I am posting my experience today in hopes that it will save someone from a similar setback. My son had the day off from school today so we decided to head for Berea this morning. Before we left I grabbed my portable scanner and magnetic mount antenna and stuck the antenna on the roof of my Ford Fusion. We listened to train chatter all the way to Berea. As I exited the freeway for Berea I saw a car wash and remembered how dirty my car was so I turned in and pulled into the wash. By now you all probably know what happened. For the life of me I don't know why the car wash attendant didn't bother to tell me that I had an obvious mag-mount antenna on my roof, what with the loose wire running along the roof and into the door jamb. He had to have seen it. Lets just say I certainly forgot about it. So into the wash goes my car with us in it. It didn't take long to realize that something was terribly wrong. The spinning noodle brushes immediately took the antenna right off the roof and proceded to beat the daylights out of my car with it. By the time I realized what was happening my scanner was hanging from the top of the door jamb. I pulled on it and got 2 inches of wire. The rest was gone. With the thing still beating my car, I started blowing my horn which just got strange looks from the crew there. Mercifully the beating finally stopped as we went through the rinse cycle. I quickly pulled out dreading what I was about to see when I got out of the car. At this time the manager came out and wanted to know what was going on. I showed him what happened. Shattered right hand taillight lens. 6 nickel sized dents along back of trunk lid. 2 very small dents on right side quarter panel. Pretty ugly. Could have been worse as the antenna smacked the back glass at least 5 times and didn't break it. I knew essentually it was my own fault for forgetting the antenna was up there, but what I wanted to know from the manager was why the attendant would not say something. All I got from the manager was twenty different reasons why he can't be held responsible. About this time we heard a similar beating coming from inside the car wash as a newer Cadillac STS came poking out into view from the spinning brushes. Yes it too was getting beaten senseless by my antenna still stuck in the spinning brushes. What I had been told was my own problem had suddenly become the car wash's problem. The Cadillac got a similar beating only it was along the whole right side. At least 15 to 20 nickle to quarter sized dents all along the right side of the car at about door handle level. While the car wash staff assessed the damage to the Cadillac I told the driver what had happened and how the wash attendant never bothered to tell me the antenna was there. At this point the manager tried to pin it all on me. I firmly responded by reminding him that the 20 or so reasons why he is not responsible for damages to my car are exactly the same reasons why I am not responsible for damages to the Cadillac. He had no response. I couldn't help but crack a bit of a smile as I got in my car to leave as the Cadillac owner was reaming out the car wash manager. A rather expensive lesson learned. It's gonna cost me a tail light and a few hours work on my trunk lid. Oh, and a new antenna.
Maybe that's a good reason why I don't wash my railfanning beater.... And a better reason I don't take my cars to any brush washes. I prefer to do it with the wand anyhow. Sorry to hear of the mess--thanks for sharing!
I'm sorry for the damage to your car but I can't help laughing at the manager who didn't bother to make sure the car wash was safe for other cars once you told him what had happened. Hilarious! Absolutely HILARIOUS! LOL!!!
I too am sorry for the outcome on your car, but rarely do I laugh out loud at a post, and I just did!
OOPS!!! That was a painful read!!! It's funny how managers who's job it is to deal with the public have no clue when it comes to dealing with the public. Yes, the damage to your car was your fault but it could have been much simpler for the mananger to admit his fault in not shutting the place down after your (inci)dent. Sometimes it's helpful to be smarter than the car wash you're managing!! Next time I'm in the car wash I'll be thinking of this!!!
That's a nightmare of a story! Don't most car washes at least have signs warning you about stuff like loose antennas? Failure to connect the dots--i.e., realize your "stuff" was still in the brushes--is something that manager will never do again. Most car washes have insurance against such happenings. I sometimes feel sad for managers who are thrust into unexpected situations. Somehow, despite our own mistakes, we feel a manager of a small business will be some wise, gracious and all-forgiving person? A car wash crew is not exactly composed of highly-paid, attentive workers. The manager is probably not the owner, and makes maybe $30K? Yet he will be held responsible for the whole episode. That's the way small businesses are.
Ooops. There is generally a Small sign... with 12 point print " patrons of this car wash are responsible for all loose Items fitted to their Vehicle.. This Includes : Headlight Protectors:Bonnet Protectors and CB Aerials" I too made the mistake of thinking " Car is dirty and there's a car wash" I proceeded to go through the Car wash and SNAP!!! there goes the Bonnet protector... I then went to see the manager of the Car wash.. who walked me round to the front of the car wash and there was a Laminated A4 sized Sheet of paper with a disclaimer you could not have read with an electron microscope!!!! and down the very bottom was an approval from the Department of fair trading!!!! Needless to say I sold the car and now have a 4x4... its supposed to look dirty!
It makes it better that I am able to laugh about it too. Heck, I saw the sign at the wash and it never occured to me that the antenna was still up on the roof. Yes, we did see some good stuff. When we got to Berea the Wheeling & Lake Erie empty coke train was waiting for a signal to cross from NS to CSX tracks. After just a few minutes wait it got the clear and proceded west over to the CSX main track 1.
Then in an almost psudo flashback, this went by slowly. Never saw this paint scheme on an NS 86 foot boxcar before. I definately have to get an old beater pickup truck for this railfanning stuff. Between my own stupidity and the flying corn, I have had a rough summer.
As a follow up to my experience yesterday. I got a call this morning from the manager of the car wash. He did appologize for what happened and explained to me that the attendant who greeted me and another employee involved at the wash were fired. The attendant's excuse to the manager was that he though I was a (his words) "Narc", and that I deserved to have the damage to my car if a cop was stupid enough to forget his antenna. (I am neither a cop or a "narc"). He told me that another employee said that these two guys watched as the whole thing happened and did nothing. It evidently was so funny to them that they never even considered that the antenna would damage another vehicle. Or maybe they just didn't care. The manager offered to split the damages with me as a token of appology. I gladly accepted. I took my car to my friend's body shop this afternoon. I will cost $280.00 for the damage to the trunk lid providing I remove all the chrome and the rear wing for prep. The taillight assembly will cost me about $120.00. I feel a bit better now but my wife is less than pleased with the whole scenario. I had to remind her about last summer when she ran over a big rock at the end of our driveway and caused $700.00 worth of damage to her car ;~)
Okay now that last bit about the big rock really made me laugh. Reminds me about the time my wife drove the side of our Audi A4 into a concrete flower bed and figured she'd keep on going because she wasn't sure how to reverse!
Now that's a good manager!! Sounds like a fair settlement to me. Just be glad YOU weren't driving a Caddy. Your repairs could have been 5x's worse!!! Thanks for sharing
Well, I hate that for you, but as a radio communications tech I must say that antennae being "improperly removed" often keeps food on my table. It happens to a lot of people. Was your antenna a HAD4008A (18") with a Motorola mag mount? Those mag mounts would be like a hammer spinning around a car wash brush! Heck, I work in the business and I break the ones on my vehicle so often I keep spare masts in the back of the car.
The antenna I had was something very similar. I went out today and replaced the antenna with a much smaller one that has a small rare earth magnet mount. Looks kinda like a vintage car cel phone antenna. Amazingly, it picks up signals even better than the one I had. I am still shocked that I heard from the manager at all. I had no intention of following up at all. Still, Having him say he will split the cost and actually getting the money might be two very different things. We'll see.
