dealer's body shop ~3 weeks later (they were waiting on parts for a while) and it was repaired. Completed date was 12/27/19, but there were a few little things they missed.
So it went back to them at end of January '20 and they were supposed to fix those little things, but they didn't & we picked up the car 2/24/20. He said to bring it back in a few weeks.
Well, then COVID happened and then the dealership was shut down for 3 months.
During that time, I was finally able to wash the car (it's my wifes) and found some damage from when they removed the lower rocker panels. (pics below)
So once the dealer opened, I went up there June 5th & I went to the General Manager of the dealer (the body shop manager wasn't gonna care) and showed him. He said he'd "run interference" instead of me talking to the body shop manager.
So I hadn't heard anything and went up there the other day (July 15th) and I went to the body shop manager, who had handled our repair from the beginning.
I asked if he had spoke with the GM about the damage and he said he hadn't heard back about anything about it. Then I asked if I could show him.
We walk out to the car and the first thing he said was "we didn't touch or remove those."
I open the passenger door and he denies they touched them right away. He goes to the driver's side, where it's clearly worse (dented/plastic messed up) and denies it again.
He states that the trim comes off "easily with your hands, with no force whatsoever."
I ask him, "did you remove them then?"
He says, "Did we?"
I try explaining that they are one way push clips and they don't "easily" remove.
He begs to differ and tries showing me the clips and now he says "there's a tool that slides in there and easily removes them" (I thought they could be removed by hand though, he said?)
So then I'm back to the....okay, so the tool left the marks then & he denies it still.
During this time, he is sweating profusely and clearly flustered. He kept trying to end the conversation with "I'm done, have a good day" and trying to walk away with me as his answer. He kept saying I was "trying to talk over him" while I was trying to discredit all his wrong statements instead of him trying to derail the conversation.
He even asked where I bought the car from...eluding that the damage may have been there already on a factory fresh NEW car....umm, no buddy.
Anyways....he ask me for the repair order & I don't have it on me. He goes inside and prints it off.
He says the repairs were done in December and it's now July and I just noticed this damage. He clearly forgot that they've been closed for 3 months & there's nothing I could've done anyways.
So he looks over the repair order & THEN he finally mumbles....yeah, the trim was removed & then throws the repair order at me.
Okay...so you guys removed it & you did the damage. He denies it still and says he'll take a picture and send it to the GM but they probably won't do anything.
THEN he accuses me of trying to get "non accident related damage" fixed. He's failing to see the point that THEY caused that damage during removal.
i.e.....if they remove glass from a car & they accidentally break it, are they just not going to replace that glass? Common sense
He's getting mad/flustered again and saying that I was being "too picky" and that it's back to "factory condition" now and that I combed the car over when we took it and now it's my fault that I missed the rocker panel damage at the time.
MIND YOU: it was like 10 degrees & the middle of winter when the wife picked the car up. The damage was all in the front. I would've never have guessed to look at the lower rocker panel, which is unrelated, but for some reason had to be removed.
PLUS, it's my wife's car....I hardly drive it.
So after that he slammed the (my) car door a few times out of anger & then the hood, said he was done with the conversation and walked off into the office to avoid me.
That all said....now what do I do?
You can clearly see that the plastic trim is marred up from the/a trim tool during removal, as well as the lower rocker metal being scratched deep in the clip locations & the dents on the driver's side too.
Okay...I'm pretty anal about my stuff, not gonna lie. This is/was a brand new car though & I feel like this is totally unacceptable and should fall on them.
Any advice???
Pics...original damage:
Driver's side rocker panel:
Rear driver's door:
Rear passenger door:
Passenger door: