Independent Tyre Garage Caused Damage on Puncture Repair

Diddleman

Hi, last Friday on my way home from work I got a puncture in one of my tyres, I immediately went to the nearest puncture repair garage to get it fixed as i was in a rush and was about to set off on a long trip for the weekend.

While the tyre fitter was jacking my car he jacked it in the wrong location causing the side skirt to come away and bend. as i was watching him do it and seeing the car being damaged i immediately pointed it out to him. He jacked the car down again and said "its ok" after seeing the side skirt pop back in to place, i knew it was far from ok... i kept calm and thought i would confront him about it once he had repaired the puncture.
Then after seeing him struggle to get the tyre back on the alloy after repairing the puncture i got a closer look at the wheel (expensive diamond cut alloy) to find several marks on the rear of the wheel and on the front face. I also saw him using excessive force at the air inlet which caused a ring mark imprinted into the alloy around the air inlet.
After a further 10-15 mins of him struggling to put the tyre back on I told him to stop to avoid further damage to the car/wheel and told him to put the spare on so i could take it else where.
with the spare fitted I took photos of the damage to the alloy and side skirt, i also took a video of the car on the premises while the fitter was messing around with the wheel.
I confronted him about the damages, he said the alloy was already damaged, it wasnt as its a brand new car at 2 month old, he wouldnt take blame for any of the damages but gave me his number and told me to ring back saying "call me when you think you know what the damage is".
I took the car to VW to get an estimate of the damages, which to replace the side skirt and wheel came to £1910. The VW tyre technician stated that the wheel was clamped incorrectly and he could see this from the damage. Also the side skirt damage was obvious from being jacked incorrectly.
I called the tyre fitter back who denied causing any damage and said he has no insurance details, I asked if he had a boss which he said "no and if I did i would be sacked. anyway i have left now so what are you going to do". He then hung up.
I called around and found out the owner of the coach travel business next door "sovereign travel" and he also said he owns the trade name "Odsal Tyre Centre" (the garage where the damage was caused) i asked him about insurance and he said its not his problem its the fitters as he rents the garage from him. But he said he has no insurance for that garage also.
I am meeting the owner of the garage tonight to discuss the damages where he said he wants to see if we can "sort something out"...

Im looking for advice what to do next?

If both refuse to pay up who do i take to court? The fitter, the garage owner/trade name owner?

Am I going about this the right way? i have tried to gather as much evidence as possible with photos from myself in the garage, photos from VW, a statement from the VW tyre technician and body shop manager. I am going to present this to the garage owner and see what he says.

Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance.

Alex

bigjl

If it was, as I suspect , one of those little tyre shops that sell mainly used tyres then you might not want to know who is actually behind the business.

Diddleman

As in you suspect its a place used for dodgy dealings and money laundering?

bigjl

Not really.

Just the kind of place where legal issues such as this are dealt with by doing a Phoenix.

One reason there is only one or two of these kinds of places where I would take a car.

And a decent car with nice wheels would only go to 2 of my trusted high end tyre specialist shops.

But we live and learn.

Diddleman

I see, assuming Pheonix is where the company closes down and then reopens with a new name?

True in hindsight that is what I should have done.

bigjl

We all live and learn.

Your problem is a mistake that most people could make.

Though the £1950 to repair is fantasy main dealer land.

And even main dealer damage cars when jacking them up.

Happened to my T plate Seat Toledo back in '99 in front of the Seat Area Engineer.

Put a small dent in the sill and Seat and the dealer refused to repair as it hadn't broken the paint!

You could only see it with the car in the air so it was still there when car was disposed of

Strider590

Problem with newer cars is the lack of a proper jacking point, you get the little slot for the suicide jack and the main dealers get 4 post ramps with adaptors to fit those points.

I swear they do it to make it hard for independent garages to work on their cars, thus driving business into the main dealers.