Damage to vehicle by Eurotunnel poor loading

Beenie

We have a wide car and always book our crossings in the 'high vehicle' section to get the extra space we need to drive on/load safely.

A group of us went to France last Friday (all with high vehicle spaces booked) but the loading operative waved us on to the 'normal' carriage. We didn't realise this until the last few seconds or we would have refused to board. The clearance at the sides was not adequate, and several of us have damaged our wheel trims by grazing them on the kerbs.

We reported this to a supervisor on arrival in France, but we are unsure that our claims will be dealt with properly. We have got an estimate from the dealership as to repair costs, and obviously want to claim this from Eurotunnel as it's their fault we were loaded incorrectly.

Has anyone had a similar problem and can let me know what happened (or didn't happen).

cubegame

Would you have driven off a cliff if directed?

Take responsibility.

blue_haddock

Damaged wheel trims? Buy another set for a tenner and move on with things.

Gloomendoom

How wide is your vehicle? I drive an American car and, although it is tight, have not damaged anything using the standard double decked cars.

mattyprice4004

If you mean alloys rather than wheel trims, you'll only be able to claim (if they even let you) for the cost of bringing them back to good condition - not for a new set of alloy wheels.
Refurbishment is around £40 per corner, but I expect a dealership will probably have quoted far in excess of this.

Can you prove they were in good condition before you boarded? I see a struggle!

Beenie

if we were in the standard double deck for high vehicles (if that is what you mean) we would not have had damage. But we weren't; through no fault of our own, we were directed to the wrong carriage. One of the Eurotunnel staff said later he knew it was weong, but they had overbooked on the high vehicles and thought they could bump us.


And thank you for your wise words cubegame. Next time we are at Eurotunnel, and there is the inevitable delay, we will not give a second thought to holding up the loading for a further hour while we are directed as a group to the proper carriage. Bear that in mind if you are ever held up, as it could be someone like me using the advice of someone like you.

The supervisor in France took photos and completed forms. We will see what happens. Our dealership is charging £180 plus VAT for the trim repair. It won't kill us to pay ourselves, but Eurotunnel should honour the bookings that sensible people have made because they know from experience that their cars are too wide for a standard carriage.

peachyprice

Beenie wrote: »

And thank you for your wise words cubegame. Next time we are at Eurotunnel, and there is the inevitable delay, we will not give a second thought to holding up the loading for a further hour while we are directed as a group to the proper carriage. Bear that in mind if you are ever held up, as it could be someone like me using the advice of someone like you.

Oh please, stop being a drama llama. They would have held you to one side and carried on boarding.

You may have had to wait for a later train, which would have been the sensible thing to do rather than let yourself be shoehorned into a too small space. But I guess at the time you were determined to get on that particular train.

Beenie

peachyprice, we were in a group of 17 cars. We stretched all the way from the train to the top of the ramp. If we had refused to move, it would have been like 17 caravans blocking the way. Also there is simply not enough room to pull so many cars aside.

This problem of correct loasing has obviously never happened to you, so I will wait to see if anyone has experience rather than people just saying take it on the chin, their mistake but you must cough up. Not acceptable in my book and not what a MSE site is about.

Gloomendoom

Come on OP, what kind of vehicles are they? Extremely wide but lower than six feet, fitted with wheel trims.

I suppose we can rule out any kind of Lamborghini.

Beenie

you don't really need to know what cars they are, only that they are wide.


I have had a reply on another website where someone with a classic car had similar damage and Eurotunnel paid for the repair. That's all I wanted to know, and so will bow out now.

(just a titbit for those who are interested in irrelevant info., we have a Lamborghini or Maserati as our courtesy car when we take ours for service).

richardw

Perhaps they should send you a link so you can print off something if you are an exception and place said piece of paper on your windscreen so you can be directed appropriately.