pregame

so i was out picking up some last minute gifts yesterday, and i was marking things off of my list as i was sitting in my car in the parking lot. well the winds here in pittsburgh were gusting pretty high, not sure how high, but high enough to blow a shopping cart into my car. mind you, i was parked about a hundred yards from the nearest shopping car return, and because someone was being lazy, im gonna have to pay to have this fixed!

whats it gonna cost guys??

lusid

dang, thing must have been TRAVELING!

snax

Go in and speak with the store manager or managment office and ask if their insurance will cover the repair.

crazyasiantl

iTrader: (7)

shit man, that sucks. i work at savemart and we just got new red carts..im waiting for a big red scratch on my car cuz the people out here are hella lazy and cant walk 20 feet to the car return

pregame

the thing was flying at my car..and because i was sitting in it when it happened, it was liek it was in slow motion..i seen it coming and couldnt get out fast enough to stop it..i just cringed..

pregame

i filed a complaint with the manager, but she said she doubts theres anythign theyll be able to do, and that anything that happens in thier parking lot is the responsibility of the landlord, which is crap. she said shed notify corporate and the landlord to see if theres something, but doubts it..lame. im guess 850 to fix this.

TeknoKing

This story is very close to home...

Got a new bumper, fresh WDP paint.. a week later was in Shop & Stop.... Came out to a huge ass dent with paint torn off the corner of the bumper. I was furious..... The shopping center will not cover any damage to your car. You park there at your own discretion.

I'm still driving around with the ugly dent, but I'm not fixing it.. Because I know, by the law of my bad luck, the moment I'll repair it, someone will return the favor, but this time on the other corner. So f*ck it. Hit me bitches, but don't let me catch you; Mike Tyson's gap will be a beauty compare to your new smile.

pregame

yeah that really blows, but i feel you, the first week i had my car, a uhaul truck took out the whole driver side. a month after having that fixed, some guy in a parking lot backed into me, again, while i was sitting in my car, that was the rear passenger quarter panel, so now, three quarter panels on my car have been seen damage, i know as soon as i get this fixed, that the last quarter panel is next

LoveMyTL-S

I always try to park clear of shopping carts. But on windy days.........what can ya do?

sixsixfour

same shit happened to me. a cart hit my front bumper where the license plate now sits. not that deep but i never bothered to fix it (its covered by the offset plate now anyway). but i had to drive around with that for two years. bothered the crap outta me.

i swear if i see someone hurl a cart towards my car, god help them.

benny04tl

ummm the store should be liable... The cart is their property and it hit your car.. you should also tell them that if their highly competant kids who take care of the carts at $6/hr were actually doing their job then this could have been avoided.

however you would have had a more convincing case if that picture you had was with the cart still on/near your car. Its rather hard to prove that is from a cart without it actually being in the picture...

TeknoKing

^ no

They are not liable, if the shopping cart was automatic, and it moved itself into your car, then yes they are liable. Someone controlling the cart is liable, not the cart/property itself.

To file a report, you must call the cops.... Yeah, 911, listen, I need to report a hit and run, a shopping cart has hit my car, the perp ran away, sent a cruiser please. ?

inyong1988

iTrader: (2)

this is why I love to park far from old cars or suv/minivan.

wall e

my rear bumper is damaged and ive always wanted to fix it, but i wont cuz i like what u said. its juss an endless cycle. seems like the only thing u do have control of is the interior of the car.

UNCONQUERED

Pregame,

First: That totally sucks. I'm sorry.

Second: I'm not sure what store you were at- but if it was a store that employs "Cart Pushers" you might be able to do something.

My brother had a cart blow into his Accord at Wal-Mart- he took pictures of the 40+ carts that were just rolling through the parking lot- and sat down with the Store Mgr. I don't know where the hell the "cart pusher kid" was, or what he was doing- but he was SLACKING. My brother was cool with the Store Manager- and their Insurance covered it.

Damn, they're supposed to have kids out there pushing those things in the building....of course, if lazy folks would just put them away, we wouldn't be having this conversation.

Sorry...

snax

You will hear many opinions here; liability is discretionary based on individual circumstances and One size does NOT fit all... Most shopping centers and stand-alone stores do have insurance riders that cover their liability for damages done to or on their property. Do not leave the 'iquiry' to the store manager. Get all the information and contact the home office or managment group directly. Don't assume they will not take responsibility. Remeber, the greasy wheel (and a little bad publicity) will get a reaction.

UNCONQUERED

true

UNCONQUERED

Damn Wall-E.

I'm beginning to wonder about you.

In addition to using poor grammar- it's becoming increasingly clear that you don't take very good care of your TL.

You told us last week that you don't wash your car because:

"see i dont wanna wash my car as well as u do cuz if ppl see me washing my car that well in my driveway, they may try to dmg my car juss cuz they see how much i take care of my car. like to spite me. a realli clean car sticks out like a sorethumb in a parking lot and that can be a good or bad thing."

And now you've told us that you're cool with a dent in your bumper?

Take some pride, man.

Just my .02

alexSU

iTrader: (3)

funny, i was kinda wondering the same thing...

EVOLICARUS

i always park my car uphill on any parking lot due to high winds. or park my car behind or on the side of the middle concrete barriers with trees and mulch in them, just in case a cart went flying that would at least slow it down. it seriously takes me at least a good 5 minutes to think everything while i'm parking my car

tl_rox

^(x2) Yup, awareness is the key...however, i feel the OP's pain...didn't have any power to stop it - especially when he sees it coming, and when he felt like it was slow motion (i've been there before)...ish happens bro. At this time in the malls, "all" cars are a target for dings and scratches! I guess people out there don't care.

Good luck with this, i feel your pain, homie!

TeknoKing

Happy Holidays guys..

I hope that such little problems as described in this thread be the biggest headache we ever have.

Dents/scrapes will happen. Me living in NYC, they are guaranteed. I'm very careful when parking, but it's not you, it's the other driver, which is nothing you can do about. Remove a certain, ahem, gender/population from driving, and I promise you we will sleep happier ever after. I've seen plenty of dumb idiots parking tiny as Priuses in a spot big enough for an 18-wheeler, they park by sound and feel. The idea of using sight and car awareness escapes them.

There was one time that I hit my rear bumper pretty bad. I was tired, and I said hello to my garage wall. And I'll never do it again, lol.

Trew

iTrader: (1)

There's not much you can do where awareness is concerned. Everytime you park your car in a public parking lot you are rolling the dice. There are countless idiots out there that don't take a minute to think and damage your car.

In addition to that, there are acts of nature (like in the OP's case). I once parked under a 50 foot palm tree in a Wal-Mart parking lot and watched a palm frond fall on top of my wife's Oddyssey. It was larger than her car and it left a tremendous dent in the hood. As you would think, management said my insurance would have to cover it since they are not responsible for damage in the parking lot.

HQTL6SPD

ouch!

I always park at the highest elevation of a parking lot for that reason. The cart will only travel down hill when it's windy...

Nasty188

Or the next time you see a shopping cart you can do this!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gA6EL0FPZHA

pregame

yeah thanks for the opinions guys. i got the stores info and everything i could to follow up and i was very decent with the manager, but know how big box retialers work, this will probably be a pointless battle.

i did make the argument that there were far to many carts outside and that they were blowing around because people werent doing thier job, and that there are no park at your own risk signs. i was parked far from where this car was originally. they said theyd consider all that..we'll see what happens. funny thing is, that as soon as i got to speak to a manager, they started rounding up every single cart in the lot.

Bearcat94

Quite some time ago I was sitting in a a large parking lot. A cart, sitting unattended, began rolling. And rolling. And rolling.

It had a long way to go and with the slight slope was gathering speed all the way.

It finally zero'd in on a particular car and hit it with an ugly BANG!

The deflection of the impact caused the cart to veer off and it continued to roll .... right into the cart corral.

Poor guy probably never knew what hit him.

rksokol

Pregame-

Good luck with getting your ding fixed. I don't know how it is in PA, but in the NoVA area there are signs in just about every parking lot stating that the store is not responsible for shopping cart damage to cars parked in it's lot.

I'll speculate that the manager started rounding up all the remaining shopping carts b/c he didn't want twenty other customers complaining about shopping carts hitting their cars. Then they might have a case!

XS2K

When you see the wind push a cart along into another car, it is almost funny, particularly if it is a beater, but when it is your car, you get soooo pissed. Whenever I park anywhere, always away from everyone, I look around for carts and if any are close, I grab it and take it to the store or the corral. I take no chances because I have been sitting in my car and have seen what the wind can do.

Bearcat94

Personally, I don't think those signs are worth a tinkers damn. Just like the signs that some trucks have, "Not Responsible For Objects Coming From Roadway" - yeah, right, the "object" came from your truck, dimwit. They are just to scare people off.

If the store fails in their responsibility to remove/collect their carts from a their parking lot and one of those carts damages your car, I'd argue that the store was negligent. And a sign does not negate or excuse their negligence.

What if that loose cart ran over some old lady and she fell and broke her hip? You think the store's not gonna settle? Damn right they will; they don't need the legal battle that they'll end up losing anyhow.

HONgDA

iTrader: (1)

That sucks. If paying for gifts doesn't hit the pockets already. I came out from a restaurant one time and there was a shopping cart few inches from my car. I was glad it didn't hit my car. It's unbelievable how some people are lazy to return the carts. At least put it some place where it doesn't move.

rksokol

I was inferring that the stores put the signs up about "not responsible for cart damage to your car" anyway. If a cart damages person A's car in the parking lot from an undeterminable source, and person A notices the signs in the parking lot stating "not responsible for cart damage to your car", person A might just give up any idea person A might have had about seeking retribution. And with that, the store has won.

I wasn't going off on tangentials; I was just running on the assumption of the usual case that people have: they come back to their car and find a shopping cart up against it. Cause of incident is usually indeterminable in this case.

mmp1214

happened to me i was eating pizza in my car, and i couldnt get out quick enough, and the next thing i know theres a 2 inch long scratch on the front bumper

paliknight

since laziness cant be changed, they should put some type of handle on each cart that MUST be pulled to move the cart. or at least something similar to that.

firstacuratl

iTrader: (2)

One year ago to the day, I watched a cart careen towards my truck while waiting for a cup of coffee in the drive-thru at my favorite coffee stand. It had to be doing 30 mph by the time I actually saw it (pretty steep grade) and as hard as I tried to undo my seat belt, bail out and catch the SOB, I ended up getting "torpedoed"; a huge dent in both the rear door and front box! I went in to the store immediately and asked to see the manager but unfortunately he wasn't there for the holiday I went back the day after Christmas and spoke with him and he gave me the stores insurance info. I contacted them the following day and filed a claim. I received a letter from them a month later saying they would not honor the claim because the accident was an "act of God"! I finally just paid out of pocket to fix my truck; $1400 total. To the OP ... I feel your pain.