Airways Brake and Muffler Damaged My Car's Front Lip

[SportEL]

I can't believe I actually have to create this thread. I tried to sort it out with the owner, but he didn't seem all too concerned when I mentioned I would share my experience with them on-line.

I took my car in yesterday to Airways Brake and Muffler to get Rustproofed. They are one of two Krown Rustproofing dealers in Calgary. I got the car back and didn't see anything out of the norm

When I viewed my dash cam later that night, you can clearly see them scraping my car as they try to bring it up the ramp.

He tries to drive it up once, then backs up when he hears the noise. His partner puts a block of wood in front of the ramp, then he continues to drive up and you hear a loud thump noise, and then more continued scraping. I immediately went outside to look at my lip and it saw that it was all scraped up and the 3M material was all scraped up from where the initial impact and scraping was.

I talked to the owner today and he said the lip being plastic would slide up the ramp, and the ramp would not scratch it the way it did. He said the ramp is not abrasive.

I told him I would bring my car to a bodyshop and can give him the estimate of the damages which would be the lip itself and the 3M on the lip. He said he would only give me $50 or to take him to court and sue him. He was not concerned about the video evidence and did not view it. I also recorded a 15-20 minute audio conversation with him as well.

I take absolute great care of my car, and the damage was definitely not there before, and was definitely caused by them if you see and hear the evidence in the video.

What do you think of Airways Brake and Muffler? What would you do?


Here's the video:
April 23, 2013


Edit:
Here's the Audio Conversation as I try to sort it out with the owner the day after
April 24, 2013



I had a further chat with the owner in person. I had given him the option to Pay me, Go through insurance, or Go to court. I had told him I would handle the removal of the bumper and lip myself to save him the cost of that and a rental. He had offered $50, $250, then $300. I was adamant on the reduced quote of $472 from $634 and gave him a couple days to think of it as he requested.

In the below Audio conversation, the owner says he won't pay me because he has no money, he is paranoid because I put the videos on the blog, and apparently thinks its illegal to record him in Alberta without the other party knowing.

May 3, 2013



Pics






Edit: I created a website so everyone can see how uncaring, unprofessional and negligent this shop is. There's more pictures of the damage there too.

www.airwaysbrakeandmuffler.com

[spikerS]

pretty straight forward. small claims court and make sure to sue for costs as well.

[GTS4tw]

Wow, brutal video, get a couple of estimates, then get a lawyer to draw up a letter stating that you intend to sue them if they do not pay you.

[SportEL]

Originally posted by spikers
pretty straight forward. small claims court and make sure to sue for costs as well.

By costs, do you mean in addition to the damage done to my vehicle? How would I assess this?

[spikerS]

what ever your costs are. the costs to file the claim, reasonable expenses directly attributed the case, etc.

[03ozwhip]

im not saying i dont believe that it didnt happen by their guys, but this should be a learning experience for all shops to take a few minutes to walk around the car and mark the issues that exist with the client before they take it in.

it would stop alot of this stuff from happeing(them not taking onus) when there is obvious proof. do a checklist and one sheet for the client and one for their records. seems pretty simple to avoid this kind of stuff.

anyways, i hope they burn in hell! lol

[Ven]

I think it would be reasonable to suspect that damage being ramp rash, given the evidence that the damage to the lip lines up with the ramps, and the lip has no damage in the area that would pass between the ramps. The length of the scrape damage (leading edge to trailing edge) of the lip does not extend the full width of the painted area. Possibly indicating that the car was stopped shortly after hard contact was made.

In daily driving it's very unlikely you'd have damaged just the sides of the lip before you'd had damaged the front middle area typically from rubbing parking blocks, tall speed bumps, pulling and out of driveways, etc. The angle of approach favors the edges which are set back from the middle which is literally the point that sticks out the furthest.

Measure the distance between the ramps from the inside edges, then compare that to where the damage begins on the lip. There will be a rise angle to consider but I suspect it will still be close if it was the ramp that did that damage.

You could also just pull the car onto the ramp and in real time compare the ramp and rub damage position. If you can do that (record everything) and everything lined up I'd be surprised if the owner wouldn't just suck up the repair.

Even if after all your efforts nothing comes of the argument just head down to Screamin Paintworks and get the lip repaired there. And feel happy about the fact that after seeing that grubby cluttered shop they work out of I'd never bring a car there. And I was looking for undercoating too

EDIT: I just watched that video again in HD, Full Screen, and with the volume up. That was hard loud contact with your car and that ramp. Enough to stop the car from proceeding up the ramp before the driver reacted. The second time with the wood in place you can still hear the lip hit, but the car was essentially forced up anyway. Nice. BTW the ramps are abrasive, you can see the diamond plate for traction.

The purpose of the spotter in front of the car is to prevent hard parts from touching, before they touch. The spotter failed to do that, twice. Unprofessional.

[Squishy]

You can even hear him say "the ramp is too high, you need another board" after its up and they're both out of view.
Looks like an old, cheap man that doesn't care about others property.

[SportEL]

Anyone have anyone they can recommend for a lawyer? I am assuming I can sue for the costs for the lawyer as well.

Or I guess I could represent myself too which shouldn't be an issue.


The fact that they were okay that my lip was even sliding up their ramp, that it was acceptable that it was touching at all shocked me. Then he added the tidbit of the rustproofing oil making the ramp more slippery so it should slide across even easier.

I will upload audio of my conversation when I get home. Unreal.

[benyl]

Even if the court awards damages, good luck collecting.

[AE92_TreunoSC]

The bang was the 2x4 lifting up and falling down onto the ramp. 1000% when you drive off a 2x4 it tilts up and falls down. I did this many many times with lowered cars. However I would get the wood prior to the scrape lol.

[blitz]

Do what you can to get this up on the google ranking, but other than that it's probably not going to be worth your time to pursue.

Lots of time and effort for a few hundred dollars of damage that's only visible from underneath the car?

[Hallowed_point]

Funny I was just at Airways today for my annual Krown rustproofing treatment. I've never had an issue with Airways/Azim (the owner.) Sorry to hear about your experience..that really sucks!

How low is your car? Imo, they should have just turned away the work if they couldn't accommodate a lowered vehicle safely/informed you of the risk associated and absolved themselves of responsibility for any damages.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[SportEL]

The damage is visible at the front edge if you stand closer. You can see the serrated edges of the 3M film and the black plastic where the paint was scraped off. It looks horrible to me. For a person like me who takes great care of my car and into car detailing, this is a big deal to me.


I will pursue this regardess and will sue him. It is the principle of the matter. I want people to know that this shop does not accept full responsibility of their actions. The guy may seem nice, but when something out of the ordinary happens, that person's actions is where their true character shows.

I tried to be calm and let him do the right thing, but now I want people who are thinking about going to this shop or continue going to put youself in my shoes if this happened to you.


My car is a small drop, just under 2 inches. He did mention he should have assessed that they could not do my car, and that it was his mistake, but why doesn't he pay for damages to my car if he believes in customer service, and business ethics. I will upload my audio video shortly where he mentions that.

The big kicker is I just got this lip recently and put it on in the Fall, had it painted at Screamin' Paintworks., and now it is wrecked. A year or so ago,T&T Honda had wrecked another different lip of mine while putting it through the automatic wash, and the bumper actually came off the mounting point. They owned up to it and paid for a new bumper and lip refinishing and everything in full. That is a mark of a stand-up company.

[Hallowed_point]

I agree with you. If he admitted that he was negligent in examining your car before going ahead with the job, he should pay for the repair. Cost of doing business.

[SportEL]

It took over 3 hours to upload this video. It is a 20 minute so audio clip. Let me know what you guys think. I was biting my lip as I tried to stay calm talking to him.




Some things later in the video I thought I would highlight linked in the description of the video:
8:14 - Tries to Explain how the ramp which is the standard diamond plate metal ramp will not cause scratching because it will slide over

11:28 - talking about Business Ethics so why did he not mention to me that there was an issue getting the car up the ramp, and there might have been some damage. He then continues saying that driving up something that is contacting the surface won't cause damage because metal diamond plate is not abrasive??

14:03 - I mention posting my experience on-line about this, and he has no issues. I would love to show to everyone of his customer's before they walk into their shop my video, and then sees if he cares.

15:09 - I explain to the owner that there should be no touching of the ramp with the bottom of the car of any vehicle, and owner had no answer

15:38 - Owner accepts the fact that he was negligent in assessing that he shouldn't have even attempted putting my car on the lift.

19:39 - Explain that I can show the video of the noise my car makes as he tries to drive it up the ramp

[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by SportEL

8:14 - Tries to Explain how the ramp which is the standard diamond plate metal ramp will not cause scratching because it will slide over

11:28 - talking about Business Ethics so why did he not mention to me that there was an issue getting the car up the ramp, and there might have been some damage. He then continues saying that driving up something that is contacting the surface won't cause damage because metal diamond plate is not abrasive??

14:03 - I mention posting my experience on-line about this, and he has no issues. I would love to show to everyone of his customer's before they walk into their shop my video, and then sees if he cares.

15:09 - I explain to the owner that there should be no touching of the ramp with the bottom of the car of any vehicle, and owner had no answer

15:38 - Owner accepts the fact that he was negligent in assessing that he shouldn't have even attempted putting my car on the lift.

19:39 - Explain that I can show the video of the noise my car makes as he tries to drive it up the ramp

Wow, he pretty much fully admits it at the beginning of the video, and offers you $50 to go away! Thats pretty damning evidence...

[403ep3]

You should grab his Iphone if he has one and slide it across the non abrasive diamond plated ramp and see what happens

[A790]

I'd sue. I'd also make a website as "BUSINESS-NAME-SCREWED-ME.com" (or similar) and host the videos/story. With a bit of a nudge it will rank for his business name. He'll notice soon enough.

Also make sure you post reviews on YELP, Yp.ca, Google, and any other site that will let you. Become very broad so that he has no choice but to notice you.

File a BBB complaint and post on as many local communities as you can.

Worst can scenario, do as I did back in 2003, stand in front of his shop (on public roadways) with a big sign and encourage people visiting his shop to notice. He can not legally remove you.