Aftermarket parts broken by local Chrysler Service Center

Hi all,
On Dec. 15th I brought my 2001 Town and Country into my local Chrysler
service center for servicing. This van has been modified for
wheelchair access and has a 10 inch dropped floor and wheelchair ramp.
There are ground effects on each side to cover up the dropped floor
modifications. I'm unable to drive and lately hadn't been using the
van very much. The servicing only took one day and I hadn't used the
van since I got back until Christmas Day. As I was getting into the
van on Christmas Day, I noticed a crack in the ground effects behind
the right front wheel well. This crack was not there prior to my
bringing the van into Chrysler and the van was not used between the
time I got it back from Chrysler and Christmas Day so it must have
been cracked during this servicing. When I got the van back on Dec.
16th I did give it a quick inspection for any major scratches or dings
but this was at night so I couldn't see everything (my fault). The
mechanic I set up the servicing with told me to bring the van in and
to discuss the matter with the service manager. My question to the
group is, what recourse do I have if they refuse to fix this or
compensate me in any way? I only bought this van back in September
and yesterday asked the dealer I bought it from how much it might cost
to replace the ground effects and I was told approximately $500. I'm
guessing it can be repaired but am not sure as its cracked all the way
through, front to back. The dealer I bought the van from said I
should have told the mechanic to be careful putting the van on the
ramp because of the ground effects. I disagree with this as you can't
miss the ground effects and the mechanic should have known to be
careful in the first place. Am I out of line in this thinking? Any
advice you all can give is greatly appreciated.



Dan

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This kind of thing is why businesses carry business insurance. I would
advise you to not worry about trying to prove to them that they broke it.
Almost certainly they will claim that they didn't break it, but just ask
them
to drive it over on to one of their lifts and see if the lift arms line up
with
where the crack is and I will bet that they do. It isn't your
responsibility
to tell the mechanic how to do his job, that's why you brought it to
the dealer to begin with. They can look at the odometer reading
on the service invoice and in the van and see that you haven't been
driving it all over the place.

If the service center is the one that is run by the dealership that you
bought
the van from, you could ask the salesman that sold you the van to talk to
the service manager with you, that might count for something.

This is probably going to go to a your word against their word, but if your
in a wheelchair I can just imagine the local news would love this story,
it makes a great human interest story, and I'm sure the dealership will
know that without you even telling them, and will want to avoid trouble.
Just be polite yet persistent.

As for repair, I wouldn't offer for it to be repaired rather than be
replaced. Just insist on them fixing it so that it looks like it did before
it was cracked. Maybe they can find the part in a wrecking yard
somewhere, that's their problem.

Ted

 

if they are understanding, and the mechanic that did the repair fesses up,or
admits that he may have done it, they might fix it. but most likely they
will tell you to go pound salt. dealer service depts. are there to make
money, not friends, and the fact that it has been 12 days since they had it
and the damage was noticed will not help either.
a good body repair man should be able to fix it from the rear in about 1/2
hour with some fiberglass matting and resin, and you should not even notice
it after the fix.