Alloy wheels damaged during car servicing

nnt

Dear all,
I had my car (Audi A3 2008 reg) serviced last week which included replacing both the rear tyres. I only noticed today that there are a couple of large scratches on the alloy rims- which can only be attributed to incompetence of the mechanic. As there was a lot of adhesive/gel (commonly used during change of tyres) on the rims after the servicing, I did not notice this earlier. I only noticed this when I had the car washed today (shame on me for not checking this before leaving the garage - but no use rueing over it now).
Obviously, the first step is to visit the garage again and point this out to them. My question is what are my rights if the garage refuses to acknowledge that this damage was caused by them during changing the tyres? I made the payment using a credit card. Can I contact the credit card company and block the payment?
Looking forward to any helpful replies. Thanks in advance.

gardner1

Chance of success 0%

Scrootum

Cab you prove they caused the damage?

Crabman

The credit provider is jointly liable with the merchant, more info here:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shopping/section75-protect-your-purchases

Did the garage complete a vehicle condition report before accepting the vehicle from you? If they didn't, you will have to push this point hard, as you can be sure the garage will argue that the wheels were either damaged before you went in, or the damage was caused afterwards.

If as you say there was adhesive on the rims then this could be argued by you as a reason for not immediately noticing the damage.

Hopefully they'll be able to come to an agreement with you that will mean you remain a customer of theirs.

phill99

Think you have zero chance. It's taken you a week to notice. In that time you could easily have Kerbed the wheels and caused the damage, but now fancy your chances at getting someone else to pay for the damage.

Your chance to get it dealt with was when you picked the car up.

forgotmyname

The adhesive/gel you mentioned is actually just a soap to act as a lubricant when fitting the tyres. It will wash off in no time.

The only other adhesive is a black silicone type material that they pain on the inside of porous alloys to help prevent them leaking air and constantly going flat.

Westmead_Fan

did you actually check them before the vehicle went in for a service???

how do you know you haven't caused the damage???

vaio

I'd have thought that wheel changing scratches would be different from curbing.

It comes down to balance of probabilities......identical scratches on both rear wheels certainly leans towards machine damage

londonTiger

the scratches could have easily been done before or after the service. you cnnot confidently say it occured during service so i think you have no chance.

also if you phone up the cc company and tell them 100% honestly what you just posted the cc company probably won't push for a chargeback because you're not even sure.

Stoke

As said, the jelly stuff is just an adhesive to help with the tyre changeover. Where I go, they're quite liberal with it, so you end up with quite a bit, but it's usually on the tyre rather than the rim.

That said, you a 0.00000001% chance of success with this I'm afraid. You've taken a week to notice damage to your alloys when stones, rocks, curbs, whatever could have caused it. I'm sure you're correct in that they were damaged by the mechanic. After all, plenty of mechanics don't really give a toss about the car they're working on, as it's not theirs.

If the scratches are superficial, you might want to consider using some kind of cutting compound to reduce the scratches. If the scratches are through the paint, I'd say the best thing you can do is use a touch-up pen or fine filling in using a matchstick with some alloy paint... failing that, take it as a harsh lesson and get your alloys refurb'd in a few years when they'll no doubt need it.

colino

If the marks are consistent round the rim in distance from edge and depth, I'd take it back and explain you only noticed it after you washed off the soap. Few tyre fitters are any good at mechanics and mechanics aren't always the best tyre fitters.