Has this happened to you?

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Bumper damage on nearly new car
This is the rear passenger side bumper on a 1-year old up-market car. You can see how scuffed it is after having been nudged by another car in a parking lot.

Well, here is the story. I was at a meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia and parked out front of the building where the meeting was held, not on the street, mind you but in a private parking lot. The spaces were pretty tight and I thought about the possibility of a door ding or something relatively minor. I have a thing about door dings and I am always, well, usually careful about where I park.

The meeting lasted into the late afternoon and upon coming out of the building I noticed that my bumper was damaged. "Heck", I said (well not exactly "heck"). As I got around to the driver's door I noticed a note tucked into the window frame. On it it said "hey, I rubbed on the side of your car. I don't think I did any damage but just in case AM" (name protected) with a telephone number at the bottom of the note.

The damage you see in the photo occurred that very day. The arrows indicate where the paint was gouged, presumably by the other car's bumper. Although it does not look like much the estimate was over $400 because plastic in the gouges had to be built up. It is also a 2 stage paint job; base coat and clear coat which made for something which looks pretty minor quite expensive.

We emailed and telephoned back and forth about logistics, estimates etc. I got a couple of estimates and we agreed on the repair. AM believes in Karma and felt very strongly that the damage should be repaired. Tonight the person called to tell me that the garage had been contacted and arrangements made for the bill to be paid. In the end the bumper was repaired and no money came out of my pocket. I wished the person well, thanked her and said that someday the gesture will be repaid in kind.

AM restored my faith in human nature.

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 29, 2014 at 12:51 AM

    Wow... Usually people don't leave a note. I've got a couple dings in my car that nobody ever owned up to :(

    ReplyDelete

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