I am hoping someone here might have some legal background that might able to give me some advice in regards to if I will get compensated from a wheel damages done by a carwash business. FYI, I am sorry if my English is not prefect.

I generally wash my F by hands, but occasionally I would use one of the automated carwash business down the street from where I live. I have been using them 6-7 times over the course of a year; their machine actually do a pretty good job on clean my rims. Please save the comments about 'you should never run your car through automated carwash; it destroy your paints; should had wash it by hands, etc" I used this type of carwash occasionally because my ISF is 10 years old, and my busy life style sometime does not allow me to wash it by hands every time.

So, this past Sunday I decided to get a machine car wash for my car since I already packed away all my carwash supplies in preparation of my upcoming deployment. FYI, this car wash, Auto Brite has a strange business practice, they don't allow the driver to drive their vehicle onto the wheel rail themselves. The driver must exited the vehicle, then one of their employee will drive the car onto the rail; the rail will then roll the car into the machine.

So, every time I visit the carwash I will stand outside to make sure the employees (usually 2 of them, one will be driving while the other one guide the wheels onto the rail) will align the car properly on the rail before it being rolled into the car wash machine; The employees have been doing a good job by slowly drive my car up the rail to prevent any potential damage. But when I was there yesterday afternoon (it was not busy at all, around 1200), An employee (A) moved my car on the rail by himself in a relatively fast pace. The rear driver side wheel was was sitting all the way up on the yellow rail at the first try. Employee A back up my car, then drove my car up the rail again for the second time. I immediately noticed scratches on my wheels as he exited out my car. I halted the employee, inspected the damages together, and told him to get his supervisor.

Employee A stated he don't understand how the 'rubber' material on the rail would cause damages on my wheels at first. I had to show him how the rock solid hard, rigid, beaten up rail guard (It sure doesn’t feel rubbery at all) is perfectly matching up on the scratch marks. I also showed him the powdery residues from the 'rubber' and the wheels have suggested those are fresh scratches.

Employee A then excused himself and went inside the building. At this time, Employee B approached me and asked me if I still run my car through carwash, which I refused in order to preserve the evidence, more importantly to prevent them to blame the damages were done by something or someone else. Employee B was having trouble to back my car off the rail since the wheels are already touching the edges. I had to guide Employee B to drive my car out of the rail, so other customers' car can use the machine. Per the employee, the camera had recorded everything (and will be kept for several months). I will try to get a copy of the footage if needed for legal action. Luckily, there was also a good samaritan who is willing to be my witness if needed.

Employee A returned and told me that his supervisor is on vacation. He was apologetic but also informed me that his supervisor stated the business ****Is not responsible for any damages on customer’s vehicle****; and there are signs indicated that all over the business. The employee that showed me where the signs are.... I have to be honest, including myself, I doubt any of their customers know about this irresponsible business practices. I immediately took some pictures and contacted my insurance USAA; however I will have to pay $500 deductible if I want to file it understand my claim. Which basically I am paying out of the pocket myself, since the wheel itself cost about same price.

I will be visiting the carwash again tomorrow and speak to the store manager who is returning from a vacation; but chance are they are going to decline any responsibility because of the signs. I am hoping the business owner will make it right by taking the responsible either repair or replace my wheel; I am not looking for a legal battle unless I have to. It just fascinated me that the business has zero liberty cover on their customers properly against their employee’s mishap

My questions are
1) does my case fall under the "Contract of adhesion" situation?
2) do I have any right to bring this to the court? I was unaware of the signs; i wasn't verbally told by the employee about the 'at your own risk' terms; I did not sign or initial any document to wave my customer right away.

It happened in Jacksonville, NC. I know some States might have different consumer law protect customers.

Thank you everyone for your time and the advice.

 

Does the stuff rub off?

 

Sucks this happen , never take your F or any vehicle you care about to a drive thru car wash.
always hand wash . You might be able to buff it out or take it to a wheel repair shop for quotes.

 

I'm not a lawyer or anything but that big ole' sign is a pretty solid indicator that you forfeit any ability to hold that business accountable for damages done to your vehicle by using their car wash services.

Here's to hoping the owner steps up to the plate, it looks like the plastic yellow residue may scrub off though..

 

Sorry to hear this, I can imagine how pissed you must have been. However, i would not spend to much time trying to get compensated. Just take it to a quality wheel repair shop and get it fixed. Without going into all the details, a couple months ago I curbed one of my wheels BAD.... I mean REALLY BAD. I took it to a reputable wheel repair shop and they fixed it for $80. They did such a good job, I couldn't even tell where the original damage was. My point is, unless your time is worth a whole lot less than $80, don't spend countless hours trying to get the shop to pay for it. Just take care of it and write it off as a life lesson.

 

This sucks that this happened but everyone know the first rule of owning car that you care about is to NEVER take it an automatic car wash. Hand wash or at home only. It adds swirls to your paint and possibly can eat into the paint. My friend's Lexus had paint damage after going through an automatic car washer, we all used his car as a lesson.

 

I would call regional headquarters and complain to them while also giving them the name of the non existing Manger/Employees you spoke to. They can tell you to go pound sand as you cannot prove anything but being a large corporation they may replace the wheel for you.

Also file a BBB compliant

 

Just about every car wash I been to states they are not responsible for damage. Only once when a mirror cover popped off on my Bimmer, they repaired it.

 

^^^^100% agreed with above and a good wheel repair company will fix you up and save you the stress in the big picture. Also, I believe there are very good carwashes that use bays. I enjoy washing/detailing my own vehicles but sometimes the time-factor dictates outsourcing...

 

From my understanding of the legal side of things (which is very limited as I am no lawyer), the sign protects them from nothing if you can demonstrate "gross negligence." For instance, if their corporate policy is to replace the teflon rails on the tire guide every 3 months and it has been 6 months, that is an example of gross negligence. If their employee intentionally drove your car onto a curb (which is outside of their practices) and you got wheel rash... again gross negligence. If the carwash malfunctions due to lack of maintenance and flies apart damaging your car... well, you get the point. They can't simply be intentionally irresponsible and be legally protected.

 

Well laser no-touch washes are ok, nothing actually touches your car and I go through my local one 3-4x a week($30/month). I still hand wash every other weekend or so, but I rarely let it get dirty beyond pollen or bug splatter. Obviously the brush ones and the ones that push you through are terrible.
That being said, every single car wash I've ever seen they are not responsible for damages. That rail isn't made to touch wheels directly but rather just the tire on which most cars is a large fat sidewall. A wheel repair shop would be better use of your time at $100 a wheel max. Here in DC there's a place that does $60-70/wheel even. Good luck.

 

Thanks for all the input guys! so here is the update:

Spoke with a legal representative/attorney this morning who was very helpful and professional. Those signs (adhesion contract) do not have legal power to deflect any responsibilities for the damage occurred on my car. I can surely bring this to the court and **very likely** (nothing is 100% in legal/medical fields) will get a positive result based on the unconscionable nature of this type of business practices. The attorney said although this kind of incident happens quite often, many of the victims are scared by the ‘sign’ or ‘contract’ and chose not to fight for their right. Furthermore, I also have the right to ask the judge to have the business at fault to pay for the legal fee. My attorney is assisting me to prepare, research, and draft up the legal document (which will be presenting to the business); he also contacted the store for my behalf to inform the business owner/corporate of a potential small claim court law sue. I also got the chance to talk to both the store manager and the Assistance General Manger (AGM) an hour ago in person. The AGM attempted to give me the same ‘the signs said…..not responsible for’ and ‘aftermarket wheels’ responses a few times in the beginning. But both of them seem to understand how little do the sings mean in this specific circumstance (unfair terms, unwitting consumer, employee’s fault, etc) after I gave them a few examples of real life business scenarios and asked them to put themselves in my shoes. I also give them a few suggestions to prevent this from happening to someone else which I doubt they will do that, since it will potentially cause them to lose some customers.

Finally I emphasized to both of the mangers that I am looking for their business to make it right (either repair or replaced one of the wheels that was damaged; the other one got a small but deep scratch from the rail). Otherwise, win or lose, I will proceed with the legal procedures, and try to make the general public aware of this unlawful business practice/scam (by contacting local news, social media, etc).

At this point it is no longer how much money I will end up spending or how much effort I wasted. It is about me, as grown adult refuseing to be treated unfair by some ‘all about making money’ local business, and to be taken advantage on.

Both of the mangers did not say a word other than nodded a few times. I spent 20 minutes at the car wash to address the problem; the AGM said he will be relaying my message to the GM, who is the oldest son of the business owner; the GM will be contacting me tomorrow (hopefully).

 

Just hold your ground and keep at them. I've had the unlucky case of a car wash damaging one of my wheels. I went back the next day and talked to the supervisor and he said no problem they would take care of it. They ran it through the wash again for free and I got my wheels repaired perfectly by an outside vendor all paid for by the car wash place. If the car wash place cares about their reputation they should be helping you out.

 

LOL!!! I can not believe that you contacted an attorney over this. I get it, it sucks! but it's an $80 fix! I know you said its not about the money, but the more time you spend on this, the more they win and you lose. I truly can't wrap my head around this... you have to either A) be retired or unemployed with nothing but time to waste every day, or B) Hard headed / stubborn (I can relate to this one) or C) make so little money that $80 will completely break the bank.

Not trying to be a jerk, but this is hilarious!

Oh, and FYI... you definitely don't need an attorney to file paperwork to take someone to small claims court.

 

You do understand the irony of your post right? You in no way contributed to his plight, instead made sport of him wasting your own time making you guilty of your own "A." You admitted to "B" and you didn't offer to send him YOUR own hard earned $80 making you guilty of your "C." He simply sounds like a principled individual who knows the value of 80 dollars. Why don't you shoot the 80 bucks to him. Seems a fair price to pay for all of your laughter right?