Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  12/13/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On December 3rd 2023 I took my Subaru outback to T****** express car wash. During the car wash, I heard a loud rumbling noise on the roof of my car, I lived 2 blocks away so when I was done at the car wash I drove home, got out and immediately looked at the roof. I immediately went back to the car. Wash and filed a complaint and informed the manager that my car had been damaged during their car wash. I spoke to the manager shortly after. And they informed me that they observed my car going into the car wash and that there was no damage to the roof, And that when I was seen leaving the establishment there was visible damage to the roof ,I told the manager. I appreciate their honesty. And they sent me to HITE collision repair For an estimate. I do have this conversation on record. I explained to the estimator at HITE collision. What I felt the damage was and allowed them to do an estimate on my car.. When I got the estimate. When I got the estimate It showed repairs unrelated to the damaged that I asked them to do separately. Later on I was contacted by another employee of t****** car wash, He submitted the same photos to me that I put on Here claiming, "He can see damage to the roof" to which I'm still cannot see. The first set of photos shows my car wash entering the car wash and photos provided by them. Finally, the second employee asked me to meet him at a neutral body shop to get their opinion on what happened. A place for both of us to discuss the incident. On my way to that appointment I received a phone call. And he changed his mind and asked me to meet him at the car wash. This is where they try to submit the same photos to me to try and show or display previous damage to the car that is simply not there. I shared these photos with the localbody shop. And they agreed that there's no visible damage as my car was entering the car wash. The photos show that the car went in one condition and came out a very different one. T****** refuses to pay for damages.

  Customer response

  12/13/2023

  The address for the complaint is not correct. I submitted a screenshot of the correct address in lawrence kansas.

  Business response

  12/14/2023

  This is not the correct Tommy's Express Carwash, as we do not own this location in Lawrence, KS and this guest did not visit one of our wash locations. Need to send this complaint to the correct owner/applicable site contact info. We own the locations in Manhattan, KS and in the Kansas City metro area, not Lawrence, KS. 

  Business response

  12/21/2023

  As **** shared he came into our wash on December 3rd and washed his 2014 Subaru Outback with us. As he was going through the blower room you could see the roof of the vehicle flexing in a wave like pattern and then as he leaves the tunnel you can see where the roof is dented in. Our team took down the damage claim when he came back to report the issue. The GM at our site called me, Tyler (Director of Operations ), right away and shared that she had a confusing damage claim. We have washed between all of our sites (5) we own over 3.5 million cars and have never once had an issue like this happen and to my knowledge being in the business for over five years have never heard of this happening at any other Tommys Express Carwash. From an initial quick glance at the videos I couldn't understand how this could happen. I had our GM send this guest to a local collision repair company in town to have them inspect the roof for any structural issues. I would assume that when they do this they also create an estimate to go along with it. At no point did we share that we were sending him there for an estimate to cover this claim. The collision shop shared with us that the roof was original to the vehicle and the from what they could tell the weld connection points were good. During this time we ran a carfax on this vehicle and it was involved in a fender bender and also hit a deer. (Dents exist on the front hood and the rear driver side bumper isn't attached correctly). I asked the local shop if this would have weakened the structure of the roof and they didn't believe it would have from what they could tell. Again confused on why this one vehicles roof dented in at our car wash when this has never happened before I started to go through frame by frame on the video of this car coming into our wash. The photos that **** submitted are the initial findings that I had but I was still in the process of going through all the film. On the phone he shared that he wanted the pictures I had at that point in the investigation so I sent them. He shared that it was just cloud reflections that I was seeing and not actual damage. I shared with him on that call/texts that I would continue to investigate this claim throughout the weekend but would be happy to meet him at his body shop to cover the pictures on that next Tuesday. Over the weekend we found indisputable evidence of pre existing damage to the roof that led to the blower hitting the damage area and causing it to dent in worse.  On Tuesday I called **** in the morning and shared that from what we found over the weekend on film we didn't need to go to the body shop to meet since I had clear evidence it was there prior to coming into the wash. I asked him to come up to the site instead and meet myself, the gm of the site and the owner of the company that was in town for the day on unrealated business. When **** arrived at the site we met him out at his car and I pointed out to the owner a couple things on the vehicle that we saw on film. **** at this point shared that he was not happy that we cancelled the meeting with his body shop and that we just trying not to pay for damage to his vehicle. I tried to share that we had photos from over the weekend that I wanted to show him and he shared that "I guess I will just submit this to my insurance and you guys can fight it out" then hopped in his vehicle and left. I was never able to show him the evidence that we found over the weekend that takes the "it's just a reflection from the clouds" out of the question. As a company we pride ourselves on doing the right thing and if we truly damage a vehicle in our wash we cover it every time as long as it didn't have pre existing damage to the area in question. We have 32 cameras in our system so that way we know what the vehicles look like coming into the wash, going through the wash and leaving the wash. I understand ****s frustrations around this and truly believe he didn't think the damage was there on the roof but after a full investigation we found it on film and as a company cannot/we do not pay out damage claims that have pre existing damage to their vehicle (in the area of reported) weather they knew it was there or not. 

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