Valet Damaged our Brand New MYP

[Tsudy]

Hi there, TMC members.

Had a... very unfortunate situation with our forced-valet parking setup at our condo community here. Summary of events:

(Video of Walk-Around of Damage: Streamable Video )

09/18/2021: New Model Y Performance arrives! Blue/White
-- time passes, +3500 miles due to a fun road trip --
10/30/2021: Road trip is done. Back at home. Driving it once a week on the weekend.
-- time passes, nothing of note - only ~200'ish more miles added --
12/03/2021: Returned from errands. Delivered car to valet team.
12/11/2021: Requested car retrieval from valet team. They give us car, acting like everything is fine, and we're presented with the situation depicted in images/video link. Claim filed. Didn't even drive car. It's sitting parked down with valet team.
12/12/2021: Valet performing investigation as to what happened. I reviewed video we took and additional images. There is a small dent on passenger-side door frame with a small chunk taken out of it.
12/13/2021: Valet admits fault. Details based on conversation suggests they had a mishap with a garage parking lift and raised our car into some pipes on garage ceiling.
12/14/2021: Valet's corporate office claims center calls me to notify claim received and they're reviewing. Expect to hear back within 48 hours.

Next week car is going into a Tesla-approved body shop to assess the overall damage and estimated repair.

We, obviously, want our car repaired to exactly as it was before the situation occurred - regardless of the cost to valet's insurer.

If it were "just" the glass roof involved in the damage, that would be ideal, but the small dent and chip out of the frame suggests it's going to be a far, far costlier endeavor with a permanent mark on our Carfax.

My questions are:

* Estimated overall repair time we can anticipate?
* Estimated depreciation that may result on a permanent record for our car?
* Likelihood the valet's insurer may want to declare our vehicle a total loss due to salvaged title Model Y values being so high?

Thanks so much for your time! Has been a very unfortunate situation as it's our first brand new car in 12 years, first Tesla, and it's brand new. Less than three months old

 

[T_Gravity]

Sorry this happened to you. I would be pissed as well.

But, on the other hand, it looks like this is a glass only damage, the dent you pointed out in the pics does not IMHO looks like a frame damage. I think it is just a metal panel over the frame I believe.

 

[jjrandorin]

I didnt watch the video, but just looking at your pictures... did they actually try to give you your car back with a caved in roof as if nothing happened? That would have made me "extremely upset"... even more than the roof damage itself.

"Stuff happens", but trying to pass it off as if "we dont know what that is" would have likely set me off.

 

[systemr]

That sucks! I live down the street from you and never liked that ORH has valet only...

Hope they total your car

 

[Tsudy]

That sucks! I live down the street from you and never liked that ORH has valet only...

Hope they total your car

That's the spot -- and yeah... never been a fan of valet in general. I prefer it to be optional, if at all, but being forced kills that here as self-park is not allowed with no exceptions.

Lived in a few valet-only spots here with my previous Camaro and never had a problem ever. It's like a new car curse! It's also completely ruined our holiday plans to drive up north to visit family in Seattle. All-in-all quite a horrible scenario.

Regarding the totaling, that's why I want to get to the bottom of potential depreciation based upon a Carfax report -- it's clearly going to be worth less than if this never happened. Going to need to hire a professional appraiser to get the true loss we'll potentially be looking at.

 

[Tsudy]

I didnt watch the video, but just looking at your pictures... did they actually try to give you your car back with a caved in roof as if nothing happened? That would have made me "extremely upset"... even more than the roof damage itself.

"Stuff happens", but trying to pass it off as if "we dont know what that is" would have likely set me off.

They sure did. And, yes, that's what angered me more than anything about this. As if we somehow wouldn't notice the tiny glass shards that are on the back seat area, within our little puppy's car seat fabric, visible from the outside, roof hanging down inside, sound of shifting glass when you sit in the car, etc.? We had to seriously stop the valet guy and ask "Uhm. Why is our car's roof destroyed?"

 

[ThomasD]

I would file a complaint with the condo board

 

[Tsudy]

I would file a complaint with the condo board

Definitely! I've been including the general manager of the building on every step of the situation. The general manager was attempted to be removed with some correspondence with the valet supervisor but I re-added on after. It was clearly a conscious decision to remove.

 

[yerEVan]

Screw Valet. I do not feel bad saying that. I have seen so many of them drive cars off, like maniacs. Sooo many times.

So when the incident happened, the fact they never even told you right when it happened is even more insane than passing it off. That is insanely negligent and highly unsafe to allow someone to drive off with that.

 

[andaconda]

The small dents on the top rail of the car can be fixed easy enough - pretty straight forward. At worst they may have to paint just the top portion from the back window down past the front window. But I'd be willing to bet that a good body shop can just spot fill and paint and buff out that area. Roof should be no problem at all for a Tesla SC. As far Carfax or depreciation. It should not diminish your value at all.
'

 

[Tsudy]

Screw Valet. I do not feel bad saying that. I have seen so many of them drive cars off, like maniacs. Sooo many times.

So when the incident happened, the fact they never even told you right when it happened is even more insane than passing it off. That is insanely negligent and highly unsafe to allow someone to drive off with that.

I was honestly shocked that they tried to give us the car without mentioning the damage. It's possible that it was damaged sometime during the week between us last dropping it off and them recovering it (those lift systems they move cars around a lot to get access to others and such). There's no chance someone didn't hear the sound of aggressively-shattering glass the moment of impact happened, or the valet retrieving it should have immediately stopped what he was doing and talk with a supervisor on how to proceed, and surely shouldn't have tried to drive it up to us as if nothing happened.

That is, of course, unless that person is the one who also damaged it and was somehow (?!?!??!) hoping we didn't notice. A moment of panic perhaps.

There are some extremely expensive cars here, they're lucky it was "just" our Model Y in this situation. Not so lucky for us, unfortunately.

 

[Tsudy]

The small dents on the top rail of the car can be fixed easy enough - pretty straight forward. At worst they may have to paint just the top portion from the back window down past the front window. But I'd be willing to bet that a good body shop can just spot fill and paint and buff out that area. Roof should be no problem at all for a Tesla SC. As far Carfax or depreciation. It should not diminish your value at all.
'

That's reassuring, thanks! Originally had an appointment with Tesla SC to look at the "clunk" when going over speed bumps at low speeds. Tacked on the glass roof damage after that was discovered, then the damage to the top rail is where Tesla SC told me I need to take it to a Tesla-approved body shop.

Will that body shop be able to put on a new glass roof or can I anticipate having to take it to a Tesla SC to get that second portion done?

Also there was a report filed with police the moment the damage was discovered as it wasn't clear what happened and may have been a random act of vandalism within the garage. Suspect that may show up on Carfax at some point.

 

[andaconda]

The damage on the rail is minimal. The roof can be replace by an authorized shop or Tesla themselves. The roof would be no different than if your broke your windshield. Broken windshields are a common occurrence and do not go against the value of the car or go on a Carfax damage report.
I would however request a rental replacement car from the Valet company, until your car can be fixed.

 

[yerEVan]

Reminds me of National Lampoons Vacation. When they returned his car back, at the dealership.

 

[TSLY]

Regarding the totaling, that's why I want to get to the bottom of potential depreciation based upon a Carfax report -- it's clearly going to be worth less than if this never happened. Going to need to hire a professional appraiser to get the true loss we'll potentially be looking at.

Real bummer! Would consult attorney about diminished value claim. Valet and HOA both have deep pockets.

 

[Tsudy]

Real bummer! Would consult attorney about diminished value claim. Valet and HOA both have deep pockets.

Yeah, I have an inquiry in with an attorney already from yesterday - nothing official just a sequence of events and the same pictures/video footage. There's going to be more going on, overall, as it needs a very thorough detail inside -- lots of very tiny pieces of glass all over the back seats =/

 

[nate704]

I would rather move out of there than leaving my brand new car with a group of strangers.

 

[N1L CO2]

So sorry to hear of this mishap. Having worked as a valet in my young adult life, I can say, unequivocally, valet companies are EVIL. And some of the d***bags they hire to park the cars are just as bad.

As for the damage, the dent on the roof rail doesn't look too bad (from the pictures at least). As long as there isn't a significant paint damage, you will have good results with a skillful PDR guy to pull/massage the dent. The roof glass is $1500 + labor or somewhere in that ballpark. Hopefully the wait isn't too long to order and get it installed at your nearest SC. I wouldn't worry about diminished value at all. Seeing how MYP are upwards of $75k, your damage has to be somewhere around $50k (I would imagine) for a write-off. It's highly unlikely the insurance company will total the car what's in the pictures.

 

[whisperingshad]

get it fixed at their cost, then file a diminished value claim

 

[whisperingshad]

Also i refuse Valet. One tried to to force at near the beach and Im like sorry I only have my phone no valet card Show me where you want me to park it, never an issue so far...Suck your condo makes you do it. Maybe you dont have to after this lol