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Brilliant, this post has made me really chuckle, you are all really harsh but, as someone earlier said, fair 🙂
If it helps ask1974 (and I'm sure it will make some people smile), I did sort of the same thing a few years ago, only it was in my wife to be's car and the bollard was just outside the garage where I was picking up the car from a week of body work repair! That was a bit embarrassing when I got home, I never thought of complaining to the garage though.
[i]Surely you can't even begin to judge someone by what type of car they have! [/i]
S****! You reckon?
Well I know you can, but you shouldn't.
IMO the bollard should have been dropped or clearly identified.
It looks a good a bollard as I've ever seen, doesn't come much more clearly identified than that.
Agrees with everyone else - you can't drive into something then blame someone else.
Looks like you must have driven past it to get to the spaces in the first place... You should pay more attention.
I appreciate the fun this is for everyone... But I've been using this garage for years and (for dlongman's benefit) these bollards are never deployed (or at least I've never seen them used) when the show room is open. The one in question is not a fixed device. I've parked there probably twenty times and didn't even know the bollards existed. Small point I conceded but...
Those 'flick bollards' in the video are a bit harsh tho!
It's threads like this where tagging is sorely missed 🙂
GSP1984 that's a typical incorrect assumption. My car had been in the garage over night and I approached it from the right rear. I didn't park it and I pulled out of a parking space into something that would not normally be there. I was even with a member of staff and they could have said "hey, be careful of the bollard we we can't drop". OK I could have walked the perimeter before getting in the car but when was the last time you did that?
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This is turning into a load of Bollards,
I do like the picture of the Bollard with a cone on the top, like its got added protection.
Very good... Seems that way!
Could have been a childs face
Can that be abbreviated to
CHBACF FTW/
[Roy Walker]Say what you see.[/Roy Walker]
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I appreciate the fun this is for everyone... But I've been using this garage for years and (for dlongman's benefit) these bollards are never deployed (or at least I've never seen them used) when the show room is open. The one in question is not a fixed device. I've parked there probably twenty times and didn't even know the bollards existed. Small point I conceded but...
So you didn't *actually* check - you just assumed? Serves you right for not concentrating.
I once ran a shop that had gated access to the car park to stop yoofs donutting in the car park, it was two barriers with a removable post in the middle that they locked to, one winter I unlocked the barriers and secured them back but the post wouldnt lift out as it was frozen in its socket( 5 inch square steel jobbie) so I went back in the store and boiled the kettle to defrost it , when I returned there was a car wrapped around it
Oops
Got away with it as the post had reflective yellow markings and it was bright red
Made a mess of his car though.
Back on topic I think you may have a case as they are not brightly painted and no signs up
Mystery solved.
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Tooooooooooo much time on your hands.
* giggles *
I've done it.
Bollard in a supermarket at night, helpfully painted black and 6" shorter than it needed to be in order to be visible. Stupid design, really easy to do, and bloody annoying.
Still my fault though. Sorry.
lol @ jamie! 😆
/highfives Jamie
😀
Amazing!
FFFFFFFffffuuuu...nightmare, OP.
I drove into a pillar in a car park once. I reversed out of the space and parked somewhere else and then didn't tell anyone about it for some time.
I can see why you didn't see it or even expect anything there and not many of us do a full 360 inspection before driving off so I'm sure many more of us would have done the same
but you are still to blame here
Maybe mention to them that in hindsight they could have put the cone there earlier and see if the garage will fix the damage at cost?
Bollard in a supermarket at night, helpfully painted black and 6" shorter than it needed to be in order to be visible. Stupid design, really easy to do, and bloody annoying.
Me too , reversed straight into one at sainsburys - had no idea it was there. Made a right mess of my car, took it on the chin
I did a similar thing at Cadbury world about 10 years ago, reversed out of a bay into a low rise bollard. I always take it steady in car parks though, so even though it was a tin foil fiesta, it only ,ade a slight mark in the bumper.
lol'ge at Jamie!
Jamie and Higgo deserve awards for excellent contributions!
Jamie wins it by some considerable margin.
I am flattered to have been considered.
How did I miss this could have done with this thread last night after doing an HMRC return and accounts stuff 😀
I did similar on neighbours wall when we had the campervan, annoying but had to repair wall and van 🙂 out of drive turn left just a bit tight and wall van interface 🙁
Feel for op but think it will be your fault to deal, as it looks like a Toyota dealer maybe they will do a deal on the repair, good luck.
[i]Returned later and it had a nice big cone on it to warn other customers[/i]
that it could no longer be retracted fully into the ground because someone had driven into it whilst it was raised and damaged it !
Still laughing at that Jamie! 😀
OP - i think what you are looking for is the 1957 Occupier's Liability Act...
Of course whether you can convince an insurer to pay out, or a court to find in your favour is a matter of debate. Certainly I'd take some convincing that they were negligent by not removing or marking a security bollard.
I'd also expect you to "walk round" your car when collecting it from a garage to check it for damage (as you are forced to do when collecting a hire car) - which would dilute your "I never knew it was there" argument.
Still it should cheer up some people in the Insurer's claims department.
Next time it could be a child's parking space.
I've done something pretty similar too so I sympathise with the OP. Hit a concrete bollard in my estate. It was on the inside of a tight bend. Driven passed it a hundred times but one morning I got a little too close.
Would have been nice to be able to blame someone else (its in a stupid place blah blah blah) but it was 100% my fault.
In the OPs case I probably would be a little pissed off. I think the garage giving you a good price on the repairs would be the best likely outcome though. Very little chance of them taking full responsibility
I reversed a fleet car into a badly positioned bollard at work once. The manager was trying to get the taxi bill down and thought he was clever, so made us take fleet cars, and "self-insured" (big companies are allowed to do that) e.g. didn't have any insurance so the damage came out of his travel budget.
It was a proud moment, esp as I was on redundancy notice at the time, so WTF they let me anywhere near a fleet car I will never know !
All I can say is OUCH OP. 🙁
To mitigate your losers. Go to a few 'under the arches' garages for quotes to repair/fill the sill then find a door from a salvage merchants (online or Ebay).
I'd rather do that than claim. Plus your 'lucky' in a way. Its probably on private land and you damaged (potentially) a companies property.
Too far away and you'd need to get resprayed:
OR can you reskin a door?
As a new driver who had just passed his test at 17, I remember reversing into a tight parking spot in a van with a bollard at the end of the parking space.
I asked a friend to watch me back, so I did not hit the bollard
He kept telling to to reverse back........................................... until I hit the bollard, then he fell into fits of laughter!
Lesson learnt..
Never trust anyone when you are driving, especially young farmers!
😉
Just echo everyone else.
So you crashed into something and it's someone else's fault?
Although I suspect its worse than you think, as you owe them a new bollard and installation ...
Although the circumstances are different, it is the same manoeuvre - turning left as you pull away, and not anticipating or checking that there may be something in the blind spot below the n/s mirror - that has been the cause of the majority of deaths amongst cyclists in London in recent years.