Hi all, thought i would post for advice or opinions on my Mum's situation.

A couple of weeks ago now my mum drove her car into said car wash only for it to rip off the front bumper on one side and damage her wing! It's a 2001 C-Class Merc', so it ain't cheap to fix. It seem's that the part of the car wash that cleans the wheels went in at the wrong point and instead of cleaning the wheels, went in to the bumper/wheel arch and where it couldn't locate where it was it must have kept on trying.

Now either my mum may have parked the car slightly further back than she was meant to, or the car wash completely mis-aligned itself. Never used a car wash myself, but i would have thought there would be a margin for error and that it wouldn't start until the car is parked correctly. I know also, that the car-wash is relatively new.. say two/three months old at most. Mum was told to fill out an incident report, get a quote for the damage and it would go on from there. Two weeks later and the supermarket headquarters say they are taking no responsibilty for the damage, and that there are many a factor that could have caused it on my mum's behalf.

Note i'm not mentioning the name of the supermarket..

I work for them. :bang:

Why would you even use an automated wash...

the few ive been in either have like a traffic light system to get you in the right place.. or sweep over first to find out all the points of your car. no way of parking in the wrong place.. unless she moved after it started

Mother's a carer, didn't have time to wash it herself.. i think she was in between people she cares for.

Also, should probably add.. they have signs up everywhere saying that they take no responsibility for damage cause to any cars. I would have thought that would be in regards to other people/cars causing damage, not their car-wash!

Nathan126 said:

Mother's a carer, didn't have time to wash it herself.. i think she was in between people she cares for.

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I never implied that - use a local hand wash place then, not an automated one

It does have that system to tell you when to stop. Their response was that it hasn't happened to anyone else, so they won't pay out. Although iirc, that was the reason for the new car wash in the first place..

dont they have a disclaimer for car washes saying they take no responsibility for damage caused to vehicles or something along them lines so i don't think theres a lot you can do

I reckon it may be a tough one - also, why does your mum think that she parked further back than she meant to?

She's just unsure, going over it again and again. Self doubt it guess, can't really see how she parked it wrong..

They have signs up saying if you have a problem, to beep your horn several times and help will come. This is when she had to reverse out, as she couldn't go forwards.. so maybe this is how the bumper got ripped off as the arm got stuck into it. You can see on the bumper where the arm has continually tried to punch it's way through!

jip0 said:

so i don't think theres a lot you can do

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Sadly i think the same, just thought i could post on here to see what you guys think. Maybe it could help them out lol

On the good side, the ncb is protected so even if it went through our insurance it's £150 excess and not almost a grand!

Get legal advise - the signs might not count for poo. One of my mates is a soliciter and he's allways pointing out that businesses can't contract out of liability for damage or personal injury becuase they had a sign saying they take no responsibility. We went carting and he kicked off about the form where it says "I hereby agree not to pursue legal action inthe event of injury whilst on the race track" he's won several cases against comapnies etc for this type of thing.

Get on to citizens advice and see what they say.

All the ones I've used had CCTV inside, maybe that's an option.

I also believe those disclaimers are worthless as long as you didn't cause the damage by doing something wrong; much like the ones in club cloakrooms which say they don't take responsibility for your coat.

Thanks Jenks69 and ben! Both useful posts!


Sod it, go to google and type in "damage at (insert popular supermarket beginning with M here) car wash"

Tonne's of them nationwide
Although, i still doubt anything will be done and it's easier for us to pay the excess

didnt know marks and spencers did car washes

Ah yes... i meant them









Think Richard Hammond and Take that

Nathan126 said:

Think Richard Hammond and Take that

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I had it before you said that but nevertheless, brilliant clue! Forgot about those adverts

I would persue it. On a slightly different note, I had a childs table and chairs from there, it broke, day it was purchased and punctured my sons skin, all I wanted was an apology and for them to remove the product from sale, as I noticed after the even the packaging didn't even have a kite or CE mark.

Got a really stinky letter back from them..was actually really nasty saying what it sounds like they are saying to your mum. I was so caught up in other things at the time, that I let it go. But i really wish I hadn't...it still makes my blood boil.

Even if you mum had parked wrong, the sensors shouldn't have allowed the wash to start. As others have said, only if she moved, after it started and before the car was hit, would it have been her fault...

Get advise, Quick and don't let the awful head office joke that they call customer service put her off.

If it was any other machine that had malfunctioned and caused damage to property, say a parking barrier, compensation would be expected to put it right. The company that starts with M are too good at sending out nasty, free of blame, sharp letters.

The machine damaged her car and thats all there is to it, she paid for a service that she did not receive...please don't let it go without at least trying

Park the car outside with a big sign saying "M***** car wash did this & they refuse to compensate me":devil:

sludgeguts said:

Park the car outside with a big sign saying "M***** car wash did this & they refuse to compensate me":devil:

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+1

Most common cause for damage in the car wash at my work is miss use. Ice even seen people do it over and over again. Operate wipers when wash is going. Bye bye wipers.

Best is when they don't put handbrake on and the machine pushes their car out! Seen that first hand twice now!

I'd look into asking them for records of when machine was last maintained. IE the vehicle sensors cleaned. 95% of companies fail to do this and IMO comes down to negligence. Negligence is something those disclaimer signs often state that they are liable for.