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Walmart Neighborhood Grocery/Claims Management Vs. Boxstock

My car got dinged by a shopping cart at a grocery store last month. We parked out by ourselves and I wrangled up the loose carts near the car and brought them to the front of the store when we came in.

30 minutes later when we came out there was a cart right next to the car. It didn't take long to find the ding.

I went into the store and got an employee out there who took a statement from me, took some pictures of the ding (with a joke of a camera) and gave me the 800 number for their claim managing company.

FFW a few weeks. I had sent the cell phone pictures I took of the scene and the dent to the adjuster. They were waiting on the parking lot video. I get a call from a different guy than my adjuster who said "sorry, we never got the video, there's nothing we can do for you. We can't be held responsible for carts in the parking lot".

I basically told him that was unacceptable and asked him what his opinion was of the pictures I sent. He hadn't even seen the pictures. We then got his manager involved.

FFW another week. I get a call from him and he says "ok we got the video and reviewed your pictures, please go get 2 estimates for the body work".

He just called and said my check for $577 is going out tommorow.

Bottom line, if the grocery store or place of business is slacking on picking up carts and your car gets damaged, take good pictures and don't take any crap from the claims people. Nothing personal against them, but it's their job to not pay claims. Be persistent if they were negligent.







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PPLAPW

Good job. I probably would have been like screw it, since most stores could care less. You'll make me think twice now! Glad they took care of it though...

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Every person I talked to including the people at the body shops were like "what? they aren't going to do anything".

The facts are in the pictures though. If they aren't responsible for overflowing cart returns who is? the customers?

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Yurand

Nice job, glad it worked out for you. I have to admit I probably wouldn't even try.

Sclass88

Good For You!!

07WDP

boxy, which walmart was it?

nice work man! way to get through the process... gives hope to people that something can be done in this type of situation.

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Walmart neighborhood market @ hillcroft @ s. braeswood.

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sixsixfour

good for you. thats why i have a small digicam and extra batteries in the car.

CleanCL

iTrader: (4)

i worked at home depot for over a year and they have the same policy in place. they can also be held responsible if a delivery truck damaged a car. big companies like that DO have insurance companies for this type of things. way to use your head.

rshanahan

Great to hear they're covering if for you!!!

Most of the shopping centers around here have a sign depicting they are not responsible for damage caused by shopping carts on the parking lot.

Was there any type of wording where your TL got hit (either at the car corral or walls of the building)??

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Honestly, I don't know.

But thank goodness even if there was it would be in direct conflict with my policy.

I think it's pretty common knowledge that those "not liable" disclaimers are a joke anyway. They are quite comical really and designed just to deter the uninformed.

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orgnlprankster7

$577 damn, thats an expensive dent..good thing u they paid cause no way in hell i woulda payed for a dent i didnt make

mr.motoring

That's awesome! I never would have thought Walmart would own up to things like this.

But in a tip in the future... don't park near drainage holes by yourself. The surrounding elevation dips into it and any loose objects will gravitate toward the center.

avs007

Precisely... Similar to valets. They have signs saying the samething. The only problem, is that they are taking possession of your car. When they do that, they legally take responsibility of the car. The disclaimer sign can say anything it wants, but they cannot have you waiver a right that they did not have in the first place.

Not sure how it works at grocery stores tho.

avs007

Thinking more about it... I don't think those signs release the store of liability, because those shopping carts are property of the store. This would be no different if they hung a sign that says, "We are not responsible if our employees kick in your fenders, smash your windows, and steal stuff from your cars"

Maybe I should hang a sign on my neck that says, "Customer not responsible for shoplifting", and walk into the store

Tonywp75

Nice. Why is there a White TL and the dent is on a Grey TL? That dent doesnt look that bad..maybe PDR (paintless dent repair) can fix it.

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Same car...

The first PDR guy I showed it to say no way, but I won't give up.

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CleanCL

iTrader: (4)

PDR is almost impossible on edges, especially fenders, if he hits it out too much just 1 time, then you have a lump instead of a dent.

datmrman

Nice work.

I avoid parking opposite cart returns for this reason.


Good luck with the repairs!

darksom1

Haha! I saw that too!

Man, like others have said, I would have just gotten my pissed off ass in the car and came home and typed some mad ass shit to you guys about some asshole denting my baby! Now, I feel like Jesse Jackson: Keep Hope Alive!!!

dtech

what's the average cost to fix dings? I got a small ding above my back right glass...wtf?? I barely had my TL-S for 12 days too!!! Fking haters, I swear!!!

dtech

Could this be the solution to minor dings?? http://www.dingking.tv/default.asp

Let me know what you guys think...I'm thinking of ordering one...

shooter

This could be a way to solve the ding problem for those mechanically-inclined ... but these DIY doesn't have warrenty so do it at your own risk ... LOL

onsknth

I had a couple on my sequoia done, one from wind knocking a yard implement against it, the other I can't remember, but I think I did that one too. At any rate it was like $150-$175 cause it was two different doors... They had a little trouble getting into the doors because of the saftey cross member in the door. But the outcome was amazing! I was very impressed with the outcome of PDR, one of the dings even had a chip in the clearcoat they fixed that too, it was perfect like it never happened.

dtech

Hmm...what if you can find a strong magnet to hover above the dented area?? Just a thought...LOL!

What's underneath the surface??

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Hey I wanted to post an update to this case.

The Paintless dent repair guy just left and......

Before:



After:



The dent is gone!

He said the area I had the dent is one of if not the most difficult areas to remove a dent.

It cost $150.

Houston people free to PM for the guys info if you need him.

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geekybiker

$427 free money from walmart. Cool.

Presto

Good looking! Glad all this could be worked out!!!

fastlarry

A similar event happened to me in 1994 with my Nissan Maxima. I was able to get K Mart to pay $660. for a dent in my car door made by a shopping cart. While the store manager tried to tell me that their disclaimer sign absolved them of liability, I insisted on having him fill out an incident report and send it in to their corporate headquarters. Once I had a contact person at their headquarters, I was able to negotiate a settlement with their insurance claims representative. Individuals or businesses cannot disclaim liability by merely posting a sign. As a customer, you are an invitee to their premises and they owe you a standard of care that you and your property will be reasonably safe from harm. If they have not made a good faith effort to keep the shopping carts under control they can be held liable for shopping cart damage to your car. Just keep cool and professional and you have a good chance of getting the company to pay off on a claim.

msr1011

A few weeks ago some a-hole ran a shopping cart into the right rear of my 05 TL at Walmart. Now I have one dent on the bumper and two scratches on the right rear of my car.

I went to a paintless dent repair guy and he quoted me about $575.00 to fix this dent and the four other ones various a-holes have let on my car.

brettallica

Wow!

Talk about a story with a crappy beginning, but a beautiful ending!

Fight authority! Always!

I'm really glad that all worked out for you, my WDP brother!

darksom1

Way to go boxxxxxxx!!!!!!!!!!

Good thing they didn't give you store credit! LOL!

AngeloUCF

Where did you go to get the $577 estimate? Was that for bondo/repaint?

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The Claims management company asked me to get 2 estimates to have the dent fixed. Both body shops though that the dent couldn't be fixed with PDR and estimated accordingly.

Fortunately I was able to find someone with 13 years of experience to get the dent out with hot glue and suction cups

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LaCostaRacer

I'm wondering if you could describe the hot-glue suction cup approach a little more. Is this the type of question I could ask the PDR companies as a screening question. The reason I'm asking is my Wife's Pilot has a Quarter size ding in the hood that I want to repair- I had a PDR guy look at it and he wasn't comfortable trying to repair- my current solution is covering the ding up with an upper bra.

thanks.

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Here ya go:

Google Results for "Glue Pulling"

They use this method when they can't get the blunt tipped pry bar behind the dent.

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DaddysOnehotAck

Don't even go for that B.S.!!!!.........I had the same thing happen to me at Publix supermarket,they took a picture,gave me their corporate office # and in about two weeks time they paid me out in cash $500.00!!!! (had to fax in two estimates)............so yeah give them hell if they don't want to pay out??........Walmart has enuff money to by a small country are they serious??