I took my BRZ in for an oil change and the dealer took off my front plate to run it through the car wash. In the process they stripped out the post on my license plate holder. They also scuffed up part of the front trim. I am not a happy camper, but what can I do? I plan on talking to them tomorrow, I left with the plate in hand since they were only doing more damage It is a Racesseng model like the one below, but now the threads on the post and the ball swivel part are all fouled up. I know that they were thinking that the car wash would cause problems but the thing is a rock, I take it through the car wash all the time with no problems. It was totally unnecessary to take it off, and then they cross threaded it trying to put it back on. If possible I would like to have them fix threads they messed up and buff the scuffs out of the trim. But no doubt they will say that because it was aftermarket they are not at fault. (In the fine print somewhere.) I also agree that I am being way too anal about the whole thing, but then I spent $150 bucks to avoid drilling two little holes in my bumper. I admit to a degree of anal retentiveness with parts of the car; although, I have let my wet dogs ride in back so I have no claim to begin consistent. I just wanted to be the one to scratch my bumper and strip my threads. OK, I am done whining now.
I always say no car wash when i go to the dealer. One time i ran out there and said "I said no car wash!!" lol
I have had two experiences similar to yours, once a dealer put a Maxima I had through the wash with the radio on and the antenna was snapped. They replaced both the antenna and the motor for it. When I traded in my 2011 on my 2015 they couldn't get my SPT plate holders off my old car and snapped the front one due to a rusted screw. They replaced is with STI plate frames. Just speak up and threaten to spread word of mouth if they don't replace it. Usually works.. oh and definitely never let them put it through the ol' slap and scratch, swirl marks for life.
Slap and scratch...I might need to use that lol. And I would definitely confront them about it. I would ask them to replace the broken part and fix your bumper. Having them fix their mistake/accident seems like a reasonable solution.
I seriously considered it, but I could not convince myself that it would be stable. My problem is that I feel sorry for the tech in all this. He is surely some young kid who know doubt learned something from the situation, unfortunately it was on my car. I have no problem going up against the large dealer conglomerate, the truth is that the **** will roll down hill and land on the one kid.
I would highly doubt that anything will happen to the tech other than a talk to be more careful next time, or something along those lines. They're not going to can someone over something like this.
The tech? Maybe a lot tech that's more interested in redlining your car sideways into a parking spot after they're done washing it with steel wool. Good luck with whatever resolution you seek.
When I bought the car they included free maintenance on 7500 mile intervals until 30k. I change my own oil halfway between those since 7500 seems a little long to me. Now for the good news, I went down last week and the service manager fixed the stripped post for me himself. He used a funny notched file thing to clean them up for a while and then finely was able to get them good enough that they could be finished with the die. It looked basically good as new. I installed my plate at home and it has been great ever since. I also discovers a whole new class of tool, the thread restoring file, that I need to find and add to my toolbox.
