Car Damaged by Stray Shopping Trolley... Now What?

neilmcl

marshall_mcf said:

Thanks all for your thoughts.  I will send some pictures through to some local paintless dent removal firms - I hadn’t heard of these before so I am most grateful for your knowledge + input. 

The usual process is to get behind the dent and push it out but even if they can't do that due to access difficulties, such as a crash bar, then they can try dent pulling.

Grumpy_chap

How old is the car?
Is that a dent / scratch that the OP can simply live with?
Looks the same as the dent in my car caused by the pedal of a kid doing wheelies on his bike

BOWFER

One thing to note, supermarkets (or whoever) cannot refuse to give you CCTV.
They might try, but they legally have to and are only allowed to charge a 'cursory fee' for doing so (the guidelines being no more than £20)

unforeseen

BOWFER said:

One thing to note, supermarkets (or whoever) cannot refuse to give you CCTV.
They might try, but they legally have to and are only allowed to charge a 'cursory fee' for doing so (the guidelines being no more than £20)

The problem being that the OP neither knows where it happened nor when. 

marshall_mcf

Grumpy_chap said:

How old is the car?
Is that a dent / scratch that the OP can simply live with?
Looks the same as the dent in my car caused by the pedal of a kid doing wheelies on his bike

The car is 2.5 years old, I could live with the scratch as it doesn’t bother me at all, but I’ll likely get a hefty repair bill from VW if I return the vehicle at the end of my PCP contract without sorting it! Sorry to hear you have some damage too, now you mention bikes, I think it could be that as it’s just the right height for a passing by pedal to scrape. 

marshall_mcf said:

Thanks all for your thoughts.  I will send some pictures through to some local paintless dent removal firms - I hadn’t heard of these before so I am most grateful for your knowledge + input. 

The usual process is to get behind the dent and push it out but even if they can't do that due to access difficulties, such as a crash bar, then they can try dent pulling.

It’s worth a shot -  Chips Away said it had to go to a bodyshop due to crash bars but I’ll get a few more opinions before I take it in.  I’m not sure if Chips Away use PDR.

Thanks again all. 

neilmcl

marshall_mcf said:

Grumpy_chap said:

How old is the car?
Is that a dent / scratch that the OP can simply live with?
Looks the same as the dent in my car caused by the pedal of a kid doing wheelies on his bike

The car is 2.5 years old, I could live with the scratch as it doesn’t bother me at all, but I’ll likely get a hefty repair bill from VW if I return the vehicle at the end of my PCP contract without sorting it! Sorry to hear you have some damage too, now you mention bikes, I think it could be that as it’s just the right height for a passing by pedal to scrape. 

marshall_mcf said:

Thanks all for your thoughts.  I will send some pictures through to some local paintless dent removal firms - I hadn’t heard of these before so I am most grateful for your knowledge + input. 

The usual process is to get behind the dent and push it out but even if they can't do that due to access difficulties, such as a crash bar, then they can try dent pulling.

It’s worth a shot -  Chips Away said it had to go to a bodyshop due to crash bars but I’ll get a few more opinions before I take it in.  I’m not sure if Chips Away use PDR.

Thanks again all.

I think they do now but I wouldn't trust them with the job, best to go to a specialist in PDR.

BOWFER

unforeseen said:

BOWFER said:

One thing to note, supermarkets (or whoever) cannot refuse to give you CCTV.
They might try, but they legally have to and are only allowed to charge a 'cursory fee' for doing so (the guidelines being no more than £20)

The problem being that the OP neither knows where it happened nor when. 

More general advice for anyone viewing this thread

[Deleted User]

Get a dashcam. A basic one will at least let you figure out where you have been and at what times, to get CCTV footage.

A better one with "parking mode" and a decent field of view might be able to actually catch the event and identify who is responsible.

Having said that, even if you could identify the person at fault here, it's going to be very hard to recover any money from them.

Car_54

BOWFER said:

One thing to note, supermarkets (or whoever) cannot refuse to give you CCTV.
They might try, but they legally have to and are only allowed to charge a 'cursory fee' for doing so (the guidelines being no more than £20)

Are you sure about that?

The information on gov.uk confirms my understanding that "You have the right to request CCTV footage of yourself". Note it says yourself, not your car. Data protection is all about personal data, not inanimate objects.

facade

[Deleted User] said:

BOWFER said:

One thing to note, supermarkets (or whoever) cannot refuse to give you CCTV.
They might try, but they legally have to and are only allowed to charge a 'cursory fee' for doing so (the guidelines being no more than £20)

Are you sure about that?

The information on gov.uk confirms my understanding that "You have the right to request CCTV footage of yourself". Note it says yourself, not your car. Data protection is all about personal data, not inanimate objects.

So if it shows the face of the person responsible, they couldn't give it to you anyway.