Advice needed on how to handle damage from a shop

nismonster

Hi guys, this afternoon I had my front bumper re-clear bra'd and am very happy with the job the shop did. I waited on the car, and the only driving they did was to bring the car around to the back of the shop, and then back to the front when they were done.

However, when I was driving it home I noticed a rough spot on my steering wheel in the 10 o clock position -- looks like one of the techs pressed a spiral notebook or some tool into the leather on the wheel. Doesn't look horrible and it's not a huge gash or anything, but it is no longer smooth for my normal left hand driving position.

The place is a very small shop with 2 or 3 guys, not high volume, don't even have an official webpage, just a facebook page.

I liked the shop and their work but am really bummed out that my steering wheel leather is now scuffed on that side. If you were in my position would you ask for them to replace the wheel? Have it re-upholstered? Just chalk it up to a mistake and ignore it?

Its not like my wheel was brand new, but it was definitely not scuffed like that before they got in it. The only reason I care is because this will be noticeable for my every day driving (I dd the z). Would hate to make a small shop pay for what I think would be an expensive replacement wheel. Is there a way I could "fill" in the scuffs on the leather or any way to repair this, without involving them? I use leatherique often but don't think it could repair this...

Looking for some opinions on the best way to handle this.

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vividracing

Definitely confront them about it if you believe it was their damage. But do so in a calm and kind way, mention you appreciate the work they did but say this was not on the wheel before and you'd like them to fix it however they can.

I doubt you'd need to replace the wheel but they could possibly scuff it out, the wheel to me looks like leather-ish? Some rubbing and leather product could refinish it. A small shop while inconvenienced by the issue, would care a lot about a customer's satisfaction especially if you may return, or say something negative about them as they don't have a big online presence, word of mouth is very important to them.

Just say it's not a big deal but if they could fix it or at least attempt to, you'd very much appreciate it.

-RyanG

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kenchan

I wonder wat caused that.

I would go back to the shop and tell them how happy you are with their work, but need the damaged steering wheel replaced. And call them right away if you can't head back today.

They have insurance for stuff like this.. at least they should.

kenchan

Maybe a clipboard did that?

jdsto

I scuffed the steering wheel on my IS250 with the edge of my wedding ring. It looked like that scuff. My scuff was shorter but looked the same. Felt like crap uner my hand.

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Gone but not forgotten

ssmoked

I scuffed my steering wheel a couple times with my finger nail when in a hurry. Yes, I keep my nails short.

I also DD my car.

tmk988

You can have the wheel re-wrapped for $200 or so. Look at redline wheels. They did a stunning job redoing my BMW.

ShutokuZ

Like Jdsto, I scraped my wheel with my ring also and produced that exact same marking at the 7-8 o'clock position. I was able to get rid of most of it by rubbing the mark with my fingers in a smoothing out pattern. I guess the warmth from my fingers helped smooth out the leather. This was on my Z.

tnav

Agreed, I scratched with the zipper from a pair of shorts that had pockets on the right leg, when getting in the car that is, it rubbed against the steering wheel. After a few days it sort of went away

FairladyZ10PG

It's your word against theirs. It'll be hard to prove that they did this & I seriously doubt that they will admit fault.

But I would confront them about it regardless.

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nismonster

Thanks for the input guys.


I spent 20 minutes rubbing it and put a little leather rejuvenator on it, and now it is not nearly as rough as it was at first. The wheel feels pretty smooth on the left side now...can slightly feel the grooves but overall feels pretty good. After thinking on this a lot and reading your posts, I'm not sure the juice will be worth the squeeze this time. The shop was a small operation and even getting the original appointment took longer than it should have, I can only imagine trying to get them to fix something they likely will deny. I guess there is a lesson here to inspect the car fully before leaving the shop -- it would have been ideal if I had pointed it out while the guy was showing me the final product.

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kenchan

yah, if you're okay with it then id go with that.

my local smog check place scratched up my interior a-pillar cover a while back when this f-king fatarse dumbf- mofo did the work. didnt notice it until i got home. considering the headache of getting that fixed, i just decided to go the mr.gale technique of just spraying it.

then i noticed later that my driver seat spring got bent or something inside its cushion from supporting the fatarse .. made BOING noise from time to time.
luckily the spring stopped making that noise. lol

taffyapples can