PIP Paint Damage/Warranty Assistance?

Escalated internally for you. Thanks for being such a loyal customer. You'll be contacted shortly. Thanks!
Erica Gartsbeyn
Prius Product Manager
Toyota USA

 

^^^ Now that's what I'm talkin' about! ^^^

 

In both pictures, it looks like some kind of "hairy" stuff coming out of the plastic. Is that like frayed plastic? Its hard to tell from the photos. The 2nd photo also looks like there is some kind of "seam" that runs from the peeled area towards the back of the car.

Very odd. Glad to see Prius Team is looking into this for you.

 

… bad prep on that top pic. Worse than an Earl Schieb $69 special.

 

Makes me wonder if there was pre-delivery damage that was improperly repaired by the selling dealer. Glad Erica is working on it for you.

 

erica, you rock!

 

I am sorry that your expectations of getting this resolved easily through our dealership, Jim Norton Toyota, were not met. Unfortunately, as with any dealership, we have to make decisions on what is covered under warranty and when we see damage on the vehicle, we cannot repair the item under warranty. I hope that you can understand that we are a private dealer that has no association with the dealer you purchased your vehicle from and just like any franchise, hope you would not expect us to pay to fix an item that we did not sell or for damage we did not cause. I wish you the best of luck with this and hope this was not just a bad repair by the selling dealer!

Hans Hulsman
Internet Director
Jim Norton Toyota
[email protected]

 

I guess the question is....Is this paint problem a result of "damage" or should it be covered under warranty? It looks like Hans feels that this is not a warranty repair...that their dealership would lose money if they tried to repair it under warranty. If I were Stephen and saw my paint peeling away like that...in two different locations on the car, I would not be pleased either. (understatement) I'm thinking that if the paint is coming off like this, there was a problem with the prep work as they got ready to paint it. If that is the case, all of the paint will need to be stripped and the car re-prepped for painting. $$$

It will be interesting to see if Toyota steps up on this one and pays your local dealer to repair it....

It is interesting to note that my local dealer was very hesitant to do obvious warranty work on my car. Seems like that would be "bread and butter" for the dealer. Wonder if they get a reduced payment from Toyota or something.

 

Hans,

We are ALL confused.

Why does the dealership believe that the peeling paint is a result of a collision?
Where is the damage, other than the peeling paint?
Did the dealership contact Toyota to investigate another cause?
How about any other reported cases of peeling paint?
Why blame the customer before contacting Toyota?

Also dealer Sales is seperate from dealer Service.
Do you only do Toyota Warrenty Service for vehicles that the dealership sold?
Does your Toyota Product Manager or Regional Service Manager agree with this policy?

Is the Dealership Owner aware of this situation.
If you are a frequent PriusChat user, you KNOW this issue can be solved by your Dealership taking charge of the issue, getting the problem resolved with Toyota, getting paid by Toyota if it is a Warrenty problem, keeping a satisfied customer and your service dept looking GREAT.
Or if you continue to blame the customer, and stonewall assistance, we will always remember.

 

I sent my response directly to Hans Hulsman to be sure that he saw it.

There is a remote possibility that stevenveteran had sloppy body work done on the car and this resulted, but I doubt it very much. It should be possible to inspect the car and determine that. Lacking that, he deserves to be made whole with a like new paint job on a new car. That is what warranties are all about. We deserve to expect that the paint on our cars will not fall off in a few weeks of the purchase.

 

The whole car does not need to be repainted. The body is painted separately from the bumpers/doors/hood/trunk.

 

Of course, that is the case. But all of this needs to match at least fairly well on a new car. A new car should look new.

Unless you inspect the car, it is not possible to know what needs painting. It could be the whole car if the whole car was repainted since leaving the factory. This could have just been the first indications of a much more extensive problem. By far the best paint job is done at the factory under the controlled conditions which exist there. All of that will be worked out in due time.

 

Register the VIN at Toyota Owners Official Website: Service Coupons, Owners Manuals, Service Scheduling and More to see the service history. Hans isn't blaming anyone for the damage. He's just saying his dealership didn't cause it & believes it is not Toyota's fault.

There appears to be some goopy stuff on the plastic. What is it & where did it come from?

If the original plastic panels were damaged in transit they most likely would have been replaced, not repaired. I suspect the selling dealer is responsible for the damage, the repair & now the replacement.

 

There is no way that the original paint job would behave that way even if there had been an impact. The original dealer could weasel out saying that the car was delivered to them in that condition which may be true. There are body shops at the port for shipping damage even though it is not common.

Hans missed an opportunity for a public relations "slam dunk" which would almost certainly be covered by Toyota. He will pay a price for that. This is his call.

Erica will handle this well. She has a talent for that.

 

I apprecaite the feedback and do wish it was as simple a claim as many make it out to be. As a dealer, we never decline to do warranty work. Why would we? That is a major part of our business and yes Toyota does pay us for that work at a more than fair rate.

I appologize, I should have mentioned that we did contact our regional Toyota claim representative and they were the final call on turning down repairing that under warranty. We did not just send the customer away without doing all we could to figure this out for them, we even offered to sell them a new bumper or do the repair work at a heavy discount since they had bought vehicles from us before.

The reason for the turned down claim is that, as you can see in the picture, there is clear damage to the plastic which I enlarged in the picture. If you look closely at the picture, you will see plastic shredded right next to the logo. Even though we were not the selling dealership, we believe that the damaged plastic could not have been there at the time of delivery or surely they would have noticed it before driving it from Virgina to Oklahoma.

If there was absolutely any question in our minds that this was not a reslut of damage combined with the pressure washer the customer states they used, we would have made sure this was taken care of. Pressue washers are used all the time to strip paint off of many surfaces. They are great tools for washing your vehicle but they can do damage if not used properly and if there is existing damage that it can get a foothold in. As far as the other two chips, they just look like rock chips which could be touched up but again are not repairable under warranty and may have been made worse by the pressure washer at close range.

If it's in poor taste to defend our actions on this forum, I sincerley appologize but this is a great company I work for and want to make sure our efforts to resolve this situation did not go unmentioned.

Hans Hulsman
Internet Director
Jim Norton Toyota
[email protected]

 

Hans,

Thanks for replying and telling us what you believe to be the case.
You mention a Pressue washers, but Steve simply brought it to a car wash?
It was not a Power washer. Did anyone contact the car wash shop?
As Steve points out, your service assistant should be a major concern for you.

Also, did the regional Toyota claim representative, who made the final call, contact Steve?
They should have since Steve, and the rest of us, believe that this is a warrenty problem.
What is that person's name?

Please have your Toyota Product Manager contact Erica on the West Coast.

Thanks,

 

Where's the service history on the VIN?

If Toyota delivers a perfectly good car to a dealer (remember, someone inspected it & signed for it) and it is subsequently damaged please explain to me why Toyota or another dealer is legally or morally obligated to repair the damage.

My car was a dealer trade & had a vinyl sticker on the hatch. On delivery there was a paint chip in the area where the sticker was removed. Was the sticker placed over the chip or did the selling dealer chip the paint removing the sticker? I don't know but the selling dealer fixed it presumably on their dime because the damage wasn't documented. If I had brought the car back a week or two weeks or a month later could I prove they were responsible?

My right mirror housing has taken a beating. Is Toyota, the selling dealer or another dealer in any way responsible for replacing it?

I believe there is more to this story. I hope it comes out.