Tire Shop Damaged My Trac

[obie]

So on Sunday, I went to a local tire shop to get my new Duratracs rebalanced to fix my vibrations at 35, above 55 and severe vibrations plus wheel bounce over 63. Well, the tech decided he was going to lift the ST by the pinch welds under the front doors, the idiot. He crushed them in. I'm going to get a quote from the bodyshop doing the restoration on my other Ex, but I'm wondering if anyone here has ever had to deal with a tire shop improperly lifting their vehicle and successfully had them pay for the repairs. The guy tried to tell me "They must have been rusted or something" despite them being perfectly solid and the entire truck being rust free. Since they admitted to damaging them, I should have a solid case in small claims if they won't pay for repairs.

I even double checked the Ford factory manual and it states to lift the front by the frame, on the support under body mount position 1, and the rear by the forward leaf spring eye. If they did it like they should have with any non unibody vehicle, there would have been no damage.

I guess I'm at the point now where I'm either going to get my own tire balancer or monitor every second of work any tire shop does on my truck. And I'll be damned if I walk out again with tires that are balanced "eh, good enough"

 

[colintrax]

What tire shop is lifting body on frame trucks by the body???? Seems easier to lift by the frame, so it should be fool proof. And it really doesn't matter where you lift by the frame, it's all strong enough

 

[OffTrac]

I can't imagine how mad I'd be. I have little tolerance for stupid or lazy; mistakes I understand. This was just stupid. Sorry you're having to deal with this.

 

[blueka]

I had a shop back in the UK jack up my 97 by the bracket tha holds the bodykit on.. suffice to say,it didn't stay where it was meant to... and they had to pay to get it fixed...hope it works out in your favour

Si

 

[05dakotatrac]

90% of the vehicles they get must be uni-body cars.

sorry they were idiots and hopefully it can be fixed on their dime and easily

 

[obie]

So I went to the bodyshop today to get the estimate, and they priced it out as $775.46, with an addendum that there could be hidden damage that is revealed when they pull the rocker mouldings off. I also talked to the tire shop, and told them I had the estimate and could bring it to them tomorrow.

They were trying to give me some spiel about how the insurance company "needs" at least two estimates, and then got mad when I told them that I had already asked the body shop about the number of estimates needed, that they were the only ones I wanted to work on my vehicle, and that I'm not leaving work early to get a second estimate and costing myself another $80 in lost hours. So if they try to strongarm me and not pay, then I'm going to take them to court.

It's a shame too, because their other branch in Crown Point that I go to whenever I need tire work done is awesome (minus the fact that the new tires need to be rebalanced, but whatever) and I always get great work done from them.

I guess I'm just irritated because I've only had this for three weeks and it's the nicest vehicle I've ever had, and then it gets damaged because someone didn't know how to lift a truck.

 

[05dakotatrac]

yeh im sorry for the damamges caused on your trac but in today's society everyone points the finger and avoids confrontations to the point that nothing gets done.

 

[obie]

Haha, yup, that's true. Luckily for me, I've never been one to avoid confrontations

 

[429CJ-3X2]

I guess I'm just irritated because I've only had this for three weeks and it's the nicest vehicle I've ever had, and then it gets damaged because someone didn't know how to lift a truck.

I can relate. I bought my Trac last Christmas, really nice 64,000 mile truck, and I came out of the grocery store about 6 weeks ago to find my driver's door dinged up. Probably because somebody didn't bother to control their shopping cart.

 

[obie]

That sucks man, I hate it when people are too lazy to return their carts, especially when they just leave them in the middle of a parking spot. I worked as a cart boy at the local Menards for a while when I was a teenager, and even with three of us and tons of cart corrals we still saw people just leaving them everywhere, haha.

So I dropped off the paperwork at the shop today, they're giving it over to corporate and I'm hoping to hear back early next week. It'll be a three day repair though, gonna miss the Trac while she's under the knife

 

[429CJ-3X2]

I never park near a cart corral. Too many people just shove their carts toward the corral, and it usually doesn't go well.

Hope your truck gets fixed right.

 

[01STrunner]

I can't imagine how mad I'd be. I have little tolerance for stupid or lazy; mistakes I understand. This was just stupid. Sorry you're having to deal with this.

You can't fix stupid...

That really sucks about the Trac man, especially with everything you've done to it in the past couple weeks. Hopefully the tire shop will be accountable and pay for the damages.

 

[05dakotatrac]

Haha, yup, that's true. Luckily for me, I've never been one to avoid confrontations

that's what the military does to you. it hardens you makes you have a never back down attitude

best of luck brother

 

[obie]

So I got the check Friday, but it'll be a bit before I get it fixed. I wanna get the body lift done first, that way I can do any trimming and then pull the moulding myself and then bring it in.

 

[OffTrac]

Glad there was a resolution. Hopefully it's enough to make the manager realize he has to teach his "professionals" how to use a lift.

 

[obie]

Well, the kid looked like he wasn't even out of high school, so I doubt he has all that much experience. And he was honest about the damage, something which I told them a few times I greatly appreciate (though I'm sure they don't appreciate it, haha) and we've all made mistakes.

Hell, when I first got to my squadron I was assigned the job of installing the jacking adapters on one of our Harriers, and I put the main landing gear adapter on backwards. It fit fine in the bolt holes, and none of the CDIs or QARs caught it. Once it was up in the air and we went to test the emergency landing gear blowdown, the adapter kept the landing gear doors from opening and caused about $250k worth of damage to the strut, panels, hydraulic and pneumatic lines, electrical systems, etc...

Yeah, I got my ass ripped apart for that. But I didn't know any better and no one was out there to show me how to do it. So I understand, and I'm not really mad. Irritated yeah, but not mad.

 

[shooterdude199]

I can relate. I bought my Trac last Christmas, really nice 64,000 mile truck, and I came out of the grocery store about 6 weeks ago to find my driver's door dinged up. Probably because somebody didn't bother to control their shopping cart.

oh yeah i get that all the time when i'm at work. people are so careless, swinging open their doors and realizing "ohh there is a car there? oh well!" eff em.