Need Advice.

So it's a long story, but I'll try to get down to it, I'm looking for advice (possibly legal).

So my car was run into by a concrete truck, and the concrete company covered all repairs (this part is good). However, upon receiving my car back the first time, I noticed scratches into my clear coat on the trunk and laterally across my roof. I told them to fix it and came back the next day.

When I came back the next day, my trunk, roof, pillar and quarter panel were all hazy from the cutting agent they had used to get the scratches out of my paint. After mildly arguing about this, I got them to agree to buff the car.

One week passes, and I take my car in to get buffed. When I pick it up this time, there's a scratch in my C-Pillar again, and my passenger headlight has some relatively deep scratches. The shop agreed to buff the scratch in the pillar out, but claims that there's no way they scratched the headlight. I've been anal about the car since it went in and they messed up twice previously. And while I'm certain that the damages happened while the car was in their care, I need to find out if anyone has input on how I can make them compensate me for the headlight. The latest photo I have of the headlight without damages is from 05.26. The day I picked the car up with damages was on 08.05. What is everyone's thoughts?

 

This depends on how far you're willing to escalate the conflict, really.

If they've established their ineptitude, which they have completely, you'd have a fairly strong case in court suing them for damages. This is assuming only they were in possession of the vehicle the entire time, and hence only they could have done the damage. If you chose to go this way, make sure you get all your documents completely in order before doing so. Lawyering up isn't cheap and being disorganized doesn't make it cheaper.

Personally, I'd live with it. Legal recourse is a mess, pursuing it further outside of court with these punks (reading their track record) is going to cause problems with other areas of the car. If you can live with the scratches, do it.

Note: I worked as a detailer throughout college. If you've got the tools I could see what I could swing with the paint and headlight. I've buffed out some interesting scratches from Lexus/Merc/Audi headlights.

 

The headlight isn't in that great of a condition in the first place. For me, it's more a matter of the fact of the insult.

 

Sounds to me like they know they ****ed up, and are just sick of you being picky about the repair quality. Seems like they've said "enough is enough" and are pushing back a little harder this time.

I guess I'd recommend that you push back.

 

Lee, don't give up. Keep pushing for your way with them and don't let them know your getting tired of fighting them. Puff up like a pufferfish and keep strong!

 

The headlight was a little pitted and cracked from before anyway. I'll let them know they suck, but I'm not going to push it to the point of court. Like I said, I've got pictures from before that show the headlight was good, the photo's just a couple months old... :/

I have thought of contacting the BBB to help me if I need to, does anyone know if this would be a good step to take?