Toyota Of Dallas Wrecked my Tacoma

I say get the local news involved. Let Corporate know what you intend to do and that they can forward that back to the General manager of TOD. Get a lawyer on standby.

 

Well, like I said, it's standard practice in the car business, so perhaps it says more about it.

I can tell you that I don't know anyone that likes it, but it's a consequence we all accept.

Nope, not pretending anything. I am an outsider to this situation, and I'm not defending anything I don't know about.

I certainly didn't want it to sound any other way than that.

If that was a direct quote, and said in the context presented, sure it's bad for business. I just wasn't a witness to anything, so who said what and in what context I have no idea.

Look guys, I was just trying add a different perspective to this, and I intend to follow it through to it's resolution. I also am not claiming there is any other side to this story other than Brian's because I don't know. I am just acknowledging the mistakes that I know were made and let y'all know that at least one person here is listening and gives a damn about it.

 

Yes it does say a great deal about the owners. I got that from the post where the OP stated what kind of slack he caught when he spoke with the "partner".

Again, a wise guy who assumes he can muscle people.

 

"The shop is a PITA to get around in because it's got these posts throughout"

If I were the OP, I'd print this thread out and use this information in a possible claim. It shows knowledge of a existing challenge concerning movement within the service bays.

It falls under "knew or should have known". The owners, agents, operators of the dealership either "knew or should have known" that these posts placed in the structural setting that they are place, makes the chance of an accident go up, thus eventually leading to an incident of this kind. As the service manager himself has now stated.

The biggest question is how many other folks have taken their vehicle to Toyota of Dallas of an oil change or service, had the vehicle damaged then repaired, all before they knew what happened. Never having been notified that an incident occurred.

 

I assume nothing about you or your motivations, what I believe about dealerships has formed from 32 yrs. of dealing with them. To me you are just an employee of another dealership trying to avoid a propper fix to a problem that was thier fault. To me, the only right way for the business owner to handle this would be complete replacement of all parts damaged with oem parts,period. From a business perspective, that alone would generate untold respect and future sales from word on here alone would more than pay for it. Be careful of the reasons & the mobs you step in front of, & who you represent while doing so. You have exposed yourself here & your employer may or may not see agree with your doing so. Good luck to you with that.

 

Above ground lift posts are a known hazard in any shop, so I hardly would characterize their presence or my acknowledgment of them as a huge legal coup de grâce.

As far as your last question, none that I know of and I work closely with the techs... not saying I would know every little thing, but someone damaging a car usually becomes a hot topic at the water cooler.

As far as being able to repair a car unbeknown to the customer waiting for an oil change- well, I think you give too much credit to the speed of a body shop.

 

1. Falling under "knew or should have known" standards is normally determined by the judge, magistrate, mediator, or jury in some cases. Precisely why I stated for the OP to use this thread as a possible informational source in the claim. It's just more information collected about the incident to help clarify what happened, how, who knew when, etc.

2. While I can concede that you probably would or may have heard of something like this happening before, I doubt that you could possibly be aware of every incident that could happen in your shop. There very well could have been incidents where damage was done, no repairs were ordered because the incident was never recorded. The owner notices the damages days later unable to discern where the damages came from.

3. I've seen quick repair jobs done in a day or less with respect to the damage done. There are plenty of "body shop techniques" to speed up certain processes. I've seen entire vehicle get finished in a day on certain "hurry up" jobs. These shops were certified to every degree and that did not mean squat.

 

NO! It shoulda been his choice to get new parts or to allow the dealership to do a patch job. That was NOT the dealerships call no matter how it's turd coated. He had no choice at that dealership of leaving with his truck as it was when he brought it in bodydamagewise according to the dickhead GM comments.

x2,000,000,000,000........the fact that the employee has to pay for it instead of the dealership using insurance they should have for just these occurrences speaks volumes towards their nonsense attitude about the situation.

 

A special note to the owners of TOYOTA OF DALLAS.......

 

So any time an employee does something stupid it's all on the company and insurance? Where's the incentive to do a good job at what you do for a living, if you can do whatever you want and just say "ah fvck it, insurance will cover it?"

 

The incentive is in his raise, bonus, promotions, and job security. I own a tropical fish store, should I take it out of the maintenance guys’ paycheck for every fish that dies? Or should I charge him for every gallon of water he spills on the ground?

 

Its prolly so they dont have to report a claim and there fore dont have to use there insurance and say look we have been accident free for this long. Bull shit! I would not have left till they replaced the parts Im sorry but If I bring you a good truck and you give me back a scratched truck I break your face.

 

No, things should not always be covered by the insurance of the company, but when you have someone from that company state "The shop is a PITA to get around in because it's got these posts throughout", this leads to a conclusion that the owners, agents, bosses, whoever knows that it's a tight, cramped, accident prone space. That's why they have to carry insurance in the first place. The incentive is a matter of presentation to the employee with options on how best to handle the situation. If the incident is a result of pure negligence of the employee, then the employee should pay. If the incident results from a poor or inadequately safe workspace, that's the owners problem too as well as the employee.

If I were the employee who did the damage, while I would feel remorse, according to the conditions briefly explained by the service manager who posted here, I would fight my employer making me pay for the damage.

I say to the OP and the employee who did the damage, get a lawyer.

 

No personal should be notified and the incident documented in the employees file, accidents happen but re-curing accidents indicate a possible problem with the employee. I assume Texas is a right to work state and if a employee is costing the dealership money than terminate the employee. Pretty sure the job could be filled in this day and age pretty quick.
Now back to the op, got any pics of the damage yet?

 

I am not an expert on legal matters, so I'll defer to you.

However, the known/should have known isn't really pertinent to this situation as I understand it because no one is denying the accident happened, no one is trying to point blame for it anywhere. The tech knew there was a pole there, he accidentally clipped it, he reported it, damage was assessed and customer was contacted and told we accepted responsibility for the accident and told the customer we would repair the vehicle.

The crux of the disagreement (as I see it) was centered around the discussion of what constituted a quality repair.. to me the timing of the notification was the fuel and the discussion and the repair process were the ignition. Both situations regrettable, but not criminal (to my limited legal knowledge).

As I stated earleir, IMO the failure to call immediately was what started things off on the wrong foot, and I know for a fact that the Service Director (Vince) and the adviser are very aware of that. To their credit they have gone back through the entire chain of events trying to identify ways this could have had a better outcome and shared the lesson with the rest of the service team. I witnessed this myself.

While it's true that virtually anything imaginable could happen, there's nothing to suggest that it has... there was no attempt to hide anything in this case, although as I stated earlier the failure to call immediately could understandably raise that doubt in the mind of the customer.

 

Of course, the argument could be made that he wouldn't have had that option in any other 'traditional' accident, what makes this any different?

That being said, keep in mind that Vince (the Service Director) and Mike (The Body Shop Director) have given assurances that if Brian is dissatisfied with the quality of repair, it will be corrected to his satisfaction.

Look, again I'm not defending anyone or anything... the whole deal is unfortunate and the "right" thing ultimately is what makes Brian happy. Will he ever be satisfied? I don't know at this point if this can ever end amicably, but there are a lot of people trying.

Believe it or not, I think we all want the same thing...

 

Please remember, I am not the Service Director or Manger (nor do I speak for them), I am over in the Parts department.

 

You can very safely use the phrase "WILL raise doubt in the mind of EVERY customer" & dealerships might by able to retain a lot of them by acknowledging it & making it policy of the highest regard. People are just totally fed up with the constant fucking from every direction these days.