Hail leaves car owner with new damage after leaving body shop
Hail storms are bad coming down, and the damage remains long after they've passed. A Denver man learned the hard way that your property isn't guaranteed safe, even at places that specialize in fixing it.
Olaf Richter took his vehicle to Rickenbaugh Collision for repairs about a month ago. Work on the car was scheduled to be completed this week. When he got the call to pick up his vehicle, he learned he'd be getting it back with new dents.
"I took it to the shop to get repaired. Then I get a phone call telling me new damage happened and I'm going to have to pay for it," said Richter. "I'm thinking, 'what bizarre alternate reality am I in?'"
He was told his vehicle was left outside during a recent hailstorm. The estimate he was given by Rickenbaugh to fix the damage is $1,968.75.
Rickenbaugh told CBS Colorado they try to bring cars inside, but space is limited.
Richter says his car was one of the unlucky few.
"What's odd to me is that a business that deals with repairing damage would not have safeguards to protect vehicles from the thing that they're fixing," said Richter. "I wish the communication would have been more empathetic. They could have put themselves in my shoes, rather than just stating the fact that this is my responsibility."
Nick Pacifico at Rickenbaugh says this is a conversation he's had many times with customers. He says the dealership has customers sign a waiver, understanding the business is not liable for this type of damage.
"We're only liable when we are driving his car. Like if we're doing a test drive or verifying repairs and we get into an accident. Our insurance company covers it because it's not sitting on our lot. This is subject to their insurance and that's standard procedure everywhere," said Pacifico.
Pacifico says the company will often take care of the deductible for customers in similar situations.
"If it's a big event, then we take care of their deductible for the customer when we repair the car. That way it's not the customer who is impacted," said Pacifico. "That's typically what our policy if the damage is bad enough. We just take care of the customer's deductible and repair the car."
Richter says he was offered a credit toward his deductible, but the amount wasn't specified.
Skyler McKinley with AAA says this is why it's important to have comprehensive car insurance, especially in weather-prone places like Colorado.
"It's tough. I get that anger is real. But the body shop doesn't have an obligation to protect your vehicle against acts of God," explained McKinley. "While you have a reasonable expectation, for example, that the employees of a repair shop aren't going to bang on your car with baseball bats, you don't necessarily have a reasonable expectation that they're going to protect your car from hail."
If your repairs can wait, McKinley suggests foregoing scheduling any sort of appointment that your car might need to be outside for during hail season.
"Generally with the exposure we're talking about here, the repair shop is not going to be held responsible. If you want to figure that out formally, you can of course hire an attorney," said McKinley. "If there's any chance the repair shop bears any liability, the lawyers at the insurance company will work that out. They will work that out with the garagekeepers insurance and so on."
If Richter goes through his insurance, he says he'll be left paying the deductible – and possibly higher rates in the future.
Next time, he says he'll ask more questions.
He hopes other drivers will too.
"What's your policy? How is my vehicle covered against hail? Is it inside? Is it outside? Does it have blankets on it? I think it's those things that unfortunately, I had to learn the hard way," said Richter. "I want people to not have the same bad surprise that I did and read the fine print."
