Car wash problem.

[Sparky85]

Today, Before i went to the car wash. I hopped in my truck, turn the A/C with the windows up. Took the truck to the carwash, have them vaccum out my truck and then they grabbed my keys to take the truck to the car wash bay, after the truck came out to detail it. I notice that ones of the guy was focusing on the pass.side of the truck. I went over to him and some how they rolled down my windows. My seats, carpet and my $500 radio are all soaked.

My question is, are they responsible for the damages? If so, how can i win in small claims court?

 

[mightymoose]

Yes, they are responsible for the damages. hopefully you made a complaint while you were still on site. If you left the property without making a report of the damage then you may have a problem.

Assuming you made the complaint and it is on record with the company, you probably won't have to go to court.

Go get yourself a couple free estimates for the repair of the damage from a couple of reputable shops. Present the car wash company (not the company itself, but the registered agent for the company which you can look up on the Secretary of State website at http://kepler.sos.ca.gov/ ) with a demand letter to pay for the damages along with a copy of the estimate. You might want to even try including the cost of a rental if you will be needing one while the vehicle is repaired.

Assuming that you made a formal report at the time of the incident, this company will know they have liability here and will likely avoid court unless they feel like you are jacking up the amount of the damages. If for some reason they don't respond to your demand then file in small claims, and serve all documents to the registered agent you looked up.

How to win in court? Show photos of the damage and the estimates that you obtained for repair, and explain how the company's negligence caused the damage.

 

[Sparky85]

hey, thx for the reply.
I did inform the owner and had the police come out for an incident report. So the poilce have something on file for me if/when i do go to court. Im not to worried about the interior as much as i am with the radio. The owner told me to give it 1 or 2 days to see if the radio will work again and then i guess come back to talk to him. Im not holding my breath on this guy because he was being rude about the hole thing. So i think ill try to make a deal with him and tell him. Just pay for damages to the radio and ill walk away, if not ill take him to court on damages to the interior and the radio. I hope he bits.
I did take photos of the radio and his car wash. I will make a complaint to the better business bureau.
If my radio does work out fine, ill just for get about the hole thing and tell everyone not to go to his car wash. As for now, the radio works here and there. Ill give it a few more days to see how it is.

 

[mightymoose]

SOunds like you will have everything you need to be successful. If you press the matter they should be anxious to avoid court. If you offer a settlement for less than the actual damages (fixing just the radio) they may jump all over that.
Be certain that is the only problem though. If you are having electrical issues there could be more that just the radio that is involved and it could take time to figure it all out.
As long as your requests are reasonable then they should cooperate with you.