Legal eagles - advice please

W

WeLuvIbiza

Active Member
In December last year, the wife took my car (2003, peueot, nothing flashy) through a supermarket carwash. Whilst going through the rollers, the big sweeping brush snapped off the rear window wiper. Wifey reported the incident, the young lad filled in a claim form, apologising and said the supermarket would sort it out.

Received a letter today saying 'tough luck, you use the carwash at your own risk'.

This sounds rather a brazen and callous attitude, is it really that simple? Do the "use at your own risk" signs expunge them from any liability for damage arising to vehicles going through the car wash?
 
The actions of the attendant, by accepting liability when it happened, would have you in a very strong position.

The letter is just a standard response to hopefully get you to go away.

Talk to a legal rep to confirm.
 
Cheers, Bez.

Having had a search of the www it does seem to come down to whether their sign(s) saying "Use at your own risk blah blah" was adequate / visible.
 
I'm not sure they can wholesale discharge liability in this way.

If an arial was left up and was snapped off, or the window wound down and the interior of the car was damaged, then yes I can see the user having to accept liability.

But surely by offering a car wash service, it is on the basis that they warrant that the machine will not cause damage to the vehicle, simply through the intended use of the machinery.

I would write back to them requesting that they reimburse you for the repair to the vehicle and for the cost of using the machine.

Also ask them to provided documented evidence of what checks of the machinery were undertaken following receipt of your claim form and when it was last serviced.

Tell them that you believe they are liable as the machine is clearly not fit for the purpose intended and that you used the machinery in good faith and that it is not reasonable that you should be expected to accept liability for their defective machinery.

Worth a try?
 
MARKB said:
I'm not sure they can wholesale discharge liability in this way.

If an arial was left up and was snapped off, or the window wound down and the interior of the car was damaged, then yes I can see the user having to accept liability.

But surely by offering a car wash service, it is on the basis that they warrant that the machine will not cause damage to the vehicle, simply through the intended use of the machinery.

I would write back to them requesting that they reimburse you for the repair to the vehicle and for the cost of using the machine.

Also ask them to provided documented evidence of what checks of the machinery were undertaken following receipt of your claim form and when it was last serviced.

Tell them that you believe they are liable as the machine is clearly not fit for the purpose intended and that you used the machinery in good faith and that it is not reasonable that you should be expected to accept liability for their defective machinery.

Worth a try?
Click to expand...

Thanks for the input. Read an article from someone who asked to see the service records of a carwash, they were not available and he won his case in court.
 
WeLuvIbiza said:
the big sweeping brush snapped off the rear window wiper.
Click to expand...

If there was nothing wrong with the 'big sweeping brush' i.e. it wasn't made of steel, then I don't see how it is possible to put the blame on the car wash for braking off the wiper. It could have been that the wiper was not fitted strongly enough (would be there argument)..

...can't see this one worth the fight to be honest...
 
The corporation have put in hold harmless clauses like Use at your own risk. These will hold up in court. You may try to appeal to there customer service side, and see if that work?
 
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