Fatally Disappointed--The Thread I never wanted to write.

Glad it worked out for the best.

 

At least it's done and done.

 

Happy it got fixed .... Merry Christmas ....

 

It amazes me that Toyota seems to work hard to lose good loyal customers. I am thinking back to the headlight problems in my '05 Prius. Toyota always made it difficult for the customer/owner to have their defective headlight bulbs replaced. This is a known problem that was/is experienced all over the place and they still did not address it correctly. I was still never reimbursed for the last headlight bulb that I had to put in my car when that Toyota provided and installed bulb failed after just 11 months. I was left out of pocket over $300 because Toyota just abandoned the issue and said there was a class action suit re this and they could not help. I never received paperwork re any class action suit and I bought my car new from the dealer and had never moved or changed my address. Come on Toyota Customer Service, step-up and take care of your loyal customers!

 

Do you have HID headlights? If so, what month/year was car built?

The HID headlight bulbs in my 05 have been replaced only once (90K miles ago) in 212K miles.
My 05 was built in March 2005.

 

it is never good to fall too in love with a product or chat room for that matter. personally I feel that the problem started before the top coat(a protective application)was applied. there fore a responsibility of Prius. Yours was a long report but enables me to feel for you. out come of acid wash job is not cheap as well as not sure about future affect it will have. prius is good company I believe but is no better than its reps.had they repainted your beloved car it would have restored many of us the belief in a good company they have hurt their selves much more than the cost of repair in my opinion.

 

The only people who even know about TEM's issue are the relatively few who read this thread. Something like this won't hurt or bother Toyota in the least. Especially since it's pretty much been decided that Toyota had NOTHING to do with the issue. It was an after the sale environmental issue, that, as many promised ... Was easily fixable.

I fail to see how Toyota could be held remotely responsible for TEM's issue, and I think even TEM would agree to that now.

REV

 

No, TEM maintains that the Toyota stealership should have diagnosed the issue correctly and taken care of it for him under warranty.

It's possible that someone at the stealership knew exactly what the problem was but did not want to do the repair because Toyota corporate might not have and probably would not have reimbursed the stealership for wet sanding and polishing to remove the spots.
Many first responders (myself included) to TEM's initial post indicated that he should pursue a comprehensive insurance claim. As we all know, that was ultimately what he ended up doing.

 

Are we riding our high horse today jadz? Lol jk

The only problem I see with pursuing an insurance claim is that his insurance will likely go up. IMHO, this was a DIY job all day but, I guess everything is a DIY job to me lol. Some people are at different comfort levels and I guess I should think about that more often.

 

My point was ... Toyota had NOTHING to do with the damage that was done.

If you buy a new Toyota ... Drive it off the lot .... And it gets keyed in a Walmart parking lot a day later ... Is Toyota supposed to fix that as a defect ?

An insurance claim is ALWAYS an option for any damage ... Everybody will admit that.

From what TEM says ... The car was fine when it was delivered. To this day I don't think anyone knows what happened to cause the issue.

I've always found my dealership AND Toyota to be reasonable and accommodating when it comes to something that TOYOTA could reasonably be held responsible for.

REV

 

Yeah I agree about the DIY part ... It's unlikely his insurance will go up over something like this ... It was small bucks, and no fault was involved.

REV

 

You're partially correct rev, I reread TEMs follow up post and he blames Toyota as follows: "They showed no interest in actually helping me find the CORRECT resolution to the problem."

So yeah, TEM didn't specifically state that Toyota should have removed the spots if they had made the correct diagnosis. But he still expected the stealership to possess the knowledge. While the stealership didn't exactly bend over backwards to help him, they offered to help based on the knowledge they had.

In a roundabout way, it's sort of like when Kramer went to a vet in hopes of curing his cough. TEM should have gone to the correct professional first.

 

Correct, especially since it was not Toyota's fault at all. I think the real problem was basically implying that it was Toyota's fault TO TOYOTA. Given that ... Toyota was correct in not trying to resolve the matter any further than they did, which essentially would have meant that they assumed blame and therefore owned the problem.

No matter how it was resolved ... I can almost guarantee that I could have gotten those marks out without wet sanding. Wet sanding was probably the fastest way to do it, but just given the fact that it worked .... I would have tried less aggressive methods first. As others mentioned as well.

Dealerships are not reconditioning specialists ... It's very likely that is contracted out to an outside party. And again .... Given the litigious society we live in ... I'm not surprised that even some reconditioning experts refused to touch it. Can't blame them at all not wanting to be involved even remotely with a potentially unreasonable customer (not that TEM was or is) and being sued or responsible for a total repaint for what was probably a $100 repair job. From a reconditioning point of view .... I wouldn't have touched it without a release of liability from the customer.

Having said all that .... It's a damn rare paint issue that I can't resolve with the right chemicals, products, and techniques, without resorting to wet sanding, then compounding, polishing, and applying a protectant. I really wish I could have had a shot at the issue myself.

Either way ... Glad for everybody's sake that it's resolved.

Merry Christmas to all !

REV

 

You would have liked a shot at it as long as you weren't liable?

"What a piece of work is a man! how noble in reason! how infinite in faculty! in form and moving how express and admirable! in action how like an angel! in apprehension how like a god! the beauty of the world! the paragon of animals! And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust? man delights not me: no, nor woman neither, though by your smiling you seem to say so." Shakespeare's Hamlet 1602.

 

. I Love This

 

I'm a bit ashamed to say that I read the whole thread - it was a bit of a soap opera. My thoughts,

This is a good example of the problem with the way that dealerships are set up - having a third party selling and servicing another's products is bound to cause trouble.

The only thing that I see that Toyota did wrong was to offer help in the beginning and then ham-handedly pull back. They should have stayed clear from the start, and if it had actually been proven to be a manufacturing problem they should have gladly written a check to cover what had been spent on a fix. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished.

The OP has been pretty "ranty" in all of his posts. I wonder how many of the body shops that looked at the car and refused to try and resolve the problem were because of his attitude - my guess is that they looked at the amount of work involved (a fair bit of manual labor), how much profit was in the job (not much) and decided to pass because they were worried about the customer if things did not turn out to his satisfaction?

 

Don't be ashamed, steve. Many who read this thread since it started three months ago wondered what TEM would do. TEM was a great storyteller throughout his big adventure, don't you think?

As Barney the Bozo replied to the fortune teller's question regarding his future at the end of Firesign Theatre's "We're All Bozos On This Bus" album: Well, now..now, I won't say that I, uh, understand everything, but it was... certainly different, and oh yes, well..well worth a dollar.